2017's First Round Focus!

Detail cleaning schedules for each room of your house.
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Harriet
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2017's First Round Focus!

Postby Harriet » Sun Jan 01, 2017 12:57 am

The full 2017 Focus Cleaning Calendar is posted in its sticky-thread above. A consistently clean home is within reach! It's not that we need to clean everything suddenly :shock: it's just that we need to clean some consistently throughout the year :) we know that. Focus gives us one already-complete plan for a rotation to keep us on track and keep each lovely area from neglect. We don't have to re-invent the wheel, just roll along with the one we have at the ready, a week at a time.

Here's a space to chat about our first rounds through our homes, which will be from Monday, Jan 2 through the week of Monday, March 13. Eleven rooms/areas for eleven weeks. Change the room names around to suit your home, record them in personal record-keeping if you want, in whatever form you'd like, and let's go through the house once!

If you are on a different plan for cleaning, please chat with us anyway, okay? We'd love to hear what you are doing through the winter months. To find some reminders and tips about rooms, check out the thread above titled, The Eleven Focus areas and their How-To-Clean Notes. The contents listing there is clickable and you'll go right to the room you click.


Round 1
12/26/2016 Getting Ready for 2016
1/2/2017 porch/entry
1/9/2017 bedrooms
1/16/2017 bathrooms
1/23/2017 office/other room
1/30/2017 closets
2/6/2017 laundry
2/13/2017 storage
2/20/2017 outdoor
2/27/2017 kitchen
3/6/2017 living room
3/13/2017 dining room

blessedw2
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Re: 2017's First Round Focus!

Postby blessedw2 » Tue Jan 03, 2017 10:26 am

I need to do my porch entry - right now it is fillllllllllled with left overs from Christmas.
Thank you for this!!!
it is always a joy to be here with you!

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Twins' Mom
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Re: 2017's First Round Focus!

Postby Twins' Mom » Tue Jan 03, 2017 10:37 am

Raising my hand! I did work on porch and entry yesterday!

I swept the porch as much as I was able - I have a rug on one end and it was mushy web so that was skipped. I neatened up, dusted some of the porch furniture, and made a list of some improvements to the entry and porch. Last night I ordered a 4 x 6 rug for the foyer at the front door - it is a strange size so hoping it works well. Traditional with neutral colors. Also ordered a H ome D epot wood round for a table top. The little "table" between the two rocking chairs is made from a painted kitchen stool with a wood round on top - the wood round there was from particle board and doesn't look so great after four seasons on the covered porch.

Need to continue with front porch, if the dampness is ever done, and rehang some art in the foyer.
Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better [wo]man. Ben Franklin

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Re: 2017's First Round Focus!

Postby blessedw2 » Mon Jan 09, 2017 11:57 am

Yay d twins!!!!
it is always a joy to be here with you!

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Re: 2017's First Round Focus!

Postby blessedw2 » Mon Jan 09, 2017 11:59 am

I have to admit I copied this list into my calendar and I started to panic. (literally because there is so so much work to do and I fell off the focus wheel months ago) I have to remember that if I get one thing done it is a blessing. I keep thinking I have to do the focus like I did when I had more time. It is actually anxiety (not my norm) provoking. Keep it simple, keep it simple! (telling myself)
it is always a joy to be here with you!

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Harriet
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Re: 2017's First Round Focus!

Postby Harriet » Wed Jan 11, 2017 1:00 am

Best wishes for the "reveal" of the neutral rug and tabletop, Twins.

((blessed)) You made me think of some things Indiana said in her "About Focus" thread, copied in the first thread of this forum.
There are other non-cleaning routines. We are only concentrating on cleaning in FOCUS.

The key to routines is to make them work for us not against us. They are to make life flow smoothly, not to put us under stress.

No one set of routines works for everyone. We each need to make them our own. We each work differently and are motivated differently.


So amazed at you being so smart as to copy onto a calendar. Practice saying, "oh well, didn't get to it this time". :) Remember we don't do everything every round - not even supposed to.


❀ ✿ ❀ Isn't that freeing? ❀ ✿ ❀

Making notes at the end of a room's week about what we'd like to do next round is encouraging.

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Re: 2017's First Round Focus!

Postby blessedw2 » Wed Jan 11, 2017 10:09 am

definitely!!!
My goal is to clean off the table next to bed - things have sat there for months (and dust it as well),
it is always a joy to be here with you!

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lucylee
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Re: 2017's First Round Focus!

Postby lucylee » Tue Jan 17, 2017 5:43 pm

This is my question:
How much time should I realistically expect to spend on each room in the focus each round?

For example, I'm doing my master bedroom this week.
I take approx 10-15 minutes in there just doing the basic vacuuming for weekly home blessing.
Then, I just timed myself and it took approx 45-50 minutes to do the "focus" vacuuming. Detailed, high places/low places, under/behind thing, furniture, etc.
This does NOT mean moving furniture, btw. Some idiot-barely-18-year-old girl ;) picked out this furniture and it is HUGE and heavy and has lots of crevices for dust to hide in. It is early American, and I still love it, even after 37 years, but I have to stand on something to get to the top of the dresser and the chest; there are louvered doors on everything, and it's just very hard to keep pristine.

Well, anyway, as I'm doing this vacuuming, I'm thinking, now this part is going to have to be done again of course, by the next round... so how do I EVER find time to do stuff like
-- wash (all) bedding, windows, curtains (* IF dh will let me -- the curtain rods are very precariously hanging there and he gets nervous when I start talking about taking down curtains!)
-- clean furniture (there are spots and smudges that I think I good polishing w/Old English would help)
-- clean out closet
-- declutter drawers
-- organize things

I just don't know how anyone ever fits in time to do all that needs to be done. If I kept up with everything, I'd never have time to EVER sit down at the computer.
Tomorrow is another day.

