This is the first week in our Prepare for the Holidays 5 week series!  Do you realize Thanksgiving is right around the corner?!  In this series, I want for me AND you to be accountable to eachother as we do our challenges and homework.

Over the course of the next 5 weeks, we’re going to prepare ahead of time so that we’re not overwhelmed the day or 2 before Thanksgiving.  When we should only be having to worry about the food, we’re consumed with cleaning, laundry, decorating, and everything else!  Let’s get ahold on it NOW so we don’t have to then! Plus, our work now will also help make things a little easier for the 2nd round of holiday guests for Christmas!

If you’re just now finding this series, here are all the weeks challenges in case you want to catch up or jump ahead.

• Prepare for the Holidays – Week 1 (Cleaning Indoors and tackling Hotspots)
• Prepare for the Holidays – Week 2 (Cleaning outdoors)
• Prepare for the Holidays – Week 3 (Organizing the kitchen cabinets and inventory)
• Prepare for the Holidays – Week 4 (Dinner List and Inventory)
• Prepare for the Holidays – Week 5 (Last minute checklist and turkey thawing times)

For this first week, I want to talk about indoor cleaning and hotspots.  You know what a hotspot is, right?!  These are those places that we HATE to clean.  The places that pile up so easily and quickly.  If we can get a grip on these and stick to it with just a few minutes daily – those hotspots will become not so hot ;)!  Now, if you’re like ME…you have lots of hotspots!  My focus is getting rid of the visible hotspots because those are the ones that are seen when folks come through the door!  My worst ones are laundry, my kitchen table (always piled up, even with folded laundry (hehehee)), fireplace mantle (FULL of DVD’s and movie cases!).

My hope is that starting this challenge will get us in the mood to eventually get to all the hotspots, even the ones that are hidden like in the laundry room, bedrooms, closets (<– link to tips on closet organization!!), office space, guest rooms.  But, let’s just work on the ones that are visible to guests OR the ones that are really just a nasty thorn in your side!

Your Homework for this Week

• Pick 3 Hotspots in your home & clean them up (give yourself 10-15 mins. for each hotspot!)
• Designate a Basket, totebag, even a Walmart bag to pick up out of place things every night (and put those things away) *Make this a nightly ritual or give this job to one of the kids (set a timer to make it more fun for them!)
• Get laundry caught up.
• Fill one trashbag (or more) full of unused and good recyclable toys to drop off at Goodwill or donate to a family in need.
• Fill one trashbag (or more) of unused and good clothing to drop off at Goodwill or donate to a family in need.
• Sweep cobwebs and dust bunnies from the ceilings and corners of your rooms.  (I dare you to do it to ALL your rooms!)
• Clean & organize your entryway.
• Do your regular dusting and mopping/vacuuming.

IMPORTANT:  Come back here and comment on this blog post with your accomplishments! We ALL want to hear plus it’ll help keep us motivated and accountable!

Each week in addition to the other challenges, I’ll be giving homework to maintain these jobs so that you don’t get back out of whack before Thanksgiving ;)!  I’m talking about myself here, haha!  Okay below are some of my before pics that I promised.

OMGosh – I can’t believe I’m about to DO this!  Here goes…

My utility room is right off the kitchen so all my folded laundry and hangers land on the kitchen table. The end also houses my blogging “office”.

 

Antique wooden bench in kitchen across from my table has a bunch of Eli’s clean clothes folded up there. There’s also a pile of my pajamas. The Walmart bag on the end has some of Eli’s outgrown clothes that I’m giving away.

 

 

The fireplace mantle stays piled up with DVD’s and DVD Cases. This isn’t my fault because I don’t even know how to work the DVD player. I blame this on my husband!

 

Again…more DVD cases. My husband buys DVD’s every single week. He wears me out with his obsession. He’s totally addicted to the $5 bins at Walmart!  I see a toy, ink pen, a camouflage hat, and a few out of place things.  UGH!!!

 

Now, along with all of these hotspots I’ll also be getting my laundry where it’s supposed to be and OFF my kitchen table.  I’ll also be sweeping my yucky cobwebs, going through and gathering bags of toys and clothes to donate, and doing all the other homework!

Please leave comments here as we struggle along through the week.  Hopefully there won’t be MANY struggles but if there are we can come back here and leave comments so hopefully we can help eachother out along the way with motivation!

To easily find this post to come back to, I’ll keep it on the right side of my site.  Just scroll down to find the section titled:  Preparing for Thanksgiving Together 5 Week Series & Challenge.

Happy Challenge WEEK ~ Let the Homework BEGIN! 

photo credit:  freefrombroke.com