Tuesday, February 22, 2011

February jobs

Last year I created a list of jobs that periodically need to be completed around the house. I then divided them into jobs that need to be completed every other month, once a season (four times a year), twice a year, and once a year. I printed out a calendar page for every month and placed those jobs in the months I want to complete them.

At the end of last month I had to scramble to do my January jobs and still didn't get to all of them. The only job I didn't complete was vacuum the fridge coils. I figured that one would be easy enough to do in February. I did start pulling the fridge out and it was a lot more hassle than I expected so I stopped and planned to get back to it. Then, last night, the sweet tea fell out of the fridge, the top fell off and the spill started seeping under the fridge. I couldn't get my towel far enough under the fridge to get it all, so I pulled it out. Had I completed my January jobs I would not have seen (and had to deal with) this last night:
or this
or this
or this
Just for the record, yes, I think this is disgusting.

The top picture doesn't look near as bad as it could have because I wiped up the spill (and some dried up crust) before I thought of taking a picture.

Clearly, there have been other spills that I haven't pulled out the fridge to clean.

I'm guessing people who are naturally tidy don't have this behind their fridge. This is exactly why I created my calendar of jobs. This is the type of job I just don't think of doing and then never get to (obviously.) We bought this fridge when my son was a newborn and he is almost five. I probably haven't moved the fridge since it was installed.

I'm not exactly sure what the blue round things are in the bottom picture, maybe M&Ms?

I hope it isn't necessary to say that I made sure the floor looked like this
before I moved the fridge back.

I also vacuumed the back of the fridge.

While the fridge was out I saw this


Just so you can tell what you are looking at

It looks like there is five years of dust.

There is one positive. If you look close to the baskets you'll see there isn't dust there. That's because wiping the top of the fridge is a monthly job and I did do that last month. I just couldn't get to this part of the fridge. (Before my venture into tidiness, wiping the top of my fridge would only have gotten done if I happened to look up there, which rarely happens.)

So, I want to be sure to get to my February jobs in the next week. I hope by doing my cleaning by the calendar, I can avoid finding other messes like this in other areas of the house. Plus, I can take care of things on my time, instead of having to deal with it unexpectedly. I did not want to clean behind the fridge last night, but I had to.

In order to make myself accountable I am putting my jobs here and plan on writing an update at the end of the month.

February jobs:
Kitchen-
kitchen windows (done)
cabinet fronts (today?)
vac curtains
wipe trash can
clean under disposal cover

Hall-
dust vents (done)
dust doors (done)
dust baseboards (sorta done, daughter did, will try to do again)

Entry-
dust entry light

Master bedroom-
wash comforter
turn mattress

Office-
dust baseboards

Good luck to me!

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