MetaChat - Up and at 'em! A cleaning to-do list thread.

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10 January 2010

Up and at 'em! A cleaning to-do list thread. →[More:] I've been kind of down over the last few days because I haven't been accomplishing things I need to. My house is a mess and it's getting me down.

So, I'm asking you to cheer me on with these to-do lists.

List #1: Acute needs

1. Clean kitchen--unload dishes, load dishes, wash dishes, clean counters, sink
2. Clean bathroom--put away crap on counters, wipe counters down, clean mirror.
3. Laundry--put away.
4. Bedroom--clean surfaces of clothes and other detritus, sweep/vaccum, make bed, dust lamp.
5. Den--put away stuff that's on surfaces, turn the coffee table right-side-up (it was upside down as I had to reglue part of a leg on it). Put away suitcase from vacation.
6. Outside--pick up the broken glass that came from leaving a mason jar filled with water out.
7. Living room: dust/sweep.

Non-acute but important:

1. Office. Get that thing organized for once and for all. Put up curtain rod and find curtains for it.

OK, do you think I can make it through list #1 today at least? Here's hoping.

post by: Stewriffic at: 09:20 | 45 comments

Bathroom: Accomplished!

posted by Stewriffic 10 January | 09:44

I found a wonderful tip the other day about keeping my shower enclosure clean. The shower is glass, and we have hard water, so every little bit of limescale and soap scum leaves a horrid mark.

The tip was to use washing-up liquid (dish soap) to clean the shower. My goodness, what a difference it's made.

posted by essexjan 10 January | 09:50

Do the broken jar thing first. An animal might tread on it.

posted by essexjan 10 January | 09:51

oooh. You're cleaning right now? I'm going to go do #4 on your list in solidarity.

posted by taz 10 January | 09:57

Y'all rock. Thanks for the support, for real!

Jan: thanks for the washing-up liquid tip. I have glass doors and a tub, too. I'll use my shower today to try it out. (Does anyone else clean the shower as they take a shower?). The broken jar will happen, but I need to ensure this animal's (me!) safety first. The messy house is getting me down.

Taz, ROCK ON! Get 'er done, man.

Update: I have a good start with the kitchen!

posted by Stewriffic 10 January | 10:01

We've started paying our college-age son to clean the house once a week. Takes out the garbage, sweeps, vacuums, mops, and cleans bathrooms. We pay him as much as we'd pay a service but we'd be giving him gas money anyway so we might as well get some work out him.

posted by octothorpe 10 January | 10:06

Pardon all the updates. It's my way of feeling like I have someone to answer to, other than just myself.

Glass is mostly cleaned up! The bottoms of the two jars are frozen to the bench outside, so I'll have to wait until it thaws to do those. (Jan: it's all a way to maximize my movements. I waited to clean up the glass until I took the trash out.)

posted by Stewriffic 10 January | 10:13

Stewie do you have some loud music on? Put on some Motown, it will definitely help power you through your list!

posted by Kangaroo 10 January | 10:30

Kangaroo: I've got Bread on. Unfortunately I only have the internal laptop speakers, so it's not as loud as it could be. But I have the beau researching, so that should be remedied soon. I'll do something Motowny next. Whee!

Update: Laundry is 1/2 put away. Just need to hang the hanging clothes. Shower taken and used Jan's trick of dishwashing soap for scrubbing down the doors. Worked great inside, but it seems I have quite a bit of gradu on the outside of the doors. Odd.

Note: Since my hair's gotten long, I've noticed a ton of pony-tail holders and other hair accessories littered all over. Those are most satisfying to put away, because there's a very clear place they go.

posted by Stewriffic 10 January | 10:39

Oh I need this thread too, have a friend who I haven't seen in 2 yrs coming over. So far I've swept and mopped and put away clothes and made the bed and lint rolled all the surfaces, and now I need to:

-change bunny litter
-clear off the green table and decide what to do with the piles of wired and things on it
-put away failed gardening experiments
-clean kitchen counters
-organize desk papers
-decide what to wear

posted by rmless2 10 January | 10:56

(I also clean the shower while in it, and sometimes I wash my bathing suits and delicates while I'm in there instead of in the sink.)

posted by rmless2 10 January | 10:56

Okay! I did that, much to the disgust of the dog, who disapproves of pretty much every aspect of that task.

And since it yielded enough dirty clothes to fill the rest of the washer load, I'm doing #3, as well, but washing and hanging instead of putting away.

I also left the vacuum cleaner out as a push to vacuum the rest of the house. I think I'll do #2 next... after a small break!

