You are getting ready to have your kitchen painted and to have a new floor put in the kitchen, laundry area and family room. You want to schedule the work in such a way that it won’t drive you crazy and so that you can keep things clean as the work goes along.
The painter says there won’t be much dust, but he’s going to sand the cabinets, so you don’t believe him. The floor man will be removing carpet, which you think will be dusty and, which also means the furniture from the family room will be crammed into the living room.
You are already starting to hyperventilate thinking about several weeks of constantly cleaning up dust and trying to function in a kitchen with wet paint and a living room that’s too crowded to use. How can you schedule things so that you don’t go crazy and so that you can keep on top of the dust and live halfway normally?
There’s no such thing as normal living when you are tearing up the house for renovating. And trying to conquer the dust on a daily basis is probably a losing battle. So much for the fantasy of clear and normal. Pop yourself out of your panic by tossing aside your ideas that you can keep things clean and normal, because you can’t.
Instead, go to Plan B
Close your eyes to the dust until all the work are done. Don’t schedule everyone to work at the same time. If you do, the painter and the floor person will just get in each other’s way, and neither will be able to do a good job. It takes longer to schedule one job at a time, but at least the job can be done properly. If it’s done poorly or incorrectly, doing it over is really time-consuming.
While the work is going on, plan to eat out a lot. Get out of the house so you don’t have to contemplate the mess. You can do all of your yard work. Go to the movies. Visit with friends.
Throughout, resist the urge to continuously clean. Think about it: You can spend two hours every day cleaning for two weeks and still have to spend a full cleaning when everyone is done (for a total of 36 hours). Or you can ignore it all for two weeks and do it all at once when everybody is done.
Even if it takes two days because you have to clean out all the kitchen cabinets due to sawdust, you’re looking at 16 hours of cleaning instead of 36. It’s reality math that’s hard to ignore. When it’s over, you can go back to your clean and normal life.
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