Home Maintenance: Cleaning, Organizing, Purging and Regular Upkeep

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Weedygarden said:
I saw this list and think it is helpful to know. Even if you weren't doing a big purge and reorganizing like I am doing, this is still a lot of work to do!

Spring cleaning checklist
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:cry: :cry::cry:
 
I keep all my big kitchen stuff on shelves in the basement. Yep, they get dusty, but I don't look at them till I need them. Stuff I use is too large to keep in the kitchen...foodsaver, big pots, meat grinder, wondermill, pressure canner, water bath canner, electric pressure canner. I bring up what I'm using and take it back down when I'm done. All the back up coffee makers, too. Ha.
 
Amish Heart said:
I keep all my big kitchen stuff on shelves in the basement. Yep, they get dusty, but I don't look at them till I need them. Stuff I use is too large to keep in the kitchen...foodsaver, big pots, meat grinder, wondermill, pressure canner, water bath canner, electric pressure canner. I bring up what I'm using and take it back down when I'm done. All the back up coffee makers, too. Ha.
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These things are great to have, but are the things that I don't have room for, unless I want a cluttered mess. I have had a cluttered mess, but I am working to make it go away. I have a very nice shed, built with house building materials, sealed up, that can protect lots of the small appliances and things that only get used a few times here and there and do not need heating or cooling, just protection from the elements and critters.

For example, I have a bin for all the food saver supplies, but the bin is not large enough for the food saver. I like the bins because they consistently hold many things, or the kit of things for one activity and stack up nicely. I want to cover things so that they won't get dirty from just being there. Thus the bins, and the few clear bags for the things that won't go into bins.

The big pots, the canners, the canning jars, the lids, the canning supplies? These are not in regular use, at least for me, so they need a home, together. This has just built up for me, buying one box of jars here and there, another box of canning lids, etc. on and on.

I have said for a long time, and especially when I worked so many hours a week, the 12 to 15 hour days, that I don't like to chase dirt. This is my problem with house keeping and cleaning. It is a lot of chasing dirt. I am also someone who has a hard time doing the same thing over and over, repeated motions, unless it is creative, such as embroidery. But I also like a clean house! It is a challenge for me. God bless everyone who likes to clean! I envy that!

And my grandmothers who raised me and who lived during the Great Depression and saved everything? That training is so difficult to change! Like being a member of the clean plate club! Thus, the trash bins being filled up over and over now for weeks on end. Once I start pitching stuff, I can keep at it. It is the starting that is hard for me, but I am on it now. Nestle's Quick dated 2012? Gone! Stacks of sour cream and yogurt containers? Gone! I can eat some outdated food, depending on what it is and the date on it, but once the purge starts, I can get rid of lots of outdated stuff and have been. If this was an annual thing, much of it would just need a little tweaking.

I think this belongs in the rant section!
 
It's alot of hard work! You're doing well, Weedy! I purged some today in the small garage, but mostly just got it cleaned up. The tools could use some sorting again, but they're not too bad. I notice they get messed up when our son is visiting. Cleaning is not my favorite thing, but I really dislike messy, so I keep at it. Still have lots of windows to do. This old house has a ton of windows. But it's not just the window...it's both sides of it, it's the screen, and then it's the blinds inside. Takes awhile. I just three out some baking powder dated back to 2017. Usually I'm better at keeping up with that. The baking shelf stuff got a little buried. Canned foods are cleaned out very well. The medical shelving will be a big project that I'm not ready to do yet.
 
Weedygarden said:
These things are great to have, but are the things that I don't have room for, unless I want a cluttered mess. I have had a cluttered mess, but I am working to make it go away. I have a very nice shed, built with house building materials, sealed up, that can protect lots of the small appliances and things that only get used a few times here and there and do not need heating or cooling, just protection from the elements and critters.

For example, I have a bin for all the food saver supplies, but the bin is not large enough for the food saver. I like the bins because they consistently hold many things, or the kit of things for one activity and stack up nicely. I want to cover things so that they won't get dirty from just being there. Thus the bins, and the few clear bags for the things that won't go into bins.

The big pots, the canners, the canning jars, the lids, the canning supplies? These are not in regular use, at least for me, so they need a home, together. This has just built up for me, buying one box of jars here and there, another box of canning lids, etc. on and on.

