It's the Annual Resurrection of the Slob Reform Club!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Hey fellow slobs, let’s use these days between Christmas and New Year’s to throw some stuff out and clean up a bit! Who’s up for some cleaning?

I loved throwing all that stuff out last January, and I have some time right now, so I’m going to do work on it. First, we have to take down the Christmas tree, though–I took everything else down yesterday.

My house is a complete mess and I’ve been unhappy about it for a while now. I’m good at laundry, though, and I instituted a really good chore system for the kids, so they’re helping out more than before. It kind of went to pot over Christmas, though. And the kids’ room needs some serious decluttering.

2

I am! I pulled out my Flylady book today, and figured out that the zone for this week is the living room. So I set my timer for 15 minutes, and got some of the Christmas clutter out of there.

I’m also tired of living with all the mess in my house. Its at the point where the only person I let in is my sister.

3

Gotcha - we worked on our daughter’s bedroom yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised when my husband joined me to help. Our daughter is 19, and he said he didn’t want to be scarred for life if we found anything weird. Luckily, we only found a few weird things, so all was well.:wink:

We were able to get rid of three very large bags of random trash, a couple of medium-sized bags, and several small ones (plastic grocery bag sized). She has moved out for the third time and this time we decided that we didn’t want one of the bedrooms to continue to look like a small city dump. She may come back, she may not, but we can’t take the mess anymore. The upstairs bathroom is pretty bad, too.

I sorted and did the laundry while my husband packed books, DVD’s and CD’s into containers and cleaned out under her TV stand. Our son got back a couple of dozen pairs of socks, my husband got back a dozen at least, and I’ve recovered three pair so far. I’m still doing laundry - I’m up to twelve loads so far. No kidding - twelve loads. I still have at least eight more to go, optimistically. :smack:It was bad. We also found four rolls of Scotch tape, my favorite manicure scissors, shirts belonging to my husband, son, and me, and hundreds of socks. No wonder my husband didn’t have very many, or my son! The sheets were in such poor condition that we just threw them away.

We usually leave the kids’ rooms alone after they reach a certain age, but I’m re-thinking that philosophy. At any rate this room will be repainted, a nice hardwood floor will take the place of the absolutely destroyed carpeting, and a few other touch-ups will take place. Our son will move into this room while we do the same with his bedroom, then he can choose whichever one he likes best and the extra will become;

  1. A man-cave if my husband has his way.

  2. A computer room with bookcases and a comfy sofa if I get my way. I’ve always wanted a retreat where I can read in peace without being in the same vicinity as the TV.

  3. A guest room where my sister can come and spend occasional weekends with us (or anyone else who wants to).

Maybe we can figure out a way to have a man cave/ reading retreat/guest bedroom. Now I need to get selling on E-Bay to pay for this stuff.

I know nothing about hardwood floors. If anyone would be so kind as to tell me what to avoid I’d appreciate it. I have time, as we won’t be able to afford anything for a couple of months until we get back on our feet financially.

4

I’m READY! I got an unxpected week off from my day job (with pay!), so have tons of time to get rid of !@#$%^&*()_ crap, put together my CD shelves, edit out unwanted CDs, and remove SEVEN Office Depot letter/legal boxes that have been holding the said CDs for the past year and a half. Then, there’s the books & bookshelves to tackle. But FIRST I must eliminate Christmas wrapping, boxes, return ugly gifted clothing for more appropriate stuff, ad infinitum.

(Un)fortunately, is’s going to be in the minus digits … throwing stuff into the dumpster will be a little nippy!

5

Holy cow, purple haze, that sounds horrible. Good for you for getting rid of a biohazard in your home!

We threw the tree out last night–I love having 30% of my family room back. Today my main plan is to tackle the kids’ room and purge it of trash and toys we no longer need. Plus the bathrooms need some help too.

