Here's our Current Thread! You're in the right place to chat and easily find each other in (approximately) the same rooms through 2026. Everybody's waving from their porch at the same time, or in their kitchens at the same time, etc.
( UNLESS - they might be decluttering ahead in the upcoming week's room for easier cleaning! )
For chatting in current time this year, our current thread will always be FIRST in the line-up of topics in the forum. Our first round's calendar is in this post. The locked sticky threads about Focus Cleaning are just below, including the full 2026 Focus Cleaning Calendar for planning.
A consistently clean home is within reach! It's not that we need to clean everything suddenly We only need to clean CONSISTENTLY throughout the year we know that. Focus is Forgiving! It gives us ONE idea for an already-complete plan of 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 the New Year through the week of Monday, March 9 . 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 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, "Clickable - The Eleven Focus areas and their How-To-Clean Notes". The contents listing there allows us to click on a room/area and go right to those Focus notes. (So does the Maintenance thread)
For quick reference here, the first round will find us :
Thank you for these threads, Harriet! I still have two rooms left to deep clean, and, of course, the decluttering is a constant in life. I need to upy game with the decluttering, as it's looking increasingly likely that DH will be retiring some time in 2026. I would like to have done some serious decluttering by then, to make our home more spacious and tranquil.
Below are the bare bones of what I still need to do in my house (I will declutter in other rooms as I "notice" stuff, but these are the two rooms that didn't get done before Christmas).
Declutter spare room/ office
Deep clean spare room/ office
Declutter kitchen wip
Deep clean kitchen wip
You really have a leg up on a first round through your house, Kittykatt. Good job.
This year my hopes are to go ahead and incorporate the weeks of our rotation into my planner and card file SO WELL that I have them in front of me all the time.
I hope to also be really dedicated to decluttering a week ahead this year, so for instance, being aware that clutter in bedroom right now needs to be addressed, not overlooked! Yes, hard to add in when "undecorating" will be a big thing soon, too, but I can do it - there's always some project, and hey, at least no one expects the yard to get mowed right now.
My "My Tracker" stamp for each week in planner has only room for one word for each line of those checkmarks (Clean, Declutter are the first two). But I'm thinking that at the top of the planner there will be room for a sticker with the room name for each. So, it will be right before my eyes - clean where? Clean that entryway! declutter where? in the bedroom! None of this wishy-washy wondering!
As usual for our January start, the weather will probably keep me from much porch work, although we do want to change the light fixture there. The new light fixture arrived already. Ds may help with that, so, some delegation happening!
So, this week I'm concentrating on entry and it's time for swiffering. Full disclosure - I have storage boxes in my entryway. Until I can do something about that, I can't change out/work on decor weii, and I'd really like to.
I've been working in the hall, which is the main entry point to our house. View from the door is good. Washer and dryer are mostly behind the door and right now the washer has a large blanket on it that needs to be washed. I also have a new polyester flat sheet that I want to put over the tops of both machines. I have had a dark brown one on top for more than 10 years. I put it there to try to keep the tops from getting scratched.
So switching those 2 sheets out will be today's tiny job. I also need to sweep.
Later...
I have swept, mopped and dusted. Replacement sheet is almost finished in the dryer. Everything has been removed from the top of the machines.
Even later... new sheet is on top of both machines. Cat carrier is back on top of the dryer. I just need to wash the sheet that was on the dryer and the blanket that was on the washer. I will do that later.
Dishes never stop.
Laundry never stops.
Litter boxes never stop.
Paper never stops.
Thank you so much for the weekly planner calendar. I tend to lose track of where we are and just pick at a room or two. Hope to be more devoted to decluttering in the new year. Love having company!
♥ Wake each day expecting good things to happen! ♥
I re-did my zones, so I won't be on the porch until week 11, when it will be warmer. I"m starting in the kitchen, which is very appropriate after the train wreck of yesterday. LOL. Of course, right now, I'm in the bedroom -- not working, just sitting in bed watching the parade.
Today I've dropped DH at the station for a weekend with his DBro and family. My plan for this time is to tackle the spare room /office. I won't get it all done over the weekend, but that's ok, it's better to do fewer parts thoroughly. I'm going to write a list of everything that needs doing in there, then I can tick it off as I go. My plan is to get at least a couple of "big jobs" ,that are difficult to break down into smaller components, done while I have the house to myself, (and I can shut the door on the mess if it becomes overwhelming!), then I can just chip away at the rest.
Decluttering / deep cleaning in spare room/office January 2026:
Brush ceiling
Take pictures off walls and clean
Clean walls
Clean lampshade
Wipe down paintwork and radiator
Wash curtains and rehang
Pull out bed and clean underneath
Pull out filing cabinet and clean underneath
Dust box files, clean inside of cabinet and put back files (I need to go through the contents, but dont want a tottering pile!)
Declutter contents of box files one at a time: #1#2#3#4#5#6#7#8#9#10#11#12#13#14#15#16#17#18#19#20
Airing cupboard: take everything out, clean the inside, declutter and replace what I need to keep
Polish airing cupboard door
Take down cat carriers on top of wardrobe and clean
Declutter / deep clean wardrobe: hanging area, shelves #1#2#3#4, drawers #1#2
Take down everything hanging on back of door and declutter /dust
Polish door
Put door hanger and everything I'm keeping back
Wipe light switch
Clean mirror
Wipe down desk/monitors etc
Declutter / clean bookcase: shelf#1#2
Wax floor
Empty, dust and refill DH's display cabinets of model buses: #1 #2 REMEMBER TO TAKE A PHOTO OF EACH CABINET BEFORE I START SO EVERYTHING GOES BACK IN THE SAME PLACE!!!
Dust my childhood dolls house inside and out, and check the lights still work
Last edited by Kittykatt on Fri Jan 02, 2026 3:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
in (approximately) the same rooms through 2026. Everybody's waving from their porch at the same time, or in their kitchens at the same time, etc. 
Our first round's calendar is in this post. The locked sticky threads about Focus Cleaning are just below, including the full 2026 Focus Cleaning Calendar for planning. 
We only need to clean CONSISTENTLY throughout the year 
we know that. Focus is Forgiving! It gives us ONE idea for an already-complete plan of 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. 
Until I can do something about that, I can't change out/work on decor weii, and I'd really like to.