Wow, wow, wow! Almost an entire month, and not a single day when I didn’t do at least a little bit of housecleaning. That is an incredible milestone for me. Tomorrow being the end of the month, I will have to think of something special to commemorate it…any ideas?

I was commenting on another blog, 365 Trinkets, which is a fascinating collection of stories about objects he is purging from his life, and realized that I’ve done some of what I was talking about. Many of the clutter books talk about “miniaturizing” your stuff. Instead of keeping that dress you can no longer wear that your mom made you for senior prom, keep a swatch of the fabric and a photograph that can be mounted together in a scrapbook. Keep the rejection letters, but not the envelopes. That sort of thing. I wanted to share a couple of pictures of how I’ve taken this to heart:

I created these for the Game/Computer Room walls. Broken games, puzzles with missing pieces, stat sheets, all of these had memories attached, but were useless. Collecting them together in the collage made a cool wall decoration. And with today’s Magnetic Paint, it is fun and easy. (The magnetic words board is just really a simple collection point for all my magnets, but I thought it was still cool enough to share. ;))

The upstairs Guest bath has an Oriental theme, so I made these wall decorations for in there. The Dragon frames were once a stained silk kimono that was deteriorating at the seams. I cut the embroidery sections out and put them under glass where they could still be seen and admired. The collage was made in a simple black multi-frame and is composed of a couple of cards with Oriental themes, some appropriate fabric, and a bamboo weave from a place mat. Collages  make an awesome way to personalize a room. It is easy to create a theme with them. I need to do more!

But enough procrastinating. Let’s get down to work.

First roll of the day: An hour in the downstairs hall/stairs. Here we go.

UPDATE ONE: Hoped to get more done than I did, but mopping turned out to be a more time-consuming chore than I expected. That floor was filthy! And it still isn’t pristine…does one ever get pristine?

Dropped my camera again…why can’t I hold on to the darn thing? Anyway, here’s the progress:

I promise to mop more often in future…ick!        Not perfect, but much better.

Shelf unit was falling apart…                               …so I dismantled it.

Put the center section in the Living Room on a trial basis to sit beside the reading nook and keep track of borrowed books that need to be read and given back. Contents dispersed to the various places they needed to go…which was not in the front hallway. Still not sure what to do with the cot…and Newell uses the camp chair for his bonding feeding of the cats…but progress was made.

By the way, does anyone know what these birds are?

Are they robins? There is currently a flock in my backyard eating the crushed, stale chips I put down. I should go fill the bird feeders now that I bought seed yesterday.

Next chore: An hour and a half in the library. There’s always that much to do in there. I’ll be back…

UPDATE TWO: Well, it kinda became a morph between the Library and more of the Front Hall, but noticeable progress was made.

Before:

One side of the doorway….                        …and the other

Here’s the whole area.

After:

Looking into the doorway…                                     …and out of it.

The whole area.

And here is a shot that shows what still needs to be done. Look at all those double-stacked books. They need more shelves! We still have a lot of stuff to move before we can put up more though.

So where are we now? Sitting at two and a half hours. Next roll 45 minutes in the Dining Room. Time to break down all the boxes in the corner. 😉

UPDATE THREE: Dining Room looks really empty. There’s a reason for that. The little rolling stand with the plants on it is actually our dining room set. It cleverly folds up and the chairs store inside. We usually eat in the Living Room or at our computers, so why spend money on a dining table? Sometimes I wish that we got more formal…but it really isn’t necessary.

Here are the pictures:

Before, with boxes…                                               …after — boxes broken down and trashed.

DAILY UPDATE: 1 hour Front Hall + 1 hour 30 minutes Library + 45 minutes Dining Room = 3 hours and 15 minutes. See y’all tomorrow.