My lunch break came up fast today. I hurried home for a quick bite to eat and played with Sadie for 10 minutes or so before I had to drive back to work.
Speaking of Sadie, here are a few pictures I snapped last night during our family playtime in the backyard before dinner.
I love that little rascal! And yes, her face really is getting more and more white hairs every day. They are simply her highlights and she is not aging. She will live to be 800 years old.
Lunch
I only wanted one thing for lunch today.
An almond butter and jelly sandwich. And it totally hit the spot!
Served with a clementine…
And a cup of Greek yogurt topped with a bit of honey.
I’ll try to sneak in some vegetables at dinner, I promise.
Clean All The Things Week
On Sunday night, I told Ryan I am proclaiming this week “Clean All The Things Week” in our house.
(If the “clean all the things” reference is lost on you, please read this hysterical blog post: This Is Why I’ll Never Be An Adult.)
I’ve seen Chores Charts on Pinterest, but I wanted to try something different and tackle organization on a small but thorough scale. Each evening after work, Ryan and I are going through a different closet, bathroom, bedroom, dresser or cabinet. Exciting stuff is happening in the Fagan household, my friends.
At this rate, Clean All The Things Week may actually become Clean All The Things Month, but yesterday we went through two closets and pulled out a blankets, towels, games and craft supplies that we haven’t used in ages and plan to donate. By limiting our cleaning objective of the day to something as simple as a bedroom dresser, I don’t feel overwhelmed about going through the entire house. Just one little thing at a time!
Question of the Afternoon
- Do you follow any sort of cleaning chart or plan when it comes to cleaning your house or apartment?
- Is your house or apartment always neat or messy or somewhere in between?
Ryan and I say we live in a house that is always 15 minutes away from looking clean. So if you’re ever going to stop by, give us a 15-minute warning, okay?
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I like breaking up cleaning over several days so that it’s not so overwhelming. I have different chores I do each night after supper so that I don’t spend any time cleaning on the weekend. And, my husband and I are in the habit of tidying up every night so that our place always looks organized.
When it comes to my yearly organization/deep clean time I do like you and break it out over a one or two week period so that I don’t make myself go crazy!!
That’s a great idea to take things a step at a time. There are some things that I do on a regular basis such as clean my bathroom and clean the floors, but then there are things that I put off until I can’t take it anymore. Like my closet right now. It’s horrendous. Thanks for the reminder to get to work!
Lovin’ Sadie’s stylish highlights 😉 And it has been SO long since I’ve had a PB/AB and jelly. Must have one soon.
My roommate and I generally keep our apt organized and clean. With less than 800 sq. ft. it’s hard not to be organized. That being said I usually clean my closet and dresser once a month to make sure it isn’t over flowing. I always make my bed in the morning, makes me feel so much better
My cat is starting to get highlights, too! 😉
Before my boyfriend moved in, I was very OCD about having a neat house with everything put away. Now that we live together it’s clean, but there are a few things “out of place” at all times. I love decluttering and throwing stuff away/donating, so every month we walk through the entire place and get rid of what we don’t use anymore. When we first started doing this, it took forever, but now that we do it monthly, we typically only have one to two bags full of stuff to donate.
I’m back living at home and my dad is mr clean and tidy! He’s a little obsessive about it but I will admit it comes in handy!
Love the Hyperbole and a Half shout-out! One of my favorite blogs ever, besides Peanut Butter Fingers. 🙂
I always try to wipe things down and start my laundry and dishes after work, but before I go out of Friday so all I have to do during the weekend is unload, fold and cook (which doesn’t always happen, but at least it can be hidden!! lol) As for cleaning out closets, I’m in the process of that right now. I swear I have ADD with the Olympics. Slowly but surely?
Other than than, my house looks pretty clean. I keep everything out of sight, so that helps A LOT!
My house is pretty clean all the time, but only because I have a dedicated house-cleaning morning one day a week on one of my exercise rest days. I never miss a workout and I never miss a cleaning session!
I love Ryan’s saying! That’s me, but don’t look in the closets! I so want to be neat & tidy, but I live alone & things just don’t always get put back where they came from in a timely fashion.
I just used that hyperbole in my post today!! I really love having a clean apartment, messes stress me out…but Jonah (although I love him dearly) just don’t care about messes. SO I mostly have to deal with the messes…he is helpful about actually cleaning rooms like the bathroom though. He also cooks. I really can’t complain about him – he’s quite domestic, just doesn’t care about “little messes” or clutter like I do.
