SPCG @home

It’s two in the morning but here I am writing because I just realized that it’s going to be a very exciting week for SPCG! What’s happening?

The parents are headed out of town! (Emphasis being on the fact that MUM is going out of town.) In case you haven’t read here before, in short, my mother is a hoarder and has real issues with dealing with paperwork and in her spending habits. I won’t go into too much detail about it today – as there is so much research and background that I can share, but that’d take too long. And today’s post is on the plan for the week ahead!

Every year, my parents make a few trips out of town – and these are very important to the running of my household as they are what Y (my very capable househelper and partner in springcleaning) and I use as windows of perfect opportunity to get the house back into some sort of order without getting into too much trouble.

The sequence is always the same – the parents announce that they are headed out of town, Y & I already have an understanding whenever that happens, it’s the mark of a fresh round of cleaning, and when they finally fly, Y & I get to work. Considering I have a mother who is VERY efficient at spending and hoarding, the task is almost insurmountable, but bit-by-bit, trip-by-trip, round-by-round, we have been clearing the mess.

Tasks involved go through the sequence of:

1.  Identify areas to be springcleaned
2. Delegation of tasks/areas
3. Determination of dates which specific areas are to be tackled
4. Daily intensive tackling of tasks, review and planning at end of each day
5. Schedule of items to be donated away before the mother gets back

And the interesting part of all of this - the mother never really notices all the things that we have donated away.... for several years now. I'm a firm believer that if things are not serving you (be it a random lamp tucked in some corner, or four unused clocks, or the ten other spatulas you have that are not being used) then it is a waste of space and resources.

So many areas are running through my head right now. Thing is, that we only have a week this time and it's a pretty full week for me, so I have to prioritize and be very specific about it.

Here are the areas which I've already planned to tackle

1. Common area
• Large chest of drawers (stuffed full of family administrative things. It's a very dangerous  zone as when paperwork goes missing or is missed, the family suffers financial attack - such as fines - and even legal action if not looked into promptly.)
2. Mum's Room
• Mum's desk (which has turned into a clutter zone of random papers stuff everywhere. More admin stuff here.)
• Shelves (stuffed full of all sorts of things)
3. Y's room (which the mother often uses as "spare space" for more shopping. :()
4. Kitchen
• Drawers (where we have a ton of unused kitchen equipment)
• Top of Kitchen shelves (where there is another ton of equipment we don't use)

I cannot describe how excited I am about the cleaning (that I am fighting against the weariness of my body now to be able to even type this), but I am. I very much am. 

Can't wait to plan the schedule, but it looks like I've listed everything by order of priority. I'm most likely going to be doing a lot of paperwork and filing this week by the looks of it whilst Y will be more involved in the sorting of physical items and determining their fate with us, the bin, or the Salvation Army. Still, I'm excited. All change requires effort and sacrifice, and this will be for the better!

Will post the before photos in due course.

Can't wait for the afters!

B&A: Good Friday Springclean

It was the long Easter weekend this week, but instead of cleaning my office over the Good Friday break (which I intended to reorganize and all to make space for new staff), I decided to clean my room which has been turning into quite the junkyard after several weeks of busyness at work. It only took one day, but I was really proud of myself that I had finally found time to straighten out my immediate living space. No surprise that I slept much better that night.

Here are some before and after pictures that I always love to take. I swear by before and after pictures. They are really encouraging and give one such a sense of satisfaction.

This space has always been "sacred" to me.
Somehow, the state that this cabinet is in is highly correlated to how messy I am inside at a particular point of time in life. Interestingly, though, is that my mother has a HUGE habit of stuffing (hiding) things in this cabinet. Clearing it out again was a wonderful feeling. Yes, I cleaned out the side unit too.

Stuff was all over the floor!
It was so refreshing to have a clear walkway again.

After coming back from Bangkok, the space at my bedside somehow became a clutter-attractor.
I cleared everything away, and in its place put a small tray of all the products I use at the start and end of a day - creams, gels, sprays... helps me keep all my things in one place without getting mixed up with the sisters'.

Imagine waking up to this everyday! It was a warzone!
It took quite a bit of effort organizing the nitty grits like jewelry, but it felt so much better after.

Because of the clutter, I completely stopped using this desk and my administrative work piled up!
It was so lovely to be able to see my table again.

Tomorrow, I shall be organizing the office spaces as I have new staff coming in and would like to ensure that proper spaces are created for a new and effective team. I haven't shown the new photos of the office yet, but I will - in time when all the proper spaces are set up! :)

Now that the room is in much better condition, I think I'll be tackling the other side of the landing next week. It's mostly filled with my SIL's stuff...cause they're waiting for their house to be ready, but I think there is some work that can be done on my end at least. It's a really a heap of a warzone - also the first thing that the family sees after we exit our rooms, so it's pretty important to start the day right.

Till next week.

redecorating Tuesday

Ahh, Tuesday. 
Tuesdays have now become my designated "me-day" when I get to do stuff just for myself.

Today, I've chosen to spend some time redecorating this forgotten little space. It's still a work-in-progress though... it's amazing how nit-picky I am with colours and fonts. I simply haven't been able to get the right "feel" out of the typography... but there were only so many choices I was given. Also, yes, I know it's ironic that the background graphic is that of winter, whilst the blog is about springcleaning... but I thought it was a nice philosophical touch to the space. :) Okay, that, and for the fact that I couldn't seem to find any other nice background that made the space look as...clean?

These days, my time has been somehow sucked into a whirlwind of work, thoughts and emotions. It's a strange phase in life I've entered - perhaps it's a normal season of life everyone eventually gets into. I haven't been quite too "on-task" with physical springcleaning projects as I've a whole list of priorities and goals that I have this year - including quite a few reading and working projects - and I have been clocking most of my waking hours to ensure that I stay on track with working toward accomplishing them.

The office has been renovated since the last post, and looks like a completely new place...though there's still quite a bit of unpacking and reorganizing to do. I'll have to put up photos another day though as I have to organize those too. But here's some pictures from the old office and the process of tearing down.

Starting with photos of the mainoffice...

and this was on a normal day.

From the door.

Files and boxes and stuff everywhere.

More boxes and stuff.

It always looked this cluttered.

Even from this angle.
 Look at that disgusting floor!

The library area...okay, I think we were doing some sort of packing that week.
Still, I can't believe I met clients in this space! :(

The walls were lined with all sorts of stuff.

This was toward my office. :( More clutter.

My old space on a generally good day.

My space on a bad day...okay, actually this was in the midst of packing for renos.
Still, it looks terrible!

The "other side" of my "office".

Yep, this was the space we worked in. :/ And yes, I'm glad we renovated.

Here was the start of the tearing down of the central wall.

And here was the start of putting up the new partition.

Shall put up photos of the new office at the end of the week...when I finally properly unpack and organize everything. :)

I'm going to start reorganizing the way I blog here too.
Shall come up with a blogging plan so that I can tend to each one just as well. :)

Writing this post has somehow given me the happies, and a lot of motivation and excitement about tidying up the office. Can't wait to get to work tomorrow.

I LOVE CLEANING!