C.O.P. Week 3 – Good Habits & Demo Ready
Y’all, it was a good week for me in the C.O.P. category! (C.O.P. = cleaning, organizing, purging.) Week #1 was all about cleaning and purging so it was easy to focus. During week #2, I tried to continue forming those daily habits, and incorporating them into normal life. I learned that it’s a bit more challenging to continue with those daily cleaning habits in the course of normal life (i.e., when cleaning and purging isn’t my single focus for the week).
So how did I do on the third week?
I did great! I cleaned my kitchen and vacuumed (my two habits that I’m concentrating on forming this month) every single day! Woohoo!! It feels so good having a clean house! Of course, it’ll feel so much better once the hallways and bedrooms are no longer a construction zone. It’s hard to keep a clean floor when the floor in those rooms is covered with dust from drywall mud and sawdust from my current building project. But hopefully very soon, I can get that floor finished, and keeping a clean floor will be much easier.
In the meantime, I bought this Bissel Spinwave mop. It’s amazing!! I actually love mopping my floors now! 😀
So the cleaning part of my C.O.P. plan is going great. My house is far from perfect, but I’m developing some good habits and learning that having a clean house feels so good, and is definitely worth the 15 minutes of effort it takes every day to keep it that way.
As far as purging goes, I had to tackle a pretty big project this week. Today is demo day on the room that will become our master bathroom, so I had to get the room cleared out so that we could work in there. But yesterday, this is what that room looked like…
Boxes of stuff (some of which had broken so the contents were scattered) had been haphazardly shoved in here before the remodel on the bedrooms started. I stood our bed and headboard up on edge to make more room for the other stuff that needed to be stored in here.
As the guys removed all of the trim from the hallway and bedrooms, they stacked that in here also.
So by yesterday, this room was a disaster. And it all needed to be gone by this morning.
So I took two hours last night to get this room cleared out. A lot of the stuff just had to go in the corner room (i.e., the future home gym) until I have time to go through each box individually. Some of those boxes haven’t been opened since we left the condo.
But I did manage to gather up one box (plus some) that can go to The Salvation Army or Goodwill…
In the box, there are books, decorative items, chair pads from a project that never materialized, a lamp, and some Roman shades. I’m also taking my old sewing machine and another stainless steel trash can.
In addition to my donations pile, I gathered up another box of recycling….
…and two bags of actual trash…
That’s quite a bit of stuff leaving my house this week! Add that to the huge amount of stuff that left during week 1, and the smaller but still significant amount of stuff that left during week 2, and you can imagine how much better this house feels now. It feels like there’s some breathing room around here now! I still have so many boxes to go through, and I dread having to actually tackle the sunroom, but I’ll get to those things in the coming week. And while the process won’t be fun, the feeling of accomplishment after tackling those things will feel amazing!
And speaking of boxes, yet another week has passed, and I still haven’t gone through a box. (If you’ll remember, my goal was to throw out one contractor bag each week, and go through one box each week.) But since I’m getting rid of quite a bit this week and throwing out two contractor bags, I’m giving myself a pass on the box. But since this is the second week in a row that I haven’t gone through a box, I need to make that a priority next week!
So after a couple of hours of work last night, the room was cleared out and ready to go for this morning…
Quite a bit of work has already been done on this room. You can see above that it has a new window and new framing for a pocket door into our home gym.
On the other end of the room, the closet has been removed, and some space was stolen from the hallway in order to square up this room. In that back area, some walls will be constructed so that the water closet will be in the right corner, and the shower will be in the left corner.
So today, my mom, sister, bonus sister, brother, and two nieces are coming to work on this room with me. Our goal is to remove all of the polystyrene tiles, 1 x 4s, and drywall on the ceiling, drywall and shiplap on the walls, and flooring and subfloor on the floor.
When we’re done, I hope to be down to ceiling joists, studs, and floor joists. If we do make it that far, I’ll need to get some plywood in here ASAP so that this room can actually have a subfloor. I don’t want to live indefinitely with a room where the floor joists and dirt beneath my house are clearly visible, although my cats would probably enjoy it. 😀
Are you C.O.P.ing with me this year? If so, how did you do this week? Are you getting rid of stuff? Getting organized? Developing new habits to keep your house clean?
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
You have got me inspired! I read Marie Kandi’s book years back and really did like it and find some useful information, especially folding. I’ve now finished both books you’ve recommended and have made a couple of trips to our local donation/resale store. It’s amazing how much stuff I just hold onto, I went through a filing cabinet in our garage and was able to recycle pounds of old manuals. Why I hold onto our toaster or tea kettle manual is beyond me! If I ever need to find anything out, I can just look most of these things up online. I could probably even do this for our bigger appliances too, they’re beyond warranty, and I always use the same settings. I guess I’ll keep them for now and purge them next round if I don’t need them! Can’t wait to see your demo progress this weekend! Good luck and be safe!!
