CHRISTMAS CLEANALONG

[Alsonification]

Hi all. So for the first time ever I will be hosting Christmas Day dinner in my home.

And to that end, I've decided to give my house a massive clean, declutter & reorganisation (very badly needed!).

I've worked out there are 16 weekends to Christmas (well actually 17 but I want to use the last one for food prep) so I'm dividing my house into 16 sections & going to spend one day every weekend on a different section.

I'm starting this weekend. Would anyone like to join?

@IDareSay
very sad , and then you need to look at all his belongings and bring yourself to sort them out (my parents kept their dogs lead in the cupboard , it was still there when we had to empty their house and the dog was long gone . They wouldn't have got another dog , I think my Dad took her bowls to the charity shop but her lead was special as she was a retired Guide Dog )

I cleaned in the bathroom, mainly the radiator which tends to get rusty so buffed it with some cleaning paste and a microfibre clth, looks a bit better

@frofrozendaisy It isn't a technical term, just splitting a big job into 2 parts. In my case I have two walls of cupboards, so I split it that way.

My intention was to start part 2 today, but our fridge broke yesterday. Kitchen now looks like a bomb site. Awaiting imminent delivery of new fridge and then will be sorting that out. Best laid plans and all that. 😵‍💫

I fixed the new leak, after the original leak had been fixed by appliance man, on the washing machine today so that took time out of decluttering.

But have managed to sort x3 charity through the door sized bags of outgrown uniform to take to the teen's respective schools, I already sent a blazer in but because I didn't fully remove name it "helpfully" boomeranged back to us, so annoying doing the same job twice. And a similar bag for charity, that's the best part of a small car boot full out of the house.

Finished hand sewing repairs, almost finished machine sewing repairs.

Located the teen's Christmas jumpers think eldest will want a new one but will check.

Books and games next which is much harder but I am sure charity shops would prefer anything decent this side of Christmas so determined for that to be next.

What I really want to do is prat about making boozy mincemeat.

Have dusted and cleaned the TV, the pictures, and the glasses cabinet in the front room, plus all of the glass decanters on top. Cleared out the medicine cabinet too.

Got to tackle the bookcase tomorrow...

I need to sort out my wardrobe and shove DH up into the attic to get the winter clothes out . Then it;ll be washing anything that can be washed , hang up and air the rest.
Then I can clean away the fresh laundry and sort out what goes into storage .

Anyone up for an outstanding niggling jobs day?
Examples:
Changing feet on foot poof
Finding the spare new fire alarm
Changing filter on fridge water supply
Sorting porch finally from summer to winter
An annoying sewing repair found after sewing machine packed away

And a Christmas one, finding an adaptor for fibre optic tree so it works this year.

Niggling the whole list!

Might sterilise some jars for boozy mincemeat if I make any progress!

@frozendaisy I've got to tidy! But we can still chore-along together.

Ok so things have just been taking up a gear.
2more adults - 2 with active cancer diagnoses are coming to stay for 4 days arriving Xmas Eve. Of course I'm working Monday and Tuesday.

Luckily upstairs is pretty decluttered
Have booked Christmas delivery slot
Booked oven clean

Things that neeeeeeed doing
Big upstairs tidy
Kitchen cupboards inside and out (we have 30)
Pantry
Utility
Deep deep clean whole house

So I have a plan:

Start kitchen cupboards one by one
Half term clear out pantry 1 day
5 kitchen cupboards a week until Christmas (will diarise 2 hours a week)
Tree up 1st Sunday in December
Deep clean house Thursday and Friday before Christmas

As much food prep as possible weekend before

Need to plan menus and shopping list.
Pantry cleaning will help me figure out what we have so will get a master list in notes app.

So yesterday was a perfect example of why I need weeks to sort stuff out.

Thought I would start whilst waiting for online shopping to come, by rearranging coats in porch, from summer to winter. Took coats down to see hooks coming away with on screw, unscrewed row of hooks tried to fill dodgy hole it wasn't going to work, decided to move hooks along a few cm. So now moving coats around involves, drill, new rawl plugs, filler, glue grip, electric and manuel screwdrivers, but at least it's done. Still need to go through coats properly.

Next off to shed to find spare fire alarm because the one we have by kitchen, they are all connected so if one goes off they all go off, the one by kitchen has some dodgy thing going on when you put the battery in, find the spare fire alarm get it fitted with new battery all seems well. Except during recent torrential rains the shed roof, it's old, has sprung a second leak and the boxes with framed photos and decorating stuff have water in the bottom, so empty them out, rescue photographs, chuck unsavable frames, wash and dry UNUSED paint brushes and rollers etc (so annoying), rearrange shed until we can get roof done, phone roofer.

