Back to starting this on Friday for anyone who wants to start early. I won't be home most of the weekend and into next week, so will try and finish up the master closet as my all house cleaning. Honestly with doing the branches each month, it is keeping the house is great shape, IMHO.

Think of your home as a tree and each room is a branch of that tree.

First, break the house up into branches (manageable areas), which can be DEEP cleaned in a week's time.

For each branch, compile a list of all the tasks you'll need to do to get that room to SPARKLE! This includes cleaning, dusting and vacuuming the areas behind and under furniture, washing windows and curtains, etc. (if possible in your schedule, it can be done in babysteps each day)

Also, put together a Weekly Cleaning List to keep things looking good. Each week, finish your Weekly Cleaning THEN focus on doing some deep cleaning in this week's branch.

Cycle through the branches, one per week, to maintain a high level of cleanliness throughout the house.

Here's the schedule of Branches we'll be following:

Week 1: Entry/Living Room
Week 2: Dining Room/Laundry Room
Week 3: Bathrooms/Front Porch
Week 4: Kitchen/Back Porch
Week 5: Children’s Room/Guest Room + Closets for those rooms
Week 6: Family Room/Room of choice
Week 7: Master Bedroom/Master Closet
Week 8: All House Cleaning

Some sample "Choice" Rooms:
Office, Pantry, Craft Room, Garage, Attic, etc.

Make your master and individual branch lists work for YOU. The lists we share here are just our own examples; yours should be designed to suit your own home and situation.

If the branch you're working on needs decluttering, focus on that first. It's much easier to clean a room that doesn't have piles and boxes everywhere. Even if the whole house needs decluttering, this is a good way to focus on a room at a time on a regular schedule.

This isn't a competition. Just go at your own pace, as that will be exactly right for you. We are all here to support and encourage one another.

Start with a new branch each week. If you don't finish all the tasks on your branch list for the week, that's OK--you're already ahead of where you were before, and the unfinished tasks will still be there for you when you cycle back to this branch. If you finish early one week, you can go back to work on previous branches
_________________________

This is another favorite branch of mine. I finished doing the sorting in the two cabinets in the last branch and that was what I wanted to do.

This branch will be done next week for me when my DGS comes over to help me reset up my craft room and supplies. So I can plan what all I want to bring upstairs, and where I will store items.

The family room is involved with this change I am doing so I can prepare moving items in the family room, so I can have the dresser put into the family room as a credenza, behind the sofa, and move the present table to another area. Haven't figured out where yet...so actually I can do this branch....

The family room is my other on-going room of the year! DD and I LIVE in the family room, when we are home. As such, it gets messy very quickly.

The room needs to be painted, but that's not going to happen this week. So, instead, I plan to:

- Declutter/go through shelves
- Dust/remove cobwebs
- Sweep/vacuum
- Clean the window and vertical blinds
- Clean the sliding glass door & blinds
- Clean the ceiling fan/light fixtures

Now, just how much of all that will actually get done is anybody's guess! Temps. are supposed to be 99-100 this week (and I don't have a/c) so, anything I do will have to be done early a.m. or late p.m. when it is cooler.

I skipped last week's branch due to my vacation. However I need to work in my other bedroom. It's DD's room when she's sleeps over, it's my crafting storage space, it holds the filing cabinet and all the extras needed in a home. As a result I have a mixture of tools, books and crafts on the dresser. On the table, more crafts and tons of papers to file or to recycle. I've yet to find a place in the closet so fall/winter rugs wait on the chair and both kids have left back packs of their stuff on the floor. I've kept the bed clear but every other surface as stuff on. I'll go with ROC and spend time in the 'guest bedroom'.

List goes a little like this:

declutter every surface
go through closet
file papers
dust
wash curtains
clean mini blinds

Tuesday through Thursday I'll be working the evening shifts, I plan to work at least two hours each morning.

Good plan Bubblegum. Amazing how things "collect" around various rooms!

Oh I can do this branch. Yes it's getting to about 105 everyday but luckly I put in central air so it gets a little cold in there now. I so love that.

It will basicly just need to be clean it. I do want to redo the shelf above the TV. I will go through the glass ware in there and the two storage baskets.

Since I only have two weeks before school starts I'm not going to do another room. I want to party these last two weeks.

Right now i think I will go start.

Cindy

I will stick with DS's room as I was so busy last week with school and the garden I barely made a dent in it.

I need to put his new curtains up and wipe all his surfaces down as well as revacuuming the room.

I was so busy all weekend visiting with family/friends, I only had time to do my basics in the house.

Today, I wll put the afghans, etc. away (it is going to be in the 90s again) find new places for the items in the place I am going to put the dresser at, so it will be all ready for when the guys move it for me on Sunday.

I did a good clean out last time around, and after things get settled will see what I need to do. I do know I will have my grandson help me get some photo boxes down, and maybe switch out two cabinets so I have easy access. I still am planning on scanning all of the photos to DVDs, hopefully next year, but whenever I do do it, I want them easily accessible.

So far I've worked in the closet for close to one hour and a half. I have a donate pile with 1 curtain set, 1 coat, 4 puzzles, 3 board games and a miniature porcelain tea set. I cleared 2 shelves on each side of the closet and have two bins ready to go to DM's house for deep storage!

I took out a hanging from the rod storage unit (went through 3 boxes, redistributed the crafting items I kept in the 3 plastic drawers I bought yesterday plus I got rid of over 2 dozens plastic bags). What I lost in storage I gained in accessibility...

I have swept the floor, stored the fall/winter rugs and repositioned my crafts on the upper shelves, less used items on lower shelves. This way I don't have to roll out the tower of drawers (scrapbooking stuff) each time I need something on the lower shelves. Time for a break, I'll go at it again later!

I worked another 90 minutes later in the evening, finished the closet, dusted and decluttered the book case. Time for another round! ding, ding, ding!

Hi fellow Goners! I am back...again! I looked at my past posts and it seems every 6 months or so I briefly return and then disappear again. As with other areas of my life I am learning that change can take place if "I" make the changes. No amount of wishing and dreaming for change works and that I have to embrace the changes not as a list of rules I have to follow, but as a lifestyle change in order for progress to be made. And that is where I am.

My last post in Branches was for the Family room and as I read it then looked about I never did do the list I made at that time. So here is the list I intended to do last December and am determine now to complete!

Clean out the entertainment system and move it to another wall.
Pick up clothes and other stuff scattered about.
Dust
Vacuum
wash the hearth