7 Days to a Cleaner More Organized Home – Part 2 – Living Room and Dining Room

The idea behind these seven days is to bring back some order to your home. You will tackle an area of your home each day. These are quick cleanings, not deep cleaning. To make this program work you should keep up the order in your home by putting things away each day. Start off your morning with a clean slate.

So let’s continue.

Don’t forget to have a piece of paper and a pen or pencil handy. This is where we will keep notes on small items we can hopefully find in the surplus (excess) of our homes or if not pick up at a very reduced cost (think Dollar Store here) to help the room along.

Also keep making note of and putting aside any items you know you would like to get rid of. Don’t overdo it, we’re just cleaning here but if something catches your eye have a central place to keep it until Saturday or go on and dump it as soon as you can.

Tuesday: Living and Dining Rooms

Get a large basket and a garbage bag. A Laundry basket works well for the basket part. Put them at the entrance to your living room. If your living room and dining rooms connect put them between the two. Put a dust rag, or duster in your back pocket…Okay just put the dust rag and duster and on the coffee table or a flat surface in your first working room which in this case we will say is the living room.

Go around the living room in a clockwise (or counterclockwise as I’m left handed and tend to work this way) order. Pivot and toss garbage in the trash bag and things that don’t belong in this room in the basket. If you have a large room put these items in close to the area you are working in so you don’t have to walk far to dump things in.

Straighten books, magazines, and couch cushions as you go.

When all done with the straightening and tossing grab the duster and dust cloth and dust all surfaces. A prepared dust cloth will have some sort of furniture polishing oil in it. You can make your own or purchase them. Dust your hanging pictures too. Use the duster for items such as window blinds,and knick nacks. Use the dust cloth for your furniture. Our goal here is quick. We’ll add regular dusting to our routine in the future because it can really build up (right?).

Do you have pets? You might need to go over the couches with a damp sponge or a sticky roller. I use a damp sponge and I keep the couches covered in pet friendly throw blankets unless company arrives because cats are sneaky and will get up there and make their big furry bodies at home when you aren’t looking.

Now vacuum. No, no not under the couch, just in front of it. Remember we’re making the room “look” clean. Vacuum the middle of the room and any exposed high traffic areas.

Now repeat this exact same cleaning routine in the dining room. Wipe down the dining chairs with the dust cloth (or if you have small children clean them up with a gentle all purpose cleaner). If you or your family are caught in the trap of using your dining table as mail or bill paying central get a small rectangular flat basket, the size of letter paper. You can find all kinds in the office supply store. You just want somewhere to regularly stow these papers and go through them once a week (or more often). Toss all the mail and/or bills in there. Make it look neat. Toss a pen on top for taking notes.

So did you notice anything you might like to have to help the your living room or dining room? Actually you probably thought of a lot of things but let’s keep it simple. Sometimes I have a large basket or two I’m not using at the moment that I can add to the living room to help contain magazines or newspapers. In the dining room I ended up placing a small basket on the end of the table because not matter what I did mail and odds and ends would end up on the table. Everything now goes in the basket that gets cleaned out daily. So that has solved the clutter problem for us for the time being. Remember not too much. Our goal is to enhance the room not overwhelm it.

Next up the bathrooms…

• 7 Days to a Cleaner More Organized Home – Part 1

• 7 Days to a Cleaner More Organized Home – Part 2 – Living Room and Dining Room

• 7 Days to a Cleaner More Organized Home – Part 3 – The Bathroom

• 7 Days to a Cleaner More Organized Home – Part 4 – Bedroom

• 7 Days to a Cleaner More Organized Home – Part 5 – Odds and Ends

• 7 Days to a Cleaner More Organized Home – Part 6 – Rest and Recovery

The Author:

O Quinn is a stay at home organizing mom. Visit her at Homemaking Organized
For monthly tips and articles including some vintage homemaking sign up for the newsletter at Organized Homelife and get access to downloads.