Cleaning Focus - May 2015

[BookSaver]

Happy May Day!
More sunlight in the northern hemisphere is making it easier to see the dirt that we are attacking in our deep cleaning projects.

I don't know much about the southern hemisphere. Hoping that even though the days are getting shorter in Australia/New Zealand, cooler temperatures bring renewed energy to deal with chores.

Indiana's weekly schedule for FOCUS cleaning:
5/4/2015 storage
5/11/2015 outdoor
5/18/2015 kitchen
5/25/2015 living room

[Sunny]

I don't think I'm really in sync with the May Focus schedule, but I wanted to mention an accomplishment. Way back the end of March I deep cleaned the kitchen cabinets and appliances as we were having company staying the first week of April. The top cabinets were done then. Yesterday I finished by rearranging the lower cabinets and drawers so everything would be more convenient to use. Now all the pots and pans are in one cabinet and the canned goods are on one side of another, with the other side having baking pans, cupcake pans, etc. There are seven drawers, average size, and those I have decluttered and reorganized so they are neater with things we use mostly all together, silverware has it's own drawer and another drawer for baking utensils, etc. I have two drawers for dish towels and aprons. I like how they all turned out.

Each time my dh is in the hospital he gets the plastic basin, etc. to bring home. I have three of them in the bottom of the sink to hold cleaning supplies, packages of sponges & scrubbies etc. I have a medium size plastic trash can to hold used dish towels and clothes until there is enough to make a small load of laundry.

My next project, I think, is the built in cupboard in our hallway which holds bath and bed linens, paper goods and misc. A lot will be removed to somewhere else or recycled out.

[lucylee]

That's a great way to use those hospital basins, Sunny! (I just saw this post.)

I am not in sync with any cleaning focus either... I seem to just wander about a lot of the time. I did print out one of the chart things Harriet (I think!) mentioned, where you can mark off bubbles for each 15 minutes devoted to whatever project/chore you are doing. So Saturday, I was able to mark off an hour's worth on cleaning out journals/etc. I have each of the focus zones listed there, along w/a line for journals, a line for scrapbooking and photos, and a line for my granddaddy's brick. Remember -- my long-long term "project" to photograph houses my late dgf bricked.
Since I am definitely what Peg Bracken termed the "spotful" housekeeper and apparently only work when the planets are in perfect alignment... I figured I would just keep this chart in view and work on whatever seemed to be the most "needy" area at the time. Or whichever area I am most in panic about, that being the journals and teenage writings at the moment.

[Harriet]

Yep, those bubble-in charts are helpful, lucylee. Cheerful and they don't look demanding. That is a cool photo-project.

I have got to re-read Bracken.

Sunny, I've been trying to slam all my dish towels and bibs into one small drawer in kitchen and am now rethinking that. Good job on your project.