6

We’ve been trying to clean for the last few weeks. It’s been going, I guess, but we kind of got bogged down. Threw out a lot of SERIOUSLY nasty stuff from the fridge last night, though.

7

Well, I’ll join the club. :slight_smile:

For the past few months, I’ve been purging junk from my apartment. I got rid of 7 bags of books and an entire bookshelf. I filled several bins with recyclables. I got rid of newspapers, non-working electronics, an old computer, clothes, all kinds of old crap. Now I have floor space!

I bought a vacuum cleaner, even. I got a little dining-room table for the corner, and some chairs. That spot was previously occupied by a pile. I’m now into Phase Two, which involves getting rid of the Final Pile, and then hiring Molly Maids to do a real clean. I have new dishes for the new table, and I plan to have my friends over for a self-cooked dinner, the first time in years. Also, I met this woman, but that’s another thread.

8

For the last 4 or 5 weekends, I have been using my Sundays to clean. I have taken the approach of getting one room very clean, then the next week, re-cleaning that room until it is back to it’s original glory before moving on and cleaning a second room until it is also spotless. Then adding one more room that is clean each week until they are all clean and I only have to do the maintenance cleaning.

I am finding this method to be useful. I didn’t normally dust and vacuum every week because I didn’t normally see the dirt, but I find if I do all those maintenance tasks, whether or not they are needed, the dirt never really gets a chance to accumulate. And I find when things look clean I am more motivated to keep them that way.

I am doing good. I have just about got all the living areas done and clean and I feel happy about it. I am now concentrating on the garage, attic, and basement in the upcomming weeks.

It will be awesome when I am completely finished, and I will do my best to keep everything clean and tidy through regular cleaning maintenance, but my biggest fear is that something will come up to break my routine and then the whole house will go to shit again. I think the solution is to not get discouraged about minor untidiness and use my freetime to correct the problem rather than say screw it and let it grow. That attitude could foster the good cleaning habits that I don’t have. But I am afraid it won’t be easy to do. Do you have any tips for keeping a place clean?

9

I have an old paperback called “Nobody Said You Had To Eat Off The Floor”, written in 1971. It’s a funnily-written, common sense approach to housecleaning. Her basic premise was:

A set amount of time each day for housekeeping. Back in 1971, it was an hour, but nowadays, 15 minutes should do it. Each room had a weekly cleaning, so that it worked out something like Monday/master bedroom, Tuesday/master bathroom, Wednesday/living room, and so forth. Weekly cleaning was basic vacuuming, dusting, and clearing away of clutter. Then, once a week, one room was designated to also receive a monthly cleaning, which meant dusting of baseboards, clearing out of one drawer, windexing of mirrors, webstering of cobwebs, etc. Once a month, one room is designated to receive a yearly cleaning, which meant carpet shampooing, inside and outside window washing, touching up of scuffed paint and scratched furniture, drapery dry cleaning, and so forth.

Although this sounds like hard, regimented work, it actually works out quite well once you get started. Having a set amount of time for the work and a list of what needs to be done really helps. It’s keeping on top of it that’s the key; otherwise you get buried.

P.S., I tried to look this book up on Amazon, and they had one used for $200. WTF?

10

Yay, StinkyBurrito! I remember last year you claimed to be an utter slob.

I’m taking a short sanity break. I’ve thrown an incredible amount of trash out of the girls’ room. I found an ant invasion under the bed (unsurprising, since there have been constant ants in the bathroom on the other side of the wall). And I still have to clean off their beds! 8yo’s isn’t so bad, just full of books, but 5yo’s is a nest of clothes, toys, and random items even though she makes her bed every day, in theory. Her bed isn’t very visible unless I really look–she’s on the lower bunk and likes to have her sister’s blanket hanging over the side to make a sort of cave.

