Last Monday, as I was trying to get ahead on posts so I could take this week off for Spring Break with my family, I checked my email.
Right there in my inbox was an email from Erin. It was probably the most creative email I’ve ever had, and I immediately replied and asked if I could publish it as a guest post.
It’s creative, it’s well-written . . . and it’s about my e-book.
Here it is:
Hi Nony!
Weekend Scenario #1 – What could have been
Weekend Scenario #2 – What really happened
Note and update – the ebook Erin mentions is now available in my two recently published books: How to Manage Your Home without Losing Your Mind and Decluttering at the Speed of Life are available at your favorite bookseller!
Erin Kinzel is a wife, a mom, a marketer, a former blogger, and she’d like to believe she is also an avid reader and gourmet cook. She has a day job at Bethel College as the Assistant Director of Marketing and on evenings and weekends she sells Starfish Jewelry. She also has an empty dishwasher which is now her most important daily accomplishment.
This post? Exactly what I needed right now. Like, this precise minute right now. Why? It’s 10:30pm. I’m beyond messed up from daylight savings time for some reason, I have a headache that won’t go away and my lip hurts from where my 10 month old slammed into my face. (She fine, consequently). The kitchen needs to be cleaned from making muffins this morning and banana bread this afternoon and I don’t want to do it. But I’m going to. Because I will be so much happier in the morning if I do. Goodnight. (after I clean the kitchen)
Well great, now I have to handwash the big dishes. And me with my arm all tired from patting myself on the back for just loading the dishwasher and running it and calling it a night. Why oh why did I check this blog on my way to bed?
Sink is full gotta hurry. I hope this doesn’t lead to 5 munutes of counter wiping too.
Nice post Erin!!
Sign me,
Grouchy Tonight, Happy Tomorrow
This is a great post and so so true. Its amazing where daily habits can get you. I am working on it! 🙂
I still am in shock that I ended up with a guest post here! I hope it can encourage others and it looks like it already has, based on the comments. I laughed out loud at “grouchy tonight, happy tomorrow” because that is exactly how I felt last Wednesday night. 🙂 Thanks Nony for posting this, it is a push towards me taking up blogging again, and I’m glad it could help you fill in for spring break!
Hi Erin and Nony,
Here it is, 2018, and these older posts are still making a difference. Thank you for giving me back my kitchen.
Kerryn
Still relevant (and funny) and meaningful in 2022!
This is so true! Now I have a clean load of dishes in my dish washer I need to spend the next 3 minutes unloading!
Can I just say I Love you Nony!!! i came across your Blog looking for the many tips to get my house clean on a google search… And when i came across your blog from your writing to your you tube videos to your just blatant honesty… I can so relate to everything you say and even your smirks… Thank you for sharing your story and helping so many of us DE Slob our selves.. You are real and Genuine and you are making the de slobification process fun and entertaining along the way… You are best girl… You have made me laugh so hard and I just had to comment about how wonderful you are… Thanks Girlfriend for keeping it so real… God Bless….
Soooo you are saying I SHOULD proceed with the first task in the ebook (which I do own) and do the dishes?! I won’t tell you how long I have been putting that off…..
Awesome guest post, Erin! Thank you sooooo much!
I thought about not buying Noni’s book, too, because I follow the blog. I am so, so, soooo glad I bought it, though. My home is much more manageable than it was, and I am in a much better frame of mind all the time, too.
Love this post. It’s very inspirational. And yay! My dishes are done –for the moment.I bought your e book yesterday and did the dishes. I even got my table cleared of junk so that I could do some really important stuff –art journaling! He he. 🙂 I’m actually looking forward to doing the laundry, cleaning the rest of my kitchen and actually having time for writing and crafts without feeling like I should be cleaning the house!
This is such a great guest post. Too often I get caught up in scenario #1, but when I make an effort to play out scenario #2 in my head, it motivates me to get to gettin’! Thanks Nony and Erin for helping me realize I’m not the only one who slacks on dishes on Wednesday and wonders why I’m so grouchy come Sunday night!
I can’t even remember how I found your blog but I love it already.
