Pick your Captain, Any Captain! Make him or her yourself for a day, week, month (you know as long as it keeps working...) and then look around you. Your home has now been transformed into a sprawling pirate ship. With full rigging.

Imagine with me the billowing sails in the color of your dear living room curtains. Come on open the window! Let in that fresh salty sea breeze! Turn sprinklers on the front lawn for added effect of waves crashing. Your living room is now the main top deck, kitchen has been turned into a galley. Enjoy counting your plunder in the Captain's Quarters aka Master Bedroom. Computer Room or Hobby Room can become the Helm. Bathroom naturally is the Brig. Children's rooms are for the crew. Please choose your crew wisely.

Never can tell where loyalties lie and watch out for stowaways on slumber party nights. Once you have your mixed crew of imaginary and real people assembled. Assign them tasks.
Older crew members can swab the decks. Younger crew can tie down the rigging. If you're all alone in your home then order yourself around and don't be lazy with the whip. A good crack here and there will set them straight.
Don't forget in your Home Management Notebook you can set it up as a Captain's Logbook. With sections on Crew, Plunder, Treasure, Ship Maintenance, Treasure Map Locations, a listing of qualified doctors to see upon getting stabbed or shot, you know, the basics.
The best part of Pirating is searching for hidden treasure. Now I don't want you to go digging holes in your yards. I want you to clear out your junk and throw away the fool's gold and search for the crown jewels. Be MERCILESS! You're a Pirate!
For the higher imaginative Captains you can add your own scenarios while you go along, either of swashbuckling treasure hunting, make like you are a hidden spy on an enemy ship and are rooting for clues, or romantic escapades on the high seas... the choices are as large as your imagination...

Of course make any dawdlers walk the plank at sword point. Or better yet arm them with a swisher and mop and lock them in the Brig. HAR HAR HAR!!!!

The best is to have fun while making your home Ship Shape.

Do you love the look of clean fresh spacious Hotels?
Do you dream your own home looked like this?
I do too!
Part of being an imaginative person I like to sometimes playact different themes to cleaning and manging my home. After a good three shows in a row of the Suite Life of Zach and Cody, I realized I could Play Hotel too.
I could manage my home as if it were a real hotel.
It's a fun way to get in the mood for cleaning.
Feel like sprucing up the Living Room? Think of it as the Hotel Lobby. Ensure that the seating is nicely arranged with plenty of throw pillows and a cleared off floor. Add some candles on the shelves. Even if no one but your imaginary friends enters your home you should still think of it as the first place a customer (visitor) will see when they enter your house. Most importantly when you come home and see a friendly interior you will feel more homey too.
When family enters treat them like a guest (umm if you keep your pretending to yourself, as I do, then just underplay the role) coming into stay the night. Give each on a secret name in your head. Greet them warmly as you would as the Receptionist. "Hello! Welcome home! How was your day? Glad you could make it!" Switch to Bell Hop mode if they are holding something. "Here allow me to help you with that." Or you can add imaginary guests as need be. Either way it will improve family relationships by having more respect flow between people. The customer is always right don't forget so swallow that sassy retort!
There are sooo many roles you can play with!

As you move through the house pretend you're the Housekeeping! Make the beds just so! Put a flower on the pillows! Envision how a Housekeeper acts (shouldn't be too hard ha ha!) and how they move around the room and what they clean to keep it tidy daily. Also realize the minimal things needed in a house to make it less cluttered. Use this imagery to help you focus on de-cluttering your home!


Hate scrubbing that bathroom? You can think of fun role playing for this. Regular Housekeeping, or for a funny twist if you like adding imaginary characters, you could be half way through the bathroom detail and then pull aside the curtain and reveal the "guest" is still in the shower and have a comedic scene of guest embarrassment and he/she runs off in a towel or perhaps turn it romantic (if these are your kinda thoughts) and join the guest for a little "mental" escapade Ohh la la while cleaning the tub (around your guest). Heh I told you I have active imaginations. ;)
Don't forget to change the folded towels!


Soon with a little (or a lot) of imagination, your home will shine!

Also for setting up a Home Notebook you can create dividers to match the theme of Hotel Personal. One area for Chef's Menus and one for In-House Tailor etc...

My new improvement blog about chaos and calm