I have said for a long time, and especially when I worked so many hours a week, the 12 to 15 hour days, that I don't like to chase dirt. This is my problem with house keeping and cleaning. It is a lot of chasing dirt. I am also someone who has a hard time doing the same thing over and over, repeated motions, unless it is creative, such as embroidery. But I also like a clean house! It is a challenge for me. God bless everyone who likes to clean! I envy that!

And my grandmothers who raised me and who lived during the Great Depression and saved everything? That training is so difficult to change! Like being a member of the clean plate club! Thus, the trash bins being filled up over and over now for weeks on end. Once I start pitching stuff, I can keep at it. It is the starting that is hard for me, but I am on it now. Nestle's Quick dated 2012? Gone! Stacks of sour cream and yogurt containers? Gone! I can eat some outdated food, depending on what it is and the date on it, but once the purge starts, I can get rid of lots of outdated stuff and have been. If this was an annual thing, much of it would just need a little tweaking.

I think this belongs in the rant section!
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Not really. It’s a good reminder and I seldom visit the rant thread. On those sour cream containers (and the like) - if you have a senior center, they often appreciate them as they often send leftovers home with folks. That’s another stop but it would also free up a little more garbage space.
I keep my canning stuff out in the summer kitchen- like you and AH, no room in the kitchen.
 
LadyLocust said:
I keep my canning stuff out in the summer kitchen- like you and AH, no room in the kitchen.
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A summer kitchen would be lovely, but I don't have one. I can see why people have them. A friend lived in an older home and had a butler's pantry. That would also be great for holding those things like the large roasting pan that we use for the Thanksgiving turkey, so it gets used maybe once or twice a year.

If I was in South Dakota, those sour cream cartons could go to the senior citizen center where they do serve lunch and deliver lunch to shut ins. But there are not any close to me here. I have saved them for seed starting, but I have way too many.
 
Amish Heart said:
Still have lots of windows to do. This old house has a ton of windows. But it's not just the window...it's both sides of it, it's the screen, and then it's the blinds inside. Takes awhile.
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This is the kind of thing that if I could clean one window a day and all of the details of it, that would be a good day. Realistically, I know I cannot. I have 16 windows and some of them require ladders to clean inside, but all require ladders outside. That is why I am going to hire the two guys who clean my neighbors windows to just do the basic cleaning of them inside and out. And the screens and storm windows? I don't even know. I think if I cleaned them, I could be at it for a month or two in between seeing dogs and house sitting.

I can clean the blinds and curtains, but have a couple windows to replace the curtains, including the rods. I have mini blinds on almost all windows, but not the kitchen and stair well windows.

There were no window coverings when I bought the house. (HUD, vacant for a few years prior to me purchasing it. The rods had been stolen for the metal to sell, along with the copper pipes in the basement) I used sheets and blankets stapled up until I could special order blinds to fit and get them up. That was a good couple year's process!

Cleaning the blinds is a chore!

None of this is quick nor easy. It is all a struggle! But I am going to keep at it until I am finished, incapable, or deceased! And then I will start over again!
 
I envy all of you with lots of windows (my place has 6 total and they are small at 36"x30") until I have to wash them. The little and few windows goes real fast. The tilt in which is fantastic since I live over the over-normal-height garage. It housed my grandfather's refrigerated meat trucks.
 
I have made a to-do list for the week. It does help to remind me of what I want to get done.

Last week was slow for me. I didn't get as much done, but I did get some stuff done. I still have work to do in the kitchen, but I am also working in bedrooms. A little every day helps.

My biggest problem is that I can organize and organize, but when I get to the end of it, for some reason, all the piddly pieces are harder for me at the end. I can do a lot on any project, but the end of it may never get done.
 
May as well mention it here.

Take care in stacking buckets with gamma seal lids!

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The Princess informed me after she found the problem so I can't report exactly how it happened. There may have been two other buckets stacked on top of it.

So be gentle when stacking and keep the heavy buckets at the bottom of the stack.

Ben
 
So this past canning season, we had soo many green beans and tomatoes. I gave tons away, but still had tons and couldn’t let them go to waste so canned them. I have/had too many to fit in the pantry. We’ve been eating it down. I’ve been staying on it since the extra was stacked in crates in our little office area. Today I finally got enough consolidated and rotated into the pantry so I could put my cobbler machine back where it belongs and not in the way.
 