Go Stewie! Go rmless!

posted by taz 10 January | 11:09

I'm flagging. Need motivation of some kind. Maybe a reward of lunch when I finish with loading and doing dishes?

posted by Stewriffic 10 January | 11:14

I clean here and there everyday, since I work from home, I always have some chore that I get done, so I don't have a 'cleaning day', per se. We also have a college age slave/son who gets some pocket money for washing mom's floors, vacuuming and yard work.
My big plan today is to make a huge pot of New England clam chowdah and this. I also have some worky-work to do, so that will take up most of my free time.

posted by msali 10 January | 11:15

You can do it, Stewriffic!

I have a "housecleaning mix" on my iTunes. It contains a lot of eighties -- Madonna, Rick Springfield, Cyndi Lauper, etc. Sometimes I'll work to a mindless movie when I'm in a room that contains a TV. I'll take my time and wash the floors by hand, organize drawers and the TV cabinet, dust, and fold clothes in front of the TV.

I cleaned my house top to bottom a few days ago. Thoroughly, as in I washed my shower curtains and dusted the top of the baseboards and washed the walls and windows. I through a ton of stuff away (old socks, Tupperware with missing lids, old t-shirts, paperwork, junk). It took me a few days to do everything. We had people over for dinner last night --that always motivates me to clean. My laundry room is a mess and my pantry and closets are kinda unorganized but I feel like a normal person because the rest of the house looks presentable.

I found a wonderful tip the other day about keeping my shower enclosure clean. The shower is glass, and we have hard water, so every little bit of limescale and soap scum leaves a horrid mark.

My glass shower doors are permanently damaged. I never squeegeed the doors or dried them off thoroughly after use and they have become etched. I want to replace them but fear we will damage the tile, which is only cheap builder grade stuff, but still. My dream is two renovated bathrooms. One day.

My goals for the day:

1. Three loads of laundry
2. Clean laundry room
3. Vacuum floors and wash kitchen floor
4. Iron clothes for tomorrow

posted by LoriFLA 10 January | 11:25

Go Stewie! you've done so much already and you can get the rest in before you throw in the towel!
You'll feel so good when it's over!

Got everything done but the plants, so she'll just have to see some dead ones around, but I feel ok and gotta go!
Good luck, fellow cleaners!

posted by rmless2 10 January | 11:26

Good morning:

I'm not sure what happened; I did a big clean December 31st to start the New Year off right. But the house is rather unruly once again.

Music certainly helps, it must be peppy, Motown sounds like a grand choice.

Today, I must:

run and empty the dishwasher
wash the stuff that doesn't fit in the dishwasher
tidy kitchen and wipe down surfaces
generally tidy up and put things away everywhere (a PLACE for everything, and everything IN its place... that's the goal)
take out and sort the mass of recycling
do laundry, then fold it, probably two large loads
tidy up outside as well, it's looking grim. Pots of dead annuals are depressing, but the spring bulbs are already emerging, so there is also hope!

Then I shall shower and clean myself, then take the dog out for a Sunday amble.

posted by Savannah 10 January | 11:26

(I also clean the shower while in it, and sometimes I wash my bathing suits and delicates while I'm in there instead of in the sink.)

Me too.

I don't really have any housework to do today, but I need to find the motivation to go for an oil change, buy my dad a birthday card, and do some work. I am struggling. I just want to lie around and watch movies all day.

posted by amro 10 January | 11:31

On Thursday I had to work and left my husband a to-do list. He is a saint because he did everything on the list. I am very annoying, spell everything out and treat him as if he has never lifted a finger. :-) This is the exact email I sent him:

sweep front porch and front walkway

bring two dying plants in the front yard (in clay pots) to the side of the house

shake out two doormats that are on the back porch

sweep back porch

fill sink halfway with hot water, add a slug of ammonia -- wash sliding glass doors on both sides with this solution. After this, spray with Windex and dry completely with paper towels. The sliders are absolutely DISGUSTING and they look really, really bad.

Remove stuff from the top of the fridge and spray with all-purpose cleaner, clean with paper towels

Remove stuff from top of cabinets and put in safe areas. All that crap looks crappy up there. Please clean dust and dirt that falls down on floor and counters.

bring hand weights to the living room -- please look in garage and our bedroom-- there should be a pair of five, eight, ten, and fifteen pound dumbbells. Please place them next to the living room TV console. We are using them to today after we run.

Pledge and clean living room tv console

The dishes in the dishwasher are DIRTY. Please take care of the coins in root beer and place bowl in dishwasher

Put new tablecloth on table

Make sure counters/surfaces/floors are free of dirt, dog hair, and crumbs. Please make sure everything is picked up.

