The Just Clean Something Challenge {day 9}

Welcome to the first update of the Just Clean Something Challenge! I have made it my goal to clean at least one thing in my house every day this month.  Let’s see how I’m doing.

{day 2}
Dusted Grace’s Room

This was a hard day.  The day before I had spent a good chunk of my day dedicated to cleaning, which would normally be an excuse for me to take the next day off.  I was annoyed with myself for creating this challenge, but I forced myself to dust Grace’s room.

It took me 5 minutes to dust her room and straighten up a little.  Five minutes!  Seriously? Why was I putting it off?  Why do I always think that cleaning needs to be an all day event?  I can handle five minutes!

{day 3}
Scrubbed Kitchen Sink

Today was July 4th.  Who wants to clean on a holiday?!?!  Not me!!  I scrubbed the sink really well, but I mostly did it because I was freezing blueberries.  I wanted to wash the berries in a clean sink.

{day 4}
Decluttered & Organized a Kitchen Cabinet

This kitchen cabinet has been driving me nuts for months!  The before and after photos are epic, but you are going to have to wait until the end of the month to see all of them.  I am sharing this decluttering project on the blog A Slob Comes Clean at the end of the month.

{day 5}
Cleaned Sink, Counter-top, & Mirror in Half Bathroom

I had a few minutes to kill while I was waiting for supper to finish and decided to tackle the half bathroom.  Before this challenge I would have spent that time doing anything but cleaning.

{day 6}
Cleaned Car Headlights

Can you tell how desperate I am to avoid normal cleaning jobs like mopping, vacuuming, and dusting?  I cleaned the car’s headlights with toothpaste and the results were amazing.  I heard about this method on Pinterest.  The instructions are really simple.  The picture above are my own before and after photos.

{day 7}
Clean All Door Knobs & Light Switches Downstairs

It was 8:45 PM and I realized that I needed to post my “Roll Call” on my Facebook page, but I hadn’t cleaned anything yet.  All I wanted to do was sit on the couch and watch The Bachelorette.  I wracked my brain trying to think of something quick and I came up with door knobs and light switches.  I got it done in one commercial break.

{day 8}
Cleaned Vomit Off Couch

Grace threw up.  Most of it landed on her and Nate.  Poor Nate.  Poor Grace.  Poor baby doll who also got caught in the line of fire.

Last night ended up being a scary and emotionally draining night.  Grace had a very high fever and some other alarming symptoms that sent us to the ER.  I am pretty low key when it comes to illnesses, but when your doctor tells you on the phone that someone needs to check out your daughter NOW, you listen!  Thankfully, Grace is going to be perfectly fine and I think she enjoyed be at the hospital.

{day 9}
Swept Kitchen & Dining Room Floors

Today is day 9!  Grace is still battling her fever.  Noah’s thrush has returned after a month struggling to get rid of it.  I am feeling tired and defeated.  I do NOT want to clean, but I swept the kitchen and dining room floors.

{Thoughts}

Two things stick out in my mind about this challenge:

1) It is so easy to make excuses not to clean.  I cleaned a lot yesterday.  It is a holiday.  The kids are sick.  Blah.  Blah.  Blah.  I just need to do it and clean something!

2) It is hard to focus on just cleaning.  Every night when I write the Facebook “Roll Call” it is tempting for me to list all the other productive things I did that day.  For example, the day that I scrubbed the kitchen sink I also froze 20 pounds of blue berries!  That was a huge project and I felt like I was selling myself short by only saying I cleaned my sink that day.  However, this challenge isn’t all the things I do during the day.  It is just about my struggle to clean.  I need to shake off this need to list all my accomplishments and just focus on my cleaning goal.

{To My Fellow Cleaners}

Thank you so much for joining me in this challenge!  Your accountability is my only motivation to keep going.  I love that you have jumped on board and made this challenge your own.

By the way, I just went on a bit of a rant about this needing to be only about cleaning, but please don’t let that discourage you!  Don’t worry about if your accomplishment “counts” and is worthy of being shared.  If it counts for you then it counts for me!  One woman shared that she cleaned her kids.  Haha!  I love it!!

Don’t forget to like my page on Facebook so you can share your accomplishments in my “Roll Call” each evening.  You are also welcome to post before & after photos on my timeline.  If you blog about your experience, feel free use the graphic above and share links to your posts in the comments.

What are your thoughts on the challenge?  It isn’t too late to jump on board!