Have you ever tried to live in a structure that’s under construction. I have. For about a year, every morning I would wake up to the sounds of a stereo beating a tattoo through the floor of my room and the rumble of machinery. When I was 12, my parents added a basement to our existing home. The result was the addition of a large bonus room, two bedrooms, a full bathroom, and a medium-sized storage room.

However, living through the renovation meant our backyard was a muddy mess from the bobcat tractor carting loads of dirt out to the street, a fine dust settled on everything in our house, and for a while there was a dirt wonderland through which I and my siblings cavorted after school, bringing into the house sawdust, bits of 2 by 4 planks, rocks, and puffy globes of dried insulation. I don’t know how my parents survived, but they did.

Strategies for survival

If you haven’t yet embarked on your long term renovation project, be forewarned that for a time, your home won’t be the most clean or relaxing place to be. There will be rooms draped in plastic, rooms without furniture, and days when paint fumes drive you out of doors. You’ll have to follow a few key strategies in order to survive this mess.

Take a break

Get away from the mess and stress once in a while. Take your spouse out on a date, take the kids to the zoo, anything to get you away from constantly thinking about the renovation. A little weekend trip is best because you can start to remember what it’s like to live somewhere that isn’t always under construction.

Move the mess

Try to focus on one area at a time. Rather than putting the whole house into a state of disorder, confine your activity to one section, finish it, then move on to the next room. Also make sure not to block your path to key areas of the home, like the bathroom and the kitchen.

Stay caught up with cleaning

Keep up with the cleaning. It might be tempting to let the dirt and debris pile up, rationalizing it will be easier to clean it all up at the end. However, the extra mess can make it easy to lose important tools, may block entrances or pathways, and will contribute to the general feeling that you live in a lumberyard. Instead, make it a goal to do daily or weekly clean-sweeps. Dust your surfaces frequently to prevent an unhealthy level of dirt from accumulating in the air and cover furniture when it’s not in use with sheets or plastic covers.

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Source: utsandiego.com/news/2013/nov/10/tp-rein-in-that-renovation-take-the-headache-out/