20 Days to Organise & Clean your home Challenge – Day 5

I am participating in the The Organised Housewife's 20 Days to Organise & Clean your home Challenge. If you haven't already signed up, it's not too late to start! Just follow this link to subscribe.

It is Saturday night and I've just completed Friday's (Day 5) challenge focus area which was THE FLOORS. You can find all the information you need know about Day 5's challenge here.

CLEAN the floors

I usually pick up everything from on the floor and vacuum the floorboards, carpet and tiles as I feel it generally does a better job that a broom. My mum bought me the Oates Triple Action Flat Mop (from Coles) during a visit and I find it easy to use and effective. It has a sweeping pad, a mopping pad and a drying cloth. When I vacuum first, I only use the mopping pad and then let the floors air dry. But if the kids are asleep I'll use the sweeping pad instead of the vacuum. I only use the drying cloth when I need to dry the floors quickly.

I love The Organised Housewife's suggestion to relax while the floor is drying! Perfect time to sit down for a cuppa and a magazine I think!

DE-CLUTTER out of date food

I recently took stock of my pantry and threw away out of date food so I am moving straight onto the next task! A good tip from The Organised Housewife is to add food close to its use by date to next weeks meal plan.

ORGANISE the pantry

Unfortunately we don't have one single pantry where everything is kept so food is stored in a few different locations. I think there is a lot of room for improvement in this area but today's task is just about tidying and reorganising to make it more manageable, rather than a complete overhaul.

So I decided to focus on one cupboard that was looking particularly messy and required me to regularly move one item to get to another. I spent about 10 minutes rearranging items and making sure my Tupperware Modular Mates where easily accessible rather than storing items in front of them.

NEW HABIT immediately put rubbish in bin.

I always put rubbish straight in the bin but items to be recycled tend to end up in a pile on the kitchen bench top creating clutter. Master two-and-a-bit is fascinated with all things garbage related at the moment and loves putting things in the bin, so I'm going to use his interest to take recyclables straight to the bin rather than let them accumulate.

5 MINUTES ONLY tidy the kitchen bench

While our kitchen can still become cluttered with items during the day, we have established a new routine whereby hubbie gives the kids a bath and I pack away the toys and tidy the kitchen. It is certainly helping me to relax more in the evenings knowing the house is tidy and ready for a new day!

Having completed all of this week's tasks, I'm having Sunday off! Yay! But in saying that, I'm looking forward to receiving the challenge for Day 6 tomorrow afternoon. 1 week down, 3 weeks to go to achieving a clean and organised home!

Mel xx