Week 10 - The Entryway... Wherever it is!

The cleaning and decluttering challenge for Week 10 was the entryway. I know, those of you that have been to our house know that you walk in the front door directly into the room... there is no entryway. However, people that come over often know we use our back stairway/mudroom as our main door. It's right by the garage and driveway. It makes more sense to use this as our primary entrance since it is the shortest distance from where we (or any visitors) park our cars. In the winter it also gives us that necessary buffer zone between the living space and the cold outdoors. I decided that this qualified as our "Entryway" so I cleaned it yesterday.


First, a little background on our home. Our house was built in 1910, so at 105 years of age our idea of clean might be different than yours if you live in a newly built home. Secondly, this room is the catch-all because it contains two staircases (one going up to the back bedrooms and one going down to the basement... and the laundry.) The third important point to remember is that in the 10+ years we have lived here... it has probably only been cleaned 4 or 5 times, and I don't ever remember wiping down the walls before. That's right, this is the area we try to forget about when it's cleaning day-LOL!

It wasn't as difficult to clean in here as I though it would be. That being said, when I finished, I threw the cleaning towels away instead of washing them because they were just that disgusting! First I put things away where they belong... the snow shovel and ice melt went to the basement instead of the garage because Winter probably has one more hurrah left for us. (On March 1st we received 7" of snow - not our normal, but we often get measurable snow in March here in Indiana.) I decided it was way past time for my dried herbs to make it to the pantry, so I took a small detour & put them in labelled jars. Then we took some things to the garage, I did enlist some help from Emily since she was going outside to the recycle bin anyway. I dusted the walls and swept with the vacuum. The stairs were still filthy so I sprayed them with Murphy's Oil Soap and wiped them down... even the banister spindles! Things were looking so much better that I decided to wipe down the walls with another natural cleaner that cuts through grease well. This morning my arms hurt from the scrubbing, but it looks and smells so much nicer that it was worth it! The final step was to find the Magic Eraser to help with the stubborn spots on the doors. This is when I realized I hadn't done the other side of the door to the dining room back in Week 7, so I did both sides, and the edge. It was gross, but it's much better now!

After two hours of hard work...or maybe a little more, I called it finished and decided to watch a movie with the girls.

This morning I got up and started on bookshelf #4. With 14 of them to tackle, this saga is going to take a while! Emily and Arlene were forced to sort through all their 4-H papers and put them in their achievement books. I found five more books to try to sell, and I actually organized the books by kinds. The picture doesn't do it justice, but I will be able to find things quickly now. That is a wonderful feeling!

How did you do with cleaning this week? I'm really glad I joined Michele on this decluttering journey. I feel like we're taking our house back one step at a time. It's starting to feel like a home again, not just a building with stuff in it! Don't give up! You can do this too, just take a reasonable sized bite to work on each week! Check back in next week and see how we did on the bathrooms!