Pre-Christmas cleaning

[pippahooper]

Can we have a Pre-Christmas Cleaning list motivation thread? Think i'm gonna need it over the next few days!

[LineRunner]

I have hit upon the perfect plan:

Pay teenage DD £20 to do it.

[pippahooper]

haha very good. I have a teenage daughter and she WILL be helping me little does she know it x

[Edenviolet]

My house is a total disaster zone. No idea how I will get it tidy and clean before Xmas day.
I have so much I need to do.

[WerewolfBarMitzvah]

Yes please.

I have so much to do (well wanted to do) but won't have time now.

Will settle for bare minimum now.

So plan for tomorrow - get all the washing done and plan packing for going to family's house
Use up all the fresh food in the fridge (tough job, I'm up to the task though )
Give kitchen a good clean
Prepare self mentally for long car journey with energetic toddler

[Kim82]

I managed to do the upstairs today, scrubbed the entire bathroom, wiped down every available surface in the bedrooms and hall, cleaned windows, dusted, vacuumed and changed all bed covers and I scrubbed the downstairs toilet too. I just need to keep on top of it over the next few days...

I'll do the kitchen tomorrow (including insides of cupboards and fridge) then the living room the day after - pulling out and cleaning under all furniture - then I'm done. Yay!

[pippahooper]

I've cleaned the bathrooms today. Monday I want to wipe round the skirtings and clean windows. Tuesday I want to blitz the kitchen. Wednesday its bathrooms, hoovering and dusting. Thats the plan. Whether i stick to it is another question!

[Edenviolet]

Before Christmas Day I need to

Finish wrapping the presents
Change all bedsheets
Clean kitchen top to bottom
Get dh to make the new chest of drawers so I can put the clothes away
Hoover and dust everywhere
Tidy the dcs playroom

[Fathertedismyuncle]

I cheated and have a cleaner coming to do a big deep clean on 23rd
Still have a tonne to do. Have 16 for dinner and an extra 6 staying over so house has had to be rejigged.

[Dionysuss]

Tomorrow I'm cleaning upstairs completely until it gleams with cleanliness and decluttering downstairs. In also going to clean fish tanks and tackle the oven.
Tuesday in blitzing downstairs. DC will feel me wrath if they dare mess it up afterward.

[Frontron]

The only thing in our diary for tomorrow is cleaning lol. Dh is off work and the boys have been pre-warned. Tuesday is cinema trip and veg shopping and Xmas eve is for baking so it all needs doing tomorrow.
We've let things slide over the last few days because we knew we were deep cleaning tomorrow lol. I love the feeling of sitting down in a spotless house so will be very pleased with myself tomorrow evening when I'm enjoying the mulled wine

[Nothavingfunrightnow]

I have made a good start and am feeling quite chuffed!

Our lounge has a big bookshelf in it which had become a dumping ground. It was horrendous. It is now tidy, and polished and looking damn fine. The downside is all the crap that had gathered there is in the spare room, though I gave chucked away a bin bag full of papers... yes, a bin bag full from the bookshelf!

DH and I aldo sprayed the bathroom to within an inch of its life with mildew spray. Our bathroom was grim. Shamefully so. It now looks like it has been painted! It looks brilliant.

Oven pride is currently doing its thing with the grids and inside the cooker.

Guinea pig cage and fish tank tomorrow. Linen and hooveting Wednesday morning.

[Wenchelda]

I've got loads to do but no motivation to tackle it yet Though i am hosting for 12 so better get sorted. I need to do 2 bathrooms which (shamefully) haven't seen any proper cleaning for far too long. Also need to dust / polish all the surfaces and window sills, Hoover top to bottom and mop all hard floors (which includes all of downstairs). Get some laundry on and put the stuff that's already been washed away. Oh and the small matter of fitting in the food shop at some point too. Yikes. I think I'll go back to bed.

(I remember doing this deep cleaning before Xmas last year thinking how crazy it was, as its after Christmas Day that the house needed doing! Yet here I am doing it again )

[DurhamDurham]

Me and my husband started on Saturday morning, he hoovered and mopped, I cleaned the bathrooms and polished. I washed all the bedding yesterday and as I have the house to myself all day today......unbelievable luck, husband and oldest daughter at work, youngest at her friends all day, I finished work Friday.......I'm going to glean the hamster out and clean the things I never do properly such as skirting boards, might even clean out a kitchen cupboard or two.

[Valsoldknickers]

All of what everyone is saying above (minus guinea pig!)

Also have to finish hanging up a few decorations and yikes bake the Christmas cake

Piss up and brewery are two words that come to mind Will change for the better in 2015.

[vestandknickers]

Bathrooms done and super shiny. Doing big clean and sort out of children's bedrooms today and clearing up downstairs. Need to hoover everywhere but don't want to do that too early or I'll just have to do it again!
Scrubbed kitchen floor yesterday and bliddy cat has been in and out all morning with dirty paws .
Can't wait til I sit down on Christmas Eve with a bottle glass of cava and admire my sparkly home.

