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....

And then there's the how...

OK...so I've answered what & why, now comes the how.  What's my plan for this journey?  How do I plan to proceed now that I've made the declaration?  

The answer is...I'm still trying to figure that out!  Ha!

As is usually the case with me, I have a gazillion & one ideas swirling around in my head.  Huge plans that if I can bring to fruition will produce amazing results; however, I often overthink things.  My ideas are sometimes too lofty for my mere abilities, and when this happens, I start thinking "What's the point of even starting?"  I have trouble coming up with a jumping off point, and so when that happens, I just don't jump at all.  Which I guess is probably one of the main reasons I've gotten myself into this mess!  I suppose that's also one of the main reasons why I started this blog.  Accountability.  If I make the declaration, and others could possibly hold me to it, then hopefully I won't give up before I've even gotten started.


So, I'm gonna start with the essential element ~ the house.  As a stay-at-home mom, I'm under this roof for the better part of the day, every day of the week.  And if it's in disarray, then pretty much every other area of my life follows the same pattern.  I'm sure this stems from growing up with a neat freak mother, but when things around me are the least bit disorganized, I find that I can't think straight.  I get all nervous & stressed out, and I've found that here lately that just causes me to run away from the issue instead of confronting it head on.  It's time to put a stop to that & get back on track again.

Our home is also in dire need of a good, thorough cleaning.  We have lived here about 4 months shy of 4 years, and I am ashamed to say that in that time, I haven't tackled any kind of spring or fall cleaning.  Of course, I've had lofty aspirations of doing it, but it's never actually gotten accomplished.  My mother would be probably is quite ashamed.  So that's where I plan on starting, and as I'm doing a good, thorough cleaning, I also plan to tackle the issue of simplifying.  That means it's time to go through every room, every drawer, every closet, every shelf, and purge, purge, purge!  Then, whatever is left can be organized and put away in a nice, neat, new home.  :)


See...I told you my aspirations were often lofty!  Ha!  However, I think if I play my cards right, I can actually get this thing accomplished.  My goal is to have everything done by November 20th, so that our family can enter into the holiday season fresh & clean.  I know for myself, if my home is clean, organized, and a reflection of simplification, then my mind and my heart will be renewed as well.  That's just the way I am...a true product of my surroundings.  And in turn, I know that our family will then be able to focus on the true reason for the season ~ the celebration of our Savior's birth ~ without feeling the need to join with the masses in the usual crazy holiday madness.

So, that gives me 6.5 weeks.  I think that's a pretty fair amount of time to complete what I hope to accomplish.  I'm going to take things slowly, tackling one area at a time, as I work my way back to a calm heart and a peaceful spirit.  I'm planning on updating the blog every single step of the way, with progress notes and pictures, so stay tuned for that.  It's sure to be riveting!


Now...to just figure out a place to start....  ;)

I've answered the what. Now comes the why...

Most people that know me well will finding themselves wondering, "Why would Gina feel the need to simplify her life?  She's a lover of all things simple by nature, and she always likes to have things organized & under control."  Why yes....yes I do, and by many people's standards, my home already appears to be organized and my life appears to be pretty simple.


But let's face it....I can't live my life based on other people's standards.  I have to have a life and a home that meet MY standards, and I suppose my standards are pretty high.  And when I look at those things right now, they are WAY, WAY, WAY off base!


So, where do these seemingly impossible high standards originate from?  Well, where else do such things come from?  My mother, of course!  :)  My older sister & brother and I grew up in a home that was kept immaculately clean and organized by pretty much everyone's standards.  I mean, we weren't even allowed to put trash in the bathroom trashcans!  Those pretty little wicker baskets on the floor were there for decorative purposes...not trash!  It was our norm, a way of life that we accepted succombed to.  And just like everything else that you do by rote, I suppose that level of cleanliness and order became ingrained in me to such an extent that everything else seems sub-par.


My mother and father's home is still maintained to that unseemingly high standard ~ even though my mom would argue that it's often "a mess" (whatever) ~ and while I often join with my siblings in some good-natured humor by poking fun at my mother about her impossibly high standards, I secretly take immense comfort in knowing that any time I go to their home, I am surrounded by all that order and cleanliness!  It truly is a respite for me.  Yeah...I know...I'm a freak! 


And so, due to the fact that I grew up in a home where I had to make my bed almost as soon as my feet hit the floor in the morning, a home where my dad swept and mopped the garage floor almost weekly, a home where my mom swore she could smell dust in the air, and yes...a home where we weren't allowed to put trash in trashcans, I find that I now have grown into an adult where the least bit of disorder or chaos puts me on edge.  And I find that I'm at a point now where things have gotten so far beyond my acceptable level of control that drastic measures have to be taken to get things back in line...and allow me to breathe normally again.


Why am I embarking upon this journey?  In the words of William Shakespeare, "Simply the thing that I am shall make me live."

What am I doing?!?!

So, here I am...making a feeble attempt at writing a blog.  I'm moving into uncharted territory, as I've certainly read many others' blogs, but never thought that I would ever enter into that world myself.  Yet here I am, proving myself wrong...once again!

Basically, I wanted a way to keep track of my latest endeavor, and thought to myself, "Why not give this a try?  Everybody's doing it!"  For you see, I am getting ready to embark upon what I'm sure will be a lengthy and certainly complicated mission ~ I AM GONNA SIMPLIFY MY HOME & MY LIFE!

You may be thinking, "Isn't that a bit oxymoronic?  A COMPLICATED mission to SIMPLIFY your life?"

Why yes...yes it is an oxymoron.  The definition of simplify is this:  to make less complicated, clearer, or easier.  So shouldn't this be an easy task?!?!

My answer is a resounding NO!  This is gonna be hard, but at least I know that going into this.  I am fully aware that trying to live a more simple life in the fast pace of today's world is going to be a challenge....at first.  I am fully aware that trying to organize a home while also sharing it with an ADHD husband and two rambunctious kids is going to be difficult...probably all the time!  And I am fully aware that this is going to be a lifetime journey...not a destination...but in the end, I'm hoping things will just get....

SIMPLER.