Tuesday, October 9, 2012

{31 Days to a Stress-Free Christmas} Day 9~ To Clean or Not To Clean



One thing that is a major cause of stress for me is having to decorate for Christmas with a house out of sorts. (I am a little OCD...OK maybe a bit more than a little) The only way I have found to not be a bear on D-Day (aka decorating day) is to work on doing some deep cleaning a few weeks ahead. 



And Yet....Another List

Take a few minutes and look around each room in your house that you usually decorate. In my house that is every room. (OK I did I mention I love Christmas? Did you pick up on that clue from an earlier post where I mentioned I put up 64 trees?) I make a general list of areas that may need organizing like book shelves, closets etc. Then, I write down the jobs that need to be done like furniture that needs to be moved or cleaned under or behind, dusting etc. My ideal plan is to clean one room a day. If you can block out that many days in a row that is wonderful but that is usually not the way it goes around here. After I make my list I....

Go to the Calender

Pick your D-Day and write it down. Not only does it give me a definitive goal to get the cleaning finished by but it helped my excited children to stop pestering me with questions on when will we put up the tree. After your D-Day is chosen schedule your cleaning days. My D-Day is usually the Saturday after Thanksgiving. That way all the cleaning is actually done before Thanksgiving...the two birds with one stone theory. Now all that's left is to......

Commit to Stick

It's just what it says. Make  decision to stick to your cleaning days and get the job done. You will feel so much  better afterwords. At least for me, the un-"Bear"-able me is kept at bay and my family has a joyful D-Day instead of ....well....we won't mention what the "instead of" was. 

No comments: