Flylady Weekly Roundup

I've been kind of struggling with my zone cleaning this week.  As it was the beginning of a new month, I got distracted at the beginning of the week, doing some financial stuff and didn't really get around to doing anything. In addition, I've also been distracted by UK events lately, as I've mentioned before.

On Thursday, however, I used my Zone Cleaning as a distraction, on account of it being Election Day.  I didn't want to think about UK politics, it's so depressing, so instead I decided to tackle probably the most difficult task that was facing me this week, namely cleaning the bookshelves in the dining room.

I hadn't done this task for at least a year, if not two, when I did some deep cleaning, and it was the one thing that I didn't tackle last month in this room.  Out came the step ladders and every book was removed from every shelf, the shelf dusted and washed down and the books returned. 

I managed to get OH to part with some books and I decided to let go of a couple, so between us 13 books got added to the donate pile, which is better than nothing.  We do both like our books and find it hard to let go of them.

This job is not one that I relish, as some of the books on OH's side of the fireplace are really heavy. I don't think it will be a job I do too regularly.  Maybe once or twice a year at most is probably enough.  I made sure I pulled most of the books to the very front edge of the shelves, so the dust will only gather at the back and not be visible.  Cunning trick!

The remainder of the room got a vacuum and mop and other than dusting and cleaning the light fitting, that was it for this room this month.

On Friday, I decided to tackle the living room.  This isn't too onerous a job, even though it gets used regularly, so I was able to finish it in a couple of hours.  I had a sort through some of the quilts I had made, that I store in the blanket box and decided to let go of a couple as there were quite a few, plus some throws that we use regularly too. Other than this, there wasn't anything to declutter, so it was just a case of dusting, vacuuming and mopping.  On this occasion I pulled out some furniture that I didn't last time and cleaned behind and underneath it, and I also cleaned away all cobwebs and cleaned the light fitting, which I didn't do last time either.

I feel like I've now finally caught up with myself again, as I was getting a bit behind and can now spend some much needed time in the garden and at the allotment this weekend.

Next week, it's Zone 3 and I'll be deep cleaning the bathroom again.  I think that this month I'm going to get on my hands and knees and scrub the grout between the floor tiles, as this is the job I didn't do last month.  Luckily, it's the tiniest room in the house! Also, there's quite a bit of dust in the extract fan, so I might try to hoover that out. It shouldn't be a big job though.

I was also going to tackle the spare bedroom/sewing room, but it is so full of donations that I need to take to the Give and Take later this month, that I'm going to leave it until after they've been taken. I may, however, do some tidying on the landing upstairs and clean out the linen cupboard instead this month and then I'm going to enjoy some free time away from cleaning!