Friday, December 7, 2012

The Twelve Days of Cleaning are coming! The Twelve Days of Cleaning are coming!

The end of the semester is nye, and it is once again time for my much anticipated, now-annual-tradition, An Extraordinary House Purge and Cleaning. This year, I am calling it "The Twelve Days of Cleaning," after, well, you know.

Here is my tentative list (which seems to feature a lot of closets) for each day, beginning with December 16th, the day after commencement ceremonies:

1. Study (file, purge, deep clean)
2. Bedroom closet (purge, organize)
3. Front hall closet (purge, organize)
4. Library closet one (purge, organize)
5. Library closet two (purge, organize)
6. Attic (purge, organize)
7. Storage shed (purge and organize)
8. Workshop (purge, organize, clean)
9. Paint and install French doors in library
10. Install door in living room hallway
11. Paint hallway trim
12. Paint living room/kitchen door

UPDATE: Plus, wash all the downstairs windows.

Here are the ground rules:

1. Each item on the list may or may not take more than one day, especially since I am keeping half a day free for working on a book collaboration;
2. Each day may or may not be consecutive;
3. The goal is to finish the list before the start of the spring semester;
4. If I finish early with my grading, I may allow myself a head start.

Let the games begin.

I am so excited.


  1. Oh to have your discipline! Well, and the dedicated time off from work ;-/

    My house could use a similar effort but I am much more inclined to go play outside with any free time; or knit, or..... well, anything then clean.

    1. You know, strangely, though this started as a horrified reaction to cleaning out my parents' house a few years ago, I have grown to love doing this. It is as entertaining to me now as is gardening. In fact, it sort of replaces gardening in the winter...

      And yes, those free days between semesters really make it possible. However, I've found myself dedicating more and more weekends to this sort of thing all year long. In a weird way, having things organized and clean in the house feels like such a relief. I may have to write a post about this phenomenon...

  2. I am not as organized as this Susan, but, I am cleaning out areas in my house. Started with a hutch, went on to the cabinet under the sink and am now working on the laundry room!

  3. Good for you, Susan! I hope it's deeply satisfying, and that you find some fun hidden treasures too.... One of the "blessings"--it's hard to use that word in this context, but I can't think of another right now--of losing a spouse is that it's given me the excuse/kick in the a** to sort out, give away, sell, recycle, up cycle, a lot of accumulated stuff. I just have to make sure I keep the stuff that means something to me. ;)

    1. I find it comforting when there is order in my house.:-)

  4. I like order. I don't have as much time off over the holidays, but maybe I could do a modified version "the 12 weekends until spring" and pick a project for each weekend.

  5. Interesting method. Growing up and for the first dozen years of our marriage we moved every couple years. We purged with each move....then we lived in VA for almost 20 years. A hurricane helped us purge garage and first floor items. Now that we are settled into this house, I think we need to have a plan like yours. Good thinking.

  6. Hahaha, I love the title of this post Susan. I wish I had that time but I did manage to start on my study last rainy weekend. Even managed to sell an old camera. Now more things to sell and to bring to Goodwill. It's such a good feeling to purge the excess, isn't it?