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Harriet
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Re: 2017's First Round Focus!

Postby Harriet » Tue Jan 17, 2017 10:05 pm

lucylee, I agree it's a problem and it's made worse when outside deadlines are added in to what should have been an understandable week.

I've definitely thought about this, too. And I know what you are looking for is practical suggestion. It's easy to say every room is different, but practically, what to do about it?

Are there weeks in your personal line-up that are quicker to do? For instance, when I look at the weeks as planned here, I notice "laundry". For my house, I always think to myself that's not going to be very demanding. In theory, if I knew exactly how much time I wanted to give to each week (and that's no easy calculation, I grant you), I could promise the laundry area half the time in laundry week, and promise the other half to the "next-up"s that had had to be postponed.

This requires remembering to make a note of what my "next" thing was going to be each week. Not so hard.

This also requires finding out an average of how much time focus takes each week. That is hard. Totally trial and error, and, like "how many licks to the center of a Tootsie Pop?" it will be tough to get all the way through and really know for sure, because the variables will mess up your plan when life happens. Frankly, I don't know if any of us has ever come up with a weekly average for their own homes specifically for Focus.

P and P did try to take a stab at cleaning time frame, though.

P and P estimated a range of:
Half-cleaning day - 2 to 4 hours "for house cleaning and general home maintenance"
and Full cleaning day - 4 to 6 hours same definition as above
OR 3 half-cleaning days.

Let's say a homemaker falls somehow magically (average house, average life) into their imaginary average all the time. Then she needs 8 hours a week, so no matter how she divides up her week, she could think of it as a daily hour and a quarter, with Sundays off, something like that. To me, P and P saw Dailies as separate from cleaning.

I know... .. 8 hours on nothing but cleaning may be hard to fit into a life! That may not seem practical at all, but it's one stab at it and worth wondering about.

Anyway, I'm impressed you now know how long the focus vacuuming takes in your bedroom AND know the difference between that and just a maintenance vacuum there.

In your list of more things you need to do in bedroom, if it were me, I'd take out anything to do with closet and put that firmly into a closet week, to try to divide and conquer. But you may not keep the closet week in your line-up like I do.

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lucylee
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Re: 2017's First Round Focus!

Postby lucylee » Tue Jan 17, 2017 11:11 pm

Thanks for the input, Harriet.
I do have a closet/storage week, but I have in my mind that is for the 2 hall closets and the outdoor storage. It is actually on the card as "storage/closets/outdoors/car."

This is my First Round, if anyone is interested. It just seemed a more logical layout of my house. It's totally off Indiana's plan, but when I set up this first round, I was thinking I'd put the outdoor areas at the end, when the weather would be warmer, and I tried to put all the mopping areas together, so if I got on a roll, I could get them all done in one week. The guest room is included w/two bathrooms b/c the guest room and adjoining bath are NEVER used and are almost empty of clutter, so vacuuming in that area is a much quicker process than in the master bedroom or "baby" room. And of course, as noted above, there is a LOT more I want to do besides "zone vacuum" -- but this is my reminder to do that if I don't get ANYTHING else done. I do laundry on Mondays -- and am generally very consistent with that. Of course, there is plenty of time to do other weekly & zone chores during the laundry process b/c it's a lot of in -- 50 min -- out -- hang to dry/next load in -- 50 min -- etc. I don't try to iron or even put away much on that day b/c almost everything we own, we hang to dry.

This week, I'm in the master bedroom b/c I switched it w/the den, since I was trying to take the Christmas decorations down that first week of the month. OTOH, I fell way behind on both of the first two weeks, so I'm trying to play catch up this week. And I should make a pretty good stab at it, b/c dh is going to college town tomorrow AND I have no Nana-duty!

So -- this is my plan:

Round 1
1/2 master bedroom ZONE VACUUM
1/9 master bathroom “ MIRRORS/DOORS – ALL baths
1/16 den “
1/23 computer room “
1/30 kitchen “ MOP
2/6 laundry/back entry “ MOP
2/13 guest room/guest & baby baths “ MOP/Use Steam Cleaner ALL baths
(That means going back to the master bath, but I hate getting the steam cleaner out, so once each 'round' is enough. I do like the way it blasts everything away, though. I basically use it around the toilets and then use the S wiffer Wet Jet mop.)
2/20 baby room “
2/27 dining room “
3/6 porch/entry/study “
3/13 storage/closets/outdoors/car “

I'm thinking 2 hours, 4 days a week might be a worthy goal for me. With all the ballgames, misc. other travel, and dgchildren, etc. in my life, I had better just plan that 2 days of the week are going to be out of my control, and I know I am useless on Sundays. I can't hold out for two hours every day; I know that about myself too, but it is a goal. And even sleeping as late as I do, if I would get at it when I do get up, and be about my business, I have PLENTY of time to fit my "morning" routine, exercise, AND weekly/zone time in before dh would be ready for supper. That is definitely something to think about. The time is there; I just have to use it more wisely.

Editing to say -- timing is not perfect here. Just noticed that the last time I actually timed myself on this (January 2016 -- can we say I at least consistently START the year off right?) -- but the last time I noted the time on a card, I said it took 30 minutes. Hmmm... either I did a REALLY GREAT job this time, or a REALLY HALF-WAY job last time. Hmmmm...
Tomorrow is another day.


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