WFMW — Scheduling Deep Cleaning and Organization

I seem to be getting hung up in my house, not being able to get any one room cleaned and organized properly for going on to another. Same with an organization project or any project in general.

One of the best things about being a military family was moving around. Not necessarily leaving friends behind, but the actual moving process. It made you go through your things. You actually had to physically touch everything you owned every time you moved.

As long as you weren't someone who left boxes unopened from one move to the next, which we typically were not.

Now that we don't plan on moving again, I know that it's important to go through our things regularly. I always did to some degree about once a year because we would have a yard sale, I would really try to weed things out before we would move, and when I would open boxes from a move I would wonder why we ever decided it was okay to move some things.

And I was always amazed at the amount of dust and dirt that could accumulate behind a piece of stationary furniture.

I think having a plan to deep clean every room in my house throughout the year would satisfy several issues.

• By spreading it out over the year it doesn't seem like such an unmanageable task.
• I can weed out all the things that we no longer use or need.
• I can deep clean each room at least once each year.
• I can see if organizing the room differently would be of some benefit.

I've come up with a rough plan for one year, from February to next January. It includes the room and then in some cases additional organization. A couple of times there are not actually rooms but organization projects. Those fall around the Christmas holiday, are Christmas related, and I think it would be difficult for many of us to find time to add deep cleaning in to our holiday time schedules. It's going to be hard enough for me to do the organization projects I planned!

• February — Family Room/Den/Rec Room/FROG/Bonus Room/Basement...You might have one or more of these. I know I do. You could save one for a month when you know you won't have much, or just do one this year and one next February. For my basement, I have Christmas decorations, but I'm not touching them until later in the year since they are in one area. I'll just do everything else.
• March — Children's or Guest Closets and Dresser Drawers (Clothing)
• April — This one is a bit of a hodge-podge...Coat Closet/Mud Room/Launching Area, Laundry Room or Area, Bathrooms to include Linen Closets and/or Bathroom Cabinet Storage.
• May — Master Closet
• June — Garage
• July — Master Bedroom
• August — Living Room, Dining Room, or School Room
• September — Kitchen, to include Pantry, Cabinets, and Drawers
• October — Children's or Guest Rooms (good time to go through toys before the holidays)
• November — Christmas Decorations...this one isn't a room, but when I get out my decorations I'm going to seriously go through them and get rid of things I don't use anymore that just take up space in my basement.
• December — Another non-room...get my Christmas card list organized once and for all, streamline my address book at the same time, and figure out what to do with not only the new Christmas cards and pictures I receive but also all the old ones I've hung on to.
• January 2011 — Office/Loft Area/Scrapbooking or Craft Area

I have found that I tend to excel at things when I have accountability and not so much when I don't, so I thought others might be interested in doing this along with me. If you are, leave me a comment so I can get an idea how many people might be. I could put up a Mr. Linky at the end of every month and everyone could put up before and after pictures if they have them. If I get enough interest to do it and put up the Mr. Linky I'll even try to have a little random giveaway with it every month.

Since I know this list is specific and everyone might not have every exact room or feel like doing the one(s) listed that month, there could be some switching around and it wouldn't bother me. I just do better with lists and goals and specifics.

And I don't even want to think about working in my garage in Michigan until at least June!

This post is linked to Works For Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.