YEAH for the LAUNDRY NAZI

I totally get the bonus points because my w/d is always wiped down and the laundry room is kept clean. Sometimes it really pays to be the laundry nazi. Thanks Tami now I don't need to stay up late Saturday night to get the weekly challenge done. Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Weekly Challenge- Beginning 4/28

Looks like Charlotte and I were thinking alike- Your weekly challenge will go hand-in-hand with one of the 5 minute challenges...

Clean your laundry room.

Sweep, mop, reorganize, wipe down those W/D, empty the trash, clean out the lint catcher, etc. Whatever your individual situation calls for. Good luck!

5 Minute Challenges

1. Wash garbage can
2. Disinfect piano keys/keyboards/telephones
3. Straighten pantry
4. Top of washer/dryer
5. Clean under couches

I have a suggestion- if the 5 minute challenge doesn't apply to you, or you already have it done, how about filling in your own. That way you still take that 1/2 hour (or hour if you're like me) of little ignored chores done. Tell me what you think.

Assignments for the week

Here are the assignments this week and a post to keep track of progress. I had a hard time last week, but that is because it got nice out and I was outside. It takes a while for my body to adjust to walking and playing outside, so I was pretty tired by bedtime. I'm hoping to do better this week!

Here are the assignments:

5 minute: Charlotte
Weekly: Andrea
Tues. Tips: Kim

Looks like Brenda has the lead right now, we'll see how this week goes...

Before and After From This Week

I'll bet you think I got the bonus points this week, huh? Especially since just a week or two ago the den was SPOTLESS, and the fact that I swore I would never let it pile up as bad as it used to.
Hmmm, not quite. So I am VERY grateful for this challenge, it was perfect for me.
The 5 minute challenges were great too! Here's under my kitchen sink. I had a pile to take to recycling sitting in there, and a few empty or nearly empty containers. Also, I discovered that the blue tote holding the cleaning supplies had never been cleaned, and it was pretty disgusting. Not something I would usually think to clean!
Thanks so much for all your help with my sliding door situation. I had tried many times to vacuum it out, but for some reason it was never dry. Then, on the day I went to clean it, it was miraculously dry! I used a knife to scrape away a lot of the dirt, then vacuumed it. Then I let it soak in bleach and used paper towels and Clorox wipes to dig all the muck out. It's not perfect, but it's a thousand times better. Thanks!!

Ok ITS DONE!!!!!

Here is the before and after picture of Dad's computer desk.

And here is my before and after. It took me until late Saturday night to get it done. I think I should get double points don't you?

HOLY COW!!

I never thought this day would come but.....my desk was already cleaned!! It has actually been very clean and organized for a couple of weeks since we got our new computer. Thanks Tami....what a great challenge.

If you look close enough at the picture of my monitor you can see this blog up in the window.

Oh and good luck catching me now ladies!

Weekly Challenge

Oops! I just looked and saw that I had the weekly challenge this week. Sorry I am so late. My challenge is this. Clean up your computer desk. Clean out and organize the drawers. Dust the top (even underneath things) and if you have time try to make some order of your plugs in the back. (I like to use twisty ties or zip ties to keep them less tangles. There you go there was last weeks Tuesday Tip). If you don't have a computer desk pick something similar to it such as changing table, sowing desk, scrapbook desk. Good luck!

Tuesday Tip

If it's ok, this week's Tuesday Tip will be a little different- this time, I need a tip from you. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has this problem, and hopefully someone has something they've tried and can share. If not, I'll try different things until I find something that works!

Close up. Gross, huh?These are the inside tracks of my sliding glass door. It was like this when we moved in, and I'm not sure how to clean them. On the outside, it is easy to spray them with the hose- you can see the difference between inside and outside in the close up picture. I've tried just scooping it up with Windex and a rag, but it just seems to smear and compact it.

Any tips???

