keep my apartment tidy, not just when people visit

I’m keeping up on the “tidy” part – but I need to get real about the keeping-it-clean part.

I’m still going thru mail daily (I can’t believe I’m still doing well with that!), taking out the recycling more often, hanging up my clothes daily (I got rid of the chair so I can’t pile it up anymore)and general tidy-ing stuff.

But the cleaning part hasn’t become a habit yet. It’s time it becomes one.

Time to mark this goal as “I’ve done that” and create new one for phase 2 of TIDY.

I’m doing OK keeping tidy eventhough it did get lost in the shuffle a bit. I’ve been getting rid of so much stuff that there’s less to be “untidy” with. But, it’s time to step up the actual cleaning of what’s left.

The kitchen’s in good shape – I’m doing a little in there daily (visitors always end up in the kitchen so it had better be clean!) The other room’s are OK – just dusting needed. Maybe I’ll try to focus on 1 room each weekend? The first contestant? My bathroom.

Well, everything’s pretty much in the right room (it’s just not put away or up yet). This weekend, I cleaned around stuff in the living and dining room and the dining room table is empty (yeah!)so I was able to change the table cloth. The den is clean but still has orphaned stuff on the floor.

The other rooms – my room, kitchen and 2 baths – are hanging in there but not for long. I’ve got to get back into a cleaning routine.

My place is a mess. Not the “old type” of mess like dishes in the sink or mail piled up but from the unpacking after painting, there is stuff all over, boxes to cut up, left over paint to be stored, etc. My bedroom is still the storage place for so much stuff.
My goal this weekend is to get things at least put in the correct room so I can start back on a cleaning schedule. I’m going to check out Flylady since so many 43T’ers have mentioned it.

It’s surprisingly easy to clean, when you keep up on keeping it clean. Who knew? LOL!
Tonight I spent less than 1/2 hour “tidying up”. The biggest was sweeping/vacuuming the dust from the painters (a nightly ritual). Then a quick spray and wipe of the kitchen and bathroom counters, changed the litter box, dumped recycling and changed towels in bath.
I not only found it surprisingly easy to do but dare I say it? I enjoyed it. This goal is starting to pay off-in more ways than one.

I’ve been swiffering (is that a word now?) and vacuuming every night due to the drilling done for the electric. Now, the wall scraping started – dust all over.
I gotta clean the kitchen again…..tomorrow…

With the painting about to happen, I moved furniture away from the walls and cleaned behind them for the first time in a long time. Those dust-bunnies were stampeding but I got them all!

The bathrooms are both done and I’m going to do the kitchen later and then I’m done. Those rooms are the “safe zones” – everywhere else there are boxes and stuff piled up. No way it makes sense to try and keep up on “keeping tidy” with what my home’s going to look like for the next 2 weeks!

even with the piles of stuff right now, I’ve been taking care of business every day – no dishes in the sink, dish rack is even emptied within 24 hours (!), newspapers are read then tossed (or saved right now for packing), mail is a non-issue (finally!), clothes are hung up or in the hamper instead of laying on the chair (maybe they’ll hang themselves up?).

The book I just finished about “stuff” says once you declutter, you should only have to spend 5 minutes a day on keeping up. Not major cleaning – that takes focus and time – but every day, just 5 minutes. That makes sense because since I’ve been staying on top of this, it hasn’t taken much time to “straighten up”. Go figure…

This week, every night after work, I will be CLEANING a room so when the painters come, everything is good to go. It’s going to be hard to clean around some of the packed stuff, but it will be done!

and my place is still “tidy”. Even though I’m decluttering and packing up to prep for the painters, it looks neater than 2 weeks ago. Go figure!

I think I’m just more aware now. Whatever it is: deal with it, wash it, toss it, read it, file it, shred it or give it away. No more piles – no more “I’ll do it later”. Later never comes.

Now, I actually have to clean…..maybe I should put “get a housekeeper” on the list….?

and the place was actually presentable! Unexpectedly a neighbor invited me over to see his crown molding. After showing me what he’d done with his place, it seemed only right that I invite him over to see what I’d done.

Because I’d been keeping up all week on dishes, mail and general clutter, I wasn’t anxious. Sure, the newspapers were piled on my dining room table, but that’s OK. It felt good to be able to have someone drop in and not feel inferior because the place was unkept.

I did get through all of the newspapers. I didn’t read all of the ads today, but I got thru the coupons and dumped the rest. I washed the terrace doors today too.

This is working well!