Cleaning 2019, Third Round Focus through August 18

[Harriet]

Our current thread will always be FIRST in the line-up of topics in the forum, so it's easy to find and chat in current time! Our third round's calendar is in this post. The locked sticky threads about Focus Cleaning are just below, including the full 2019 Focus Cleaning Calendar for planning.

A consistently clean home is within reach! It's not that we need to clean everything suddenly 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 THIRD rounds through our homes, which will be from Monday, June 3 through the week of Monday, August 12. Eleven rooms/areas for eleven weeks. Change the room or area 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 these months. To find some reminders and tips about rooms, check out the locked thread 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 3
6/3/2019 porch/entry
6/10/2019 bedrooms
6/17/2019 bathrooms
6/24/2019 office/other room
7/1/2019 closets
7/8/2019 laundry
7/15/2019 storage
7/22/2019 outdoor
7/29/2019 kitchen
8/5/2019 living room
8/12/2019 dining room

[Harriet]

Got more than halfway through the bathrooms last week, and am still planning to find a time this week to go back to the master bathroom and finish up.

I'm happy with the new tub bathmat (inside, non-slip) that is made of the somewhat see-through PVC with drainage holes throughout. Much better than the very rubberized solid material. Finally I feel like one is living up to claims of easy-to-clean and mildew-resistance. I guess it's partly because there's air flow, but this material is just easier to clean, too.

This week it's on into office/other room. SO much to do. This room is vacuum-needy, for one thing.

Will have to have a camera on the edge of the computer screen for the upcoming fall course, assuming I get in. OH my goodness. This is a concept: someone as imposing as a professor or instructor, who is actually supposed to be judging, in a way, seeing this room behind me on a screen someday???? yipes. All I can think is, aim the camera high and away from surfaces, lol.

[lucylee]

Okay, so I think I know, but what do most of y'all do when you completely skip a week?
Like last week was supposed to be closets here (kitchen for me -- I laid out my 11 weeks a little differently) -- but whatever -- suppose LIFE got in the way and you didn't even THINK about a closet last week.
Do you just "file it and forget it" and move on to the laundry room? Because if you try to play catch up, as I have been prone to do, you may find out, as I have, that that just does not work at all.
But... file it and forget it sorta means some areas are forgotten apparently forever. * sigh *

[Nancy]

I am playing catch up on the kitchen. Closets I would do 10 min. Then skip it or do o e shelf and call it good.

[Harmony]

Sometimes places get left because there's not really much to do there. A quick little wipe/tidy may be all that's necessary later when I get to it. Sometimes if that space is bad I do it instead of another one that is ok to leave for the time being. I try to keep things a bit 'loose' as to my schedule. Nobody is judging us!

[lucylee]

Nobody is judging us!

(((Harmony))) Thanks. I think I am judging me.
You are right -- we just have to keep it a little bit loose/flexible, because LIFE is going to happen. And LIFE is a lot better than keeping up with a rigid cleaning schedule, right? I mean, I probably should start asking myself, "What will make me feel better right now? What do I really need to do?" Sometimes it honestly might be to take a nap. But sometimes I know in my heart that I will feel better if I "just do it" re: some chore I'm procrastinating on.
But when LIFE involves playing with dgrands, or doing something that makes dh happy, or taking care of something dmom needs... well then, in the long run it doesn't matter which week of the "focus" calendar I'm on, right?

I think I must try to start looking at that focus calendar as a map, a guide -- but not a law that I must live by. If I spend more or less time at one stop, it won't matter in the long run. I'm still going to be moving towards my destination.

[blessedw2]

I love that no one is judging us. awesome !
yay d harriet on your bathrooms - i hope your desk area was easy
Yay d harmony on your work
yay d nancy on your work
cheering you on d lucy! I only file and forget 1 time as I will push a job off for ever! When I over goal and can't get stuff done; I know I have to push it to every 2 months etc. I figure I hadn't done it before so I can let it go a month or two.
Sometimes, if I can afford it, will hire people to come in and say wash walls or if I can't get to the home blessings then I hire a cleaning company. Like right now: I am considering hiring a home cleaner for August end or september beginning bc I have so much yard work left to do before winter starts.

[blessedw2]

I did my kitchen zone work
I do something weekly bc for some reason I am a slop in the kitchen (I can't do it all the time but I do try).

this week for me is zone 5 family room and starting august 1 will be zone one the front hall.
it is what it is.

[Harriet]

As I follow along on the Focus calendar to finish up in living room and dining room (next week) for this 3rd round, I'll be cleaning the overhead fan as my "next-up". Then through the area in general with the swiffer and vac, finding all the corners and making sure I don't share any of them with any tiny webs above or bunnies below.

I'm happy that for these rooms I'm definitely following behind my decluttering efforts. Several of the places on my countdown card have been in these rooms. Thinking in that order (clear it, then clean it) truly helps me. It's like a more complete plan, more of a pattern to go by.

It does inspire me to hear about ya'lls decisions to hire someone when needed. I don't DO anything about it, but at least ya'll help me realize I'm not out of options if I need to admit help should be called. I can just chill, and pick up the phone if I need to.

[lucylee]

LOL — a distant cousin called the other day to ask, “Lucy, who cleans your house? I have had surgery and I am going to have to get somebody to do some things around here.”
I said, “Well, you don’t want my housekeeper because she’s not worth much!”
(I gave her the # for dmom’s lady.)
I know some day I’m going to need someone, but it makes me nervous. Cleaning ladies learn EVERYTHING about their clients, don’t they? Finding someone you trust, who you won’t be embarrassed to know all your business...

This is also ddil’s problem. Aside from $$, she knows their house in such a mess that she fears the cleaning lady would be “judging” her.
This is also why she never wants me to help.