Do you feel like you’re constantly struggling to “keep up” your house?
One way to make it easier to “keep up” is a room reset and a day long deep clean is the best way to make that happen.
My Story
Last year I decided to tackle a room by room reset of our home.
The plan was to do a little bit each weekend, starting with our bedroom.
I’m sad to report that our bedroom remains in pretty much the same state as it was this time last year, and I never progressed to any other room.
Because the bedroom never really reached a “finished” state, cleaning it felt pretty much like running on a hamster wheel.
Fortunately, I’m old enough to remember when spring cleaning was a thing.
For a week straight, you got out of bed everyday and spent the day deep cleaning your home, room by room.
At the end of the week, you were rewarded with a spic and span home where every room had been reset.
While cleaning for a straight week isn’t realistic, scheduling a day long deep clean is.
So this year, instead of constantly trying to catch up, I’m changing my approach.
Over these next few cold winter months, before pool season starts, I’ll be scheduling day long deep cleans with the goal being to reset one room in a day.
Keeping up a room is much easier once it has been reset.
Stay tuned. If you’re a subscriber to my newsletter, I’ll keep you updated.
What is a day-long deep clean?
A day-long deep clean is exactly what it sounds like, dedicating one day to thoroughly cleaning a room.
Every nook, every cranny, decluttered, cleaned, and put back together.
At the end of the day, you’re rewarded with a thoroughly clean room.
The Benefits of a Day-Long Deep Clean
At the end of the day, you will have a brand-new starting place.
Everything will be clean, and clutter will be gone or under control
Having a brand-new starting place means that the day-to-day upkeep of that particular room will be easier.
Before plunging in, give the day of the deep clean some thought.
Schedule the day
Scheduling something, putting it on the calendar, turns it into a commitment.
By making a commitment, even to yourself, it’s more likely to happen.
In addition, when the day is on the calendar, you mentally begin preparing. You might even be motivated to do a few things to give yourself a head start.
Plan ahead
Make sure you have all the cleaning supplies you need.
There’s nothing more frustrating than being in the middle of a project and coming to a dead stop because you don’t have something you need.
Is there something you want to purchase before the day of the deep clean?
Plan ahead and have it on hand.
True story: I’ve had my comforter for almost twenty years. For that entire time, I have been undecided on what color bed skirt I should buy. My bedroom deep clean is scheduled for Monday. I finally hit the buy button on Amazon and when I finish cleaning, I will put on my nice new bed skirt.
Arrange childcare
If at all possible, arrange for your kids to be somewhere else for the day.
Stopping to care for little ones slow you down significantly.
If childcare isn’t possible, don’t let it be a deterrent, use a baby gate.
Use the baby gate to keep kids OUT of the room in which you are working. The room is off limits to everyone but you. A baby gate is a highly effective tactic when trying to clean with kids.
Put dinner in the crockpot
You don’t want to have to quit in the middle of the day to make a meal.
A crock pot meal solves the problem.
I always knew when I got off the school bus and smelled soup beans, mom had been cleaning.
Now on to the actual day of the deep clean.
Think of your day long deep clean as a one-two-three step process.
One, start by decluttering.
Be ruthless. If you don’t need it, or don’t want it, get rid of it.
If you get bogged down on decluttering, read this post.
Declutter all the drawers, closets, shelves, leave no stone (or bed) unturned!
If the room which you are deep cleaning boarders on the hoarding side, consider making this a two-day affair. One to declutter, and the second to clean.
Two, after decluttering comes the deep clean.
Working from top to bottom left to right, deep clean the room.
Deep clean all the areas that are skipped during day-to-day cleaning; knock down cobwebs, clean the baseboards and windows, sweep and mop the floor.
If you tend to get off track, create a checklist before you get started. Cross things off as you finish them.
If cleaning windows seems too big of a task, read this post.
My default cleaner for all things wood is Murphy’s Oil Soap.
There’s a reason it’s been around for more than a hundred years.
Three, the final step in the day long deep clean.
Put the room back together.
No matter how tired you are, take the time to put the room back together.
It’s pointless to get this close and quit.
While you’re finishing up, get rid of the stuff that you don’t want to end up back in your room.
Deliver donations and carry trash to the garbage can.
I guarantee if you leave it sitting in the hall, there’s a very high chance it will end up right back in the room in which it started.
Do you feel like you’re always struggling to keep up?
Schedule a day long deep clean and reset your room.
After that, keeping up will be much easier.
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What is Micki’s Little Letter?
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