Tuesday Morning Tidy: 12 Months of Tidy - Entry/Porch Part 1

Onto month four of 12 Months of Tidy! In a seasonally appropriate choice, I'll be tackling the front porch and entry. It's another area of heavy use, and it definitely needs some sprucing after the ice and snow.

As a refresher, my three steps for each space are:

1. Clear, clean and repair. Identify any materials needed in advance to make this possible.

2. Assess how we use the space for making improvements.

3. Identify ways to maintain it more easily going forward.

For part 1, I'll focus on the first step--Clear, Clean and Repair. We have some small repairs to make, so I will definitely need to head to the hardware store for materials.

• Front porch paint

• Concrete patch

• Black spray paint

• Drop cloths

• Cleaning/microfiber cloths

• Floor mop

• Wood Repair kit

• Lightbulbs

Clear

In every room, I start with sorting initial items into trash, donate and relocate. If things are not useful and in the right place, they go into one of these three piles. For the porch and entry way, this is a much easier process! I have a dresser in our entry that needs to be cleaned out, but that's the only item on the list.

Clean

I'll sweep and hose off the front porch as soon as it's warm enough to avoid the possibility of a freeze. The rocking chair on our front porch needs to be painted, so I'll start that process with a thorough cleaning.

Inside, I plan to mop the floors and vacuum the front rug. I'll dust the other surfaces and clean the vintage dresser and bench.

Repairs

On the porch, I'll patch a few cracks and chips in the porch surface. It's been repaired before, but we keep up with this maintenance every two years or so. If the rocking chair needs to be sanded anywhere, I'll take care of that before painting it. I'm also pretty sure we need to replace a lightbulb!

Inside, the entry dresser has some damaged wood on the side that I'd like to try and repair. I've done this on a smaller scale, so I'll be doing some research on how to repair more significant damage.

After the repairs, I've got some serious painting to do outside! Hopefully the weather cooperates, and I can check that off this month.