Happy Slob!

I was so caught up with house cleaning and house keeping work that I didn’t have enough time to update about how it all went. So here I am to share a quick update about cleaning task that I had mentioned in my previous post – Let’s Clean Up!

Housecleaning and housekeeping has never been my cup of tea. But keeping up with dirt seemed pretty harder than cleaning it all up ;-) I have been planning to re-organize my kitchen for ages, but never found enough time to do it. The worst past about procrastination is that even though you neglect the job, the job doesn’t leave you. It always used to linger at the back of my mind that there are a few things that I need to work on but I used to shove it. But thankfully the time had finally arrived when I could compel myself to come out of the cocoon and take care of the kitchen. The other items in the TO-DO house cleaning list (mentioned in my previous post Let’s Clean Up! ) have been done and hence marked C R O S S E D.

- clean the living room : X
- clean the dining table : X
- wash the dining table mats : X
- clean the kitchen
- rearrange the kitchen shelves
- move the unwanted items from the kitchen to storage : X
- clean the two beds : the beds are intricately carved out of wood and hence attract lot of dust : X
- change the bed-sheets : X
- extra quilt covers (it’s winters here in India) : X
- move the kitchenware from all the rooms back to the kitchen : X

Earlier, my kitchen used to be a mess, literally. So many jars and containers were piled up on one another gathering dust. And when I needed something I had to struggle to figure out the right jar. Phew! It was quite a task.
I accomplished this near-to-impossible task on Friday, after I returned home from work. I had read about lot of articles online on how to quick clean and how to spring clean your rooms or kitchen or bathrooms. And after reading them I had an eye for the details and the need of the hour. I could figure out till what level I should delve in to carry out this daunting task. The kitchen sink, tiles, cupboards were all clean. So they didn’t require any work. I fast cleaned up all my shelves, arranged all the containers so that I don’t have problem figuring out the right one when the need is. I also moved oil container, spice jars and mixer apparatus, which always cluttered my kitchen top, to other more appropriate and reachable places.

You know what! My husband was all praises when he saw the kitchen. It looked more neat and organized. The placement of all the kitchen paraphernalia seemed to be in order and made more sense. I am quite ecstatic about all this. I have also decided to keep cleaning my home frequently so that I don’t have a ‘Herculean’ task up my sleeves every time someone has to pay a visit to us. Marking the items left out undone in the TO-DO list as C R O S S E D

- clean the kitchen : X
- rearrange the kitchen shelves : X

And yes, the guests from a faraway land have finally arrived. It is their son’s birthday today. So we have a birthday party up in our agenda today;-)

Let's Clean up !

Yeah, since my guests from a faraway land would be soon dropping in I have to prepare my home to welcome them. As mentioned in my previous post Guests from a land far, far away, focus is on C L E A N I N G & D U S T I N G.

We are living in a rented 3-BHK apartment. Practically we have 2 bedrooms; the other one is converted to host miscellaneous activities. It is partially a store-room and partially a washing room where I have kept my washing machine. It is always cluttered with clothes; both dirty and clean. So I thought of leaving out this room altogether. At least for now I am not going to add this room to my cleaning and dusting chore. So now I am left with the following rooms –
A living room
A kitchen
2 bedrooms
2 toilets

Not losing the focus, I have prepared a list of TO-DO items for the housecleaning task. Earlier I used to mentally prepare and maintain list of items. No pen no paper. But when I read the post about maintaining List I thought even I should pen down the items on a paper (sometimes I can even make soft copies of the list too!). The mere advantage of scribbling it all on paper is that I never waste time recollecting if I have missed out something. Trust me, I waste a lot of time thinking if I have forgotten any item from my mental list. I have never been into this ever before- making lists. This is my initial attempt, perhaps naïve too, to manage house by making lists. I am not good at making lists, at least I think so. I have penned down the items I thought should dot my list. Here is my TO-DO list for preparing my home for the wannabe guests :
- clean the living room
- clean the dining table
- wash the dining table mats
- rearrange the kitchen shelves
- move the unwanted items from the kitchen to storage
- clean the two beds : the beds are intricately carved out of wood and hence attract lot of dust
- change the bed-sheets
- extra quilt covers (it’s winters here in India)
- move the kitchenware from all the rooms back to the kitchen

I am not sure if it is complete. Anyways I will try to stick to it completely. I will keep adding to this list as and when I find something needs to be pushed onto the itinerary. I will be back again on how all this has been. Till then wish me luck in my cleaning endeavor.