So I told you all that I was taking a blogging break for a couple of weeks. Well, I promise to be back more or less to a normal schedule on Monday–but I wanted to give you all a quick pictorial update on what I’ve been doing in the meantime!
First I attacked the dining room. Cleaned it from top to bottom–multiple moppings of the floor, polishing the table and chairs, wiping down walls & woodwork. The whole shebang. That took me a full day.
Next I attacked the study. The first thing I did was cull, sort & file all the paperwork in there. That took a full two days.
It was eventually finished! I think I threw out two trashbags full of paper and wound up with just a small stack (not shown) of items that need to be dealt with. Everything else is pretty and organized.
Then I drug everything out of the closet in the study. The closets in this house are huge-which is weird for something built in 1890. Several of them basically the end of a room walled off. That’s what the one in the study is like. The door is on one end and then it just goes back–a perfect place to stash all sorts of miscellaneous stuff and then forget about it.
The picture above is after I removed most of the stuff! Can you tell how deep it is? Well once everything was out I scrubbed down the shelving and woodwork and took a look at all the stuff.
It was a lot of stuff. Some of it found new homes. Some of it went into a room upstairs for all the stuff that needs to find homes, and then some of it is still there for Yankee Bill to deal with. That took a day.
Then I hit the desk. There was a lot of stuff on and around the desk itself. When I pulled everything out it completely covered the dining room table. I didn’t take a picture till I had already dealt with some of it. I sorted. I trashed stuff. I untangled cords. I labeled and grouped and neatly tied up said cords. I dusted the actual desk.
Then I went through EVERY FLIPPING CD and figured out what program it was, and what computer it went to. Let me tell you, that required some Googling. Then all of THOSE were labeled and bagged by computer and stored away in case we ever need to reload the system. The picture below shows after I had already sorted about half the CDs.
The next day I moved on to the front entryway. There wasn’t much to sort or organize here–I did have to collect up mismatched gloves, scarves etc that were inside of my bench, clean that out and vacuum in there. I did a top to bottom sweep, mop, clean, polish. . . I even did the windows. And there is a lot of wood out there! I even rubbed down all the spindles in the banister with oil.
The banister REALLY needed the oil. Doing that entry pretty much took me a day.
Now I’m working on the front parlor. I’ve done a bit of the cleaning & dusting in between a few things–I should be able to finish that up (sweep, mop, vacuum rugs, oil the furniture, clean & polish the woodwork) and then sort the photo albums and the mass of DVDs and VHS tapes in the bottom of my display cabinets tomorrow.
So to finish the downstairs I’ll still need to do the living room, the downstairs bathroom/laundry room and then finally the kitchen–which will require some serious organization and I’m sure will be a multi day project.
In amongst all this I’ve found a tiny bit of time to make jerky.
Help hubs a bit with our annual maple syrup project.
Do about a bazillion loads of laundry, and even sew a button back onto a sweater that needed it.
And I even took pictures of a few projects for future blog posts.
What I didn’t do? Make lunches (I’ve only gotten back to that the last two days). Write blog posts. Do much for dinner (it’s been pretty much last minute quick meals). I basically have tried to really, really concentrate on getting the first floor of this house UNDER CONTROL. It has been way out of control for way too long.
So going forward I intend to be back to more regular blogging-but for a few more weeks it might be more along the lines of 3 posts a week or so until I really get ahead of all this.
Amyrlin says
You have been a huge worker bee!!! I would go crazy with all of that closet space 🙂 Inspirational to start spring cleaning!
Cici says
What a fantastic job you have done! The strange thing is how good you feel when your stuff is all organized. I keep most of my house under control but my craft room became soooo cluttered that I was working in a 12″x12″ table space when I had 2 full tables just heaped with unfinished projects, tools thrown down etc. Then I decided to sell my house & cleaning up even that room was needed. Now I have room to work & can find things. I am looking forward to seeing what else you do in your house and you are an inspiration to homemakers everywhere!
Angelsong says
Maybe you need some baskets or shelving to corral those deep closets, so that things don’t get shoved into the black hole in the bottom/back? Great job on the house, thus far.
Jenn @ Frugal Upstate says
I think you are right-we need to do something to better organize them. We could also add more shelving etc. Part of this whole process is trying to put things in better spots–so I’m trying not to just shove stuff back in. I’ve got one room upstairs just full of all the stuff that needs to find a home-then when I’ve freed up more closet space I can start making decisions about the best home for things. It’s a pain–and I dislike doing it–so the words of encouragement are helpful 🙂 I appreciate it.
Yankee Bill says
<3
Penni says
Thank you for the inspiration! We have been in remodel H**L, a bad contractor and a project that should have taken 2 months have gone on for 8 months and still not complete. I have a washer, dryer, refrigerator parked in my dining room. A desk and a dresser parked in my living room and a hutch ansd extra dresser in the office/our bedroom. Did I happen to mention that our house is only 1100 square feet. I am inspired to DEEP clean each room thoroughly ( top to bottom) starting with an empty room. I know it isn’t a weekend project, but by your pictures I can tell it will be worth it. Just on quick question after a lengthy comment….what oil did you use one your banisters? They look great.
Jenn @ Frugal Upstate says
Penni-Good luck with your cleaning and organizing! It’s such a pain–but it feels so much better in the house once it’s done! And then when everyone else is thinking about spring cleaning you can be outside 🙂
For my banisters I used Pledge Revitalizing Oil with Orange. It’s an actual oil–my spindles are very old and the wood was a little dry–so they just soaked up the oil. Ditto for the woodwork. On some items you do have to buff off the excess oil when you are done. I don’t imagine that newer furniture with a hard thick poly coating really need very much of this–I’d just give the tiniest bit and then buff it in well–but older wood LOVES it.
Emma says
Inspirational post, thank you! Makes me want to either a) cozy up under a blanket and ignore what needs doing around the house or b) roll up my sleeves and get cracking. 🙂
Erika says
I remember hearing about when you bought your house a few years back. Good for you for accomplishing so much, great job!
Jenn @ Frugal Upstate says
Awww, It’s so fun when folks who have been reading so long comment 🙂 It’s a big work in progress since I’m trying not to just “straighten” but to actually clear out cabinets, closets, piles, drawers and such to make sure what actually is best to go in that spot goes to that spot. Frankly, it’s a huge pain in the patoot–but it will be MUCH better once I’m done.