My last post was five weeks ago. I left posting after the first day of my cleaning marathon. I was quite pleased with what I had accomplished. I was determined to get a little done each day. My goal was clear the path. I had only three weeks to get my house ready for a visit from my grandchildren. Failing that, we would have to spend a week somewhere between our home and theirs in a motel. Besides being costly, this would not be near as enjoyable as spending that time in and around our home.
Our house is very small, with only two bedrooms, a small bathroom, kitchen, living room and dining area. My husband and I work from our home and frequently need to bring our work inside. We had converted the dining area into an office for me some time ago. My husband had his office in a nook between the bathroom and kitchen. This was not efficient, but was the best we could do at the time. We we didn't have room to spread out, so we spread up. We lined most of the walls with shelves. Our youngest daughter got married last summer and moved into her own home and vacated her bedroom. It was still pretty full with things she didn't need in her new home and boxes of things I thought was hers, but she said was mine. After much thinking and measuring and note taking, I came up with what I thought was a workable plan to make the most of our space. It involved some major rearranging.
The path I cleared on the 1st day led up to the area between my daughter's old bedroom and our small living room. The first step was to get the bedroom cleared out so I could move the bed around. The bed was a futon with a bunk on top. For my plan to work it had to be moved to the outside wall. It had to fit between the shelves that were on that wall. I measured and found that I the bed would fit where I wanted it with about an inch to spare. So far, so good. I grabbed my tools and began to work.
The grand kids had used this bedroom as a play room last summer after my daughter got married. I filled several trash bags with empty water bottles, papers with scribbles and other miscellaneous trash. I kept the water bottles in a separate bag for recycling. There were 3 loads of 'not necessarily dirty' laundry that I had to wash. I gathered up 2 boxes of toys. The 'other' stuff filled 3 boxes. Most of this was things I needed to take to my daughter for sorting. I was still sure some of it was hers. I would give her one last chance to claim it.
Note: I probably should have just dealt with it as I saw fit at this point, but being the thorough person that I am I had to let her make that final decision.
I'm don't remember how long I worked that day, but it was early morning before I got to bed that 'night'. This time I waited until the next day to take the trash out and wash the clothes. That afternoon, I tackled the room again. I vacuumed all the exposed carpet and walls. I moved the tapes and DVD's to different wall then turned the dresser around to fit my plan for the room. I didn't take time to sort the books. Instead I stacked them neatly under the shelves that were high up on the wall next to where the bed would soon be. The boxes of toys that I thought the grand kids might need to play with when they visited, I stacked in front of these books, all neatly in the corner. I continued to vacuum each new area of carpet as it was exposed and before I moving something else into the space. Finally, with the help of my husband and much effort I / we were able to move the bed inch by inch (literally) into the spot I had cleared for it. It is a very heavy bed and with only an inch to spare it was no easy task. I was very pleased with the result and happy that that it had been worth the effort the effort it took to move it. In fact, when my daughter visited and saw it, she was wistful that it hadn't been arranged that way when she was living in the room.
I made the bed with the clean covers I had washed then piled the lower bunk full with pillows and covers that would be needed when the grandchildren arrived in 2 weeks and 5 days. Tomorrow I would begin working on the living room.
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