She has the laptop and boxes ....

Here she goes again......

Those would be the words of my sons as I walk through the house with my laptop making notes.  They panic and start to hide in their rooms.

It's the time of year that I decide is Spring cleaning time (whether it is spring weather or not).  My goal is to clean, purge, clean, purge, organize, purge.

Steps:
1. Make a list of what needs to be done.
       I am a list person so I start the process by walking from room to room and making a list of all the things I want to get done in the room - that way I don't miss anything. I open an excel spreadsheet (see below)

Room	To Be Done	Done
Our bedroom
	Wash windows/ curtains/blinds
	Steam clean carpet
	Go through dressers
	Go through closet
	Organize jewelry

 
I make this kind of list for every room in the house. I print it out room by room, for the bedrooms and bathrooms I tape it to the inside of the door for easy reference. Also, since my sons are old enough to do most of their rooms they can see the list and work on it. I do put a date to be done for them on it - then after that date I go in and finish it. They have learned over the years it is in their best interest to work the list first.

 2. I have a box for donate this, toss this, and put this away.  These 3 boxes are in the hallway as I work through  the rooms.  If you haven't used an item in 6 months get rid of it!

• donate box - self explanatory
• toss it - anything not worth donating or broken
• put it away - this is for the stuff that you find in the wrong room - DO NOT stop when you find stuff that doesn't belong in that room to go put it away - it only distracts you when you are working put it in the put it away box and check the box when you start a new room 

 3. Have all the cleaning supplies together in one bucket so you are not wasting time running back and forth to get them.  TIME WASTER

4.  I set an alarm on my phone to keep me focused and on task.

5.  Turn off  TV, stay off computer, and turn on music! Get moving.....