Week Three has Begun

I hope you all enjoyed my vacation. Oh, wait, were you all cleaning while I was gone? Yeah, I got NO points last week. I might could account for a couple, but is it worth the fight? Anyway, I am ready to get to it! I promise to send Kim's prize out. I was not planning anything as fancy as Kim gave (considering I planned on paying for it every month and never really expect to win). So don't get your hopes up too high.

Brenda is right in her last post; here are the weekly assignments:

5 minute Challenges : Brenda
Weekly Challenge: Tami
Tuesday Tip : Andrea

Have a great week cleaning and keep track of everything in the comments here!

5 Minute Challenges

I am pretty sure I have the 5 minute challenges this week (let me know if I am wrong) So here they are:

Scrub Kitchen Sink
Straighten Under Kitchen Sink
Straighten One Book Shelf
Sweep Under Fridge and Stove
Wash Silverware Tray out

Tami's March Prize

Although I have yet to see my February prize :-), I gave Tami her March prize. I felt this appropriate for our blog's purposes.It is the Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner.

Congratulations Tamerel Jo!

Weekly Challenge

I was going to post cleaning out the garage, but I didn't realize that I would be out of town the week I had the challenge. So now I need to come up with something else (as I need to actually clean out the garage when I make it a challenge). Lets all give our tubs and showers a thourough scrubbing. For me, I will be cleaning the actual tub, but if you are better at keeping up on it (maybe you don't have 5 to clean ...) wash and disinfect the toys, clean the grout and edges of the tub. You know, the stuff you try to ignore. Or maybe that is just me.

5 Minute Challenges 4/12 - 4/18

Here are the 5 minute challenges for this week:

1. Mop a surface besides the kitchen (bathroom, hallway, stair, etc).
2. Check pantry for food expiration dates.
3. Clean top of fridge.
4. Check batteries in Smoke Detectors.
5. Clean out a "junk" drawer.

This Week's Assignments *UPDATED*

Since Charlotte is on vacation, I decided I'd step in and post the assignments for the week. I had a hard time figuring out who should be doing what, but I think I finally got it right (or close to it)

5 minute Challenges : Kim
Weekly Challenge: Charlotte
Tuesday Tip : Tamerel Jo

We can use this post as our weekly point total post as well.

My Kids Clothes

So I knew when I assigned this challenge that it would take a lot of time on my part to get it done, but I had NO idea it would take as long as it did.  I really spent several hours doing this, but I am SO glad it is done.

First I did Kaylee's room, it was tricky because she does not have a dresser so her clothes were just on shelves in her closet.  I made a quick trip to Lowes and put up a short rod for her to hang her clothes on it.  She LOVES it.

Next came the youngest 2 boys.  Their drawers were OVERFLOWING and I had no clue what was really in there.  After cleaning them out Ashton was left with about 3 pants in his drawer!  Not to mention the fact that after cleaning out their drawers I decided to put their dresser in their closet which inspired me to rearrange their ENTIRE room which took FOREVER.

Trevor was simple, his stuff was still pretty organized from last time so all it took was me helping him clean out his closet.

Whew....I did it.

I just wanted everyone to know that my car is again clean. Yes, it is sad that it needed cleaning again so badly, but it wasn't as bad as it usually gets. I think this is the least amount of time I've put between cleanings, so it is progress, in a manner of speaking.

I'm kicking butt this week, by the way, just so you all are aware.

Tuesday Tip (Hanging Pictures on the Wall)...

Want to know a secret? I hadn't hung any pictures on the walls of this house yet. Want to know another secret? In my other houses I have always just used the holes left by previous owners to hang pictures. Yeah, I know, I'm lame.


So I finally decided it was time. I just read about this tip last week, and thought I would give it a shot. Those of you non-lame people may already know this, but I didn't. To hang pictures on the wall, this helps make it easy:

1. Trace your frame onto a piece of paper and cut it out.
2. Mark fold the paper in half. Put the cut out paper on the back of the frame and mark where the hanging apparatus appear.
3. Use masking tape to hang and adjust the pictures on the wall until they look right. Nail picture hangers to fall at the spots marked on the paper.
4. Hang frame on wall and then tear down paper underneath.

