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Cleaning :eek:

K

katie ta achoo

Blogger emeritus
Original poster
May 2, 2005
9,166
5
I'm doing a MAJOR overhaul of my bedroom. It's been growing for the last 18 years, and with some graduation money, I'm redoing it. White, brushed metal, birch, MINIMALIST.

But enough about my love for ikea and crackpot ideas about a room that looks like an apple store (I realized it AFTER I planned out the room. Shhh.)

How do you stay motivated while you're cleaning?
You know how it looks WORSE before it looks better? I'm at that stage right now, and I just want to set fire to the room and vacuum up the ashes. There's piles of crap here and mounds of old clothes there, and AHH! *pulls out hair*

How do I stay motivated? I could very well just sleep on the couch for the rest of my time at home; my brother does it just fine.

Also, do y'all have any tips for keeping walls stark white and beautiful?

I'm trying to go from leading a cluttered life to a minimal, sleek, life.. how can I get out of "clutter" mode?

Oh, I just want to burn it down... *grabs matches*
 
As far as keeping motivated, try prioritizing the things that you need to go through. Make it a goal to get through X number of piles a day/week/whatever.

If you are planning on throwing stuff out/donating it make separate piles for each of the things and then put the things your getting rid of in bags immediately after sorting and get them out of your room.

Tackle the pile that will show you the most immediate results. I tend to work on the biggest piles first because I'll see more progress in the room more quickly (i.e., less mess on my floor/furniture because that big pile of clothes that was previously covering it is now gone). That noticable change helps keep me going with the rest of the projects.

Good luck!
 
I try to do stuff late at night when I am bored or on weekends when I can have a bit of music going. Then, I just find it to be a bit of fun to try and make sure that my vision is realized before I stop. Also, if you can get someone to help with moving stuff, you can sometimes stiff them with helping on the mundane sorting tasks (not clothes, but all the other crap).

Additionally, I don't know if you have room at home to do this, but if you can pull everything out of the room except for major furniture (like your bed) and start from scratch, that can make things a bit easier.

Usually a lot of stuff gets thrown away and my entire wardrobe gets put away in one fell swoop. Problem is, that mood only hits me once a year or so - so the rest of the time I leave things where they lie....
 
katie ta achoo said:
Free room and board during college. :D
Click to expand...

I am gonna try to say this as nice as possible: Get the hell out of your parents house!

Living at home while in college is like going to high school. And I've done the 'commuter/live at home' and 'on campus in a dorm' thing so I'm just relating my experience. Living on campus is the absolute best thing you can do to enjoy the 'college experience'. And I don't mean just for the drinking, partying and promiscuous sex. ;) Living alone is a tremendous learning experience. I found that I really learned a ton about myself after living far, far away from my parents.

Although the home cooked meals, free utilities, and in house laundry service was pretty sweet…
 
katie ta achoo said:
Also, do y'all have any tips for keeping walls stark white and beautiful?

I'm trying to go from leading a cluttered life to a minimal, sleek, life.. how can I get out of "clutter" mode?
Click to expand...
Bite down your teeth and throw/give away stuff that you are not using. No buts and no ifs. I am always amazed at the amount of crap that is in my room after each cleaning up.
 
treblah said:
I am gonna try to say this as nice as possible: Get the hell out of your parents house!

Living at home while in college is like going to high school. And I've done the 'commuter/live at home' and 'on campus in a dorm' thing so I'm just relating my experience. Living on campus is the absolute best thing you can do to enjoy the 'college experience'. And I don't mean just for the drinking, partying and promiscuous sex. ;) Living alone is a tremendous learning experience. I found that I really learned a ton about myself after living far, far away from my parents.

Although the home cooked meals, free utilities, and in house laundry service was pretty sweet…
Click to expand...

Concur. University students who live on campus (at least during the freshman year) and get immersed in "college life" typically perform better academically and have higher graduation rates that those who don't. My alma mater just had a big to do about this very topic, deciding whether or not to require freshmen to live on campus (even the local students). You also grow up a lot faster when you don't have anyone to get you out of bed, cook your dinner, or do your laundry for you. Not implying the OP is like that, just making some general observations.