Mmmm…almond butter and jelly sandwich! Sometimes all I crave is a good PB&J too 🙂 Something about it always hits the spot!
Agreed! Always has been a favorite… always will be a favorite! 🙂
I love this idea! I definitely need to institute “Clean all the things” week/month at my house too!
I take a whole week off work every year and clean EVERYTHING and sort it, and give some to charity, sell some, etc. It’s a great feeling!
HAHAHA yes yes and yes. I just need a few minutes heads up and I promise our house will look livable! I love the Hyperbole and a Half, too funny. Love The Oatmeal as well 🙂
I did a huge clean of my bathroom and kitchen this weekend, maybe eventually Ill get around to my closet.
I do small cleaning throughout the week, then a deeper clean on the weekend along with laundry. I am bad about letting mail & magazines pile up, so about once a month I go through the stack of madness.
I am an organizing freak! I love cleaning and organizing different rooms, closets, and cabinets. Sometimes I will make a mess of things just so I can clean it (is that weird) – there is something very therapeutic about cleaning. 🙂 Good luck on your week of cleaning “all things”.
15 minutes away clean is good! I don’t have a set cleaning schedule necessarily but I definitely regularly go through my things to get rid of stuff and keep clutter at bay.
I’ve been craving PB&J lately! Reminds me of my childhood 😉 I have to be in the mood to clean. If I am, the whole house is spotless by the end of the day. If I’m not, I continue to live in a pigsty!
I love almond butter and jelly together! As far as cleaning, I am only motivated by intense spurts of cleaning and organizing and try to do a solid 30 minutes of that a day. If I can do it most days at some point, everything stays fairly clean. My system works for me.
My husband is currently studying for his personal trainer certification so me, my cousin and one of my best friends are his guinea pigs 🙂 Let’s just say…..my legs are SORE today from our Tuesday morning 4:30am workout! I absolutely love working out with him because he pushes me and I’ll actually listen. I’d probably ditch sessions with a Personal Trainer. This way I’m more accountable because I live with him hahaha.
Nick and I did a huge clean out over the Christmas break! It wasn’t fun but it was so worth it in the end.
Aww – love the pictures of Sadie. My boyfriend and I have a running joke that my dog Charley will “always be 2 years old”. We don’t have kids but live together – and she is DEFINITELY the baby (&spoiled!). Even though she’s 5 going on 6 years, the excuse is “she’s only 2!!!” 🙂 Hate to think of her getting any older than that!
I actually have an organization challenge going on this month for my blog 🙂 I have been tackling some small area every day and it is SO great! I am getting so much accomplished because i’m not looking at tackling everything that needs done at once! It’s a great feeling 🙂
I keep my apartment fairly clean. It might be because I don’t have any room for clutter in my teeny apartment!
My apartment is usually picked up (like stuff isn’t everywhere) but actually clean is a whole other issue. I am horrible at cleaning!
I have a cleaning chart that I made myself. Each day, I tackle a different room. For example: Mondays = kitchen; Tuesdays = bathrooms, etc. That way I only have to spend about 20-30 minutes each day cleaning. I also try to do deep cleaning stuff once every 1-2 months whenever I think about it and/or have the time. I also really don’t like clutter, so I try to make sure everything has a “home”, and make sure everything is put away before bed so I can wake up to a clutter free house.
Our home is pretty clean and tidy for the most part. I like yours and Ryan’s “15 minute” thing – I would say ours is about the same. It stresses me out when I have a messy/dirty house, and I like to have it fairly clean in case someone wants to drop by last minute. But at the same time, I want us to feel like we can live in our house without it having to look perfect all the time.
Clearly I’ve put way too much thought into all of this! Ha!
My husband and I keep trying to clean one thing each day (ex. counter tops/dusting on Monday, bathroom on Tuesday, floors on Wednesday, etc.) but we keep dropping the ball after one day. We wind up doing a massive scrubbing/organizing on the weekends!
I’m OCD when it comes to cleaning, so yes, my house would be pretty clean 95% of the time. I deep clean every other week, but pretty much keep the house clean and tidy throughout the week. I organize closets and cabinets about every two-three months. I cannot go to bed with any shoes out of place or dishes in my sink.
I know….I told you I was a bit obsessed! I just cannot stand clutter.
I deemed February my organization month. Each day of the month, I’ve gone through an area of the house and organized it. Feels so nice!