The reason this works so well is because it is much easier to move around masking tape than to keep making holes in your wall. Who would have thought? Anyway, I included photos of the paper taped up and then the frames hanging. I did this with every picture arrangement I did today. I also arranged the frames on the ground before trying the paper on the wall, so I had an idea of where I wanted to start.

I haven't gotten the middle photo in the arrangement yet, so it is a blank frame and there is a terrible glare (of the ocean!), I will put up a better photo after I have the whole thing done.

Random!

Okay this is SO random but on Saturday night I went through all my kids clothes and put all their pants and long sleeve shirts into a tub and made Madison try on every Summer outfit we had to see if it fit and then put their summer stuff in their drawers. I wasn't sure if we were keeping the bonus but thought I would post my pictures.

5 Minute Challenges: 4/5-4/10

1. Wipe light switches and doorknobs
2. Dust corners for cobwebs
3. Vacuum edges (along baseboards and corners)
4. Vacuum under couch cushions
5. Spend 5 minutes cleaning small kitchen appliances- toaster, blender, foodsaver, breadmaker, etc.

Happy Spring Cleaning!

Summer is Coming!!!!

The weather here has finally climbed up into the 70's this week.  I know some of you have been there for a while and some of you are not quite there.  So that makes me right in the middle so I figure it was a good time to issue this challenge. 

Sort Kids Clothes

You can take this anyway you want, if their dressers need cleaned out you can do that, if you need to do a summer sort to find out what clothes will fit which kids this summer and start pulling them out of storage then do that.  Personally I am going to take on the entire load, which for me means going through ALL my kid clothes, sort them by size and gender, and put the to small or worn out ones away, go through all their dressers and take away clothes that don't fit, pull out summer clothes and donate anything I don't want to keep (NOT just make a donation pile, but actually get them out of the house!)

So there you go.  I would love to get back into posting more pictures on this blog so be prepared to see some crazy before pictures of how awful my kids clothing situation has become.......and then of course how wonderfully organized they become!  Hope you all have a great new month of April!!

Weekly assignments

This weeks assignments are as follows:

Andrea- 5 minute cleans
Brenda- Weekly Challenge
Charlotte- Tuesday tips

Let the cleaning begin!!

Ready for a Fresh Start

I'm all geared up and ready to start a new month. I love the feeling of starting with a clean slate- not just with points, but with my house!! This is my chance to KEEP my house clean, to never have to be embarrassed when people drop by unexpectedly. No one in our new ward has seen our house, they could totally think that I am an amazing housekeeper all the time.

I've noticed a huge difference in my housekeeping style in the last few weeks, largely thanks to this blog. I am all about the prevention now. Once, I would walk by smudges on the walls or crumbs in the corner and think, Next time I'm cleaning, I really should get that... But of course I'd always forget or keep saying "next time" every time. Now, as soon as I see that a little something extra needs done I drop what I'm doing and take care of it. The results probably don't have a dramatic physical result, but the effects on my peace of mind are incredible. Things feel cleaner with those tiny details.

Anyway, you guys had better watch out, because this is definitely my month. I am refreshed, recharged, and ready to kick some butt!

Tuesday Tips.....a little late

Sorry!  Tuesday flew by without me noticing, so here goes:

I got this from a book I have called Haley's Hints:

Finding a Needle in a Haystack......

If you lose something tiny on the carpet or floor (Kaylee just lost a tooth the other day) like an earring back, or a contact lens or a diamond and you don't want to spend forever on your hands and knees looking for it, simply find a pair of old pantyhose and cut the leg off.  Slip the leg around the wand of your vacuum and sweep across the floor.  before you know it the lost item will stick to the pantyhose at the mouth of the vacuum wand!!