The boys have their February break coming up (Feb 20-26). Why go somewhere during then when you can stay home & SPRING CLEAN?? Yep, that`s right! We are staying put, & cleaning out this ENTIRE house. All 1600 sq ft. I plan on getting rid of a LOT. We will even be going through the storage room (yikes).
In doing this, I am hoping that my house will stay cleaner, longer. I plan to put my Pinterest shenanigans to good use, finally, to create in & out boxes for the boys, to create storage systems for school papers, & to organize my jewellry, just to name a couple ideas!
I also plan on reinstating my cleaning schedules, but involving the boys. They need to learn that laundry doesn`t magically go from their bedroom floor to their dresser, all clean again. That dishes don`t clean themselves overnight. And I don`t mean just the kids ;)
Here is my room by room plan. Hopefully, if I write it all out, it will motivate me to get it all done during the boys` week off!!
Kitchen
- clean out fridge & freezers (wipe down with bleach), wipe down the outside surfaces
- clean stove & oven, wipe down outside surfaces
- bleach out microwave & dishwasher, wipe down outside surfaces
- clean out pantry, dust shelves
- clean under sink
- wipe down walls & cupboards
- OrangeGlo woodwork
- clean windows
- dust everything
Living/Dining Room
- clean out furniture
- dust/clean all surfaces
- wash windows
- deep clean carpets
- go through magazines/catalogs
Office/Entrance
- clean out coat closet
- go through desk surfaces
- sort through craft supplies
- dust all surfaces
- wash windows
Toy Room
- sort through all toys (donate donate donate!)
- scrub down shelves
- bleach toys as needed
- disinfect floors
- dust all surfaces
- wash windows
Bathrooms
- DEEP CLEAN ALL SURFACES
- sort through vanities
TV Room
- dust all surfaces
- clean out couches
- sort through movies
- deep clean floors
Bedrooms
- go through closets & dressers
- dust all surfaces
- wash windows
- deep clean floors
- reorganize my jewellery
Wow. That is a HUGE list! And I don`t even the storage room on there! So, if you don`t from me that week, please look in the toyroom, it will most likely have swallowed me whole!! Should I survive, I will be sure to share the Pinned Projects I have used! And maybe even (finally) post after photos of the house!
Showing posts with label House. Show all posts
Showing posts with label House. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Clean House, Clean Mind?
Do you find that when your house is messy, your mind feels messy? I seem to feel disorganzied & just plain "off" when the boys have destroyed the house. The gritty snacks I step on, the lack of clean spoons, etc etc. The only remedy I have found is to deep clean!
With spring approaching, my mind has turned to spring cleaning, & with that comes home organization! I love to organize things. Like, to an obsessive, crazy extent. One project I crazily took on? Organizing the boys` Legos by size & color. I gave up after a week, LOL. They are, however, still organizd by "category", bricks, flat pieces, people, windows/doors, car pieces. Haha. Makes a person wonder about my state of mind somedays!
Anyway. The warm-ish weather yesterday & today has had me thinking of spring, & with that cleaning lists. I had found a great website to help me create a Household Binder (www.organizedhome.com). The site has a lot of amazing printables, & many, many articles with hints & i deas.
The nice thing about a Home Binder is that you can completely customize it to suit your family`s needs. You can use the pages they have, or use it as a guide to create pages that you need. My binder is fairly thick.
- I have a calendar in the front, with everyone`s activities on it (practice, birthdays, appointments, etc). I have color coded the calendar as well, making it easy to see who needs to be where & when with 1 quick glance.
- Then the 4 of us each have a section. Because of allergies & asthma, each person has a list of their allergies & medicines listed, as well as their doctor`s number/info. Then I include a class list, school calendar, & sports calendar. I also have a list of important phone numbers (coaches, teachers, friends).
- My recipe section helps with my meal planning. I have meals listed that the family loves, & what we need when we have that. When I plan my menu, I go through the lists & pick out what we will eat & make the grocery list. I also have a page protector to put new recipe ideas in (printed, or torn from magazines). I use this section along with my recipe binder (more on that to come later!).
- Another section is house ideas, since our home is a work in progress. This I have divided by room. At the top, I have listed the paint color(s) used, and then listed are all the projects that need to be done (changing out light fixtures, flooring ideas, etc).
The last subject I have is my Cleaning Schedule! Yes, I have a schedule, & I really, REALLY need to get back on it! I have a list of daily chores (vaccuming, laundry, beds, wiping down the bathrooms before bed, etc). Then I have set a room to each day to focus on.
