So, I’ve been at this slob-blogging thing for two years.
I’m pretty sure that I will never write a boy-it-feels-great-to-have-it-all-together post for a blogiversary . . . since my blogiversary will always fall during the first week of school.
Which is also the first week after the routine-free summer (which I LOVE) comes to an end. It’s almost guaranteed that I’ll be in recovery-mode at this point each year.
But what if I don’t have any guests scheduled to show up before Labor Day? How do I get the house out of chaos without an impending doorbell?
Without a guaranteed ding-dong, I have a hard time finding the motivation to spend an entire day getting the house back in order. Because, you know, it might also be my first day in ten years without a child at home full time and I really want to figure out how to edit a vlog!
My solution:
Do my daily checklist. For me, it means checking the bathrooms for clutter (because if I don’t consciously do this, it’s invisible). Doing a five minute pickup. Even though a five hour one is needed . . . .
I empty the dishwasher and re-load it. Even though that barely makes a dent in the mess . . . .
I have to do this to combat my “Why bother if I can’t do it right?” mentality. And the sad thing is that it’s not that I CAN’T do it right . . . it’s that I don’t have the motivation to do it right.
So the answer to the question is really . . . do it little by little. If it makes even a tiny bit of difference, it’s worth it.
And from my this-very-week experience, three days of little tasks makes a huge difference. I still wouldn’t usher an unexpected guest into my master bedroom . . . but I also wouldn’t pretend that I preferred to talk outside in 104 degree heat.
Ah, incremental progress. The enemy of clutter, and hard for the slob brain-with it’s all or nothing orientationto absorb. I’ve been trying to chip away at the house since we got back from vacation. And I have been, but it took a week and a half of semi-lame efforts for it to register that it was actually getting better, and as long as it didn’t seem like it was getting better my efforts were semi-lame. At least thanks to your encouragement I kept going.
Hang in there, Nony. Erratic and unsteady still beats, oh well I’ll never get it right, I give up.
Hi Dana, Just wanted to say Thank you for the encouragement. I get that *Even though it may take hours to do bathrooms and kitchen. But, it gives a sense of accomplishment, even if your up in the wee hours doing handwashing dishes 101. (Even though I need to wash a slew more! Hope you have a great day!
I know what you mean. I had company earlier in the week and got the house all clean so I determined that since it was done I would keep it up. It’s been a week and it’s still clean. It has been a LOT of work, but I’m so determined. I still need to detail the bedrooms, but the kitchen, living room and bathroom are company ready. 🙂
I definitely know where you’re coming from. That incremental cleaning’s the one thing I took away from my failed attempt at Flylady: I set my timer for 15 minutes (or I would if culprits hadn’t smashed it on the ceramic floor recently) and see how many little things I can do before the timer rings. I find it gives me almost the adrenaline boost that impending company does to know it’s going to buzz at me.
As I’m sure you’re aware by now after 2 years of receiving comments from others, you are far from the only person who doesn’t “see” clutter (without concious effort to see it) until it because crazy-clutter. We’re trying to stay on top of the mess as I keep trying to iterate to my kids (I have a 7-year-old girl and boy-girl twins who turned 6 today). Yesterday I made a call for them to run around the house and collect all dirty dishes they could find. At first they complained “But we just did that yesterday!” (which is embarrassing in that it shows it’s not a regular thing that I do dishes two days in a row, lol – but at least I usually rinse the food down the garbage disposal and stack them in the other side of the sink to wash later, umm… that counts, right??) Their mission resulted in only a couple empty water glasses. I was like “That’s all there was??” and they boasted “Yeah, mom! We’ve been KEEPING ON TOP OF IT!” lol
“Why bother if I can’t do it right?” … probably my favorite perfectionist excuse! Still plugging away at reading oldest to newest posts. I’ve made it through your first two years and love following your journey.
Noni – I applaud you for being real and truthful. I’ve been trying for many years now to accomplish a clean house. Read books, watched videos, started plans and your very simple approach has been so helpful. “Put it where you would look for it” being #1 – can’t believe I didn’t think of that before!!!! Keep being real and inspirational!!! God Bless you!