When we first moved into this house, my mom bought me this book:
Does anyone else have it? I'll give it a so-so review. There is a lot of good information, but I'm also more likely to google than to open this bad boy (in all 744 pages of its glory). My mom, who has a spotless house every day, all the time, didn't find too much use for it, but that's probably just because she could have written it.
There are some pros to it though, and my favorite part is Martha's suggested cleaning schedule. Some of them are a bit "Marth-y" ("Rotate the books in your library to prevent warping and sun damage"), but most if it is legit.
To prevent you from having to read a 744 page book about Martha Stewart, I've created a spring cleaning checklist. You can download it as a printable by going here. Since spring cleaning is about the only cleaning I can get excited about, I like to harness that positive energy into a sparkling, less stuff, oasis. Or a version of my home that is slightly better than what it was a month before. I have realistic expectations.
Here's a preview:
There are some things I include on this list that Martha wants me to do more often (wash pillows), but girl, I'm busy. I do the best I can.
If you are more like Martha than me, you might need to follow some of her other suggestions and clean down your ovenS, replace your heavy drapes and rugs with lightweight ones (WHO DOES THIS??), reseal your stone surfaces, and polish your metal door. Oh Martha. It's so cute that we pretend that you do any of this at any of your homeS. We know you have people.
Do you spring clean? Is there anything I left off of my list?
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Thank you for the REAL in this post. I am domestically challenged and dang it I am proud! OK, not proud but just tired of trying to pretend I am a domestic diva (no one believes this malarky anyway!)
ReplyDeleteHappy Cleaning!
You had em at " Normal " ...even though I confess no such thing!
I'm not Martha on creativity or cleaning, lol, but I do fairly well the FlyLady method. Daily routines keep me on task and having it written down gives me a starting place if I fall behind. I get very overwhelmed without a starting place!
ReplyDeleteYour list is excellent. I would add change out your filters for you house. My home has an upstairs and downstairs filter for the heater and a/c. Also fridge filters for the water (check your expiration date if you remembered to mark it on your filter!) and clean out the hepa filters on your vacuum. If it has a filter, spring cleaning is a great time to check/clean them out.
It's also a good time to have a basic service done of your a/c unit to make sure it's running at optimum efficiency. Not only will it help you discover any potential problems before you actually need to use it, it's less expensive to have maintenance done before it gets hot.
Also, I live in the south. This is the time of year I have the exterminator come out to pre-treat for spring bugs. Enough said.
I am so not Martha either. I love things organized and neat and I have the best of intentions but darn it sometimes I don't have time to put away what I got out. As for cleaning well somehow over the years I have just created a system that for me seems to work. Loved that you kept it real here and shared on this week's BeColorful
ReplyDeletepam