In an attempt to both build my blogging skills and get my house clean, I decided to create a daily diary of the trials and tribulations of taking a three bedroom, four cat house from trainwreck to triumph. You get to ride along if you so chose.

First off, let me say that I hate housework with a passion that cannot be described…but I just had my first hour-long session on my new regimen, and it was sort of fun.

Several things conspired to make it so:

• Being finally fed up with the sheer mess of it…
• Having a new (and rather literal) gameplan for getting it done.
• A good book from Audible to pass the time.

My new “gameplan” is this:

I made a chart of the big areas in the house — upstairs; downstairs; garage/pantry; and outside. (4)

Then I made a chart of the smaller pieces of each of those areas — Computer room, bedroom, study, studio, “junk room”, master bath, guest bath, “hall” area (upstairs, 8); Kitchen, dining room, hallway/stairs, bathroom, library, living room (downstairs, 6); back, front (outside, 4); garage, pantry (4)

Finally, I made a chart of durations, in fifteen minute intervals from 15 minutes to 2 hours. (8)

Then I dug out my old D&D dice and rolled up my first chore of the year.

It turned out to be a 2 on a four-sided die (or garage/pantry session). Rolling a four-sided again, with odds being the garage and evens being the pantry, I was directed to the pantry, and rolled an eight-sided to find out I’d be spending an hour there.

I set the alarm on my phone, turned on Stephen King’s 11/22/63 and went to work. Seemed like no time till the alarm went off, and I got a nice chunk of shelves organized.

My goal is a minimum of 3 hours worth of cleaning a day. Chores like dishes, laundry and shopping don’t figure into the list — those will still be done when needed.

I hope to use this blog to comment on tips I figure out along the way; products that work — and don’t; and to seek advice from more experienced housewives when needed!

I hope you come along for the journey — and feel free to post suggestions, encouragement, or questions in the comments.

Let’s clean!

Adrienne

UPDATE ONE: My second roll was 45 minutes in the Master Bath. Had Newell look when I was done and he said it looked like much more than 45 minutes worth of work. That’s all the encouragement I need for roll three!

UPDATE TWO: My final roll of the day was not quite so lucky, because it turned out to be an hour and a half in the guest bath upstairs. After one bathroom session today, I wasn’t looking forward to it…but I soldiered on even though Newell said I could reroll. Had to give up and admit I wasn’t going to QUITE get there about ten minutes early when my back was screaming at me from the unaccustomed exercise. But, the bathroom is in much better shape, and I never said I’d finish a room in one session.

DAILY WRAP: 1 hour pantry + 45 minutes Master Bath + 1 hour 15 minutes Guest Bath = 3 hours cleaning. Not a bad first day.