Monday, November 30, 2015

Take the Challenge: Advent Deep Cleaning, Week 1

For the past few years, we have invited the congregation over to our house the week of Christmas for an open house.  I spend weeks baking cookies, decorating the house, creating Christmas playlists.  What I usually don't do is spend weeks cleaning.  I have the tendency to leave that for the couple days before the open house, then spend hours cleaning.

Since deep cleaning is an long-held Advent tradition, I'm changing things up a bit this year.  I've divided my house into four areas, and each week I'll focus on deep-cleaning as much of that area as possible.  Care to join me?   I'll post a list at the beginning of each week of what area I intend to clean, and at the end of the week report what I actually accomplished!  You can use my list, make your own, or just wish I'd come and do your house, too.

This week, I'm focusing on the kitchen. I spend most of my time in the kitchen, and once clean, I'll be able to get to work on all those cookies I'm needing to bake.

I'll aim to accomplish a few items each day, and hopefully, by the end of the week, the kitchen will be a happier place. 

Here's the week's list of cleaning:

-Clean all refrigerator shelves, and drawers
-Clean top of refrigerator
-Scrub sink and surrounding areas
-Scrub counters
-Empty and clean utensil drawers
-Wipe down cupboard doors and drawers, fronts of appliances
-Scrub microwave
-Scrub stove, inside, out, and under burners (and those nasty grease filters in the exhaust fan)
-Mop floor
-Reorganize pantry
-Clean trashcan

Perhaps I'm dreaming big, but I have already cleaned the fridge, reorganized the pantry, and scrubbed the sink.

What's on your cleaning list this week?