Spring Cleaning Party

In last week’s Spring Clean 2015 – Basement Family Room post, I mentioned I was on a tight deadline to finish decluttering and cleaning the basement. This area had become a dumping ground for what I was decluttering in the upper 2 floors and I didn’t know what to do with it. I am happy to say that school let out and I was ready for an added play space for my schoolagers! I am happy to say that I got it done just in time for school to let out. The kids loved their new space to move about

I finally got up the courage to tackle the “scary basement”. This was where everything had gone from my decluttering and sorting of the upper two floors. I realized that school was going to be out for the summer and I was hoping to have movies and big kid activities in this space. It took me a little longer because I chose to do sections and then deep clean the sections as I went. Our windows have never looked cleaner and isn’t it amazing the cobwebs and dust that can accumulate even when buried under “stuff”! In the before state

I’m happy to say that the master bedroom only needed a little bit of picking up. Interested in doing yours but don’t know where to start? Here is a detailed cleaning list of the Master Bedroom from my favourite cleaning gal, the FlyLady. I do cherish this space as my get away and relax space so it is a priority to keep tidy. There is only one before and after to illustrate this. I got the 2″ blinds, windows washed and screens cleaned and I flipped the mattress plus got in along the edges of the baseboards and wiped them plus

I am following the FlyLady system and attacking one “zone” per week, getting as much done in that zone as I can and then moving on. There are only 6 zones so it goes (far too) quickly before I’m back again. I recently read a book about the Konnari method of cleaning based on Marie Kondo’s book, “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing“. She has a very specific order of “tidying” as she calls it (though it seems pretty much like taking a power washer and leaf blower to your house and

The master bathroom. Nothing says I love you or thanks for the 5 minutes of peace better than a clean toilet to sit down on! For a while I have been irritated by the filmy view outside so I finally conquered it and scrubbed the room from ceiling to floor. The windows and the screens got a really good washing as did the light fixtures, baseboards, floors and even the little ledge we have where the tile meets the wall. I go in there and I feel happy getting ready in the morning. Of course, the list above you cannot

My biggest problem when feeling overwhelmed by the “stuff” in our home is that one day it’s fine and the next I look around and see stuff and things to do everywhere. It paralyzes me so I do nothing for a few weeks while I “think” on it and try to devise a plan.Thankfully this time I remembered FlyLady and her zones. Since I didn’t know where to start, I jumped in where she was and I blindly followed her decluttering and deep cleaning list. It’s working so well that I feel calm in the house, especially in the areas

The kids bathroom is not really used as that. It’s mostly the room that I shower in and the kids use the toilet in the middle of the night. This makes it the perfect stuff to stash all that “stuff” we have no idea what to do with.It has been a few years since I really looked at what was in there so it was a good exercise to go through it again and find some treasures! I followed FlyLady’s Zone 3: Bathroom Detailed Cleaning List. When you are so overwhelmed and don’t know where to start, having a list

I wasn’t feeling the cleaning vibe today. I need to finish last week’s room (the bathroom for which I have 4) before I can start this week’s (the master bedroom). The two half bathrooms were complete but the children’s and master were needing some drawers and cupboards decluttered, emptied and wiped down. Then I found a Facebook group that follows the FlyLady system and they had a BINGO game going on. What does Bingo have to do with house cleaning and organizing? Well, it’s actually genius.You make up a game card like this: The Bingo caller will call out a

I’ve got that “need to get the house deep cleaned and decluttered” bug. Spring brings it about for me – as I’m sure most of us are starting to feel the need to air out the house and bring that fresh air in and germs out. I also am starting to feel all of our winter messiness closing in around me.I am so overwhelmed. I run a home daycare so we have a lot of larger baby items that I would have gotten rid of many years ago now that my own two children are 7 and 9 years old

I’m going to start speeding up the list. It’s taking me way too long and I’m disappointed that I didn’t have committed interest. Check out the master list and see what I’m doing and when. Let’s clean the house and get rid of our C.R.A.P. together (and it’s not too late to join me in case you feel sorry for me cleaning all by myself …).