Making decisions is so hard. Doing all the sorting and cleaning and packing and moving last year, I purged a LOT of stuff! Donations, trash, scrap metal, away it went! Now I'm trying to unpack while remodeling the new place, which is a whole 'nother sort of of challenge! And, as projects have come up, I've wanted some of the stuff I got rid of last year. For instance, I want to install a mantel over my new woodstove, but it will need a heat shield. The shelves from an old metal bookcase that I got rid of last year would have been perfect to make over into the heat shield. Sometimes it seems like I just can't win.
My brother was looking at the hot water heater for me yesterday; while he was doing that, I found one little thing I could start on in the overwhelmingness of the basement and washed down some storage shelves in the utility room and unpacked, organized, and stacked six boxes of canning jars. Started a tote for kitchen gadgets; may get rid of some more of them as I get them sorted. It wasn't much, but it was a start. For now my big canning pots and dehydrator and pressure canner and so on have to go on the shelves in the basement, but I have plans to build a mudroom in part of the garage, and it will include storage for those big things. I'm getting to the point that I really don't like carrying heavy things up and down stairs anymore.
 
I get the not wanting to carry heavy things up and down the stairs thing. Last year I swore would be the last time I carried the portable AC's up stairs to the bedrooms. I normally put them away in another building when fall hits, but no more. They must weigh 60 lbs each. There is no heat or air upstairs, and heat isn't a problem with the woodburner downstairs, but when we have guests in the summertime, they seem to melt. So I put them all in a corner in the upstairs family room last fall. They'll stay upstairs.
 
Heartbroken said:
Making decisions is so hard. Doing all the sorting and cleaning and packing and moving last year, I purged a LOT of stuff! Donations, trash, scrap metal, away it went! Now I'm trying to unpack while remodeling the new place, which is a whole 'nother sort of of challenge! And, as projects have come up, I've wanted some of the stuff I got rid of last year. For instance, I want to install a mantel over my new woodstove, but it will need a heat shield. The shelves from an old metal bookcase that I got rid of last year would have been perfect to make over into the heat shield. Sometimes it seems like I just can't win.
My brother was looking at the hot water heater for me yesterday; while he was doing that, I found one little thing I could start on in the overwhelmingness of the basement and washed down some storage shelves in the utility room and unpacked, organized, and stacked six boxes of canning jars. Started a tote for kitchen gadgets; may get rid of some more of them as I get them sorted. It wasn't much, but it was a start. For now my big canning pots and dehydrator and pressure canner and so on have to go on the shelves in the basement, but I have plans to build a mudroom in part of the garage, and it will include storage for those big things. I'm getting to the point that I really don't like carrying heavy things up and down stairs anymore.
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Decision weary is a thing. You are still making progress!
 
Weedygarden said:
Lets talk about this! Tips are encouraged!

I am not a good housekeeper. I try, but I have too many distractions. My daughter thinks she gets her A.D.D. from me, and she might be right, but I have never been diagnosed. I would much rather be sewing, reading, gardening, painting, beading, hanging out with dogs, on and on, than doing the same mundane chores over and over.

Many years ago I read a book,

Sidetracked Home Executives(TM): From Pigpen to Paradise​

by Peggy Jones, Pam Young, Peggy Brace, Pam; Jones
They have a couple other books as well.

They have a system of home maintenance that I have used, but get distracted from being able to keep up with it. They have daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal, annual things to do to maintain your home. They created an index card system. I made it up for myself when my now 40 year old daughter was an infant.

Start with the daily chores, and keep doing them. This involves doing dishes, making beds, cleaning toilets, sinks.

They have one more involved cleaning day a week.

They also recommend to start at the front door and to go through every drawer, cabinet, bin, basket, and organize, purge, fix, repair, replace, mend or whatever needs to be done. I have started that many times, many years. I have never finished! Why? Because gardening comes along, and I would much rather be digging in dirt and watching plants grow.

Am I alone?

I do go through closets and organize and purge and organize. One time I cleaned my clothes closet and realized that it had been many years since I had gone through it. I think I had 7 garbage bags of clothing to donate.

How about you? Is your house pristine, clean, organized and maintained?
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No my house is not at the moment.
But slowly working towards military spic and span.
Every thing has a place and everything in it's place.
Really dislike visual clutter. Now that things aren't as fuzzy, hazy will be getting back on track.
 
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Weedygarden said:
I continue to do a little something every day. I have filled about 4 of the bins today, but have found other things. This morning the label maker wouldn't turn on. It needed new batteries so I had to get some. It's good. The extra batteries will go into my battery storage container.

