let the cleaning begin....

So, what happens after a big remodel project. Yep, unpacking and organizing. It was moving along and things were beginning to shape up, but I could not bring myself to go into the school room to tackle the mess stuffed in there. The poor school room had mess from a couple of closets, mess from the kitchen, mess from the china cabinet, mess from the living room...and well, mess mess. It was just overwhelming and I wanted desperately to find that magic "room cleaning" wand. I put it off for days...hmm, maybe weeks...but I really longed to get the room back. It had been so nice to have our school room and kid #4 and I both enjoyed working in there. (it is also a craft room and is stocked with goodies) The problem was we hadn't been able to go in there for over a month and it was just getting too depressing.


So, on Friday I put on my big girl pants and forgot about the wand. (I haven't actually ever seen a magic clean room wand and I am wondering if it even exists!) If you have seen them...pick up one for me and let me know how much I owe!! Anyway...back to the room. I remembered what Flylady taught me years ago. http://www.flylady.com/ You can tackle anything in just 15 minute increments. Set a timer and get to work. When the timer goes off leave the room and do something else. Kid #4 is a great helper and we decided to do a 15 minute session, move onto picking up the house for 15 minutes and then come back to the school room for one more 15 minute session. That was close to what actually happened. We worked about 10 minutes more at the end to finish up some stuff. It was AMAZING at how little the mess really was. I took pictures to share. It's not finished....but it is so much closer. And since I am showing the good, the bad and the ugly I decided to share them with you. :)

These speak for themselves. It sure ain't pretty, but this is what a room looks like when you shove all kinds of things in it and then neglect it for weeks.

Here we are after just 15 minutes!!!!

Ok...so it isn't clean, yet! However, you can see more floor and more bare spots in the mess. ;o)

Now...here are the pictures taken after we spent 25 more minutes in the room.

Now, we're talking. This is a manageable mess. I am happy to report, that kid #4 spent some time in there today going through all her desk drawers and craft drawers and cleaned out a whole garbage bag full. Also, Mike went in there and took out his things, piano bench, card table and ottoman. Tomorrow, I will vacuum and dust and it will look good as new. Now, I see that I put if off for nothing!! Don't let seemingly big projects overwhelm you to the point that you don't take any action. Go grab that timer and set it for 15 minutes!! You'll be surprised at what you can accomplish with 15 focused minutes. Try it!!