Excited for demo day! Will be following on Instagram! Good job on the COP. I’m going to buy that mop!
Good luck today!
Would you consider selling the Roman shades to me? I asked several years ago but never got a response. If their width is right, I have the perfect place for them.
I am good as about not holding on to my stuff. But how do you get rid of your parent’s personal things when there is no family to give them to. Yet they mean something to you.
Great job Kristi! Slowly but surely things will become a habit. For both of us, I hope.
C O P is a good plan and I am using it too!
Yes! I’ve still been making progress every day. Seeing even a small pile of things disappear everyday (and taking a photo of it so that I don’t forget my accomplishments) has helped so much.
This weekend’s unfortunate project is basically to see if anything out of my husband’s closet is salvageable after discovering that a moving box was stuffed with MOLD. What a nightmare for two very allergic people. I got it all pulled out yesterday, and today we have to make the tough choices of whether to risk keeping anything. It feels so overwhelming, but I’m hoping it means things will be healthier for us once the dust and mold spores settle.
Good for you, Kristi! I admire your determination to form new habits, and the transparency you display sharing both victories AND “failures”. (Not really failures if they make you stronger and you keep moving toward your goals.) I’m a naturally organized “cleanie”, so can only imagine how difficult this journey is for you. Keep up the good work!
I just saw this quote and thought I’d share….”Habits are to the soul what veins are to the blood. The very course of our life depends on them. Random acts of greatness pale in comparison to habitual acts of faithfulness.”
Thanks for sharing Sandra, I am saving this quote!
I’m copying this quote to be able to meditate on it. Thank you, Sandra, thoughtful of you to share it.
So very proud of you Kristi! I feel like I’ve been COP-ing for a decade! I just had a counter top install cancelled because my order is over a year old and I still haven’t got the bathrooms ready! 😬 the struggle is real! I’ve feel like I finally got a handle on what I’m calling my “lifestyle goals” routine. I’ve been working on my house, which we want to sell. Anyway, bravo to you! It’s a great accomplishment! 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Have been following you for quite a while. Just a little interesting tidbit. I belong to an organization C.O.P.S. it is Concerns Of Police Survivors
Everytime I have started to read your blog I think of my COPS first then have to do a mind reset to your COP. I’m loving following your blogs
You definitely inspired me (and watching Dana K. White’s YouTube videos) and I have been doing a lot of “P”Ing. I donated six full Large size garbage bags of clothing today and bought some small plastic containers to organize my linen closet. Now I just need to “C”. Love your blog Kristi!
Help . . . from what perspective/part of the house am I looking at this room and pictures? I can’t remember the newest layout.
Lynne, this had been the master bedroom. She is going to make it into a large master bath that Matt will be able to easily get around in with the wheelchair. This is the floor plan she posted a while back showing it as the master bath: https://www.addicted2decorating.com/the-master-bathroom-layout-decided.html
It feels good to ourge and clean but save that foam for the chairs you want to upholster!! that stuff is not cheap and you will need this for those chairs for your living room.
Kristi, I hope you know that you are helping lots of us out here setting an example for C.O.P. Yes, I am COPing too, and I read the Dana K White book. Like you, the first week I was a whirlwind with 4 large bags of purged stuff and a donation box filled. The second week was slower because I needed to focus in a different area and that work involved paper/patterns/projects to sort. That took a lot more emotional work so it was slower going. I got ruthless, though, and stuck with it, and while my pace was slower, I did some work each day. I think the mindset of the habit is really important too, so I want an every day approach. I’m close to completing the category of papers/patterns/in progress projects that I set out to do. I do feel some relief, too, because I had to face that emotional part. Was I a failure because I didn’t complete some of my projects and now I no longer want them? No. I refocused that as a skill development exercise, and, actually, it’s ok for a sense of taste and style to evolve. Donate and purge!
My husband was very ill last year and ended up having emergency surgery in July with a couple of months of recovery afterward. Aside from general pick up and vacuuming, I did not do any deep cleaning or organizing. I wanted to start the new year fresh so this whole month I’ve been deep cleaning and purging on the weekends. I’m 90% done and it feels SO good to be in a clean house. There are a few hot spots left to clean out, but I’m at a point where I can tidy up daily and keep it clean. And now I’m not embarrassed if someone stops by because my isn’t cluttered in every room. I know my focus on getting my husband healthy was the right thing but I’m SO happy to have my house clean again.
Your COP skills are awesome! Is it too late to join up?