One House/Garden Home Improvement a Day Challenge

[BloodiedGhouloshes]

Does anyone want to join?

I seem to get bogged down in the day to day grind of keeping the house running and never have time to do the stuff I want to do.

I have so many projects I want to get done... from small (washing curtains!) to large- renovating the kitchen/conservatory and the back garden into a patio.

I thought if I made it an imperative to do something each day, by the time one year is up this place will be transformed.

My place... mid-terrace Victorian. 3 Dcs. 3 dogs 2 cats. Total chaos.

Today I:

1. bought from the local charity shop 5 little cut glass tiny vases of varying heights and put roses in them and bundled them together 'artfully' on the mantelpiece.

1. strung fairy lights up our bannister.

Okay- it's two things. :)

Tomorrow I plan to repot some plants before winter.

Anyone want to join the 365 day challenge?

[SlightlyDampWellies]

I think that still counts as a job littlered! I am getting the lawn mowed later this week and even though all I am doing is paying my friend's son, I plan to count it as a job!

I am lucky that I work from home, and today is a reasonably light day so I am thinking of adding collecting books for the charity shop as a job.

[CiderwithBuda]

Morning all.

Didn't get to finish drawer as dinner took longer to sort than I thought. And was a bit of a disaster too. Oh well.

Am about to have breakfast and then will put some washing on and finish the drawer.

Other task I want to do today is brush all the cobwebs from the outside of the kitchen windows as leaves are catching in them. I might even was the insides too.

Then I have a dentist appointment for a root canal. Not looking forward to that. Will do an hour ironing if I feel up to it. If not I will just sit around feeling sorry for myself!

[Littleredsquirrel]

garden stores ordered (with quidco cashback too so that's good). Right MUST DO SOME WORK TO PAY FOR ALL HOUSE AND GARDEN IMPROVEMENTS!!

[SlightlyDampWellies]

Day 4/365 of Operation365.

Pots collected and stacked.

Books collected for charity shop. I will go down later this afternoon to dump donate them.

[PublicEnemyNumeroUno]

Morning all :)

So far this morning ive...

Put away the mountain of clean washing

Took the mountain of dirty washing down to the utility room, going to get it all done today

Cleared out all the crap from the old airing cupboard to make room for hiding christmas presents

DP has just took a load of stuff to the tip

Im now just sorting out all the kids wardrobes and getting rid of all clothes that dont fit - just stopped for a fag and a cuppa.

Then just need to hoover all the rooms upstairs.

[ooerrmissus]

Right didn't get all the wonky pictures finished yesterday as it was my turn to take DS2 to rugby cos I've only done the last six weeks so I will get that finished today.
Then I am going to tidy the bin area and chuck out the many many wine bottles and bits of random wood and whatnot.

[Mum2Fergus]

Afternoon all I went to bed early last night with best intentions, ended up having a good tidy up! Was lovely to wake to a totally clear bedside cabinet this morning!!

Clean bedding on both beds this morning...been to B&Q and bought some rugs, cylinder jacket and draft proofing strips (inspired by The Great British Energy Challenge that I finally got round to watching!). Rugs down, will do rest this evening...in meantime good opportunity the clear our cupboard that houses the water cylinder!

[NameoftheRose]

I need to join this thread too. I've so much to do I don't know where to begin. We've built an extension which has taken too long to finish, so everything has got neglected and I've become deeply demoralised.

Today I'm going to descale the shower - I don't think that counts as regular housework. Well for me it doesn't. Also gather up the huge pile of leaves in the drive and start composting them.

I've got stuff I need to sell on Gumtree and loads of boxes of stuff to sort. Things got packed away at the beginning of our building project so I guess if I haven't needed it that long I don't need it now.

A "study" which has become a dumping ground.

A project a day over a whole year should make a huge difference.
Off I go to get the lime scale remover.

[Iris445]

Gosh what a productive day!
Washing up to date, thank you sunshine.
Shed half decluttered and tidied.
Front windows washed, pots returned, need plants now.
Garden tidied.