Monday - Toy room & entrance/office
Tuesday - Kitchen
Wednesday - Living Room
Thursday - Upstairs
Friday - Bathrooms
Weekend - Catch up
When I do keep up with my schedule, it makes Spring Cleaning SO much easier! I don`t have to deep clean as deep, & then it`s just a matter of switching out linens, putting away winter gear, & taking inventory of what the boys need for summer.
I am hoping to get my Home Binder up to date, & to implement my cleaning schedule again. It will be nice to have a clean, tidy house again! And, to have a coherent head, LOL. Well, one can hope anyway ;)
Once I get my binder together, I will share photos. Are you going to create a home binder for your household? What will put in it?
With spring approaching, my mind has turned to spring cleaning, & with that comes home organization! I love to organize things. Like, to an obsessive, crazy extent. One project I crazily took on? Organizing the boys` Legos by size & color. I gave up after a week, LOL. They are, however, still organizd by "category", bricks, flat pieces, people, windows/doors, car pieces. Haha. Makes a person wonder about my state of mind somedays!
Anyway. The warm-ish weather yesterday & today has had me thinking of spring, & with that cleaning lists. I had found a great website to help me create a Household Binder (www.organizedhome.com). The site has a lot of amazing printables, & many, many articles with hints & i deas.
The nice thing about a Home Binder is that you can completely customize it to suit your family`s needs. You can use the pages they have, or use it as a guide to create pages that you need. My binder is fairly thick.
- I have a calendar in the front, with everyone`s activities on it (practice, birthdays, appointments, etc). I have color coded the calendar as well, making it easy to see who needs to be where & when with 1 quick glance.
- Then the 4 of us each have a section. Because of allergies & asthma, each person has a list of their allergies & medicines listed, as well as their doctor`s number/info. Then I include a class list, school calendar, & sports calendar. I also have a list of important phone numbers (coaches, teachers, friends).
- My recipe section helps with my meal planning. I have meals listed that the family loves, & what we need when we have that. When I plan my menu, I go through the lists & pick out what we will eat & make the grocery list. I also have a page protector to put new recipe ideas in (printed, or torn from magazines). I use this section along with my recipe binder (more on that to come later!).
- Another section is house ideas, since our home is a work in progress. This I have divided by room. At the top, I have listed the paint color(s) used, and then listed are all the projects that need to be done (changing out light fixtures, flooring ideas, etc).
The last subject I have is my Cleaning Schedule! Yes, I have a schedule, & I really, REALLY need to get back on it! I have a list of daily chores (vaccuming, laundry, beds, wiping down the bathrooms before bed, etc). Then I have set a room to each day to focus on.
Monday - Toy room & entrance/office
Tuesday - Kitchen
Wednesday - Living Room
Thursday - Upstairs
Friday - Bathrooms
Weekend - Catch up
When I do keep up with my schedule, it makes Spring Cleaning SO much easier! I don`t have to deep clean as deep, & then it`s just a matter of switching out linens, putting away winter gear, & taking inventory of what the boys need for summer.
I am hoping to get my Home Binder up to date, & to implement my cleaning schedule again. It will be nice to have a clean, tidy house again! And, to have a coherent head, LOL. Well, one can hope anyway ;)
Once I get my binder together, I will share photos. Are you going to create a home binder for your household? What will put in it?
Monday, January 16, 2012
Countertop Do Over
This past September, we redid our countertops. I love my counters! While it wasn`t labor-instensive, it was a long process when factoring in drying times (24 hours between each coat). We did it after the boys went to bed, which allowed me minimal counter use during the day when I needed it.
The product we used was Rustoleum`s Stoneaffects. We used the Galaxy color (black with white specks). It is a 3 step process, and is very easy to do!
Here are my counters before. Love the fake marbly white & green. And check out that border! Nice huh?
This is Step 1, the primer. It is gritty, so the stone coat sticks to it.
Step 2 (and 3, we did 2 coats to fill in a couple spots) was the stone. It looks gray when wet but dries to the right color.
And the last coats (we did 2 of the epoxies)! It makes your counter shiny & smooth. It is also heatproof. I love the look of it!
This was one of our quickest, easiest renos! And I just adore the final look! You can`t even tell there are tiles underneath. So here we are, 1 step closer to my finished kitchen!
The product we used was Rustoleum`s Stoneaffects. We used the Galaxy color (black with white specks). It is a 3 step process, and is very easy to do!
Here are my counters before. Love the fake marbly white & green. And check out that border! Nice huh?
This is Step 1, the primer. It is gritty, so the stone coat sticks to it.
Step 2 (and 3, we did 2 coats to fill in a couple spots) was the stone. It looks gray when wet but dries to the right color.
And the last coats (we did 2 of the epoxies)! It makes your counter shiny & smooth. It is also heatproof. I love the look of it!
This was one of our quickest, easiest renos! And I just adore the final look! You can`t even tell there are tiles underneath. So here we are, 1 step closer to my finished kitchen!