Back on topic. I just look at the mess and remember how much I hate living in a messy house, and get it done. Once a season or so the GF and I do a big thorough cleaning which usually takes a day or two, and then it usually only takes a minimal effort the rest of the time.

White walls - are you going to repaint? If so, try a paint you can scrub down without peeling it off.
 
katie ta achoo said:
I'm doing a MAJOR overhaul of my bedroom. It's been growing for the last 18 years, and with some graduation money, I'm redoing it. White, brushed metal, birch, MINIMALIST.

But enough about my love for ikea and crackpot ideas about a room that looks like an apple store (I realized it AFTER I planned out the room. Shhh.)

How do you stay motivated while you're cleaning?
You know how it looks WORSE before it looks better? I'm at that stage right now, and I just want to set fire to the room and vacuum up the ashes. There's piles of crap here and mounds of old clothes there, and AHH! *pulls out hair*

How do I stay motivated? I could very well just sleep on the couch for the rest of my time at home; my brother does it just fine.

Also, do y'all have any tips for keeping walls stark white and beautiful?

I'm trying to go from leading a cluttered life to a minimal, sleek, life.. how can I get out of "clutter" mode?

Oh, I just want to burn it down... *grabs matches*
Click to expand...
Isn't it funny how much we accumulate over the years. A little something here, a little something there, and the next thing you know, you have a whole lot of stuff! ;)

To me, things separate into 3 piles:
- Keepers
- Throw away
- Don't know

For the don't know pile, someone once shared with me a technique that works well for me, and that is you put those items in a box or boxes as the case may be. Then after one year, if you have not used/missed them, toss it.

Another gem that some friends who lived in Japan for a long time, shared with me during their moves that it is much easier to not purchase the item in the first place than to agonize over throwing it away at a later time.

As for trying to keep things from cluttering up, try no to purchase things in the first place. Especially eliminate impulse purchases if possible.

Good luck in your cleaning journey! :D
 
not to be another disappointer, but I agree about living at home/dorming/living on campus with some previous posters. Nothing beats living with other college students. :)

e
 
I would live 1st year in uni residence, and the rest of the time either in an apartment or house with some friends, or at home. Any debt you might be in is worth this experience, IMO.

And about cleaning, the best and fastest way to make your room look 50% cleaner is to make your bed. If your bed isn't made, and you clean your room, your room still looks dirty. ;)
 
scem0 said:
not to be another disappointer, but I agree about living at home/dorming/living on campus with some previous posters. Nothing beats living with other college students. :)

e
Click to expand...

cost v. experience.. cost won by a long-shot. My brother does the same thing at the same uni and he is doing well.. he actually just started a job as opinion page editor of the paper.

I also don't want to have to deal with my roommate bringing someone home late at night, loud parties down the hall, and people stumbling onto my doorway drunk and vomiting.
I know ~13 people doing the exact same thing for the exact same reasons.

And if I wanna go have promiscuous relations, I can just go to his place. :p
 
Good for you Katie. I had a not-so-great experience in the dorms at Cal. :shudder: I am permanently scarred and wary of rooming w/ strangers now. Sigh.

No good advice for your room cleaning though; I never make it past the "eye of the storm" so to speak. :eek: My room is perma-messy.

Good luck!
 
Coming from someone with OCD, I know how do tackle this stuff!

First off, do the two piles (or boxes, or bags, etc.) of "Keeping" or "Trash." I'm a firm believer that we keep way more then we ever need or will ever use. If you didn't know you had it, it's trash. If you were looking for it but no longer have a use for it, it's trash. Pretty much everything should end up in the trash pile. Some may say it's a waste, but if it's decent stuff that you put in this pile, consider donating it to a local school (books) or a relative (maybe toys or general useful gadgets). But considering your goal of starting anew, throw out as much as possible.

Once everything's in the trash that's being trashed, get it out of the way. Take all the items you're keeping, and go through them a second time to see if you can weed any more items out.

