Wrapping Up the 30-Day Housecleaning Challenge

Yesterday was the final day in Money Saving Mom's 30-Day Housecleaning Challenge.  I must admit that for the last week of the challenge, I really fell off the wagon.  Maybe it's an excuse, but the end of the semester is always tough as a grad student (the one thing that saved me on the challenge was my family's impending arrival last weekend).  Thankfully, having participated for most  of the days of the challenge, my house amazingly looks pretty decent.  This is week is finals week, so the jury is admittedly still out on what my house will look like at the actual end of the semester when all papers are turned in and grades are submitted.  

I also got out of order because my family came into town to celebrate my Golden Birthday over the weekend, so some of the projects for last week were finished and checked off of the 'wrong' days.  But are there really any wrong days to get cleaning done?  

I don't have any before and after photos for the last few days of the challenge, but luckily dusting electronics is part of my regular surface cleaning in most rooms, so that didn't take long and the project I chose was to clean out the office closet.  The office closet was a challenge, since the office is primarily filled with my husband's stuff, but I was able to rearrange things a bit to fit the vacuum and carpet cleaner in better, so I was pleased.  

Overall, I would say that I was pretty successful at completing the challenge.  Definitely more successful than I thought I would be!  Taking into account the 8 weekend days that were breaks, I only completely missed 3 days of the challenge.  That's an 86% completion.  When I put it that way, it doesn't sound so great, since I don't do B grades.  Nonetheless, I'm pleased!  And my house certainly seemed to stay cleaner throughout the month.  

My goal is to continue the cleaning routine, which I included on my weekly goals this week.  I found that some of the tasks take more time than I would like and other seem less relevant to me or are already incorporated into my routines for other tasks, so my plan is to slightly modify the routine.  I will continue blogging about month 2 and welcome everyone to continue with me!  I've found the Pinterest board and blog entries really inspiring throughout the month and will miss that inspiration going forward.  

Here's my new and improved (at least for me) 31-Day Housecleaning Routine.  One of the major changes is that I added the dining room, which is a huge clutter spot for me and needs specific attention.  I added the dining room cleaning to the living room day, and switched the kitchen to it's own day.  Last month, on living room / kitchen cleaning days, it took me much longer to clean both rooms, so no the kitchen has a dedicated day.  I also removed the "deep" cleaning day for the living room as I do the baseboards and such during other cleaning tasks like vacuuming or surface cleaning.  This may change again after this month, but I'm curious to see if my changes continue to help me improve my consistency in cleaning the house!

P.S. If you'd like a copy of my version of the cleaning routine that isn't personalized for my home management binder, let me know!  I'd be happy to post one or send one to you!

Now it is time May's Clutter Busting Challenge!  Yikes!

Happy Cleaning!