I’m delighted to say that I feel SO much better today, and I almost bounced out of bed this morning after a good night’s sleep at last.
It’s the beginning of a new month, and the second quarter of the year, and I wanted to sit down this morning and work out some goals for April, and write them up into a blog post. However, a cursory glance at the state of the house when I went downstairs to make my morning cuppa made me realize that emergency action needed to be taken – it was a complete bombsite after three days of me being ill and everybody else trashing the place!
I don’t know about you, but I NEED a calm, tidy place in which to be before I can gather my thoughts to do any proper planning, organizing or thinking. So I employed my trusty ‘5 minutes per room’ technique, and managed to get all this done:
Lounge
Threw away weekend newspapers and last week’s TV guide
Put magazines back into rack
Polished coffee table
Hoovered rug
Plumped up cushions and refolded throws
Gathered remotes into one place
Dusted TV stand
Gave self extra minute to polish nest of glass tables.
Dining Room
Put away yesterday’s ironing which was still sitting in a big pile on table.
Polished sideboard
Polished table
Dusted chairs
Put chairs on table and hoovered rug, put chairs back down.
Went round edges of room with handheld Dyson
Atrium/Breakfast Room
Put away various coats, shoes etc. This area is a real dumping ground and gets clogged up with stuff all the time.
Put pile of stuff on stairs to go back up and be put away.
Shook table cloth outside to get rid of crumbs and replaced.
Washed up glass fruit bowl
Found a box to put all the little bits of halogen lights in that Ashley took down to repair the ceiling holes at the weekend.
Made a sign to stick on the radiator reminding Ashley to take the cover off it so I can get to the (very dusty) innards with my radiator brush.
Polished sideboard and desk.
Gave self extra two mins to hoover rug.
Landing
General tidy – another big dumping ground.
Sorted a load of laundry to put into machine.
Started washing machine.
Polished chest of drawers.
My Bedroom
Tidied away hundreds of clothes and shoes.
Put away jewellery still sitting around from when we got back from Center Parcs.
Polished chest of drawers and mirrored table.
Kitchen
Stripped the remaining meat off last night’s roast chicken for chicken fried rice tonight and put the bones on to boil for stock.
Changed tea towels, washing up cloths etc for clean ones.
Wiped down (some of) the cupboard fronts.
Tidied some old stuff out of fridge.
Office
Unfortunately, the office is going to take considerably more than five minutes to make any sort of impact at all, so I decided to focus on one thing only, and made up a box containing all the packaging materials that I’ve collected to reuse – various brown paper, tissue, pieces of bubble wrap, jiffy bags and large envelopes. Now at least they’re all in one place, so although the office still looks like a tip, I do feel like my five minutes were worth something!
Spare Bedroom
General tidy.
Made bed – Ashley’s been sleeping in there while I’ve been ill as I’ve been up and down all night and keeping him awake.
Took less than five mins.
I interspersed these five minute bursts of activity with some sitting down, drinking some water, some emailing, a bit of Tweeting and a few mins in the sunshine every now and then, as I’m still not feeling 100% and didn’t want to exhaust myself all over again.
It’s now 12.30 pm, the house is looking a lot more shipshape, William has just got out of bed and had some breakfast (!), and we’re planning a visit to the local Bird of Prey Centre this afternoon.
I didn’t get as far as the bathrooms today, but hey, it’s the Easter holidays – they can wait until tomorrow!
I am sooooooooooo exhausted now!
Glad to hear you’re feeling better!
Victoria xx
Dont over do it – or you will be right back where you started! But I know what you mean, a few days out of action and the place looks like a bomb has hit it…………………..what would they do without us!!
-x-
That’s a very impressive list for someone who has been feeling so poorly, glad there was plenty of rest points in between!
Lisa x
I’ve been doing some of the same things, and making a list for the rest of the week. I may be too late with this advice, but don’t overdo!
I was quite exhausted reading that! It’s true, though, what a difference you can make just be spending 5 minutes tidying an area. I must take a leaf out of your book and try to spend 5 minutes a day in each room of the house doing some tidying now that the Easter break has started.