Welcome to my Tackle it Tuesday post for this week. Any guesses what I tackled?
I had no intention of that picture being the first thing you see. I had planned to explain myself, rationalize, etc before the pic, but I’m still figuring out this Blogger stuff, and now I don’t know how to move it.
There you go. I am a slob. I know that it is in my blog title and I’ve been attempting to be totally honest, but there is always that part of me that hopes people won’t think I’m really as bad as I say. I am. Probably worse. Not sugar-coating things is really hard.
The above picture is my dining room. It is the very first room you see when you walk into my home. And there is no hiding it. There is no door to shut it off. You have to walk through it to get to my finally-clean kitchen, so by then you’re surely already thinking bad thoughts about me and you probably don’t even notice how sparkly the kitchen is.
When it’s clean, I love this room. It makes me happy to walk by it. The problem is that it is the first open space with a flat surface that I pass after getting the mail. And after getting the paper. So, things just pile there. (Again, I blame the inanimate objects.) It isn’t a room that is “used” daily either, so I can pretend it doesn’t exist, until the doorbell rings and my heart jumps and then I kick myself for letting it get this bad.
Here is my problem. When I set about to clean my house, (as is totally necessary this week since we are having the inlaws over on Saturday), I have to first unearth my house in order to start cleaning. It took me less than an hour to declutter this room. But, if I hadn’t let it get to this point, I could have spent that hour doing some deep cleaning. I could shine my beautiful floors that remain neglected. I could fix that picture that keeps sliding down in its frame.
I’m glad to have a deadline this week. Next week is when things will get really crazy. I have three major happenings next week, and for two of them I have big responsibilities. These are the times when I typically let everything go. My house slips back into chaos.
There is a difference this time. Typically when I know that a week like that is coming, I start to feel nervous and like any control I’ve had over my house is slipping out of my fingers. I feel as if I’m on top of a very unstable hill, waiting to fall at any moment.
This time, though, my kitchen is under control. For more than two weeks, my kitchen has been clean before 7 a.m. Even though my days will be crazy, pre-7 a.m. should be about the same.
I can do this.
Here are the after pictures. Again, I debated about moving that paper off the table for the picture. But it is a paper that has to be filled out and turned in tomorrow night at church. I also really debated about moving the bikes. The reality is that we use them. If we don’t store them in there, we have to drag them through the entire house each time the boys want to ride bikes. I’m okay with that.
And the VERY BEST part of all of this was that someone dropped by soon after I finished, and I opened the door and ushered her right in. No heart palpitations!
Check out my Decluttering page to see more of my decluttering projects and read what I’ve learned (from way too much experience) about how to declutter.
Check out other Tackle it Tuesday posts for more inspiration!
Awesome tackle:-)
great tackle!
about the pic… just click on it and then right click (cut). then put your mouse cursor where you want the pic to be and right click again(paste)
That should do it!
Way to go! We don't have a dining room so all our junk is right in the middle of the kitchen on our table, its horrible to have to shove stuff over just to eat dinner! I hope the longer I read your blog the more of an inspiration you are to me!
Ah, you really do have beautiful floors!
Great job, by the way! It looks great!
I just found your blog tonight and am going backwards as suggested. I know this is a really old post, but I just can’t contain myself any longer! I must tell you- today I shredded mail for the first time in forever. It took me several hours- the shredder OVERHEATED. TWICE. I had to let it sit unplugged for 20ish minutes each time. I had to dump it 5 times. How shameful. Where do you think all that mail sat in its unshredded state? Kitchen counters, dining room table, hallway half bath, entry table- anywhere there was a flat surface. Now, I did this shredding extravaganza on my own accord. However, I added a calendar reminder on my phone to do this every Sunday from here on out after reading this far into your blog. Will this help? I’m not sure. Being today was Tuesday already, there won’t be much mail lying around on Sunday and the normal me will most likely tell myself, “Oh I can skip it this Sunday since there isn’t very much.” I do believe I’ve found my first non-negotiable task. Baby steps, right?
Great job! And the reality is that even if you do skip a Sunday (or two) you’re much better off for having done what you did, and the future times will be that much less!
I laughed so hard about the shredder overheating because I’VE DONE THAT, TOO! A few times, actually.
I tackled the top of my fridge, which held a coffee pot, a pitcher, a soccer trophy, Weight Watchers material, assorted papers which used to be important before I lost them, and about an inch of dust. Kitchen feels much cleaner now!
I recently found your blog and am reading it backwards like you suggested. We don’t have a dining room so our kitchen table has become the landing so for EVERYTHING in our house. Mail, school papers, coupons…every piece of paper that enters our home seems to end up on that table. It is so sad to have to keep everything in piles running down the middle of the table just so we can eat. The worst part, my kids are so used to seeing it this way that they don’t think there is anything wrong with it…sigh. Thanks for the inpiration and motivation to finally tackle my table!
I have that same table and it looks just about how your before picture looks!