Every month we focus on an area of the house, and take care of all the deep-cleaning, de-cluttering, and maintenance inspecting needs. This has been a huge help when home chores start to feel overwhelming and unachievable.

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Focus on the Living Room In January

Along with our regular weekly and monthly chores, we focus on deep-cleaning in the living room this month.

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• Put any holiday decorations away

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• Clean ceiling and walls- a slightly damp and wrung-out dust mop works great for this. I’ve got a Libman with washable microfiber covers. Be careful not to dislodge ceiling texture, if you have it.

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• Clean all windows and frames.

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• Clean all light fixtures

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• Clean upholstered furniture. Home Depot rents shampooers for this. Get under all the cushions, and move it to clean underneath and the undersides, and all around the feet.

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• Polish all wood furniture. I like Howard Restore-A-Finish and Feed-N-Wax.

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• Deep clean book shelves and china cabinets. Take everything out one shelf at a time, wipe the dust off, clean and polish the shelf, and only put back what you love. The rest goes to the donation box.

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• Clean all baseboards and molding.

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Outside Garden Jobs for January

By January, I have a foot-high pile of seed catalogs tempting me with their aspirational photos of flowers and veggies, and so it’s time to go through the seed collection and see if I need (or can justify!) making any purchases. In the Willamette Valley it is still cold and wet and will be for a while, but I can see the bulbs starting to peek through the mulch. Most of this month’s jobs are indoor planning and prep.

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• Look through the seed collection and identify any holes. Make a list.

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• Go through the catalogs and place seed orders.

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• Gather up all the seed starting supplies- fresh seedling mix, trays, labels

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• Make a list of what I’ll be planting this year, and make a planting schedule to keep track of it.

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• Mow the lawn once. I have some squill and snake-head fritillaries that come up in and around the lawn. I like to cut it short in January before they get started, and then leave the grass to get soft and lush for as long as I can get away with it. It is better for the bulbs that way.

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• Begin clearing up garden beds for spring planting. There’s not much that can be done in January, but it is nice to get out and poke around.

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• Set up seed starting shelves, heat mats, and lights. Make sure everything is working properly.

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• Consider spraying peach trees with liquid copper.

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Organization is Self-Care

We are always very patient with ourselves in this process. We may not get everything done, and that’s OK. Every little bit helps, and there is no benefit to stressing out over house-work. In upcoming blog posts, I will show you how I use Trello to create automated lists, and how we use those lists to choose which tasks to tackle next.

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