So, I am starting a four day journey into cleaning my room and my car. Mostly because my boyfriend, Zack, is coming over Friday to have a post-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving dinner. We both work Thursday, but we still wanted the turkey and all the fixin’s. I took this as an opportunity to write my tips on how to clean, and hopefully I will keep it up myself!
So, this is the current state of my room:
Seriously, its disgusting. And aside from cleaning for my boyfriend, I want to clean for myself. I do not want to live like this anymore. I have always considered my habits creative and free-spirited, like how they say people who are right-brain thinkers don’t follow linear patterns in life and how they can have a different version of clean. But I think this goes a little beyond that.
The whole idea behind this blog was to redefine my habits of cleaning and organization, and do it with all the peer-pressure of followers and the hope I could help someone else just like me.
So, here it is, day one of my four day journey to a permanently clean room:
Day One:
Remember that journal I told you to get/ make out of napkins? Well, you are going to need it. Look around your room and write down everything you see wrong. My list went a little something like this:
- soda cans
- plastic bags
- felt scraps
- yarn
- dirty clothes
- clean clothes
- dirty sheets
- books
- dishes
- makeup
- nail polish
- soda boxes
- trash bag
- miscellaneous trash
Write them all down in your journal. Then write out how to solve the problems, combining items as you go:
- Throw away all trash(soda cans, felt scraps, miscellaneous)
- Collect and bag all plastic bags (I save mine for general purposes, do whatever you want with yours)
- Re-wind yarn and find home for them (the amount of tangled yarn I have is ridiculous)
- Fold clean clothes
- Use now empty laundry basket and fill with dirty clothes
- Wash sheets
- Find home for books
- Wash dishes
- Organize make-up drawer
- Put away nail polish
- Find home for soda boxes; throw out if empty
- Throw out full trash bags
Before you start cleaning, take a couple pictures of your room just like I did. That way when you get to the end of the day or the end of the week, you can look back and see how far you have come! Punishing yourself is never the answer, instead remind yourself how bad it once was and how much better it will be.
You do not have to complete this is one day. I am not going to even attempt doing it in one day. What I do is instead of completing one task at a time, I work on a little of each every day.
So today, when I woke up, I washed all of my make-up brushes after using them and put them away. I washed one plate, and threw away a coffee cup. Then I took one of the two big trash bags down to the dumpster, leaving the other one because its not quite full. When I got back from class, I folded a few clean clothes and put away my nail polish box. I folded a few clean clothes. I picked up felt scraps, threw a bunch of plastic bags into a bigger plastic bag, and organized a little. Now, at the end of the night, this is what my room looks like:
There, see? What a little work wont do. And the first week is the most work. Once you have your room clean, its much easier to keep it clean. But more information on that later.
So this is the end of Day One. Tomorrow will be on how to clean your car and keep it clean for the people who are too busy to stop and spend an hour or two on cleaning it out. Or too lazy.
Just remember, this is all about you, and finding your perfect path.
A Lazy Girl's Guide To Organizing Your College Life 