One thing I buy here and there are spices, especially when they are on sale. If things like garlic powder are on sale, I buy some. Today I worked on a few different kitchen things, but one that I have been working on is the organization of things like extra foil, wax paper, parchment paper, zip bags, etc. I've been keeping that in a couple baskets, standing the boxes on end.

What did I find in the two baskets where I had been keeping these extras? A few small spice jars, unopened, new. My travel sized toiletries keep doing the same thing. I found another zip bag of them a couple days ago. On the to do list is to do a good inventory of the spices I have, large and small containers, and the extras. I started that list when I was putting up my spice racks last year.

Since I am using these IRIS bins with snap on lids, the size is uniform and I can stack these bins about 6 high. But there are things like large foil, 3 gallon zip bags, some parchment paper, that just doesn't fit. Not the end of the world, but there will be something that I will need to find a specialized bin for.

I told a friend that I could work on this project for a full year and maybe not be done. When I am done with the main part of the house, minus the basement, garage and sheds, I am going to hire someone to help do some cleaning. I am doing some as I go, but things like the windows could all use a good cleaning. My neighbors have professional window washers come clean their windows a couple times a year. These guys have good ladders for the second story windows and they have specialized tools. Better than me breaking my neck.

And starting seedlings needs to happen soon!
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Get a magazine bin, mine are wire mesh or wooden, hang them on the inside of you cabinet doors.
Put your boxed foil, zip locks, parchment paper in those standing on end.
 
MoBookworm1957 said:
Get a magazine bin, mine are wire mesh or wooden, hang them on the inside of you cabinet doors.
Put your boxed foil, zip locks, parchment paper in those standing on end.
Click to expand...
I have dispensers for them, wooden, that I got at Costco recently. I buy the largest roll of foil that I can and by the time I am finished with the roll, the box is in bad shape. It is the same with plastic wrap. It can be so difficult to get a piece off after I've had the box for a while. These wooden dispensers are great. They have a slide cutter on them.
 
Bluedanube said:
We have an organized chaos sort of household. I was in the basement over Christmas for several days doing a full mucking out. We have been here 16 years and it finally got to a point that I was angry every time I went looking for something. We remodeled the kitchen and our master bathroom over the last couple of years and our little barn was stacked with old cabinets and construction materials. My husband found homes with friends for a bunch of it and then did a dump run. That opened up space to get anything that didn’t need a conditioned space out of the house. I then purchased a bunch of racks to get stuff off the floor in the basement and still have mobility in case I need to move things. All my canning stuff is now findable and we have less stacking of the canned goods for easier access. Nothing even close to some of those ocd YouTuber videos where they appear to have 10k square feet of basement to organize everything in, but at least it’s accessible. We do try to keep the upstairs “presentable” with at least a weekly floor cleaning and bathrooms. With animals and multiple large menfolk, it’s not possible to be even close to “pristine”! We do have a mudroom where it’s REQUIRED that they put the coats and outdoor shoes. They can transfer to slippers or flip flops if they want, but the dirt needs to be left out there, otherwise I’d be able to plant crops in the living room! The attached picture is about ⅓ of our basement. It’s a hard working space with canned and dry goods storage, freezers, washer and dryer, water heater, pressure tank and jet pump from the well, and the husbands literal man cave. All that and it’s only 70” to the bottom of the floor joists so all of us have to duck when walking around
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We had some work done on the house about 20 years ago. Hail damaged roof in one valley, water leaked into daughter's bedroom and damaged the then plastered walls. Roof got replaced and I took down all the plaster in her room and we replaced it with drywall. Daughter moved all of her stuff to the largest bedroom while we worked on her room. Daughter's room got finished, painted. Daughter selected what she wanted to be back in her bedroom and that other bedroom has never been the same. Certainly no one has slept in there since. I have done some work in there. I have several boxes of books to get rid of, some sewing stuff to sort through, and a few more things.

I am still working on the home maintenance project.

Working in the yard has been a distraction. Like the house, I try to do something out there every day. My composting bin is full, which doesn't happen every week, but it will for several weeks now.

I have kept a large basket in my car for all the things I use when I am out and about with dogs. Blankets, various hats, gloves, mittens, box of tissues, water for me, sun screen, insect repellant (don't really use it much in Colorado), dog treats, spare leash, first aid kit, blanket. I had 3 dogs one day last week and left the basket at home. Now I have cleaned the basket out and put the basket items into a couple bins. I seem to blow my nose a lot and I use tissues daily, so that box of tissues is essential. However, by the time a box is empty, it is so destroyed. I have thought about what to do about that for years and now I have a solution, keeping it in a bin.
 