Place dirty clothes that are on the floor in our bedroom in baskets. The white basket next to the far side of the dresser contains clean white clothes -- underwear, socks, t-shirts. Please put away.

Sweep our bedroom and make the bed. There is a pile of dirt in between the nightstand and the closet. Make sure that gets swept up with everything else. Pledge bedroom furniture.

Please buy the grocery items and put in fridge so they will be cold; Root Beer, 7-Up, Diet Coke, Milk, bottled water (6 pack). Also please buy toilet paper, Windex, Spanish Rice, lettuce, tomato, cheddar cheese.

posted by LoriFLA 10 January | 11:36

OK, things are back on track, mostly due to the bribe of food for lunch. Dishwasher is loaded, and dirty pans that need hand washing are soaking.

Lunch: sushi rice, stir fry with onions, cabbage, celery, broccoli, edamame. Whipped up a sauce with a combo of a ginger-miso salad dressing, sriracha and soy sauce.

Music choice: The Ramones.

LoriFLA:

Please take care of the coins in root beer

Please explain! Sounds very interesting!!

posted by Stewriffic 10 January | 11:53

My husband found some corroded coins (not valuable coins). He soaked them in Root Beer to clean them since we didn't have anything stronger.

posted by LoriFLA 10 January | 12:06

Ah, sounds interesting. I wondered if it was a science project for the kiddos.

Update: made lunch, thus creating more dishes (hate that). It's tasty, and will provide sustenance!

Yet to do:
Kitchen dishes*, floors, counters, sink.
Bedroom: surfaces (many sweaters to put away), sweep/vaccum, make bed.
Den: no changes from original list.
LR: ditto.

*I made beef jerky yesterday, so part of this scrubbing will be the oven racks. They're coated with the marinade. Ick.

posted by Stewriffic 10 January | 12:14

Woo, cleaning. I did my deep cleaning (4 times a year) where I actually hand scrub the floors (except the hardwood) on Friday. I do weekly cleanings that only take an hour or so every week (swiffering, cleaning the bathroom, running the dishwasher sometimes).

posted by sperose 10 January | 12:39

WHOO HOO! Way to go!

I washed every dirty dish in the joint yesterday, and it was such a relief and such a pleasure to see the bottom of both sinks! Today, it's less about cleaning than about sewing and tidying; I'm recovering pillows to go with our new couch and making new curtains.

But I will be making use of Jan's dish-soap trick --- thanks! (And yes, Stewriffic, I clean the shower, then take a shower or bath immediately.)

posted by Elsa 10 January | 12:57

I always clean the shower when I'm in the shower. I usually do it when the conditioner is soaking into my hair, then I make sure I rinse out the conditioner carefully so I don't get splashes everywhere. Before I get out of the shower I squeegee the water off the doors and tiles.

posted by essexjan 10 January | 13:10

Alrighty! I did the bathroom! And I also swept the front entranceway outside. And then I was so grungy I had to clean myself, so I took a shower.

But I had the heat off because I was getting sweaty with the cleaning, so when I got out of the shower I felt pretty cold and shivery. So I've turned up the heat and am sipping a cup of tea. It's a bit after 8 pm here, so that's me done with cleaning efforts for today.

Thank you stewie; I wouldn't have been inspired to do that if it weren't for you, and now I'm happier! If anyone wants to clean together tomorrow, I might be able to vacuum the living rooms, sweep and mop the kitchen, and possibly wash windows. :)

posted by taz 10 January | 13:11

LoriFLA, I think the idea of a cleaning playlist is genius! It must work in an almost Pavlovian way!

Just this week, I made the rule that I may only listen to This American Life while I'm up and doing stuff around the house, and not while I'm sitting down. It's working!

posted by Elsa 10 January | 13:17

Yeah, the cleaning playlist gets me going. I listen to This American Life when cleaning, too. A couple months ago, I listened to a lot of the "best of" shows. I never heard the "Switched at birth" show or the "invented babysitter job" until now. I was highly entertained. I also listen to books on tape. It depends on my mood.

I tend to flit around when cleaning. I'll start one project and then go to another. I play music when I want to down to serious business. It helps me to stay in one room until it is completed. I also put my laptop on the kitchen counter so I am forced to stand if I want to check something on the internet. Once I'm seated I can sit for hours.

posted by LoriFLA 10 January | 13:31

Yikes, I just heard "Switched at birth" last night! It was gripping --- I was talking back to the laptop, bursting into expressions of anger and disbelief.

posted by Elsa 10 January | 13:33

Whew, I'm flagging again!

