Today I:
Made bed.
Emptied dishwasher.
Cleaned kitchen.
Swept kitchen.
Checked bathroom floors for stuff.
Remembered to start thawing chicken for tonight’s dinner.
Did my new non-negotiable. Since a 5 minute maintenance pickup is my new habit for the week, I looked around to see that the main areas were pretty well already picked up. It’s amazing how having a set pickup time makes me more aware of little things that can be picked up as I walk by throughout the day.
There are plenty of major decluttering projects in the office, bedrooms, closets, cabinets, etc, but hey, those take longer than 5 minutes, right?
So I vacuumed. That’s all. And I believe the DVR said that Dora had been paused for 4:48 when I finished. So I even put away the vacuum cleaner in that last 12 seconds.
I vacuumed the middle of the floor in the two rooms that are clean right now, the living and dining rooms. Normally, I don’t vacuum unless I’m doing a major clean, so it rarely gets done. It made a huge difference though. Hmmm. So even if the floors aren’t in dire need of vacuuming, they still look better when vacuumed. Who knew?
And just so I stay totally honest here, I’m going to post a picture of my desk, which honestly isn’t as bad as it sometimes is. Yes, I’m proud of myself for keeping several rooms guest ready for the last few days, but I have to remember that I have a looooonnnnng way to go.
This is painful. Here goes:
Yes, that’s half removed wallpaper. The project that’s taking more than 6 months.
Good Enough Mommy says
Love it. As when reading other blogs I started feeling as if maybe you were moving beyond where I am. This is great. Thank you.
Melissa says
OH wow – I thought I was the only one around that had projects like your wall paper. Let alone the challenge of keeping things picked up. There is soooo many other fun things I would rather be doing than cleaning but I have made a promise to myself to get into a routine and make our home presentable for our kid’s having friends over. Thank you for being so honest!! I am so glad I stumbled acrossed your blog.
suzanne says
I have to admit that the wall behind the stove got a first coat of pain about a year ago! Needs to go on my list.
Shannon says
I had wallpaper half removed from the wall in our main entrance for over a year and then when my mom visited this summer from out of state she decided it was time and she got my butt moving. In the end it took less than a day to finish stripping and getting the new paper up (plus a day for my hubby and I to agree to a new wallpaper). At the time some of the seams had lifted. My mom told me that when I returned the extra two unopened rolls, they would have a special glue to fix the seams. That was more than a month ago. I just took back the unused paper today and was lucky that the nice manager relaxed the one month time limit for returns for me. Now I have the glue in my purse. Just need to actually use it….
Elaine says
Thank you so much, Dana, for keeping it real!!! I have all or nothing thinking BAD, so I could easily think, if my desk is a mess, which it has been for over 4 years now, then what’s the point of cleaning the kitchen, the living room, etc. The fact that you showed the desk, but yet are SLOWLY transforming the other areas, that really helps me. Logically I know it cannot be done all at once, but it is so hard to start if I can not finish it ALL.
Kas says
I want to thank you. I spent the entire morning reading your posts since day 1 – this is almost 5 years back now… and I want to thank you. I am quite organized and keep my house quite neat. Not perfect, but not bad. I came a long way and had to drastically downsize with my living space and it was a quick school of getting organized, otherwise I would have drowned in stuff. And almost a year ago it got even worse, since I now share my one-bedroom flat with a couple of my good friends and their two dogs. That is a lot of people to live in just two rooms. And we are all grown ups and come from bigger households, so all of us have stuff. And one of us has a major “slob” problem. I have been so frustrated with her this past year. I have my routines in this house, and they’ve been working well for me. And I’ve adjusted them to work for the three of us. But she has her way of doing things, and it just always means there is a mess wherever she is. She starts doing something and gets distracted and leaves whatever right there where she was sitting and moves on to another task and leaves another mess and moves on… and so on… So I’m not only reading your first posts on this blog because I like the way you write, and it is a fun read, really, but also, you help me understand how her mind works, I guess. It seems that some of the habits you had to develop, I always considered “natural”. Make my bed. Clear kitchen counters as I finish using them. Pick up things off the floor. I’ve always done that. Without even thinking that it could not be done. So maybe, just maybe, if I have enough patience, I will find a way to show her how these habits can be developed, and, most of all, make her believe, that it is really worth it. Like you wrote a few posts back, what if she never has to search for a clean pair of underwear again? I bet she’d like that. And to always know where the charger is for her phone. And not see food go bad in the fridge, because she didn’t bother to check the shopping list and just bought whatever she felt like and didn’t think to freeze the excess… Honestly, sometimes I think she does that to get me upset. But I see now that it is possible that it is just her mind working differently than mine. It is a refreshing discovery, really! And for that I thank you!
Denise G says
I bought a robot vacuum at a great deal thinking I’ll get the vacuuming done if all I have to do is press a button. I knew I’d have to clear some clutter before I’d run the robot vacuum. I mistakenly thought that having “someone else” do the vacuuming would be incentive to de-clutter. Know thyself. I do not know myself very well. I’ve used that vacuum twice in six months. One of those times was at my perennially clean mother’s who, having seen the robot vacuum in action, didn’t think it picked up much dust, dirt or dander. Ugh. It might not be good enough for my mom but for a person that never vacuums, it’s great! If you use it, of course…