7-Day Plan: Get a Spotless, Beautifully Organized Dining Room

Has your dining room become a catchall for the odds and ends of daily life? Or is it a virtually untouched, dusty museum that you use only on holidays and special occasions? Getting the dining room fresh, clean and well organized is a good first step toward using and enjoying it daily. This weeklong plan will get your dining room in shape, so you can enjoy nightly dinners with your loved ones in a comfortable, serene space.

Make a plan of attack: The current state of your dining room will determine how much time you’ll need to tackle each part of this plan — read over the whole plan first and then decide where to focus your efforts. If, for example, you have little clutter but a huge collection of tarnished silver you really want to get clean, you may want to start right in on the cleaning on Day 1. No matter what you focus on, it helps to get started on a weekend, when you can knock out the biggest tasks while your energy and motivation are high. Then finish up during smaller pockets of time during the week.


Day 1: Regain sanity.

Decluttering tasks: Today is the day to make a fresh start in the dining room.
Remove anything that belongs in another room: shopping bags waiting to be unpacked, library books that need to be returned, kids’ toys, piles of mail, laptops — whatever you’ve got!
Completely clear the stuff off the dining table, floors and other surfaces. Most decor can stay (for now), but if it has a home in another room, out it goes.
Instead of just shoveling the piles into another room, take the time to actually put things where they go. Otherwise you will end up back at square one by next weekend!As you declutter, make a list of exactly what sorts of things have ended up in your dining room. This is a clue that those types of items do not have a proper place to “live” — later in the week, we will look at this list more closely.Cleaning tasks: If you have an area rug beneath your dining table, and it needs more than vacuuming, roll it up and cart it to a dry cleaner that handles rugs today.


Day 2: Deep clean.

Cleaning tasks: At first glance the dining room may seem like a straightforward room to get spic and span. But if you have a china cabinet filled with tableware, drawers of silver and open shelving with tons of decorations gathering dust, it can be quite time consuming.
Start with a top-to-bottom vacuuming of the entire room. Reach up to the highest corners and use an attachment on the window treatments. Get some help if you can to move the dining table to the side, so you can vacuum the top of the area rug and underneath it. Roll up the area rug if you have one and mop the floor. Allow the floor to dry completely before replacing the rug.Use an all-purpose cleaner and a microfiber cloth to clean the baseboards, windowsills and cabinet hardware.Clean your dining table and use a wood polish if it’s appropriate for the finish.Use glass cleaner on mirrors and glass cabinet doors.Dust open shelves, cabinet interiors and china or decorations that have been sitting out.If you have fine silver and it is tarnished, take the plunge and clean it. If you don’t want to use a toxic silver cleaner, try soaking your silver several pieces at a time in a pan lined with aluminum foil and filled with boiled water and baking soda.Decluttering tasks: As you deep clean today, think about what you might be ready to let go of or store elsewhere. Tomorrow you will be making some decisions to help simplify your space, but if you’ve already given the matter some thought, the process will go more smoothly.


Day 3: Simplify.

Decluttering tasks: Today is the day to let go of something. It could be as big as a full set of formal china you never use or as small as your least favorite placemats. Remember that by letting go, you are choosing to make more space in your life for the things you truly love and use — and by giving things away (or selling them), you are passing your belongings along to someone who will use them. Here are a few items to consider:
Multiple sets of dishes or silverware. How many do you really need and use? If you enjoy entertaining large groups, it might make sense to keep a large number of extras on hand — just keep in mind your needs.Very formal pieces you are afraid to use. What is holding you back? Can you get over it and use those beautiful glasses, or would it be wiser to sell them or gift them to a relative?Anything you no longer love. We’ve all been there: You buy something on a whim, but it doesn’t really suit your style or your life. Let it go.Decor gone overboard. A great vase, a few candleholders or even a well-curated collection can have a place in the dining room. But when every surface is covered, something has to go.



Day 4: Organize.

Decluttering tasks: By today your dining room should be cleaner and much less cluttered. Bravo! Now it’s time to take it a step further. The work you do today will make things easier to find and help prevent clutter from building up in the future.
Make a place for your favorite everyday pieces. Those napkins, placemats and serving pieces you find yourself reaching for most often should be placed front and center.If you have limited space, transfer rarely used items to a storage closet elsewhere in the house. You can always get them out when you need them — it’s more important to have room for the things you use and love on a daily basis.Sort your drawers and cupboards by category: placemats in one, napkins and napkin rings in another, serving implements in a third and so on.Before you call it quits today, dig out that list you made on Day 1 cataloging the kinds of things that were cluttering up your dining room. What is on your list? Kids’ homework, magazines, laundry? Look at each item and do a little digging to figure out why these items end up in the dining room. For some things, like homework, it might make sense to create a permanent home in the dining room where the kids can store their things. For others, like laundry, the problem could be you don’t have a convenient place to sort and fold clothes in the laundry room itself … but that’s another 7-day plan!


Day 5: Enhance lighting.

Decluttering tasks: How well lit is your dining room? If your overhead light is not yet on a dimmer switch, look into getting one — it makes a world of difference. Enhance an overhead light with one or two lamps placed on a buffet or console table, or a whole bunch of candles.

Cleaning tasks: Unless you tackled it on the big Day 2 deep clean, now is the time to get all of the grime off that beautiful dining room light fixture. And while I admit I have been known to stand on our dining table, the safest thing is to use a sturdy ladder.For fabric-covered shades, use a vacuum attachment to gently remove dust.
For glass and crystal fixtures, use a dusting wand or soft cloth.
For flush-mount light fixtures, remove the cover from the ceiling and gently clean it inside and out with a damp cloth.



Day 6: Set the table.

Decluttering tasks: Now is the time to consider how you want your dining table to look, both between and during meals. If you use the table solely at dinnertime, you may like to keep it draped in a pretty tablecloth, with a simple vase of flowers and a few candles in the middle. If your family uses the table constantly — for work, projects etc. — it could make more sense to leave the table bare, but store dinnertime necessities in a caddy close at hand.
Here are a few fun ideas for the table:
Keep a bowl of blessings or inspiring quotes written on slips of paper for reading aloud before dinner.Put flowers in an unusual vessel, like a teapot or jelly jars.Use a roll of white or brown kraft paper instead of a tablecloth, and set out markers for people to draw on it.


Day 7: Use it or lose it!

The more often you use your dining room for meals, the easier it will be to get into the habit of keeping it clean and clutter free. Here are a few tips for keeping your dining room looking good every day.

Decluttering tasks:
Spend five minutes each evening clearing out items that don’t belong and putting them away.Each time you buy something new for your table, search through your cupboards and pick something to give away or sell.Write a note on your calendar to sort through your dining room cupboards at the start of each season. If you live in a small space, also rotate items into and out of storage then.Cleaning tasks:
Put away linens and clean the table after each meal.Keep a small stick vacuum in a nearby closet and use it to quickly clean up the rug after each mealtime.Vacuum and dust each week to keep the space fresh.Tell us: What is the biggest cleaning or decluttering problem you face in the dining room?

More 7-day plans: Living Room | Entry Hall | Kitchen | Kids’ Room | Laundry Room

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