[70isaLimitNotaTarget]

I'll add my list - and yes, I'm including guinea-pigs into the mix too

Actually, I cleaned out the Pighouse last night (it has a Sunday night complete clear out because our binday is early Monday)

Did the cooker a couple of weeks ago
I've done the guest bedding, I'll make up the beds on Tuesday
All the Christmas groceries are sitting in bags (I'll put them in the pantry soon)

Going to make some Brownies
Ice the cake
Wash the shower curtain and give the bathroom a clean

Guests are Dm,DF,DBro and DSil so we'll have a full house and hopefully my DS (15) will smile and chat instead of being a reclusive little iPod addict. (He loves his Uncle and Grandad, they all gang up on me and tell stories of what an old bag I am as a daughter/sister/mother. Only DH wouldn't dare

[lecherslady]

I'm doing my big clean today. The DC have been bribed that if we get the house spotless today, DH will take them to the cinema tomorrow whilst I finish off the Christmas shopping.

Just need to haul my sorry ass out of bed now and get on with it!

[Wenchelda]

Nothavingfunroghtnow - can I ask what mildew spray you used on your bathrooms? I've just done mine, having left the spray on for a good couple of hours and it's made no difference whatsoever. So I've cleaned and scrubbed the shower but it still looks dirty because of the mildew

On the plus side, I've dusted and polished all upstairs, stripped the bed, got a laundry load on the go and cleaned the en suite and bathroom so can tick those off my list

[HollyJollyXmas]

I did a massive declutter of the kids bedrooms last week and charity shopped lots of books and toys. Very cathartic and most unlike me (slattern).

Cleaned and decluttered the kitchen at the weekend. Both bathrooms are clean.

Need to tidy our bedroom (utter shit tip) and then will do a last minute tidy/sweep and mop of the downstairs on Xmas Eve.

[Showy]

We had central heating put in last week and it involved moving out for a week and moving everything we own, including everything in the attic. In the process we had a MASSIVE declutter. As each room was put back together, we scrubbed, polished and made things as tidy as possible. I have the bathroom to deep clean and some skirting boards to finish but we're into the maintaining phase now.

I love a big Christmas clean.

[nicl03]

Well I've cleaned kitchen all cupboards, fridge freezer steamed all floors downstairs, changed all bed sheets, de cluttered kids rooms and playroom I have done Christmas shop this morning it was crazy, just need to clean bathroom and keep on top of everything until Thursday.

[BiddyPop]

Yesterday, I emptied the laundry basket with the last load of white currently in the dryer. (I do want to do DD's sheets but that's a bonus wash). I folded the clean clothes for everyone, and I put away all my clean clothes from the hot press.

Yesterday, I also swept the kitchen floor and "washed" it (gave it the once over with a floor wipe). If I get a spare 20 minutes, I will do the whole floor with the steamer, but the wipe did the necessary urgent part.

And I also put the various bits for setting the Christmas table together in 1 place - the candles, candlesticks, nice wine glasses for DH and I, holly covered jug for cream, the gold place mats, and the nice kitchen hand and tea towel.

This morning I emptied all the bins before going to work.

Today, I have a list on the counter for when I get home. It includes:
Empty out fire and reset.
Empty dishwasher.
Do washing up.
Wash DD's sheets.
Clean both bathrooms (only need a quick swipe, did them well last week).
Clear off table of clutter pile at the end.
Clear off bench in dining room of clutter.
Tidy my dressing table (chaos)
Tidy the chair in my room
Hoover sitting room
Water the tree
Clear off breakfast bar

Nice to get to:
Make turkey stock or Jamie's get ahead gravy
Sew last 2 tote bags (needed 27th)
Squeeze lemons for hot drinks (have a chest infection)
Make a batch of cookies
Wash the dining table (it's clean - but a deep scrub would be useful)
Mop kitchen/dining/playroom floor
Change all towels and wash, tumble dry.
Change our sheets
Put the clean sheets back on guest bed (in case of last minute visitors - not unknown)
Make a flower arrangement for the table
Put together the new wreath for front door

[Winterfable]

May I join?

It's all the things that you can't really do until the last minute or otherwise they will just need doing again that get to me. Scrubbing bathrooms, floors etc.

I need to clean 3 bathrooms
wrap all the presents
clean out the fireplaces
put up holly and ivy from the garden
make up guest beds
make some mince pies and gingerbread men

big supermarket shop arrived last night and have miraculously found homes for everything


There's loads more silly little things and here I am at 1pm sitting on t'internet, drinking tea and watching White Christmas out of the corner of my eye

[Frontron]

Well this morning we managed all of upstairs including clearing out our bedroom which had been used as a dumping ground.
Just stopped for lunch and then we'll tackle downstairs. The living and dining rooms aren't too bad but the kitchen and utility are full of stuff that needs to go somewhere and the under stairs cupboard needs a sort so we can count how many batteries we have already. We need approx 60 of varying sizes thanks to some gifts taking 9 batteries each I've been buying them when I see them on offer but don't have a clue how many I've literally thrown in the cupboard lol.
Right, back to it...

[BirdingWidow]

Well, I have cleaned up the giant mess that i made yesterday by making an early fake Christmas lunch for my family. And I have cleaned the oven so that it gleams. Beds changed, now I just need to do the towel washes and I will feel okay about the house as long as I don't open the door to my study where the floor isn't even visible