This is the perfect room to use the four-box method, because the boxes can stay there and wait for next time you’re working in the storage room. You’ll need at least four boxes: keep, give away, undecided, another room. You’ll also need a garbage bag (I just take the whole box when I’m working in the basement) and a vacuum cleaner. Sorting boxes kicks up a lot of dust. In fact, if it’s been more than six months since last time you did anything in your storage room, you might want to consider wearing a mask or a bandana to keep the dust out of your lungs.

A storage room can be overwhelming. Unless you’re on a deadline, such as an upcoming inspection, take it slowly. Set your timer for a half an hour and start with the pile or box closest to the door. Sort out the items and place them in the appropriate box. If the item is severely dirty or mildewed, and it doesn’t have a historical or emotional meaning, throw it away.

Work until the timer goes off. Set the timer again to give yourself a 15 minute break. After your break, start where you left off. Work for about two hours total. It’s tempting to try to finish the basement in one day, but you’ll get burned out. If you really have momentum, plan to do another two hours in the storage room tomorrow.

Take the trash bag out to the trash. If the give-away box is full, put it in your car to take to a place to give the stuff away. If you have room in other rooms for the stuff in the “other room” box, then put that stuff away. Keep the “keep” box. You’ll want to organize that stuff into proper categories once you have more room. Keep the “not sure” box as well.

When you’ve gone through every box and pile in your storage area, you can begin to recategorize everything.

Some people like to organize their storage rooms with matching boxes you can get at an office supply store. You can also organize using plastic totes. It’s a great idea to have consistent sizing in your storage boxes, but it would be cheaper to wait until you’ve thrown away the trash and given away everything you can give away. Then you’ll be able to buy the exact number of bins you need.

This is just a quick list of some daily minimums that will keep your house sparkling. These are just suggestions. You may have techniques that work better for you, but if there’s an area that keeps blocking you, try something different.

• Kitchen

  • Wash and put away dishes.

  • Wipe down counters

  • Sweep

• Dining room

  • Clear off table at least once a day (Cleanies do it at the beginning of the day, Messies at the end.)

  • Handle each paper only once

  • Sweep or vacuum

• Living Room

  • Pick up toys

  • Pick up dishes (it may work for you to do the kitchen last if you have a lot of dishes in other rooms.)

  • Pick up books, papers, magazines

  • Pick up clothes (try to avoid folding laundry in here, until you break the messie habit of leaving laundry on the couch. I’m guilty– as I write this, a basket of folded laundry waits by the TV to be put away.)

  • Throw away trash

  • Vacuum

• Bathroom

  • Take dirty clothes and towels to the laundry area

  • Throw away trash

  • Spray down all appliances and wipe them down (toilet last.)

• Bedroom (Kids)

  • Vacuum and make the little slaves do the rest. LOL

  • Have them put away toys

  • Have them put away books

  • Help younger ones make the bed

  • Have them take dirty clothes to the laundry area

  • Give them clean clothes to put away

  • Vacuum

• Your bedroom

  • Avoid it. LOL

  • Make bed

  • Put dirty clothes in laundry

  • Straighten up books and magazines

  • Vacuum

• Laundry (it’s its own separate room!)

  • Try to start a load at least once a day

  • Try to shift loads at least once a day

  • Try to put away at least one load a day

  • Some people have systems that work better for them, such as spending a full day a week on laundry, but I’m more successful if I nibble at it a little each day.

Daily Maintenance:
Remove dirty dishes, clothes, shoes
Put movies, CDs, and DVDs in their cases and put them away
Throw away trash
Vacuum lightly every day if you have pets or children, or if you eat in the living room.

Avoid folding laundry in the living room unless absolutely necessary, because laundry folded in the living room tends to stay in the living room!

Weekly Duties: What to do when the Living Room is the Lucky Room of the Day:

Tools needed:

• Trash Bag

• Basket or Bin

• Glass Cleaner

• Wood Cleaner

• Feather Duster

• Dusting Cloth

• Cloth for Glass

• Dishpan or bucket to carry cleaning supplies

• Very soft clean toothbrush or very soft clean paintbrush, canned air (optional)

• Vacuum Cleaner

DECLUTTERING- Spend about 15-20 minutes decluttering the living room before you try to clean. (If you’ve been keeping up on daily maintenance, this should take less time each week. Make it your goal to do a little bit of this each day so you can get right to cleaning.)