I’m getting rid of all the icky dolls, now that we have new AG dolls!! I’ve always hated those dolls, which were some of the many items my MIL got from a thrift store and gave directly to the girls without asking me first. Of course they always fall promptly in love with whatever it is and can’t live without it. Hideous dresses, skanky ugly cushions, an old Rainbow Brite sidekick doll…all courtesy of my MIL. Blech.

OK, back to the trenches.

11

I got my 15 minutes done in the living room this evening. I can almost see the top of the coffee table now! I also got the Christmas decorations put away (that includes the ones I put out last year that never did get put away).

After that, I picked up a few bits and pieces in the kitchen while I was getting tomorrows lunch put together.

Little by little, the place is starting to look better.

12

I started this weekend. My house has gotten TOTALLY out of hand over the last several years. I tossed out 2 trash bags full of, well, trash, did 4 loads of laundry and swept the kitchen… I think there was enough dog and cat hair on the floor to create a full grown lion!

I am determined to take back control of my life in 2009.

13

Well, we threw a ton of trash out of the girls’ room and I cruelly got rid of a bunch of dolls and toys (yay!), and I even did some work in the kids’ bathroom. The kid room looks so much better!

Today, I have one goal, pretty much: the schoolroom/sewing room. It’s the 3rd bedroom in our house and gets intensive usage, plus a lot of odds and ends wind up there. ATM the floor is barely visible. My daughter’s desk is a mess, and has sewing stuff all over it (hers, not mine). Younger daughter’s desk is even worse. Fabric all over the floor, total disorganization. So today is Clean Up the Schoolroom Day. Whee!

14

Well, the past few months of sinus infections and flu have taken their toll and the slob has once again overtaken the reform. I hope to have some free time at the end of this week to start the battle again and the first battleground will be the kitchen. I once had it clean and somewhat organized so I’m hoping it won’t take too much to get it back in shape.

Next on the list are the two bathrooms and then the closets. I figure I will start with smaller rooms so I will hopefully be able to get them done sooner and feel some sense of accomplishment. After that I can tackle the garage again because I need to have room to bring in a new washer which I plan to buy with my tax refund.

I want to purchase some organizers as I go to help me find a place for everything so that I can keep it clean and organized. The worst rooms, the living room and spare bedroom (storage room), are last on the list.

15

I’ve been doing a decent job of keeping the main rooms of the house cleaned up. I need to really attack the master bed/bath, spare “bedrooms” and hall closets, though.

16

I got a new battery for my Roomba!

Really, this helps me keep down the clutter on the floor, because I love my Roomba, and love setting it to run around and vacuum. But of course it can’t vacuum where there’s stuff lying on top of that spot, and you don’t want it around things like shoelaces from scattered shoes because it may slurp up the shoelace and run around dragging the shoe behind it.

The battery finally died a few months ago, and I slacked off on getting a new one because they’re not cheap, and the major floor clutter in the living room and dining room crept back. So yay for Roomba’s return!

I find myself wanting a PDA (Palm OS)-compatible or a computer application that will let me plot out to-do lists of housework, with options for weekly/monthly repeats, etc. Maybe with pop-up reminders. I can’t use my regular calendar on my PDA because I use that for work-related matters.

17

I’m a bit stunned. I’ve worked all morning on that schoolroom. Bookshelves are organized and dusted, desks are clean (finally)–and I have yet to tackle any of the sewing stuff, which is just as bad. It’s just a medium-sized room! It was pretty usable as it was! How can it need so much effort?

Maybe it’s because the kids weren’t nearly as useful in this room, though; it’s mostly stuff I have to do, and they couldn’t help as much.

18

i also have to get a new battery for my roomba. things have gone down hill since it died in…gasp, september! thankfully i got the new battery for the scooba before i got laid off.

ah well. here at rocking haus it has been one cleared step forward, 5 piles of boxes back. i thought i would have a bunch of time to do things when i got laid off. then i got a roomie (thankfully!) and full time temp job. things and rooms haven’t gone as planned.

i think it might be time to move…