In the fall, we are able to glean the farm fields around us. We get an abundance of onions. This morning I went through and sorted (again) and now have only one milk crate of onions left. I feel fortunate because I have to begin sorting about Jan. These should make it through the end of the month, but the spot I had them now looks empty. I still need to sweep up down there.
 
Weedygarden said:
Lets talk about this! Tips are encouraged!

I am not a good housekeeper. I try, but I have too many distractions. My daughter thinks she gets her A.D.D. from me, and she might be right, but I have never been diagnosed. I would much rather be sewing, reading, gardening, painting, beading, hanging out with dogs, on and on, than doing the same mundane chores over and over.

Many years ago I read a book,

Sidetracked Home Executives(TM): From Pigpen to Paradise​

by Peggy Jones, Pam Young, Peggy Brace, Pam; Jones
They have a couple other books as well.

They have a system of home maintenance that I have used, but get distracted from being able to keep up with it. They have daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal, annual things to do to maintain your home. They created an index card system. I made it up for myself when my now 40 year old daughter was an infant.

Start with the daily chores, and keep doing them. This involves doing dishes, making beds, cleaning toilets, sinks.

They have one more involved cleaning day a week.

They also recommend to start at the front door and to go through every drawer, cabinet, bin, basket, and organize, purge, fix, repair, replace, mend or whatever needs to be done. I have started that many times, many years. I have never finished! Why? Because gardening comes along, and I would much rather be digging in dirt and watching plants grow.

Am I alone?

I do go through closets and organize and purge and organize. One time I cleaned my clothes closet and realized that it had been many years since I had gone through it. I think I had 7 garbage bags of clothing to donate.

How about you? Is your house pristine, clean, organized and maintained?
Click to expand...
You're not alone.

I am not a horder, but it takes time to gather up trash. I do pretty well at that. My work surfaces are neat and clean. My desk is fine. But if anyone looks along the baseboards of my house they will see that I don't do the fine-tune vacuuming very often. It has been a while since I have done a closet purge. That is one of the things I neglect.

My bed is made. The kitchen is always clean. I can't tolerate a messy kitchen. But the little things around the edges lose out to .........forum posting and stuff like that.
 
Neb said:
May as well mention it here.

Take care in stacking buckets with gamma seal lids!

View attachment 127038

View attachment 127039

View attachment 127041

The Princess informed me after she found the problem so I can't report exactly how it happened. There may have been two other buckets stacked on top of it.

So be gentle when stacking and keep the heavy buckets at the bottom of the stack.

Ben
Click to expand...
I think I have read to not stack them higher than three, but there are also people who put boards across a row of buckets to somewhat distribute the weight. It would be great to have shelves where the buckets would fit and we could pull out one at a time without disturbing the others. Likely someone has done that, but it is not so easy for all of us to do that.
 
I continue with my goal and processing everything in my home. I continue to build my donate pile.

I had a dog boarding with me for 11 days who went home last night and I try my best to stay home when I have dogs here so the donation pile is still here and growing. I would take dog and donations in the car, but not enough room for that. I have a busy day today, but will make it something to do tomorrow, to take the donations to a thrift store.

I have been doing lots outside, but I have been doing other organizing and cleaning here and there as well. What is interesting for me is that the bins for containing and organizing would have seemed a little much before, but collecting like things together into the bins and labeling them has already made a difference for me. I remember when I did that in my classroom. Someone would walk into my classroom and ask to borrow something and I could find it so easily. I keep gathering things, going through drawers (40 on the first floor) and cabinets.

An example is writing utensils. I have a few plastic pencil boxes that I buy when I see them reduced. I have used them for various things, but now I have one of the bins with 4 pencil boxes. Colored pencils, Sharpies, markers, pencils, and still have room for crayons, and a few other related items in the bin. These used to be here and there, scattered.

One of my upcoming organization projects will be my tool cabinet that is in my house. I have tools out in the garage, and have organized and reorganized that stuff a few times. It is too easy for things to get messed up and not reorganized, at least for me.
 
When we moved that’s one thing that was taken care of: my parents got to take their stuff and my kids (young adults) got to take all of their stuff and we got rid of a bunch of our own stuff. I had to state that I was not the family storage unit.
 
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