keep my house clean

I finally cleaned out our bedroom! I decided a couple of days ago to just get to it. I hated going into the bedroom because it was so cluttered and packed full of stuff—it was easier to toss something in the room than it was to put it away. I even hated sleeping in there at night.

But I put away all the clean clothes, removed and sorted through some of the boxes and bags we still had in there from our move, started my ‘give away’ and ‘sell’ piles, threw out the things I can’t give away or sell, hung the curtain (finally!), hung artwork, put away extra blankets, and cleaned off and arranged the dresser tops and the table top. Whew!

It feels so good to have gotten it done and the room looks great. It’s very calming and peaceful to be in there now. I still have a little more work to do - I have a couple of boxes I need to finish going through - but the hard part is done.

My only remaining trouble spot is the corner in the dining room. {My husband still needs to finish his computer area.} After that, I can start purging the closets.

It’s easier since we’ve moved - the space is a lot smaller. I seem to really pick-up the place every couple of days. It’s not a hard-and-fast rule; that’s just the way it’s been working out. Picking-up is more important now, though, because my son is starting to crawl. I need to make sure he can’t get into anything dangerous or inconvenient. My daughter helps me out a lot - sometimes reluctantly, sometimes enthusiastically. She’s getting pretty good at keeping her things up off the floor—especially her crayons and paper.

However, the master bedroom is still a disaster. Everything that doesn’t have a place anywhere else has migrated there. I have a corner in the dining area that I need to eliminate. And my husband needs to continue clearing out his computer area.

What I really need to do is just keep purging. It doesn’t do any of us any good to keep all this… stuff… around the house. But it’s difficult to reduce some categories: kitchen items, clothes, toys, books (mine and my daughter’s).

I go in fits and starts. I’ll get the downstairs clean (that’s where we do most of our living) and then it gets messy for a couple of days. But that’s a lot better than I was doing and the mess is less so it’s easier to clean. I just need to be more consistent.

I also need to more consistently encourage my daughter to clean-up after herself. She really doesn’t seem to mind doing it—especially once I praise her after she’s done.

I weeded through her toys, all her clothes, and my clothes. I have three bags of clothes to give away! I haven’t even had my husband go through his clothes and I want to go through mine a second time to get rid of any ‘maybes’ I kept. I also have about a bag of toys to give away—I plan to increase that over the next couple of weeks.

I already know most of the pieces of furniture I want to cut from our collection. I’m waiting for a couple of people to see what they want before I know what I’ll have to sell or give away.

I really need to get going on eliminating possessions—we’re moving in a little over a week! I’ve been hitting the attic during the mornings when my son is sleeping and my daughter is preoccupied with play.

This is a tough one for me. But I’ve been working on this goal for a few months now and I’m getting better with it—my husband even commented on it. However, it is easy to get discouraged.

Problems: Too many things in a too-big house, a husband who can’t even put dirty laundry in a hamper, a 2 1/2 year old who destroys a room in under an hour, and a newborn who won’t let me put him down much of the time.

Solutions:
1) clean the kitchen when I’m cooking
2) clean the bathroom when my daughter’s taking a bath
3) straighten the house throughout the day
4) clean for an hour after my daughter is in bed
3) have my “good little helper” assist me more often
5) do time-consuming tasks when my husband is here to watch the children
6) give away things we don’t need/want/use and pare down the ‘essentials’ (clothes, pots and pans, books, toys, photos)
7) find a place for everything
8) move to a smaller place(!)