It took almost 45 minutes just to scrub the gunk off of the oven racks with steel wool. I wouldn't be surprised if I have little shards of metal in my fingers.

In the bedroom I've made the bed, culled a whole ton of shoes to take to the thrift store, vacuumed the closet, and put all the sweaters on the bed to fold and put away.

I need a break. I've been at this for what now, almost five hours straight? Minus lunch?

I'm watching (well, listening to is more like it) The World's Best Prom, which is about the town I lived in until I was 5.

Take a much-deserved break now. All I plan to finish today is putting away the sweaters and vacuuming the rest of the bedroom. Tired.

Thanks so much everyone. Glad we got some cleaning support today!

posted by Stewriffic 10 January | 14:07

Congrats, Stewriffic. That is great.

I have only done one load of laundry. The kids' friends are here and I'm trying to stay out of their way. I'm looking up recipes. I feel like trying something new for dinner. Off to do more laundry and clean up lunch dishes.

Elsa, yeah that switched at birth story was maddening. I could not understand why the family did not report the mistake right away. It sounds like one of the girls has coped with the switch more than the other.

posted by LoriFLA 10 January | 14:17

Good for you, Stewie! Rah!

posted by taz 10 January | 14:47

Stewie, you used to live in Racine? I just watched the World's Best Prom a few weeks ago.

posted by msali 10 January | 15:23

Yah. Lived there till 1976 summer. I want some Kringle.

posted by Stewriffic 10 January | 15:35

Any one of those activities is enough to waste me for the rest of the day. Also, at the moment we have no hot water.

posted by Ardiril 10 January | 16:57

Good job everyone!

My cleaning music is the Butthole Surfers.

I just baked up a storm (Spice cake with pears and cranberries, chewy choc chip cookies from a new recipe) and then I cleaned up all the dishes and pans and the counters so my nice newly clean kitchen would stay that way.

Now I am going in to the city to see another friend, but I would secretly rather stay home in my nice tidy cozy apartment.

Tasks for later tonight or tomorrow- put away laundry, wash delicates.
Tasks for someday when I get someone to help me- re-hang curtains this time with anchors so they dont fall out of the wall, mount my tv on the wall (scary!!)

posted by rmless2 10 January | 17:28

Good lord but there are some industrious cleaning fools in here today. I really needed to vacuum today but I had a client meeting at 1 & for some reason I am freezing under a blanket right now. It wasn't that cold today. DIdn't have lunch until about 3, maybe that's why.

posted by chewatadistance 10 January | 17:32

*shakes out five pound bag of flower over floor, squirts bottle of ketchup on walls*

So there.

posted by Pips 10 January | 18:03

(that's flour, not flower, though daisies are nice, too -- I can't even be destructive right :(

posted by Pips 10 January | 18:06

I cleaned the litter box. GO TEAM ME!

I have something like 8,934 loads of laundry to do but really don't feel like doing laundry today. Might take a few loads over to my mom's house tomorrow when I'm over there cleaning.

I believe instead of doing actual chores that I'm going to cross stitch and watch movies instead. I LIVE ON THE EDGE!

posted by fluffy battle kitten 10 January | 18:16

Oh also, I should mention...I was an extra good girl last weekend and spent five hours last Sunday organizing my arts and crafts area. So regardless of the fact that I have about a million chore things to do - I don't really feel bad slacking today. Plus, I can see most of my arts and crafts stuff! (Except for I haven't even tackled the fabric stash yet but it's OKAY at least the stash is in containers and not just out in the open.)

posted by fluffy battle kitten 10 January | 18:18

This morning the cleaning vibe continued for me and I put away all my laundry and organized the under-sink cabinet in the bathroom. WOOOT!

posted by rmless2 11 January | 11:29

Hi folks, anybody else do the Fly Lady system? It's confusing to start with, but it's been a lifesaver. Flylady.net

posted by kch 11 January | 13:57

kch: I tried flylady ages ago, but it overwhelmed me to pieces. It was more stressful than the messy house.

posted by Stewriffic 11 January | 16:17

oh yes, the baggage for flylady is enough to pull one's own eye teeth out. But I did find that once I cut through the hoopla, that behind it was a system of rotating locations and jobs for short periods of time which has been effective for me. I use the System without Her. I'm onto the family room today, to get it ready for the dry wallers who are coming this week. I'm figuring it won't be too good to have dry wall debris all over kids' toys.

posted by kch 11 January | 17:37

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