I’ve been feeling overwhelmed for the majority of this year.
This year being . . . . 2011. Which is less than 4 days old.
Anyway, I’m in Haphazard Holiday Recovery Mode. The house was kept in a far-from-perfect-but-livable state for most of the holiday time. But then, yesterday was laundry day, and there was extra laundry because of the previous two random-as-needed-washing-only weeks.
And though the kitchen could have been worse, it could have been muuuucccchhhhh better.
And there were/are Christmas boxes out, ready for the re-filling, and they seem to be everywhere. The middle of the living room, the middle of the dining room, and the middle of the office.
And I was overwhelmed.
Yesterday, I washed and dried all of the clothes, but didn’t fold them all because I felt the urgency to work on the Christmas decor packing.
I ran the dishwasher, but didn’t sweep the kitchen because I kept thinking about that mountain of clothes on the loveseat waiting to be folded.
I was feeling disjointed and random and the things I did didn’t make any visual difference because of the things that I hadn’t done.
And my flabbergastivity was compounded by the time crunch I felt after adding in extra, very important things to my daily routine.
Today, I felt the same way. Bible study, exercise, and focused learning time were over . . . and with the time I had for cleaning, I was certain it would be a repeat of yesterday.
It’s Tuesday. I have to clean the bathrooms. The bathrooms haven’t been cleaned in (at least) two weeks. But I really want to mop them too, which means that I should mop the kitchen first.
So I went into the kitchen and realized that if I was going to mop, I needed to do the daily tasks first. The ones like, you know, CLEAN the kitchen, sweep, and all that.
I took a deep breath and decided that I would do my daily tasks, even if it meant I couldn’t get to my weekly ones like cleaning the bathroom. The kitchen looking like it did was making me miserable and caused me to feel like no matter what I did, my house was a total disaster.
And of course, due to neglect, the daily tasks for the kitchen took longer than if they had been . . . well . . . actual daily tasks.
Once the kitchen was clean, I felt physically and mentally much better. And even the Christmas boxes strewn throughout the rest of the house didn’t seem as daunting. No longer was the whole house a disaster.
Those daily tasks, they’re amazing things.
And it turned out that I did have time to mop the kitchen. And clean the bathrooms.
Great job!
Don't forget to do the flylady timer thing…it always helps when I'm in overload. Sometimes it takes going back to the baby steps. Proud of you for not just putting on the blinders and ignoring all of it. Just think how far you've come!
It's amazing how much you can get done, even when you think it will take forever, if you just start doing.
I agree with you on needing the kitchen clean in order to feel more at peace. There’s just something about that room that makes you feel overwhelmed when it’s a mess.
Flabbergastivity!!! Your spell check must have choked on that one. I used “Most Assuredly Gobsmacked” at the top of my lungs when I saw what damage two teens could do in one 36 hour period. The house was so clean before I left. I was so proud of myself. Did they notice? No. They had the gall to say “it looks like it always does” I have been adding daily and weekly tasks and decluttering since April. Flylady was moving a little to fast for me. Found a soul sister in you. Reading from the beginning. Trying not to peek at more current posts. Keep up the good work.