The windows look amazing, I should do that every week.

[ooerrmissus]

Good day today. Sorted out all the bin area, swept up leaves, put a shelf thingy in the shed which also got a rearrange. I've realised the shed could do with a coat of paint so if it is nice tomorrow ill tackle that.
I've also ordered a new shoe rack and a steam cleaner! I'm in a roll!

[ellaballoo]

Right ..I'm in.Tonight I'm going to put away the pile of magazines in my bedroom.Tiny step but it's a start.

[phlebas]

day 4 - my mum had a couple of the children for the afternoon today so I managed to get some extras done on top of normal housework - including sanding & painting one of the chairs :) I will hopefully get the other one done on Wednesday. Also planted more bulbs, organised food & decorations for dd1's party, baked a cake & bought more paint!

Plan for tomorrow is to wade into the children's bedrooms - they are awful after half term/illness/bad weather. If I get a chance I'd like to finish the kitchen skirting board.

[PublicEnemyNumeroUno]

My job for tomorrow is to tidy the front and back gardens and wash the front and back door.

[NameoftheRose]

Very sparkly shower. Also washed shower curtain while I was at it.

I really need to tackle the study and spare room. Massive sorting job, but if I did a box a day it would get sorted much faster than if I just open the door, stare at the piles of boxes, feel overwhelmed and shut the door again.

Experience shows that that is not an effective strategy.

[CiderwithBuda]

NameoftheRose - I try that strategy too. Doesn't work here either.

I did the kitchen windows this morning and ended up giving the worktops a proper clean. Broke a glass bowl on the granite last night and although I thought I had cleared it up, I was still finding bits of glass this morning. So moved everything and gave it a good clean. Even found a tray to sit the toaster on to hopefully lessen the amount of crumbs.

DH did some bits in the garden including vacuuming up some of the leaves and he also got rib of the cobwebs around the windows. Hoping my window cleaners come soon as outside windows desperately need doing.

The drawer is not totally done but almost!

Afternoon was spent feeling sorry for myself as mouth was very sore after root canal. And had an added complication in that a piece of one of the instruments used broke off in the root of my tooth and can't be retrieved. Might be fine. Might not. If not will need removing surgically. Dentist obv worried as is not charging me for the root canal! It's a private practice and really expensive so that's now worrying me.

Tomorrow's task are to finish the drawer and continue sorting my desk which I started last week. I also need to go through a bag of clothes to see if worth taking to a dress agency. And some of DS's outgrown school uniform to sort and take to school uniform shop.

[NameoftheRose]

Today I am going to sort out a box. If that goes well, I may sort out another box.
Also have a major garden project going on, so I'll probably spend at least an hour on that. I try to do it in hourly chunks so I don't totally knacker myself. An hour hard physical work, then half an hour lighter stuff.
Yesterday, a fine bright day, I got carried away cleaning and didn't garden.
This has, never, ever happened before . Ever.

Today it is raining, so I expect I'll be out there. .

Have also used mumsnet emoticons and bold type never used before. By me.

[Littleredsquirrel]

I am packing away summer clothes this afternoon when I take my break. Usually I just leave everything in the wardrobe but its bursting at the seams and so this year I will be organised!

[ooerrmissus]

Right it's horrid and rainy here so that's scuppered my outdoor jobs list. So today I am finally going to brave it into the loft and dig out the winter coats and put away the summer ones. And I may tackle the oddsandsods cupboard in the kitchen. This is of course on top of all the other non-operations365 stuff I have to do today. I started writing a list, but I've had to give it up as a bad job because if I try and finish the list, there will be no time left to actually do any of the jobs on it!

[CiderwithBuda]

Extra job done this morning. Cleaned the microwave and warming drawers. All spic and span and shiny. Then DH microwaves his lunch which exploded all over microwave. Sigh. He did clear it up.

