Maintain the Awesome.

So my list of projects that I wanted to accomplish for Lent is ALMOST complete.
And the rest of the projects on the list are things that I have to wait on.. with the exception of pulling weeds up inthe front yard (ugh)

So here's some of what I've gotten accomplished:
Cleaned the laundry room
Cleaned up the carport
Pulled up tack strips in the master bath
Pulled up tack strips & carpet staples in the guest room
Pulled up tack strips & carpet staples in the living room
Painted the oven
Put the final coat of paint on the kitchen walls
Cleared out the living room closet
Emptied out and reorganized the kitchen cabinets (getting rid of anything we don't use)
Cleared out my shoes that I don't use.
Tackled & defeated the ENORMOUS pile of backed up laundry & developed a system to avoid it's return.
Created a weekly maintenance schedule for the house so that I'm not overwhelmed by it anymore.


The list of things I still need to do include:
Make storage boxes for the guest room - although with all of the stuff I'm getting rid of, I'm running out of a need for them. I will, however, need several for the house in general, so I'm going to make them anyway.
Paint the stairs - which we have not yet agreed upon, and will be a pretty huge endeavor, since we'll have to spend an entire weekend keeping not only ourselves, but also our pets from touching the steps. Not sure how we're going to work this out.
Paint the fridge - which is going to be a several day process, meaning we'll have no fridge for a couple days, and I'm not quite sure how to work out the logistics of this one.
Bathe the dogs - and I mean superbathe. They need this desperately because it will nip the shedding in the bud.. and I can already see it coming. There's a neat mineral oil "soak" treatment that will get CLUMPS and CLUMPS of loose hair out from double-coated breeds like shepherds.. and that's exactly what they need.. but i need to do it on a warm day because I can guarantee that they will NOT be hanging out inside my nicely cleaned house while covered in mineral oil.. nope.

Anyway - Here's the weekly maintenance cleaning schedule I came up with for the house:

Monday - Kitchen, because after my lazy sundays, it's almost certainly a mess.
Clean out fridge
Wipe Countertops
Wipe Stovetop
Sweep & Mop Floors
Reorg. tupperware situation
Wipe appliances
Clean microwave
Wipe trashcan

Tuesday - Foyer, because this is Shane's day off, and therefore, I want to spend it with him as much as possible, so I tackle a smaller room.
Throw out junk mail
Go through bills
Sweep
Put coats & dog leashes away
Empty trashcan
*I also do my couponing prep on Tuesday evenings so that I'm ready for Wednesday morning

Wednesday - Shopping & Living Room.
Vacuum
Wash & Put away blankets
Empty trashcan
Dust shelves
*while I've got the vac out, do the upstairs hallway, and the bar.

Thursday - Laundrymania
Wash, Fold & Put away Laundry
Clean Laundry room while you wait for cycles.

Friday - Bathrooms
Clean toilets
Scrub Tub
Clean Mirrors
Wipe counters
Empty trash
Dust fixtures
Refill TP

Saturday - Oddball day, each saturday I'm going to tackle some task that doesn't need to be done every week, but needs to be done occasionally for example:
Tackle the mismatched sock collection
Clean behind the stove (after what I saw when I pulled the stove out to paint, this DEFINITELY needs to be on everyones list - gross!)
So far that's only 2 saturdays a month, but I may come up with more as I get used to this schedule.

Sunday - NOTHING
I'm the type of person that has a hard time breaking momentum. If I'm going all week, I normally keep going and going until I crash.. and then I'll stay crashed indefinitely, and nothing will get done. So in order to avoid this problem, I am going to TRY REALLY REALLY HARD to take Sundays OFF. That way I won't be exhausted before the week starts on Monday, and I won't need to crash. *i hope*

I've been on a roll, and now it's just a matter of keeping that momentum.

So today is Kitchen day.
One thing I'm noticing is how easy it is to get thrown off by ONETHING that is out of place. For example, Our kitchen table is covered in electrical stuff because we still haven't gotten the lights finished. It's also been moved to one side of the room so that we can reach the wiring where the light is SUPPOSED to go. So I can't clear the kitchen table, and it's out of place also. I didn't realise how much it was bugging me until I set upon the task of cleaning up. The fact that I don't feel comfortable touching the kitchen table makes me anxious about sweeping and mopping, and I'm very on-edge about the whole kitchen as a result. Nothing about the kitchen table is preventing me from cleaning the stovetop, but for some reason I'm really having some anxiety over it. I'm going to do it anyway now, but I'm curious as to what causes this sort of feeling, and more importantly, how to stop it so I don't let it overwhelm me in the future.