The hubs and I have a system that works great for us! We have Group A chores (clean the bathrooms, wash the sheets and vacuum the carpet) and Group B (dust, sweep the floors and mop). One week I’m Group A and he’s Group B, the next we switch so I’m B and he’s A and so on. The deal is that all of the chores in the group have to be done by Sunday night allowing us to choose to procrastinate or do something every other day. And we have to both help do the little things like pick up our dishes, put away our coats/shoes and do laundry. This system works for us because we both feel like we’re equally contributing, the house stays tidy and with set expectations there is no nagging!
I love this idea, totally stealing it from you : )
I’m a super brat and we have a house cleaner that comes every other Tuesday. It is by far the best use of my money because I just hate to deep clean. Hate it! I do laundry every Saturday (mine and Keith’s) and thankfully our nanny does Trey’s. We also take turns loading and unloading the dishwasher although I think I do it more than Keith! Ha! Other than that we don’t do much else.
I don’t follow a cleaning chart (although they seem like a good idea) I just tend to clean things as they seem to need it. I think my apartment is always either clean or 15 minutes away from clean too. That being said I do need to go through my closet and donate some stuff soon. I love that you guys are tackling it one closet/dresser/whatever at a time, that makes it so much more manageable, and I’m sure you’ll feel so good when it’s all done.
Sadie is so cute! I need to have a clean all the things week too. I feel like my house is always full of little messes.
I love that…”15 minutes away from looking clean”. That’s us too. Sometimes maybe 20 because I have a one year old who comes with 6 trillion toys. I think the key is to keep things semi clean as you go. Little efforts make a big difference. But everything is always better when it’s clean 🙂
My roommates and I like to keep our house pretty tidy, as well!! We keep a list on the fridge of “Daily Considerations” that just make keeping up with house work a lot easier!
-Libby
sometimes you just need an almond butter sandwich to hit the spot! and greek yogurt + honey is one of my favorite snacks – especially 2%, adds that bit of extra creaminess that makes all the difference!
I thinks my apartment is always a clean mess, at least that’s how I like to think of it. I usually clean right after CrossFit on Saturdays.
I have tried several times to stick to a cleaning schedule but always end up not following it. As my schedule gets busier I really need to find something that works for me!
Hmmmmm never ever thought about breaking things up, you know! I’m the type to get very overwhelmed with cleaning things out because I just don’t know where to start sometimes. (organization type stuff is my weakness unfortunately, wahhh) But this is great motivation to do something about the monster living in my closet right now, lol! And my husband and I have a chore white board but, uhhhhhh with our schedules changing up so much we tend to forget about all of it and just do chores as we go. I just can’t get myself to stick to planned things and always end up doing things as I go! Bad, bad habit…haha. Can you tell that part about my personality really bothers me? 😛
Your pictures of Sadie always make me miss my dog, Riley, who is way too far from me at my parents’ house!
I agree with tackling cleaning in small chunks…unless I get into a weird mood where I want/need to clean, can blast one-hit wonders from the 90s, and attack everything in one go. This may happen on occasion…
Hahaha, I love that — “clean all the things!”
I am the same way … about 10-15 minutes away from being clean & ready for guests! Sometimes when life gets busy my space gets messier, but that’s life I suppose!
I like Clean All the Things week 🙂 last weekend I’d taken a bunch of stuff out of my closet and told myself that I’d organize it one step at a time. Tackling one piece each night makes it so much easier!
I keep my room clean and clean up after myself but living with roommates doesn’t guarantee that it’ll be clean!
My house is always about a half hour away from being clean, lol! I don’t follow any chart or organization. My theory is, clean it when it looks dirty. Haha, very grown up.
my apartment goes between slightly messy and mostly clean. Definitely depends on how much homework and activities I have!
Ugh, I am the worst housekeeper ever ever ever! My house is always like cleanISH, but not totally what it could be.
Also, I drive home almost every day to let my little dog out to poop. If I don’t, she’ll poop on the floor! Glad I’m not the only dog mom who has to do this! Luckily, I live super super close to my job. My honest hope is that eventually, I will be blogging full-time and I don’t have to leave anywhere to walk my dog!
I know exactly what you mean, cleaning can be totally overwhelming. I don’t usually make plans to clean, I just get in the mood and go at it. Three hours later I realize I’ve barely made a dent in all the things that need to be done. It’s best to approach cleaning in stages than try to take it on all at once 🙂
I love this idea! Great way to make cleaning a little more manageable. And I totally agree about the 15 minutes to looking clean thing. Or maybe more like 30 in our case haha.