Assuming you're not using anything old furniture wise, it would be good to looks for your new stuff at this point. Make use of closets/drawers/storage baskets. Buy some good plastic storage boxes, not to store junk, but to keep things organized.

I'll go on later, right now I gotta run.
 
I have just recently gone through a lot of my crap...at 28 I accumulated a lot of stuff. It took forever but I am so glad I did it. The only suggestion I can make is music. I can do any chore, no matter how mundane or exhausting, to music. Sometimes loud music. Probably not an option at your house, but that's what headphones are for. :D
 
When I was getting ready to move out east I had to go through all my stuff to pack it all away for storage in the sister's basement. I threw away a TON of stuff and then donated at least two car-loads of other stuff (still had enough boxes to almost fill a small den. Now that I'm out here I can think of even more items I have in storage that I could donate once I get them back. I can only imagine the number of items I can't remember I have that would also now fit into that category. It's going to be a beast having to go through it all....again.... :p
 
My way of dealing with industrial scale tidy-ups is to get everything out. Yes, this makes another room look like a bomb site for a short period of time, but it'll give you the time to clean the empty room and do whatever work you need to without clutter. You can then clean each individual bit of 'stuff' as you move it back in and, as will probably be the case, all the things you no longer want in your room can simply stay out and go into your loft/storage.
 
miniConvert said:
My way of dealing with industrial scale tidy-ups is to get everything out. Yes, this makes another room look like a bomb site for a short period of time, but it'll give you the time to clean the empty room and do whatever work you need to without clutter. You can then clean each individual bit of 'stuff' as you move it back in and, as will probably be the case, all the things you no longer want in your room can simply stay out and go into your loft/storage.
Click to expand...
My bedroom door is in a little alcove of its own, so when I clean, I just dump everything right there. The alcove is just big enough for the door - so therefore, if i wanna get out, I have to clean up.:eek: It works, lemme tell ya.
 
miniConvert said:
My way of dealing with industrial scale tidy-ups is to get everything out. Yes, this makes another room look like a bomb site for a short period of time, but it'll give you the time to clean the empty room and do whatever work you need to without clutter. You can then clean each individual bit of 'stuff' as you move it back in and, as will probably be the case, all the things you no longer want in your room can simply stay out and go into your loft/storage.
Click to expand...
This is really a good technique since you get to see everything that you have.

My only suggestion, is rather than put those items you no longer need in your room in the loft/storage is to just throw them away. That way you don't have to deal with those items again in the future.
 
sushi said:
My only suggestion, is rather than put those items you no longer need in your room in the loft/storage is to just throw them away. That way you don't have to deal with those items again in the future.
Click to expand...

Unless you believe the stuff will be worth something someday.... :D :D :D
 
floriflee said:
Unless you believe the stuff will be worth something someday.... :D :D :D
Click to expand...
True. But the reality is that most of it won't be worth anything.

...unfortunately.

Otherwise I would be very rich since I tend to be a packrat! :D
 
Being a vey messy pack-rat that I am, I don't know how much help I could offer, but I will try. There is a lot of sutff in my room, but I consider my room to be fairly clean. My solution? Things that I want to keep (or think I should keep for whatever reason) I put into boxes and store them. This certainly works if you have a decent sized closet to just hide the boxes. Then A) You don't have to worry about throwing too many things out B) your room is rid of the "junk".

For motivation, anytime I do cleaning I just put on some music and have a good time while doing it. For living with your parents, I am doing the same, for the same reason: cost. Good luck with the cleaning and college, and whatever else comes up.
 
In regards to motivation, if you're really serious about this, sit down and think about all the steps you need to do. REALLY think about it. Then start putting EVERYTHING down on paper. Even the little stuff. Then, prioritize the items in order of what to do first. Finally, post the list on your door or wall and check things off as you get them done. If you look at the big picture, it can be a monumental undertaking. If all you worry about is the next item on the list, you'll find you can keep your momentum and stay on track.

I've been doing the list thing for almost a year on my basement, and my latest list has lots of intermediate steps, which I get to cross off quickly.
 
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