Welcome to Day 12 of the Get Your Home Ready For The Holidays Challenge! If you haven’t heard as much from me this week, it’s because I’m preparing for my little one’s birthday party. Even when I try to keep things simple, I overthink things which leads me to do more than necessary. Trust me when I say that I try to take it easy, but unfortunately I wasn’t gifted with the “hostess with the mostess” gene. I want everything to taste and look good, while ensuring that my guests feel welcomed. All the prepping just stresses me out. I feel awful that I don’t host more gatherings, but I’m simply not cut out for it. I definitely could use some help in this department and welcome all advice.
OK enough of my hosting issues, I’m sure you want to know what day 12 of the challenge entails. Today I focused on the floors. The majority of our home is carpeted which were in need of a good cleaning. Truthfully, they didn’t look bad at all. In fact, there were no visible stains or dirt since we don’t walk on the carpet with our shoes on. However I knew that even with our “no shoes” policy, the carpet was probably in need of a good scrubbing. So I rented a carpet cleaner this morning and spent several hours cleaning both floors. I was exhausted by the time I got to the last room. I kept telling myself that next time I will hire a carpet cleaner.
I do love the way the carpets smell, along with the fact that now I know for sure that they’re clean. This time around I tried a new homemade carpet cleaning solution that I found online. I’ll link to it as soon as I find the website, but it’s basically a scoop of OxiClean, 1 tsp. of fabric softener and a 1/4 cup of cleaning solution called Awesome cleaner (sold at the dollar store). You’re also supposed to add laundry detergent, but I decided to skip it. I’m not a fan of too much detergent because it leaves residual suds which require me to go over the carpet several times with clean water.
To speed up the process, I had my daughter dry vacuum each room right before I shampooed. Even with her help, this task kicked my behind. I’m still feeling the physical effects of hauling the large machine and pushing it around until my hand was on fire from the back and forth motion. Again, why didn’t I hire someone?? Welp, at least the task got done and I can welcome the holidays with clean carpets.
Now I’m working on finishing up our bedroom, but need to narrow down the paint color. I wanted to share a before photo since I’ve talked about how small and simple it is. It’s the smallest master bedroom we’ve ever had, but I love it. Everything is starting to come together nicely and I know that it will look completely different once it’s all done. Stay tuned for the room reveal!
How are things coming along for you? Are you feeling good about your progress? Not quite where you want to be? The great thing about a challenge like this is that it pushes you to take action. And although it’s great to have a clean home, it should never come before your family. If you need a break, take it. A little dirt never hurt nobody. 🙂
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