Have been out for a run and had lunch. Just having a cuppa and then planning on showering, ironing for an hour and then carrying on with th drawer and desk.

[Mum2Fergus]

Where are we...5/365?! Not much afoot today...half day from work as DS has 'orientation' day for starting primary next year! Time permitting will clear out and tidy up 4 kitchen drawers...have way more utensils than I'll ever actually need lol...

[Iris445]

Today I tidied the boot room, not cleaned just a thourough tidy, stuff away to bedrooms if not in use. Tomorrow I will clean it.
I though I might break down my cleaning into jobs per day. It seems less daunting, so today general tidy and hoovered entire house.

[phlebas]

day 5 - manic today. Swapped summer & winter clothes around (took ages as dd2's coat has disappeared) & figured out what I need to buy (bonus find of boots which fit ds1). Washed & bagged up grown out of clothes for charity shop, managed to de-shitify about half of the boys' bedroom (& the girls' room is even worse). Feel like I need a stiff drink & an early night.

Have dentist & doctors appointments for various people tomorrow so I'm not expecting to get much done ... would be good to finish the boys' room.

[cq]

Excellent thread, can I join at 5/365 if I promise to add 5 on at the end?

Today's goal was to buy a new jumper as all mine seem to have fallen apart after last winter's 6 months of freeze. Also collected my new specs which make me look about 100.

Tomorrow I will plant up some pots with bulbs to put on the front doorstep in March for some spring cheer. Please tell me it's not too late to plant bulbs?

[Coveredinweetabix]

Oooh. This is just what I need. Can I join? I had a 5 bed house, two DC and frequent visitors (hence the 5 bed house) and a DP who works long hours, is lovely and a brilliant cook but useless at tidying and anything practical. I am also currently exhausted as DC1 is still on BST so getting up at 5.30 rather than 6.30 and we've had some bad nights with DC2 and torrential rain meaning we have to get the buckets out, monitor the electrics as we're still trying to work out where exactly the leak in roof is. Sigh.

The things I really want to do between now and Xmas (can't think as far as next year and so many of the things are really repetitive that it will really grind me down thinking how many times they need doing) are:

• filing paperwork
  
• tidying the study (hoping to tackle that tonight)
  
• sorting out the baby clothes
  
• sorting out the baby equipment and seeing if there's anything we can sell
  
• cleaning off the mould in our damp porch
  
• cleaning off the mould in our bathroom (only a small bit but its a fiddle to get to, hence why its there)
  
• wiping marks off the wall in our bedrooms, the DC's bedroom and the landing
  
• wiping marks of the walls in the downstairs rooms
  
• thinking about painting the cloakroom....unlikely to happen!
  
• taking some stuff to the charity shop
  
• decluttering the dining room
  
• decluttering the sitting room
  
• cleaning the inside of the upstairs windows
  
• cleaning the inside of the downstairs windows
  
• cleaning the inside of the French windows
  
• wiping out all of the kitchen cupboards
  
• wiping down the outside of the kitchen cupboards (oak and hide the dirt well I noticed this morning when I realised how dirty they actually are)
  
• clean the en-suite throughly (have a cleaner so its clean but I want to empty the cupboards, wipe them & sort them etc)
  
• clean the family bathroom thoroughly
  
• dust the cornices
  
• dust the skirting boards
  
• go to the dump
  
• sort out the book shelves
  
  I won't manage one task a day as, on the days I work, I'm out for 14 hours but, if I manage 2 or 3 of those a week, then I should be done by Christmas. I know I've broken some of them down into bite sized chunks but its too overwhelming thinking about cleaning all of the windows at once as many of our rooms are double aspect so there are a lot of windows

[NameoftheRose]

Done nothing towards this yet today . Unexpected stuff came up. But I won't be railroaded after Day One.

Tonight I will sort a box. In fact I'm going to go choose the box now so it is ready and waiting.

This is why these kinds of threads are so useful, I probably wouldn't bother otherwise.

I need to expect the unexpected.