Cleaning the Master Bedroom, Part 1 (Updated)

This is a slightly revised version of my previous article published in September, 2013.

When you are recovering from a flare or additional illness, give yourself a break.  You have to have a recuperation period.  Trying to do too much in one day will slow down your recovery,  therefore, I expect you to use common sense.  Pay more attention to pacing yourself and resting.  This does not have to be a perfectly thorough cleaning.  We will be coming back to our rooms again.  Do what you can do, and let it rest.  Be happy you were able to make a dent in the house work.

Your main goal and my main goal are to make improvements in our master bedrooms this week.  Of course, you always have the choice to devote your time and energy somewhere else, and I applaud that choice, because we are not all messy in the same places.  However, if you always leave your bedroom for last, try to spend some special time on it this week.

Before I list the suggestions for working in your room, I want to tell you what happened to me as I worked in my room.  Even though I had my room on my list several times in the last few weeks, I had only managed to make tiny little inroads.  I had dusting on my list.  It was not getting dusted, until this Saturday.  I also planned to wash the bedspread, change the sheets, and wash the dog, all in the same day.  Then, I added using furniture polish after I got off the dust.  The dust was thick:  I do not remember the last time I dusted the bedroom.  Yep!  It is said confession is good for the soul:  there it is.  

I used my timer.  I rested in between, and I still managed to overdo.  Last night the Fibro pain was all over my body.  Even my sternum hurt.  I could not go to sleep, and when my body finally told me it was ready to sleep, I threw up my medicine.  I had to get a basin and sit in my recliner with a towel over it, because I was too tired to stand up. I know this is icky, but I don't know any better way to remind you to take care of yourself.  Therefore, I slept in my recliner last night.

This is a warning and a suggestion, because you are only one that can manage your own body.  And even then, your body probably doesn't always cooperate.  However, when you pace yourself and do not try to get everything done in one day, things happen in the house.  And you can have energy left for tomorrow.  I have been doing well in that regard, until yesterday, when I became over-enthusiastic and got in a hurry.

This is a repeatable method of cleaning.  Remember, you are only to spend 15 minutes or less, depending on your strength to do these jobs.  If it takes you the whole week to do Days 1 and 2, that is acceptable.  If you want to make the master bedroom your chore for the day and your 15 minutes of decluttering, while you only tend to basics elsewhere, that is OK.  However, if you tend to this job as listed, you will end up with a reasonably clean bedroom. 

Cleaning the Master Bedroom  

(Nearby, have boxes, baskets or hampers marked throw away, give away, put away.)   

• Day 1  Pick up any clothes lying on the furniture or floors, that includes shoes. Put clean clothes away, put dirty clothes in the clothes basket or washing machine, and put your shoes where they belong.
• Day 2  Clean trash off the dressers and bedside tables.  Use your marked hampers, baskets, or boxes.   
• Day 3  Now, you can dust.  If it has been a while you may need more than one cloth or Swiffer.  Microfiber dusters and cloths work well too, because they are washable, as well as holding a good amount of dust.  A vacuum cleaning wand or an ostrich feather duster works well on lampshades.  If you tend to be obsessive, let it go.  You will only exhaust yourself, and most likely end up procrastinating.  Set your timer, and let the perfectionism go. 
• Day 4  If you did not wash your sheets after raising all that dust, it is time to change your sheets.  Get some help shaking out your bedspread if you are not going to wash it.  Sunlight will kill mites, so the old fashioned clothes line can be a plus.  I found a spray that will kill dust mites and not harm you.  I also read that vinegar and baking soda will kill dust mites, but I cannot find the proper solution.  If you are not allergic to dust mites or you have lots of static electricity in your home, I would not worry about the little critters. However, they definitely die when you wash those sheets and dry them in the dryer.

Pace yourself.  

You are making an improvement, not going for perfection.  When I put pictures of done rooms on here, you are seeing what the photographer wants you to see.  Can you see the basket of clean clothes sitting in a corner waiting to be put away?  No! Can you see the dog hair that is sitting at the baseboard where it was missed?  No.  

I plan to post Part 2 on Tuesday.

Have a good week!  Hugs, Deborah