Cleaning Focus - August 2014

Detail cleaning schedules for each room of your house.
BookSaver
Administrator
Posts: 2970
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 10:08 am
Location: E Iowa

Cleaning Focus - August 2014

Postby BookSaver » Fri Aug 01, 2014 9:36 am

Let's tweak our Focus threads a bit to combine the whole month rather than the weekly threads we've been doing for a few years.

Some of our members follow Indiana's room-by-room focus schedule. If you have been using that, the August schedule is as follows:
8/1/2014 outdoor (continue Round 3)
8/4/2014 kitchen (Round 3)
8/11/2014 living room (Round 3)
8/18/2014 dining room (Round 3)
8/25/2014 porch/entry (Round 4)
Indiana's detailed task lists are included at the start of each weekly thread in the Focus subforum of Organization and Simplification Tools. (I'll figure out the link later, or maybe another Admin can help.) Remember to declutter in the next room in the schedule so it will be ready for cleaning.

Many of us adjust Indiana's schedule to match the rooms in our houses. Sometimes we have to trade Focus rooms when a guest is coming or the weather won't allow working on the front porch.

Others use a totally different schedule such as CEO's Houseworks, Flylady's zones, etc. Sometimes a crisis cleaning mode kicks into overdrive. Maybe you want to tackle a really bad area that's been put off for months, or even years.

The goal is to avoid being forced into a huge spring or holiday cleaning. Most of us would rather do a little bit at a time, spread throughout the year.

What schedule do you use for cleaning jobs that don't need to be done every week? Do you have a room that needs particular attention right now?

User avatar
Harriet
Moderator
Posts: 16505
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:48 am
Location: The Carolinas

Re: Cleaning Focus - August 2014

Postby Harriet » Fri Aug 01, 2014 3:22 pm

Oooooooh, I like it here! (turning 'round and 'round like my kitty examining a favorite spot before settling.)

Looking forward to chats. Has anyone had a watermelon explode lately? :lol: Or other "I can't believe I got that clean." stories?

For me, the Focus cleaning schedule fills a need well. I need to be able to envision one part of my tasks at a time, and it seems simplest to envision room-by-room. I like the beginning-and-end of a room's boundaries, so I feel successful and finished with something.

But, most important, I need to ROTATE and know "where I am" in relation to cleaning regularly. Not too seldom, on a frantic panic session :shock: , or too often in sad perfectionism :( . I think Focus' 4 times per year through the house is juuuust right. Especially since we then REST so that we can turn attention to a calm and meaningful holiday season.

So that means I've been spiffing up outdoors this week and on Monday will start in the kitchen. Fussing over the hanging basket, noticing cobwebs, correcting some outdoor lighting, noticing some ivy climbing onto window screens that I need to pull down.
I've had some frustration this week because I missed some weather opportunities. Hope this rain moves over to give me more.

Have been trying to declutter in the kitchen and get some clear surfaces ready for deep cleaning by Monday.

Cannot find two important things ( :? ) short handle for swiffer duster and spray bottle for cleaning counters. Sigh. ???

indy

Re: Cleaning Focus - August 2014

Postby indy » Fri Aug 01, 2014 4:50 pm

I use my seasonal cards with three months on each to list major goals to rotate through in a year. The current card -- Summer is June/July/Aug and August is basically a catch up month if anything at all before fall and the upcoming holidays approach. BUT having said that -- being in need of catch up EVERYWHERE -- I will grab from June and July list and give that list a whirl this month. As for Focus -- I cannot recall whose this was but on the old Prodigy group there was a Grand Plan for cleaning a room -- top to bottom and inside out. i use the Zones and put the zones into the seasonal schedule and use the GrandPlan or Dirty Dozen list to a greater or lesser extent to tackle each zone as it rolls around.

SO -- the August list will look like this:

wash exterior downstairs window and clean screens
Zone 3 Grand Plan- guest room and master bedroom and their bathrooms
appliances were just recently dealt with BUT the stovetop could use a more indepth go so that goes on the list as well

The windows and screens I will delegate to hubby and enlist his help in the zone work as needed -- taking the complicated curtain rods in our master bedroom apart to allow me to wash and replace curtains for one thing. Again -- I can delegate the interiors of the sone windows to hubby as well. Even if I only do a small part of the GP/DD in these rooms it will be a major step forward.

I also need to work on my dresser drawers desperately -- and that will make hubby happy also as I have too much piled about to suit him.

indy

User avatar
Harriet
Moderator
Posts: 16505
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:48 am
Location: The Carolinas

Re: Cleaning Focus - August 2014

Postby Harriet » Tue Aug 05, 2014 9:06 pm

indy, if it was the Prodigy Homelife Get O group it may have been Katie Leckey, since she's the one CEO credits with coining the "Grand Plan" phrase. But that's not just for cleaning. That plan has you stay in one room until you finish all cleaning, decluttering and organizing together. Drawers emptied, closet emptied, everything organized back as you want it, all surfaces deep cleaned at once, until you are truly finished, and then you move on to the next room.

I decided life was too short to wonder which elves were moving/stealing my cleaning supplies. (Although I suspect menfolk.) I bought new spray (chose Seventh Generation) and a new Swiffer duster kit. Now I'm sure I'll find the old ones.

Taught dd how to clean the vacuum cleaner. Was surprised that's something I had never showed her. I'm beginning to miss the old bags that contain the dust so well, even if they did mean some expense. Basically, with my (nicer?) no-bag machine, this is an outdoor job. Very hard to make a teenage girl believe this is anywhere near cutting edge tech of cleaning, when she is getting a dusting in the breeze.

User avatar
Nancy
Member
Posts: 23441
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:52 pm
Location: Washington state in the Pacific Northwestern part of the USA.
Contact:

Re: Cleaning Focus - August 2014

Postby Nancy » Tue Aug 05, 2014 10:23 pm

I vacuumed under the sofa and bed in master bedroom I need to do that seasonally at least. Hoping it helps with my allergies.

User avatar
Nancy
Member
Posts: 23441
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:52 pm
Location: Washington state in the Pacific Northwestern part of the USA.
Contact:

Re: Cleaning Focus - August 2014

Postby Nancy » Mon Aug 11, 2014 11:44 am

Nope did not help w allergies. But I now feel more on track yea! Too hot and smokey to tackle outside stuff here so I can work on the dining table and the creativity room getting crafts etc. Set up for fall gifting projects.

blessedw2
Member
Posts: 20633
Joined: Sat Aug 09, 2008 8:38 pm
Location: midwest/wis/il

Re: Cleaning Focus - August 2014

Postby blessedw2 » Thu Aug 14, 2014 11:45 am

thank you so very much... d kathryn and d harriet!!!!
it is always a joy to be here with you!

User avatar
Harriet
Moderator
Posts: 16505
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 6:48 am
Location: The Carolinas

Re: Cleaning Focus - August 2014

Postby Harriet » Mon Aug 18, 2014 11:53 am

Hi, blessed! Nice to see you here, although I'm not sure what I've done! :)

Time for switching gears in Focus cleaning to cleaning in the dining room, and unbelievably Porch Entry is up for my decluttering to get ready for the next round starting next Monday.

Very hard for me to believe the year is going by so quickly. I still have the feeling 2014 is "the new year".

Dining room is really in pretty good shape. We had a party there the other day.


Return to “Cleaning Focus”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests