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Sep 11 2012

20 Days to Organise & Clean your home Challenge – Day 8

Category: Organising

It’s not too late to start!!  Subscribe to the challenge here.  Share your photos on instagram or twitter using #TOH20daychallenge.  Follow along with the discussion on facebook.

<< View the previous task

Unfortunately my site was down for most of the day, thank you all for your patience.  I also note a few of you are not receiving the emails, I am working on this issue with my newsletter provider, I hope this will be solved soon.

Please share your progress of the challenge below

Kids toy room, craft room, spare room or extra living room (one only) - Today’s task is a bit of a mix as I realise all our homes are different, some have a toy room for the kids, you maybe lucky enough to have a space dedicated to your hobby, a spare room or extra 2nd lounge room.  I’d like you to clean at least one of the above rooms.     

Today’s cleaning task is to do the following:

If your cleaning a spare bedroom, find cleaning list here.

If your cleaning a 2nd living area, find cleaning list here.

General room cleaning list:

  • Tidy area by placing all items where they belong
  • Empty bins
  • Dust/wipe over all surfaces
  • Clean window
  • Pick up items from the floor to make vacuuming easier
  • Clean skirting boards
  • Vacuum floor

 This is my craft area which my little girls are now sharing with me, we spend weekends here creating and soon to be sewing as my mum brought a sewing machine for each of my girls.  We hope to finish the quilts they started with her.

Kids Toys  - With Christmas around the corner it’s time to sort through the kids toys and purge, hand down or put away anything they have outgrown or no longer play with.  I have recently had a big clean out in my kids rooms, I will be sharing more details once the challenge has finished.  

While you are sorting take note of what they don’t have, what they need and what they want and add to your gift list in your Christmas Planner.

My kids toy room

 Love the expedit from Ikea to store books, board games, crafts and more

Family Responsibility System - My kids have been helping around the house since they were young, picking up toys from the floor, tidying the bookshelf or helping me dust. I remember when they first asked to unpack the dishwasher I didn’t think they were capable, but they were and they were so pleased to be helping.  My twins are now 9 and half and I have seen that by getting the them to help around the house is teaching them responsibility.  I don’t call them chores as I feel as a family these tasks need to be completed and together we can do it.  I do the dishes, but kids unpack the dishwasher, I fold the washing, the kids put it away.    You’ll find a list here of age appropriate tasks the kids can help you with.  Also read why we give our kids pocket money.

Responsibility Charts, available in shop

Tidy shelf -  Once every 2-3 nights before I give the kids a kiss goodnight I spend 2-3 minutes straighten up a shelf or area of their room, such as books, teddies, clothes or a drawer. I find doing this helps keep their room tidy.  

Hows your Main Bedroom looking after the wonderful clean up you gave it last week?  Today’s task is to spend 5 minutes straightening it up or wiping over surfaces so you can maintain a tidy bedroom.

Day 8 checklist (place in tasks divider)

  

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  • Seleena

    :( Emails arn’t being sent to me any more :( (

    • http://www.facebook.com/amy.reinhardt Amy Reinhardt

      I haven’t received them for the last two days either… not sure why. I’ve added The Organised Housewife email to my contacts just in case… we’ll see if I get it tomorow.

  • http://www.facebook.com/vikki.little.56 Vikki Little

    Hi Kat. Is this your house in the email pictures everyday?

  • sue johnson

    I have not received anything after day 6 please re send thank you. loving the challenge.

  • Kerrie

    Just waiting for the renovations to be finished & we will be getting the expedit bookshelves, I can’t wait!

    • http://www.facebook.com/vikki.little.56 Vikki Little

      I would LOVE the expedit shelves, but don’t have an IKEA here :-(

      • Kerrie

        And I guess there is no chance of ordering online and getting them delivered??? You could always try ebay…

  • rachael

    Hi! Loving the challenge! Just wondering if we are doing the garage at all during the challenge or if I should do some organising in there tomorrow because I don’t have a.spare room/toy room. Thanks!!

  • http://www.facebook.com/beth.hendy Beth Hendy

    Am loving this challenge Katrina, although I’m a tiny bit behind because my three month old is not a fan of sleep during the day! I don’t have any of the rooms you’re describing. Could I do the study instead? Or will this be a separate task? Thanks!

  • Trish

    ooo i can’t wait to do this tomorrow. i’ve been wanting to purge the kids toys from the playroom cupboard and claim back a shelf or two for my crafting things. is it a little over the top that i am getting excited about cleaning a cupboard???

  • http://twitter.com/BecBennett Rebecca Maher

    hmmm… I have all of the above… Which one will I do..? I think I’ll stick with the easiest :)

  • Melouth

    For once having a tiny house is a bonus!! I don’t have ANY of those rooms, It might let me catch up on the rest of the week!

