Mission #1 - Master Bedroom cleaning

I have officially begun my journey!  Like they always say...the hard part is just getting started.  I don't know who "they" are, but they are certainly right about that one!  After mulling things over for a few days, planning how & where to start, and getting thrown off track a bit by a husband who worked from home all week, I finally completed my first mission!

I decided that it was best to take advantage of the unseasonably warm weather we're having right now, and tackle the overall deep cleaning first.  That way I'll have warm, sunny days for cleaning windows, shampooing upholstery, and giving the house a good airing out.  Then, when the house is clean and the temperatures decide to return to normal fall-like temps, I can move on to going through closets/drawers/cabinets/etc inch by painful inch, removing unnecessary items and organizing what's left.

So, my first room to tackle was the master bedroom.  I decided to start there because I figured it would be nice to have a clean and refreshing bedroom to retire to each night as a proceed along my journey.  Here are my before pics:

Now, you may be saying, "Well, that doesn't look THAT bad..."  Keep in mind that I'm not dealing with clearing out & organizing clutter right now...just cleaning each overall room.  See that wall of closets at the foot of my bed in the first picture?  You don't wanna see what's hiding behind some of those doors!  ;)

So, here's a list of what all I did in the room:

• I removed all the bed linens and laundered them so that I could tuck myself into a fresh smelling, clean bed each night. 
• I removed the window blinds, sprayed them down with cleaner, and let them soak in the bathtub while I was cleaning the rest of the room.  Then I rinsed them off, wiped them down, and reinstalled them after I had finished cleaning the windows.
• I removed the light diffusing globe from the ceiling fan light and washed, rinsed & dried it before putting it back on.
• I removed the ceiling fan blades, vacuumed off the dust bunnies that have been clinging to the blades for dear life, wiped them down with soapy water, then reinstalled them after wiping down the rest of the ceiling fan unit.
• I removed the screens from the windows, wiped down the window sills (even pulled out my trusty toothbrush used only for cleaning projects ;) and then cleaned the windows inside & out with just a squirt bottle of soapy water and a couple microfiber cleaning cloths.  I also wiped down the exterior window trim as well.
• I scrubbed the window screens with a brush and a bit of household cleanser, sprayed them off good, and let them dry in the sun before reinstalling them on the windows.  Figured I'd leave them on the windows for a little while longer before taking them down & storing them for the remainder of the fall & winter months.
• Using a brush attachment on my old reliable Rainbow vacuum cleaner, I vacuumed off all the door & window trim in the bedroom, I vacuumed down the walls, and a vacuumed off the baseboard & floor trim. 
• I used a cloth, some soapy water, and a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to wipe off smudges, stains and scuff marks from the bedroom door, closet doors, and trim work.
• I removed the pictures from the walls, vacuumed off the dust bunnies, removed the art work, vacuumed inside the glass frame, then used soapy water & microfiber cloths to clean both sides of the glass before reinserting the art work and hanging pictures back on walls.
• I removed ALL the objects and knick-knacks from the dresser & nightstands and piled them into a spare laundry basket.  I pulled all the furniture (dresser, nightstand and bed) away from the walls and vacuumed off the backside of the furniture before polishing all pieces with furniture polish.
• I vacummed the mattress, flipped the mattress over (had already rotated it a month or so ago), and vacuumed the other side as well.  I also vacuumed off the box spring before putting on the freshly laundered bed skirt underneath the mattress.  Then I sprayed it all down with lavender-scented Fabreeze and remade the bed with fresh linens (and yes...there are hospital corners on the sheets! ;)
• I removed the dining room table insert that is stored under our bed, and vacuumed off the dust bunnies.  I also removed the old blanket that it had been wrapped in and replaced it with another, cleaner one.  Before restoring it to its home under the bed, I vacuumed under the bed really well.
• With the brush attachment, I vacuumed off the lampshades, wiped down the lamp bases, and reinstalled the shades.
• Using my Rainbow vacuum cleaner, I vacuumed over the floor throughout the bedroom.
• I then finally went through the laundry basket of STUFF and only pulled out a few items to display on the dresser & nightstands ~ our wedding pic, a small photo album, my silver jewelry box, the alarm clock (that is broken & will be replaced soon), and I stored our Bibles & church material on the shelf of one of our nightstands.  I plan on going through the rest of the STUFF in the basket, and will either find a home for pieces I want to keep, throw out anything that can be trashed, and organize any paperwork that was lying around.

And so....voila...the finished result:

I'm so stinkin' excited that I accomplished what I set out to accomplish today, and now I have a wonderfully "new" bedroom to sleep in tonight.  I'm sure sweet dreams will follow....