By now teens almost home. Kitchen table piled high with tools, shopping, coats, homework books.

Put everything away, pizza dough in breadmaker and think every time I think I will have a productive day. And it was productive. But barely inched ahead in Christmas sorting.

At least fire alarm installed which was the most important thing.

The sewing and fridge filter didn't stand a chance of remaining on list yesterday!

And I did establish that the Christmas fibre optic tree lights up with radio adapter but the coloured disc doesn't spin so the lights are stuck on a pale yellow green, I need to establish if it's just stuck forever or if a higher power charger (this is 1.2-2.2 so perhaps a 3?) will turn the coloured disc or blow it and set it on fire (things like this are the reason fire alarm essential I have previous for messing about with adaptors hence why I do it when everyone us out).

This is a largely typical day of me being productive.

@frozendaisy I can totally relate to how you're feeling with being productive. No advice just to say you're not alone. Every time I try and be productive, something happens or the job is bigger than I thought, then I feel like I haven't managed anything even though I've done a lot, just not the thing I was meant to have done! If that makes sense.

@PumpkinSpicedTea total sense
The only discernable difference in the house is one new fire alarm up!

The coat hooks were working fine-ish but covered in coats you can't see the screws, did anyone notice they had moved 3cm? Nah course not

On my list today is to complete part 2 of my bedroom ceiling and clean out 2 kitchen cupboards. I'm a bit ill, so I'll be very pleased if I get those things done. We're hosting dinner for 10 next weekend, so am hoping to get lots done this week.

Ah yes, @PumpkinSpicedTea @frozendaisy you are both yak shaving!

https://seths.blog/2005/03/dontshavethat/

I just had a new job. I spotted a tear in a sofa cushion cover this week. One YouTube instructional video, plus eBay purchase of strong upholstery thread and a curved needle later, it's fixed!

It's not a professional job, but for the £6 cost of kit it's alright!

@NoWordForFluffy looks great to me.

This is hilarious and so true 🤣

My Yak-Shave is the hall carpet , it gets all the cats hair and litter thrown at it , I vacuum and use the carpet shampoo-er , grimace at the water colour , turn my back and <sigh>

The dining room table is covered in so much stuff , DH works here , my laptop is here too .

I'll let DH do that one !

Ha! This is how my life works ( or doesn't) 🤣

And amazing job on the cushion! I may give that a go on my sofa as there are a couple of pulling seams.

I managed my jobs yesterday. Today I'm running DC around, but aim to do 3 kitchen drawers and a cupboard whilst cooking.

Pics of yesterday's win.

@lightningstrikes, get yourself a repair needle kit from eBay. £1.95 for the necessary curved needle and 4 others. I'm sorted for all leather and upholstery repairs now! The curved needle was dead easy to use as well. You do a ladder stitch (which is also a new skill I have!).

ETA: lovely neat cupboards there!

Last week I emptied all the kitchen/utility cupboards, wiped them down and threw away all the out of date food. Today I have wiped down the skirting boards in the utility room and cleaned the fridge. I do have the holidays off but never fancy cleaning the fridge out so I do it before whilst I am cooking. I will do it again mid December.

I've shoved DH up into the attic to bring my winter coats and jumpers down.
If it's nice tomorrow they can hang out to air ( the jumpers were washed before storage )

@NNoWordForFluffy I will order one, you've inspired me to give it a go! Any recommendations for you tube videos on technique? I have no idea how to do a ladder stitch 😁.

My update is that I managed to clean the drawers yesterday and 2 cupboards. I'm going to finish up the kitchen today. Clean microwave, 3 drawers and that's it. Kitchen will be complete. Finally! Will then be back on track.

@lightningstrikes, it was a content provider on YouTube called 'Create with Craftsman', but I can't find the exact video. I'll try again in a bit now I've found whose video it was!

That was quick!

Thank you!

Bookcases dusted, toilet limescale scrubbed, hoovered, washing put away. We all worked together to clean and tidy the dining room, St the weekend. It isn't quite there yet, but already loads better.

The porch is the next task, maybe tomorrow.

The kitchen needs a deep clean - I've done about 1/5, plus the oven.

Then the bedrooms.

The house looks and feels lighter. Thank you @Alsonification for starting this thread!