This morning I came downstairs to a emptied dishwasher (courtesy of my husband) and thought “this is how I know he loves me”. It is my least-favorite chore, and one I put off all the time. But one that makes such a huge difference in my day.
The rest of today has run much more smoothly with an empty dishwasher, ready for our new dirty dishes. No piles of dishes waiting for me! Love that feeling.
I have had both of these weekends so many times! Unfortunately, more #1 than #2. My husband thinks I’m crazy for not wanting to cook when the kitchen is a mess, so it’s nice to know I’m not alone.
What awesome feedback!
I have to say, I fully intended to spend the hour after reading this post blissfully lost on Pinterest…instead I went into the kitchen, washed the handwash, cleaned out the fridge, and washed the dishes from the fridge. Then I turned on the dishwasher and will wake up to ALL clean dishes for Sunday on my fall back holiday! My house is slowly getting better thanks to this e-book and now thanks to this post!
I keep reminding myself about the post, no its a podcast, that says having a dishwasher isn’t the answer. I just need to buckle down, suck it up, and do the dishes. I don’t even like dishes from dishwashers because I know they aren’t as clean as they are when hand washed. No more procrastinating!
I’ve been reading your blog for a few weeks now (from the beginning) and have been doing the dishes nightly along with an un-timed pickup. HUGE difference in our stress levels and it makes cooking dinner a cinch. Weekly meal planning has been budget friendly and we waste less food. Thank you! These feel like habits we will keep.
I love this!!! Go you!
I used to wake up to a clean kitchen every morning. Then I starting working until 11 pm 3 nights a week. My 14 year old is supposed to do the kitchen after supper, but it was usually half-done at best. Anyway, this week, I had a FaceTime meeting with my husband and kids and laid out a VERY simple evening routine. Clean up after supper, do a 10 minute tidy, and make sure all the clean laundry is put away. Now that we are all on the same page (ahem, my husband is enforcing this while I am gone now) I get home from work and can happily walk through a clean kitchen on the way to bed!!! Yay me!!
#1 is too often my reality. I COMPLETELY relate to “I’m exhausted and the week hasn’t even begun yet!” (not sure if that was an exact quote. I’m too lazy to scroll back up and check)
And so very true that it’s easier to clean up stuff from, say, gift preparing/mailing when IT’S NOT MIXED WITH THE OTHER MESSY JUNK!
I’m trying to clean in preparation for both a meeting at my house today, but ALSO before we go on a week-long camping trip. I keep thinking “it won’t get any WORSE while we’re gone.” But then I think “But it would be SO NICE to only have to do camping laundry when we get home, instead of EVERYTHING being a wreck.
Like was said (but slightly edited for my needs): Grouchy today, happy next week.
This is so powerful. This lady did really well at imagining the “What if” scenario, and I’m so glad she took the better option, and all because of you, None!
This is as good a point as any to chime in on thanking you. I was just a teenager when you started this blog, but now I’m a mom of three littles with another on the way, and I’ve been struggling to keep the house clean and nice. Too often the counters are covered with dirty dishes and the living room covered in little toys, and no idea what to do for supper. I’ve been slowly doing better over time, but recently, as the second-trimester energy and nesting desire kick in, I’m becoming determined to figure this out. I found several articles from your blog through Pinterest, and the one about running the dishwasher every single night resonated with me, since I had recently observed that the kitchen stayed cleaner when I did this. I realized you had some helpful advice, so I decided to start reading your blog “backwards”, from the beginning. It’s been so fun! It’s like a novel that I can’t put down! I am so proud of you and the progress you’re making, and you have inspired me to make progress, too. A few nights ago I was tired and would have just sat down with my phone for hours. I did sit down and get out my phone, but I started reading your blog. After a couple posts I got up and cleaned the living room, actually throwing away broken toys and junk as I went! I also started running the dishwasher every single night, and decluttered in the kitchen. Yesterday I put a couple things in the dishwasher, handwashed a pan, and then looked around and realized: my kitchen actually felt clean. Maybe for the first time ever. The clutter and perpetual dirty dishes were gone.
I’m excited to keep reading your blog, and also to keep tackling problem areas and figuring out my own systems! Thank you so much for being brave and sharing your journey with us!