    • http://www.facebook.com/vikki.little.56 Vikki Little

      lol

    • Janine

      I know that feeling too!! We only have one living area thank god!! So I might revisit the laundry as it wasn’t complete last week.

      • Priscilla

        I’m with both of you too. Loving a compact space when it comes to cleaning. However, it does get untidy quickly. Thank you so much Katrina. You have inspired me. Loving this challenge despite being behind.

  • http://www.facebook.com/jo.szegedi Jo Szegedi

    Will the study come later? Otherwise that is my craft-ish area and in part of the toy room…just wondering how much to tackle tomorrow.

  • michelle

    i think im going to take a picture of my spare room and show u how much i have to do tomorrow :

  • http://www.facebook.com/MASands27 Michelle Kavenagh Sands

    well done Katrina for getting this out so quick! thank you.

  • Emma Rudd

    I love all these ideas! Please help me with ideas on declittering a very small bedroom!

  • Bubbles74

    Im so happy to see this one. I’m so far behind and thankfully don’t have any of these rooms. So a catchup day for me. :)

  • renee poje

    i cant do the spare room :( its full of boxes with all my craft stuff but it also has my hubbys DJ set up! I have to wait until he builds his man cave then I can have a big clean out in that room! So might just sort out babys toy box!!

  • Sandy

    Hi katrina i could not open day 7 yesterday for some reason? Is it possible for you to resend it to me? I couldn’t do the challenge yesterday, as the link would not open! Thanks Sandy

    • http://www.theorganisedhousewife.com.au Katrina

      Unfortunately I’m not able to resend them, I don’t have the capability in my newsletter program, however they can be accessed on the website. Sorry L

  • Tammy

    Sunroom/toyroom, here I come.

    Oh, can I do a responsibility chart for hubby too?! He and I supposedly get monthly pocket money (his mostly goes on lunches when there are no leftovers and he doesn’t make sandwiches). We have been fining our kids for being late to school, just recently changed it to fines for jobs left undone before school that Mummy has to do… (I can’t load the dishwasher if they didn’t empty it!), how wonderful if that applied to when hubby forgets to leave work in time to pick kids up from after-school activities, interrupting dinner prep. time for me to do it.

    Seriously, am inspired to do a responsibility chart for the nearly 2yo. He loves sorting the clean cutlery into the drawer, puts his shoes and dirty clothes away, loves helping carry the mail in…

    5 minutes on maintaining the bedroom… maybe I’d better finish the bedroom!

    • http://www.theorganisedhousewife.com.au Katrina

      The kids absolutely love helping, I hope it stays that way when they are 12 J LOL, actually I have considered making a to-do list for hubby printable, what do you think?

      • Tammy

        would love a “Honey Do” list! There are a number of jobs that fit his department better than mine (eg. one of my shelves is unsupported in the middle and has a distinct slope on it!). then when he says “what do you want me to do?” (I can hope!) I know what to say.

        thanks Kat

  • http://www.facebook.com/natalie.alleblas Natalie Alleblas

    Just wanted to mention that on Fri night hubby and I were in bed watching TV and he said it felt like we were in a hotel room because our bedroom was so clean! A week later and it is still very tidy and I love keeping it that way!

    • http://www.theorganisedhousewife.com.au Katrina

      LOL, that’s so good, exactly the way you should feel in your bedroom J Great work Natalie

  • LeanneH

    I started off with such good intentions and then I had to work on my day off and had a bad headache on my other day off…..I’m really behind. So… just wanted some advice – do I jump in where we are or do I try to catch up or just start at the beginning and finish later than everyone?

    • Naomi

      jump to where we are at, then you can tack the missed ones on to the end of the challenge – keeping it flexible for our lives is important

    • http://www.theorganisedhousewife.com.au Katrina

      Jump in where we are, as you can go back and catch up once the 20 days are over, this way you can keep up with the chatter and tasks and not feel as though you are behind.

  • Lisa

    I stumbled upon your blog via Pintrest, and can I tell you that I love it and it has made a huge difference in my home and my life!! My husband has been commenting how great the house looks, and how proud of me he is..he has even been helping! I live in the US, so I get the emails in the middle of the night, but every morning my hubby says “what’s today’s task?” Lol!! I recently stopped getting the emails, but saw that you are working in it, so I’ll be patient and just try to keep up! I seriously can’t thank you enough!! :) xo

  • Cakebaker

    Well this is the toughest part of the challenge for me…..my Dining room has become my cake decorating room……with almost 4 years of accumulated decorating equipment…no storage to speak of and hardly any room left to stack things on….where do I start with this room?…that’s the problem.. I suppose the best way is start from one end and work my way through. I had intended to empty the room and only put back what I wanted to keep and box all the other stuff till I found storage…maybe the exepedit from Ikea might be the answer.

