I am wondering about this too. I should be finished next week and am itching to get everything back to normal. But there is so much crushed drywall, dust, dirt, and debris everywhere, I don't know where to start. The rugs will need to be cleaned, the sofa, hardwood floors, bookshelves... I wonder if it is worth tackling this myself? I've spent so much, I'd really prefer not to hire someone but I fear it may be necessary.

Oh, and I actually have tossed a few things but they were cheap to replace.

I did one room at a time. I started with the DR and worked at it until it was done, then I moved to the LR etc. Once the main floor was done, I moved upstairs - it wasn't quite as bad. Overall, took me about 10 days to get everything cleaned - I still have a basement full of stuff though that will never go back in my new kitchen/FR. One of these days I'll post them on Craigslist or something similar. Good luck

we didn't do a whole house renovation, just kitchen/mudroom/powder room and it was fairly easy to keep shut off from the rest of the house but i also felt total uphevel.....this may be too late for you guys, but for others lurking......

yes, i will sound a bit crazy, but i dusted, swiffered, vacuummed daily during the renovation.....it only took about 30 min. total and i often did it right when i put the kids to sleep. i kept on top of the dust and it gave me some sort of comfort sitting down with dh for the rest of the night.

other than that, i like the idea of tackling it one room at a time....

but if you have the means, you may want to hire a cleaner that specializes in after construction clean up.....

I actually bought a cheap temporary vacuum so I wouldn't have to worry about all the plaster dust and sawdust clogging up my good one.

Then I had to buy extra vacuum filters because they got hopelessly saturated right away.

As for a normal house - I don't remember what that feels like. But it's getting better...they're removing the last of the construction debris tomorrow. :-)

gglks - no it doesn't sound crazy at all that you cleaned daily :) I actually started out trying to but now I've begun to just not care as much. And my husband could care less, so I figure why should I even bother? Not to mention that there's just not time to continue cleaning every single day - with things piled on every surface it's not worth the effort required. It's very depressing because it looks exactly the same again the very next day anyway!

I hope to be able to hire a cleaner, but we'll see what remains in the budget - haha!

My GC actually asked if I wanted cleaning services included in our estimate. He said definitely we will need to have the air ducts done (we have forced air heat and floor vents in every room) but I said I would handle the cleaning myself (hmmmm, may have to re-think THAT decision).

Appreciate your asking and everyone's response, though for my planning stage. Really never considered my sofa would need to be cleaned - ooppss! Better cover that sucker with sheets during demo!

We are getting an enthusiastic start for our remodel and have been getting rid of tons of things every week. (Goodwill just loves us!) I told DH it looks like we are moving we have gotten rid of so much. :)

Good luck making it through the final stages. It is the mess I am dreading the most........

My house is a sawmill, I swear! Oh, DH and BIL can't work without music and so the guest room door had to be open while sawing. We were moving our bedroom door, so that door had to be open as well. The stairs look like baby powder.

We cleaned up to host Christmas (I shut down the project three days ahead) and then started all over. We have an all house fan in a giant box and a Neorest toilet on our porch (oh and drywall, plywood and various other items there too).

My 44" fireclay sink is on the floor in the living room along with boxes of wood flooring for another room we're doing...

The dining room houses all my samples of paint, tile, flooring... Yikes!!!!

But it will be so nice when it's done. DIY projects tend to require far more patience than those that hire out labor...

Hire a cleaner? I don't think so. I'm way too cheap. I'd have to get cheaper tile or something so I'll do it myself, one room at a time, one day at a time.

We did just our kitchen but it was total DIY, as was the clean up. It took weeks to reload the kitchen, and I had huge plastic chests filled with pots and pans, etc, in my DR. I vacuumed and vacuumed and vacuumed, and dusted and dusted and dusted until it was clean of renovation dust.It seems when sheetrock is involved, the dust keeps reappearing!It is doable on your own, it just takes time and repeated cleaning. If you can afford it, it would make it easier on you to hire some cleaning help. I didn't have the budget to choose to spend my money that way... sigh...

Not that I'd want anyone to have to go through this, but in some strange way it makes me feel much better to hear that I'm not alone :)

I'm honestly beginning to think that the cleanup may take longer than the actual construction! And that's really bad since the construction started in Sept and I don't think we'll finish until approx. early March - ugh!!!!

Along with the dust is red dirt/mud due to having to dig down so far for the basement portion. We didn't have any significant rain for several months into the renovation, but when it did, all the red mud ended up in the house. I wish I could pressure wash the inside just like the outside - haha!

Anyway, good luck to everyone - we'll all get through it eventually :)

I vacuumed today and I have a dirt sensor on my vacuum. My persian rugs took about 15 minutes of vacuuming before the darn red light turned green... I vacuumed 4 days ago. The dreaded drywall sanding stage is here, we're working upstairs (bathroom) and I'm talking dust everywhere downstairs.

Whining.

How in the world do you ever really get dust out of a rug?? For rugs that have instructions not to steam clean, other than beating them, vacuuming, etc, not sure it they are every REALLY clean.

I basically expected it with most of the rugs in the house, so when we started renovation I decided to leave the rug in the living room just for a big doormat basically. It's going in the trash as soon as everything's done! We've had the rug for at least 10 years and I'm surprised it's held up this long - it's actually fraying at one edge and the dog loves to roll around on it, digging her claws in. The replacement for it is still wrapped up in the basement, so I know it should at least survive the dust and debris unscathed :)