Clean – Patio/outdoor area
Let’s get your outdoor area ready for entertaining! Living on the fabulous Gold Coast in Queensland the weather is always bright and warm, perfect to spend time outdoors so I try to keep it as tidy as I can, sometimes it hard as we get a lot of birds visit us and they dirty the furniture and ground, so the floor usually needs a good scrub every few weeks. We have found an electric pressure washer works brilliantly removing bird dirt from the tiles and outdoor setting plus removes dust from the tiles and windows, its quick and easy to use.
Cleaning task
Clean your patio, get you ready for spring entertaining or relaxing in your space
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Here are a few posts I have shared on my blog about organising the outdoor area in our previous home:
- Creating a potting bench
- Organising the pool toys
- Storing and organising seed packets + tips for growing seedlings
- Our new vegetable garden
- From sandpit to a beautiful garden
- Our trampoline garden
Declutter – Weeds
We can’t neglect the outdoors, we need to declutter out here too! Today’s task is to spend a little time weeding and/or pruning the garden closest to your outdoor area. Removing the weeds will allow you to relax and enjoy this area more.
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Organise – Kids Wardrobes
Spend some time with your kids over the weekend and organise their wardrobes, purging all clothes that they no longer fit into, put seasonal clothing away (I store them in the top of their wardrobes) and give the wardrobe a general tidy.
Over the years I have changed the storage in my kids wardrobes many times. You can see how their wardrobes started in this post here, which soon became impractical. We then changed it using these inexpensive cubes. My youngest is still using the cubed storage in her cupboards, but the twins have upgraded to an inbuilt system which is working brilliantly. You can read how I have organised my Miss Tweens wardrobe here and how I have organised Mr Tweens wardrobe.
TIP: An absolute time saver is: don’t fold up socks and undies. I have never folded my kids underwear or paired socks, just saves me so much time when folding all the washing. They have always had a basket which stores each of these items along with PJ’s and boxer shorts. The baskets keep them separated and organised.
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New Habit – Water plants
After you rinse out your milk bottles for recycling, fill with water and water a few pot plants. Then put the milk bottle in the recycling. I do this each day to a different plant, so every 3-4 days they each get watered.
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5 Minutes Only – Tidy outside your front door
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DOWNLOAD
Print the daily sheet and checklists to keep for reference while you are completing the above tasks.
- DAY 15 DAILY TASK SHEET – file behind ‘Daily Task’ divider – click to download.
- OUTDOOR CLEANING CHECKLIST – file behind ‘Checklist’ divider – click to download.
- BLANK OUTDOOR CLEANING CHECKLIST – use this to create your own checklist, file behind ‘Checklist’ divider – click to download.
19 comments
I let out a big groan.on reading the tasks…lol
Our Patio is very dusty!!! Not cluttered,just dirty! We never use it. I will clean it though…I’m just not mentally ready for this yet. Same as the garden.
However,kids wardrobes have been decluttered and organised.
I should be able to tidy up the front door today
LOL the way you’re smashing through tasks Dorcas I trust you ended up doing the Patio! You’re doing such a good job, keep it up!
Outside looking great, just waiting for the better weather now! 4 bags of clothes to pass on from the kids wardrobe and now have a clear picture of what clothes we need for summer. Will unfortunately be running behind with challenge tasks this week due to work commitments but can see the end in sight!.
Yay!!! Another day done 🙂 I just kept going and going and did the whole house lol – absolutely loving it again and not so daunting D)
Am going to come back to this one. Weather not so appealing lately…
it can be unpredictable 🙂
Hi Kat, Well my linen closet is all organised, separate boxes for out of season bedding, also separate box of guest bedroom. I have decluttered even more and did another drop off to Salvos. My daughter called to day to admire my pantry. My Bathroom cupboard is also done, had to fix and shelf and bought some storage trays. Everything is much quicker to clean when organised. I even got my husband to fix my pot drawer in the kitchen with new runners, which has been bugging me for 4 years, YaHo… I have been looking at my outside area, and although tidy, I have some ideas for that now too. This will be next on my list. My office space is organised, and I even started the house budget on Saturday morning. Would you believe I started decluttering at work, I actually got rid of a whole bookcase full of stuff, which I no longer need. More room in my office at work, I think I will treat myself to some flowers on my desk. Thanks so much for energising me.
Susanne
Hi Susanne, Wow you have done a wonderful job! Well done to you for also keeping your work space tidy and organised. A big high 5 to you!.:)
Hi Kat,
Thank you for this wonderful challenge, although I have not completed every daily challenge, I love reading them and even if I only apply a small part of the challenge when I am in a particular room, it makes me feel better. I love the 5 minute tasks as well.
Thinking ahead, how do we ensure we maintain some of these rooms or do we plan to apply some of the challenge tasks every 3-4 months?
Hi Kellie, Glad you are enjoying the challenge! You are are doing a great job and even by spending a few minutes in one room is better than not doing it at all. Yes i would suggest repeating the tasks when you feel it is needed.
Outdoor Area/patio got a bit of a makeover this week Kat! You can read about it here 🙂 http://teacherbytrade-motherbynature.blogspot.co.nz/2014/10/20-day-challenge-day-15-patio.html
PS. Thank you for the lovely gift! Love it! I have put it on the wall in my dining area so I can see it EVERY SINGLE DAY 🙂
Charlene your enthusiasm is positively awesome!
I think I’ll have to postpone this day to another. In the UK at the minute we have lots of wind and lots of rain!!! The boys have been out of school early all week for parent/teacher interviews so the house needs a good catchup tidy up!!
Leave it for a better day Catherine, hope the winds stop soon.
What are you doing to me? I live on acreage and every one of our gardens is huge but I will persist even if it takes me all day. Lucky it is my day off work.
Ooh just think how lovely it will look.:) Perfect timing given you have the day off, hope the weather is lovely for you too.:)
Love the idea of the Trampoline garden – I have to move mine each time I mow and the weeds are just growing under it – might have to do this! Thanks Kat!
That’s what we kept doing Kate and it’s just too heavy and was killing the grass underneath, so love this now, except that the passionfruit vine is growing really well and entangling itself onto the trampoline mesh.