Remove dirty dishes and clothes, throw away newspapers, put toys in the toyroom, put books back on the bookshelves. While decluttering, keep a bin near you for things that go into other rooms. If you still have a few minutes of decluttering time, clean off and rearrange a shelf or other horizontal surface. If you’re very Messie, you might want to work on the living room every day, along with your other room of the day. You might want to add decluttering the living room to your 5/5 list. Consider making it very specific: such as removing dirty dishes. Your kids could add putting away toys from the living room to their 5/5 or 3/3 lists. Work methodically around the room so the clutter stays fairly confined and areas you’ve already decluttered stay fairly clear.

Put movies back in their cases and put away (preferably in alphabetical order.) Same with C-Ds and D-V-Ds.

If you start on the room and have NO dirty dishes, movies, books, or newspapers out of place, then you can purge old magazines (if you take care of them within a month, they’ll still be fresh enough to donate to your doctor, vet, mechanic, or to a homeless or battered women shelter.) Throw away old catalogs unless you ACTUALLY INTEND TO ORDER SOMETHING. As you get better at this, you can start donating those to schools or daycares for kids to cut up.

If necessary, remove and wash blinds or curtains (if they’re washable.) Use the feather duster on blinds.

Once your living room is a little more decluttered, you can start cleaning. Once again, work methodically around the room, clockwise or counter-clockwise. Work top to bottom. Carry your supplies with you. First, use the feather duster to remove dust from the tops of things. Use the glass cleaner to clean mirrors, glass on pictures, the TV screen, and other glass items. (Some glass curios can be washed in the kitchen sink in hot soapy water.) Use the paintbrush, toothbrush, or canned air to clean dust off ornate curios that cannot be washed in water. Use the wood cleaner on all wood surfaces. When you’re just starting out with a very messy living room, don’t try to get the whole room clean at once. Spend about 30 minutes on this process.

Make sure to groom plants and get rid of dead ones. Dust your remote control and the buttons on your electronic equipment. Moisten the cloth with glass cleaner if necessary.

COUCH/ SOFA- The first week of the month, (more if you have kids or pets or if you eat in the living room) remove all the cushions and pillows from your couches and upholstered seats. You can beat them outside, you can vacuum them, just concentrate on getting them cleaner. While you have the couches and chairs open, vacuum under the cushions. Move the furniture and vacuum thoroughly underneath it. Put the cushions back on.

WINDOWS- The second week of the month, clean the insides of the windows and vacuum or clean the windowsills (including the space between the inside windows and the storm windows.)

Some time in the spring, take down the storm windows and wash them. You can even leave them off until fall IF YOU HAVE A SAFE PLACE TO STORE THEM. Take down the screens and wash the outside of the windows at that time. Repair any holes in the screens with a kit you can buy at a discount store.

In early fall, replace the storm windows.

Now, vacuum the rest of the room thoroughly, at least 10 strokes on high traffic areas. Pay special attention to the edges of carpets.

Now, put away the vacuum cleaner and cleaning supplies. Put the items in the bin or basket in the room where they belong. Put up the curtains or blinds, if you took them down to wash them.

Click here for Weekly Duties

Daily Maintenance (at least once a day, preferably after each meal)

• Empty the dishwasher/ dish-drainer

• Wash the dishes that are in the sink/ or put them in the dishwasher

• Throw away ALL trash that’s on the counters{*}

• If you don’t have a dishwasher, handwash the dirty dishes

• Wipe out the microwave

• Using a spray-cleaner, wipe off the top of the stove and wipe down the counters

• If you have kids, give the fridge and freezer doors a quick swipe with your dish-cloth

• Use the spray cleaner to shine up your sink

• Put the dish-cloth and dishtowel in the laundry and put fresh ones out for the next day

• Sweep, spot clean dirty spots

• Start the dishwasher

Top

*If you are saving recyclables because you will “make it to the recycling center someday,” THROW THEM AWAY. You do NOT need the junk cluttering up your counter. If you plan to go to the recycling place TODAY, then you can put the stuff in your car. Then take it to recycling. If it’s still in your car tomorrow, throw it away. Do try to properly recycle everything from now on, but don’t allow it to make you live in filth.

Weekly Maintenance (What to do when Kitchen is the Lucky Room of the Day)

Set your timer for 15 minutes. Work steadily until the timer goes off, then take a 15 minute break (use your timer!) Work for about an hour. If you don’t have a lot of decluttering, you should be able to get this done in about an hour. If you do have a lot of clutter, just work your way through steadily. Perhaps add a 15-minute kitchen decluttering session to your daily list to make next week’s kitchen LROTD easier.

This is as comprehensive list as I can make it. It will change and grow. Pick and choose what you are capable of doing, but try hard to at least do the daily maintenance chores.

• Empty the dishwasher/ dish-drainer

• Wash the dishes that are in the sink/ or put them in the dishwasher

• Fill the sink with hot soapy water. You’ll use this soapy water to wipe down appliances and to soak dirty dishes you find while cleaning.

