Is there such a thing as Autumn Cleaning? If there isn’t, there should be. For that’s my plan for the weekend. After two weekends away (in London and Yorkshire) this weekend I will roll my sleeves up, put my apron on and work on getting my home hygge-ready. For next week is October, and the leaves will soon drop from the trees, leaving windows that have crouched all summer in the cool dapple of a tree shade bare and now lie exposed to the full glare of low-slanting Winter sun.

My plan of attack is, therefore, :

Get the washing back up-to-date and hopefully line dried by evening.

The washing mountain is always with us, but perhaps always more painful after an extended break. I have three week’s worth of washing to get done so that I can have clothes to wear.

Clear the Living Room of anything that belongs anywhere else.

It’s very easy to bring something down and say you’ll put it back later, but later never comes. This weekend I will grab a large basket and anything that belongs elsewhere will be leaving and going to the proper place. I’ll also put the DVDs back in alphabetical order, take the books back to the shelves and try and get the guinea pigs’ supplies to fit in the baskets allotted to them.

Make sure my Hallway is clean, clear and smelling beautiful.

There are some parcels hanging around that need to go somewhere else. I have a letter rack to empty, some shoes to put inside instead of on top of the shoe box, and a few tweaks to do. The hallway needs painting, but that’s in my head for next February. I may take Mr Hygge to B&Q to invest in better coat hooks, or I may not. I also have it in mind to move the shoe chest to a corner behind the door and paint it red.

Then I can make the place smell nice. I don’t use scented candles in the living room, at least, not lit: I have in mind another candle from Lollyrocket.com in Pumpkin Pie scent. Their Warm Woods and Spice is keeping me cosy at work at the moment.

Clean the Kitchen Thoroughly.

I’ll clear the surfaces, wipe the counters down, wipe over the doors and put everything back in the right place. I love using Maison Belle’s  Christmas Cleaner, which is cinnamon and orange scented, so the kitchen will smell gorgeous as soon as it’s done.

With a fresh set of towels, and a pot of soup on the stove, the kitchen will be ready for me to bake in no time.

Clean the bathrooms to Spa Standard.

I have two sons who know nothing about bathrooms, so our family bathroom can get quite messy quite soon.  I will be scrubbing and disinfecting bath, shower and toilet. I love Zoflora Winter Spice as my disinfectant. I’ll wipe everything down with a dilute solution and leave the windows open while the smell softens to a spicy underlying mist, rather than a total fog.

Added to that, some of our bathroom mats have seen much better days so I may grab a few minutes to visit Dunelm on Monday and invest in a supersoft reversible mat for the bathroom. I quite fancy Kingfisher blue…..

The finishing touches will be fresh towels and a double check that there is enough toilet roll available. I’m also inclined to place a few nightlights in glass holders in the bathroom, ready for the spa evenings that Sarah and I have planned….

The Rest of the House

Will have to wait until the weekend after, then. I don’t like to do too much and then get over-tired so the evening passes in a haze of me wondering why I bothered. I’m also entertaining my parents this Saturday. Well, I say entertaining. It’s really more like they’ll eat the meal I make and watch Strictly on our telly, before going home quite happily. To make the weekend easier, I’ll put a chicken stew in the slow cooker, some bread on to warm through and I really, really fancy an apple crumble and custard to follow.

Talking of Strictly…

Strictly very quickly becomes part of our Saturday hygge. After eating, and enjoying, a meal together we love little better than sitting together as a family and enjoying the old-time entertainment that is Strictly. Even the boys sit through it, although the promise of a packet of sweets might help!

Do you watch it? Who are your favourites? I am predisposed to like Ruth Langsford after she said such nice things about me when I was on The Chase and I have a fondness for Chizzy as well. My daughter is enjoying the eye candy of Jonnie Peacock, while Debbie Magee was a revelation, wasn’t she? Go Strictly!

You can download a sweepstake poster from the BBC. We have one at home and one in the office, that we mark off every Monday with that weekend’s victim. One more small way to mark the inevitable march towards Christmas.

No Christmas presents for you today… I apologise! The Office went manic and my time to create disappeared. I will be back with a proper BIG giveaway next week, so do please keep reading the blog!

My Christmas book, Have Yourself a Happy Hygge Christmas is available in paperback and ebook versions from Amazon. If you do read it and enjoy it, please do leave a review or a rating on Amazon and Goodreads.