Kitchen Revamping
When we bought our house almost 5 years ago (we bought it Feb 13/07 & moved in Apr 26/07), we knew it needed a LOT of work. It is a 1920 character home, & I absolutely adore it! While we have done a few things (painted throughout, new bathroom, worked in the kitchen, added a fence), we still have so much to do! We are hoping to rebuild our veranda this summer, build an addition, finish the floors, & finish our current bedroom.
So far, my favorite room is the kitchen. Which makes sense, since I spend most of my time in there! We painted, added a couple cupboard doors where needed (who doesn`t want doors on their cupboards?!?), & redid our countertops. I am currently scraping glue off the original 1920 hardwoods. Yes, glue. Someone, in a haze of craziness, glued the ugliest, roughest, blue-gray carpet to the floor (granted, our kitchen used to be a bedroom). Anyway. I am almost done scraping the glue (just the dining & living areas left!), then we will be doing a light sand to be sure all the glue is gone, & restaining. The floors were originally dark, & I plan on keeping them dark. Our cabinets (custom built in Dec 2006) are a warm fruitwood, & well, I can`t change those, LOL.
Anyway. All this to say, I wanted to share progress pictures with you! Here are the befores, from May of 2007. Ignore the mess, & the silly baby (I can`t get over that Ryden used to be that little, sniff sniff!), but here they are :)
This was taken while standing in the living room, looking west. Love the southwestern teal bluey-green! Ick :( Check out that fabulous carpet too! Who says kitchen carpet is a bad idea??
Standind with my back against the window. My sink! I love my double sink. The right side is so super deep, perfect for defrosting 20 pound turkeys! Also note the silly baby! He was mad I was taking pictures that weren`t of him ;)
The built in hutch. I was so excited when I saw this! I thought the bottom was all storage. It`s not :( I also love the no doors, & eating off dusty dishes.
And so, that was my kitchen, almost 5 years ago. Stay tuned, my next post will include up to date photos!
So far, my favorite room is the kitchen. Which makes sense, since I spend most of my time in there! We painted, added a couple cupboard doors where needed (who doesn`t want doors on their cupboards?!?), & redid our countertops. I am currently scraping glue off the original 1920 hardwoods. Yes, glue. Someone, in a haze of craziness, glued the ugliest, roughest, blue-gray carpet to the floor (granted, our kitchen used to be a bedroom). Anyway. I am almost done scraping the glue (just the dining & living areas left!), then we will be doing a light sand to be sure all the glue is gone, & restaining. The floors were originally dark, & I plan on keeping them dark. Our cabinets (custom built in Dec 2006) are a warm fruitwood, & well, I can`t change those, LOL.
Anyway. All this to say, I wanted to share progress pictures with you! Here are the befores, from May of 2007. Ignore the mess, & the silly baby (I can`t get over that Ryden used to be that little, sniff sniff!), but here they are :)
This was taken while standing in the living room, looking west. Love the southwestern teal bluey-green! Ick :( Check out that fabulous carpet too! Who says kitchen carpet is a bad idea??
Standind with my back against the window. My sink! I love my double sink. The right side is so super deep, perfect for defrosting 20 pound turkeys! Also note the silly baby! He was mad I was taking pictures that weren`t of him ;)
The built in hutch. I was so excited when I saw this! I thought the bottom was all storage. It`s not :( I also love the no doors, & eating off dusty dishes.
And so, that was my kitchen, almost 5 years ago. Stay tuned, my next post will include up to date photos!
Thursday, April 2, 2009
A House Post!
Woo hoo, I'm finally posting something semi exciting! As you know (all 2 of you who read this, LOL), we bought a house in February 2007, and moved in April 27th 2007. It is a character home, built in 1920, & I love it! It does, however, need quite a bit of work. Like, a lot.
When we moved in, the bathroom on the main floor had carpet (we pulled that up PDQ), & floor linoleum as a tub surround. I'm not sure if you know this or not, but linoleum? NOT a good tub surround!! July 2007, Garth pulled the linoleum off. We did nothing, really, after that. It was a potty & that was it. Last summer (2008), I got fed up & decided we needed to FINISH that flipping bathroom!
So we started painting in Spetember (maybe August?). I picked a pretty yellow (Rift), we painted, and then Garth installed a REAL tub surround! Then Garth's grandpa passed away at the end of October, & people were going to need to use our bathrooms. So, Garth had to do the shower head & get that going. It took a couple tries, & a couple trips to Co-Op, but the water was figured out. Then he did the floor, the night before his grandpa's funeral. He was up until 4am, but it got done! I LOVE having 2 full bathrooms now! Here are some before & after pictures for you.
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