    • http://www.theorganisedhousewife.com.au Katrina

      You have approached it perfectly, I like to start on the left and work my way round. I love the expedit, having the cubes can help you sort all the different items, and the baskets keep them hidden too! Hope you can see a wonderful difference to your room soon.

      • Cakebaker

        Yes, I looked at it again this morning and feel I would waste the time dragging everything out and trying to sort through so will start at the door and follow the mess…….thanks again for taking the time to motivate us…

  • http://www.facebook.com/tam.bell.16 Tam Bell

    Arg the dreaded spare room … aka dumping ground…thats going to have to wait till the weeekend.
    Just a note it should be ‘if you’re cleaning’ not ‘if your cleaning’ :-)

  • Tracey Appel

    I must wait till my rubbish bin is emptied , until I do any more of these task but will keep printing them out daily

    • http://www.theorganisedhousewife.com.au Katrina

      Sounds like you been doing a bit of decluttering! Do you have a rubbish tip nearby?

      • Tracey Appel

        Yes , although I am not paying $45 dollars to use the rubbish tip, I will wait a day or so for it to be empty !! I will try to catch up on the other jobs needed to be done my husband works night shift Sunday- Thursday , so very hard to get to the main bedroom have to do it in sections. Finally sorted laundry, and main bathroom & toilet.

  • http://www.facebook.com/rachael.wilkinson1 Rachael Wilkinson

    Yay! Kids toys done. Also did a toy rotation. My boys are so excited to see some toys they haven’t had out for a while. Something also good to mums would be check batteries. I found one leaky battery!!

    • http://www.theorganisedhousewife.com.au Katrina

      I used to do that too, their old toys were like new ones again

  • Naomi

    Hi Katrina, Thanks for this challenge, I am enjoying getting the house in order. But todays challenge is going to take me 20 days alone. When we had our 2nd child the spare room/ craft room merged with the study and has now become the junk room with everything that doesn’t have a home finding its way there… Help I don’t even know where to start and I think i hoard paperwork but I am worried I will get rid of something important. Could Mr Organised tell me what papers I have to have and how long for? And any additional organising tips on a study/ craft room would be great because I would love to actually do some craft again one day…. Thanks again Love your blog.

  • possumperth

    I had a huge success yesterday, I achieved cleaning our ensuite as my daughter is responsible for the main bathroom as that’s her bathroom. I got some storage containers from Howard’s, went home, pulled everything out of the cabinet, cleaned, sorted everything into certain piles, put stuff that I’ve been holding onto for no good reason into the to market pile, put it back in & felt so cleansed by this I then dusted & sorted our bedroom side tables, dressing tables junk drawer, & the walkinwardrobe. & I did the top shelf of the linen cupboard. (I saw your laundry/linen cupboard & it inspired me to put the big blankets into my spare plastic crates) & I felt so much better at the end f the day. I’ve felt so lost over the last 8 months with giving up work, not having to run kids about as she now works fulltime & drives herself about. I sat down Sunday night, set myself a routine in my iPad calendar & I have stuck to it for 3 days & achieved so much & my husband is so proud of me & so happy with how everything looking. A big Thankyou Katrina for giving me inspiration to reorganize myself. I appreciate your tips so much. Xx:)

  • Renae

    Loving your work but havnt received any emails for the last 3 challenges either … Can you please resend to me! Thanks x

  • Lee

    Im loving this and i recently had a massive clean up as i have a function at my place so the daily tasks have been a bit easier as alot od it was done for the function. However i havnt been getting the challanges emailed to me this week

  • http://twitter.com/SexyMomGP Corenne Tavares

    Choosing a room today will be tough – I have a hobby room, 2nd lounge and we have a home office … Maybe I’ll stay in the office today since I’m busy with filing anyhow. Loving the challenge – hubby even noticed the fridge. Hope you’ll give us a schedule for AFTER the 20 days ? hint hint!

  • http://www.facebook.com/maryanne.greenhill Maryanne Greenhill

    Thanks Katrina, this challenge is working out beautifully for our home, wish I could upload a photo for you.

  • Emma

    My sewing room looks fantastic. Thank you for making me tackle that room. I wish my shelves looked like yours though. I’ll have to work on that.

  • yermomma

    Your home looks amazing..chic & neat…like I wish mine did! Congrats and thank you for this mommy community service you provide by taking time out to post all of this. I may not do all this, but you art least inspire me to do & be more. :)

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