This is Week 2 of our Prepare for the Holidays 5 Week Series & Challenge!  If you’ve missed the other posts, check them out below to get “in the loop” and hop aboard if you’d like to get prepared early as well.

• 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)

Last week we talked out cleaning indoors and hitting the hotspots that get us down!  I also had previously mentioned that staying on top of those will make getting ready for Thanksgiving and/or Christmas so much easier when it comes to getting things nice and neat for company. So, on top of this weeks challenge, I’ll also add some extra homework to keep up with the work we’ve already done so that things don’t get out of whack!

This week, we’re chiming in on outdoor cleaning!  I don’t know what kind of messes YOU have, but for me…I have cobwebs that need knocked down on the front and back porch.  We also have trees all around our house so we get tons of leaves that I have to keep at bay. Most end up all over my patio that I have to sweep off every day or every other day.  Thank goodness for leaf blowers…that’s all I gotta say!

Then there are those things out there that need to be put up for the winter.  Extra chairs, bug spray bottles, in my case…lots of hubby’s odd and end things.  Right now as I look out my dining room window I see fishing line, a drinking glass filled with nails and screws, and a pair of work gloves on the well-box.  I also have some rugs that I washed and hung over chairs to dry that needs to come back in.

What kinds of things do you need to get done outside to prepare for holiday company??  Below is a list of “homework” assignments that you can do over the weekend just to get started!

Homework for this week:

• Sweep cobwebs
• Dust off outside furniture
• Clean Outside Windows
• Pick up and put away summer things (extra lawn chairs, etc.)
• Clean up flowerbeds
• Use a powerwasher on anything that needs a good cleaning (we usually need to powerwash our patio this time of year)
• Rake leaves

In addition to this weeks assignments, I wanted to give you a few things to do to stay on top of the work you did last week.  So here are a few things to add to the list above.

• Spend 10 minutes on each hotspot that you cleaned last week.
• Clean up 1 more hotspot in addition to those.
• Get Laundry caught up.
• Regular dusting, sweeping/vacuuming, and mopping.

Let us know how you’re doing….just leave a comment below.  We’re a week closer to Thanksgiving and I’m excited that I won’t be killing myself the night before getting ready for company!!  It’ll all be done beforehand ;)!