• Throw away ALL trash that’s on the counters{*}

• Choose one cabinet a week to empty out, wipe out, and reorganize. Get rid of things you don’t use often. Take them to a storage area of your house, or donate them to someone. At least once a month, clean under the sink.

• Remove everything from one countertop, wash the entire countertop, wipe down the items, and put back only what needs to be there. Put everything else away in its proper spot, if it has one, or find a proper spot, or put it in a storage box.

• Repeat with each countertop section. While you’re decluttering, you can choose to do one countertop section a week. Once they’re decluttered, this part shouldn’t take very long.

• Clean out the fridge and freezer, throw away left overs that are more than 4 days old. Put the containers in the dishwasher. Throw away condiments that are nearly empty. Add them to your shopping list. Wipe down fridge shelves. Wipe down the gaskets where things spill. Refill ice-cube trays

• Soak the oven burner rings in ammonia OR a baking soda paste. Run your stove’s self-cleaning cycle (remove racks and aluminum foil first) OR wipe out the stove with ammonia OR baking soda paste. Replace aluminum foil and racks.

• At least once a month, run vinegar through your coffeemaker. It will take many rinses to get it clean, but it will clean out hard water from your coffee maker.

• The first week of the month, move your refrigerator and stove and clean underneath. Wash the sides of the cabinets next to the appliances. Wash the sides of the appliances. Remove cobwebs. Mop.

• If you don’t have a dishwasher, handwash the dirty dishes

• Wipe out the microwave, using a spray cleaner

• Spray clean the fronts of the fridge, oven, and dishwasher, and spot clean the cabinets.

• Use the spray cleaner to shine up your sink. Use a toothbrush to scrub around the faucet. Get rid of the stuff that gathers around the faucet when you’re not paying attention.

• Put the dish-cloth and dishtowel in the laundry and put fresh ones out for the next day (if you’re doing this at the end of the day)

• Sweep, spot clean dirty spots, mop the whole floor, paying special attention to where the floor meets the cabinet.

• Start the dishwasher

Top

Click here for Weekly Duties

Daily Maintenance (at least once a day, preferably after each meal)

• Clear off the table

• Using a spray-cleaner, wipe off the table and the tops of the chairs. Hit the legs as well if your kids have messed them up

• Sweep, spot clean dirty spots on the floor

Top

Weekly Maintenance (What to do when Dining Room is the Lucky Room of the Day)

This is as comprehensive list as I can make it. It will change and grow. Pick and choose what you are capable of doing, but try hard to at least do the daily maintenance chores. This list is based on my current (in 2001) dining room.

• Clear off the table

• If you have any laundry in your dining room, get it out of there. The dining room isn’t a good place for laundry for us messies, because we tend to leave the laundry on the table for days. Try to fold your laundry in the laundry room and then put it away right away.

• Using a spray-cleaner, wipe off the table and the tops of the chairs. Hit the legs as well if your kids have messed them up

• If the dining room is where your papers gather, get them all in one spot. Throw away the junk mail. You don’t need it. Really.

• If you have shelves in your dining room, today is the day to dust them and the stuff on them. Pick one shelf and clean it off completely.

• Sweep, spot clean dirty spots, mop the whole floor.

Top

Daily tasks (Try to do these as soon as you get up or at least before you go anywhere.)

• Make the bed

• Put away shoes

• Put dirty laundry in the hamper

• Hang up clothes you plan to wear again

• Straighten up your books and magazines

What to do when the bedroom is the Lucky Room of the Day:

• Make the bed with clean sheets

• If the day is nice, air out your blankets and comforters outside

• Put away shoes

• Put dirty clothes in the hamper

• Hang up clothes you plan to wear again

• Go through your magazines.

• Clip articles you want to save then throw the rest of the magazine away.

• If you save certain magazines, put them away neatly (hopefully you have magazine holders that make your collection look neater.)

• Give away the rest of the magazines (or throw them away if you know you’ll never get around to giving them away.)

• Go through your books. Put the library books you’re finished with in your car to return. Same with books you have borrowed from others.

• Put your own books away unless you’re actively reading them.

• Put your children’s toys in their designated toy area.

• Grab a trash bag and throw away all the trash emptied from pockets and shopping bags over the past week… or more.

• Choose one dresser top or shelf to completely clean off and rearrange. Try to chose a different one each week.

• Using a damp cloth, work around the room dusting from top to bottom

• (If you’d like, use some windex on your windows, mirrors, and picture glass and wipe down the frames and windowsills.)

• Vacuum thoroughly.

• Put the blankets and comforters back on the bed