The living room or den is the room where a family does most of their, well…. living. Its a busy room and takes a lot of wear and tear. So, it can usually stand a good cleaning any time you want to give it one.
Begin by picking up the room and using your 4 bags/boxes/baskets like we have been doing all week. Get everything out of this room that doesn’t belong. Sometimes I place personal belongings in a basket and tell the children to come get their things in the next ten minutes or the things are leaving home.
Be sure to check out The De-Cluttering post for ideas that will help you get all your living room belongings stored and put away nicely.
Lets start cleaning!
Make a pan of hot soapy water or use the kitchen sink.
Once you get the room emptied of stuff that doesn’t belong, take up nicnacs and decorative items.
Clean and wash picture frames and nicnacs, set them out to dry.
Take down the curtains and take up the rugs, wash them if possible or hang them out to air.
Take up tablecloths, doilies, all fabric coverings and pillows; wash and dry if you can or air dry.
Wash down the door frames, window frames, baseboards, all woodwork, ceilings and ceiling fans.
Wash windows
Clean off shelves, rearrange books, wipe down the shelves while they are empty.
Clean up work areas. Organize work materials.
Organize movies, cds and dvds, organize the whole tv/entertainment area
Dust all furniture, polish if needed
Move out furniture if possible, if not just clean around and under as best you can.
Vacuum upholstered furniture
Vacuum floors, sweep and mop, polish wood floors
Replace rugs and curtains
Replace furniture covers if using and pillows
Arrange magazines, papers, books that don’t have a shelf. A basket might be nice, or simply stack them up neatly.
Replace nicnacs and pictures…. do you need them all in this room?
Now that the room is clean, make it a point to keep it that way by having a daily 10 Minute Tidy where you work fast and hard to get the room picked up before dinner time and before everyone decides to relax in the living room.
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