I Am House Proud

I am house proud and have been so for a while. When I say "house proud" I mean a number of different things. I mean that I take a serious interest in how my house presents and I spend a lot of my free time arranging things in my house. Arranging things in my house is not work to the "house proud" it is a hobby.

I wasn't always this way. I went to university. I lived in a dump. I did not find any relaxation in cleaning and so I just didn't do much of it. It wasn't until, as an adult, my mother bought me some gift certificates with a cleaning service that I became house proud. I also retained the services of a cleaning lady on an ongoing basis and that helps.

Pride in your house can start with some small projects and expand into other areas. Start with organizing your front hall cupboard. that is an easy and logical place to start. Or maybe start with organizing your dishes. Start with matching dishes and add some special linen napkins.

Or start with some houseplants or some outside perennials. Spring bulbs are well worth the effort. Planting some inexpensive spring bulbs will reward you year after year. You can also force some spring bulbs inside over the winter months. Once forced the bulbs can't be forced again but they can be planted outside where nature will help them find their natural schedule.

Start small. If your initial house proud project is too overwhelming you will abort the task.

Whatever, you start with there are two exceeding important first steps. Without taking these two crucial first steps the journey to house pride will be arduous. The first step is to de-clutter your house. Start with your closets and then move on to the other areas of your house. This is a big task and will need to be done over several weekends. The aim is to get rid of approximately 20-25% of your clutter. Of course, this can't be done all at once. This task will need to be repeated every six to eight months over a few years. During the first effort aim to get rid of 5-10% of your clutter. Remember you will never be "house proud" if you are surrounded by junk.

The next step is to clean, clean, clean. Clean everything. Clean places likes the inside of closets that you do not normally clean. Take everything off shelves and dust thoroughly. Dust of of you lamp shades and light fixtures. Wash every wall. Launder all of your blankets and pillow covers. Steam clean all of your upholstered furniture and carpets. Empty everything from your fridge and give it a good scrub. Scrub your oven. Again, this task can't be done in one day. To do a thorough cleaning you should try to devote 4 solid hours over every weekend for at least a month. The first time you do the turbo-cleaning will be the most difficult and time consuming. Once everything is sparkling it is much easier to keep clean.

Once you have your house de-clutter and sparkling clean you can start being house proud. As I said at the beginning of this piece start small but the most important thing is to start. So get going with organizing your front hall closet .