Just a quick post to let you know I haven’t fallen off the face of the planet.
Today was Labor Day and while I had every intention of writing a post while driving home from my in-laws’ house last night, it didn’t happen.
I also thought I might wake up early and write a post this morning.
Har-dee-har-har-har.
Instead of writing, I spent today turning the corner on the huge decluttering project I’ve been working on for a week. The corner of What Was I Thinking When I Started This and Maybe Just Maybe I’ll Actually Finish This Horrendous Task.
I’ll begin posting soon about this Horrible Project, but just as a hint I’ll tell you that it involves the master bedroom.
As I was working today, trying desperately to hold onto any gathered momentum, I was constantly irritated by interruptions.
This big (VERY big) project was difficult enough without constantly needing to take care of other things.
I realized, though, that what I was thinking of as interruptions were really just day to day stuff.
The stuff I know HAS to be done, but that still feels like an annoyance to me.
Stuff like changing over laundry.
It’s Monday, and even though a Monday that’s a holiday makes me feel like I should be exempt from laundry, I know that my daughter won’t have uniforms to wear to school this week if I don’t get it done.
Stuff like running the dishwasher. EMPTYING the dishwasher.
All of the things that, pre-blog, I put off as unimportant when a more pressing project was on my agenda.
Then, once the big project was finished, the rest of the house was such a disaster that I couldn’t even enjoy the results of my work.
So today, the kids and I did the laundry. And with Hubby’s help the dishwasher has been emptied and run again.
If you looked at my kitchen right now, I’d have to explain how a few things had been done in there, but I promise . . . it could be worse.
Yes, the house is going to need some MAJOR intervention before our church home group meets here next Sunday night, but I have hope that it will all be okay. Not the wish-upon-a-star kind of hope, but the I-know-exactly-what-I-need-to-do hope.
If you could use some help and need detailed guides, check out my books: How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind and Decluttering at the Speed of Life.
Jen S. says
I’ll pray for you in your prep to get ready for your church group if you pray for me getting ready for my parents’ visit. They’re coming in the beginning of Oct., and that seems so far away, but . . . you know. We started today with our Prepare for Grandparent Visit Cleaning. All hands on deck as we take one room a day and work it till it’s done. I get tired of doing this and always say, “This time, we’ll keep it this way.” Although, I think the last few times, I didn’t bother deluding myself like that. I’m more motivated this time as the house isn’t AS bad as it has been sometimes and I have some real reason to hope for better things this time. Our eldest child has moved out now so we have an extra room being converted to a store room and I think that will help a lot. If nothing else, it gives me a place to put things where I can just close the door and make it go away temporarily. I know, not a good way of dealing with things but we do what we must at the time, right. Sigh. So, today was the Classroom and it looks pretty good. Got a ton of laundry done too. Tomorrow, the living room!!! Heaven help me.
Tracie says
Cleaning for a big group is so tough…what I have decided is that I have things that I “let go” and DON’T do on purpose, as long as it’s not in a space that I we’ll need to use. A pile of papers here and there, a basket of laundry in the bedroom, some of our school stuff laid out that we’re working on (homeschoolers). I don’t want to give anyone the wrong impression, like that we live in an immaculate house 24/7, lol! Then, I introduce youngest, who’s 2 years old, leave the room for 5 minutes or so to get refreshments, and come back to LOADS of compliments on how wonderfully clean and neat I manage to keep my house!;)
Heather says
Nony, I need to tell you I love you. I downloaded your book right before my partner and I moved in with his elderly parents. Previous visits to their house every couple weeks to every few months would result in them doing a mad dash cleaning for 4 days straight before we got here, and then being too tired to spend time with the family–which was fine because my partner was too busy spending 8-18 hours on a visit scrubbing the kitchen.
When we moved in, we worked ourselves into a routine organically. Doing what NEEDED to be done when it NEEDED to be done, rather than throwing a dart at the calendar and saying “this is how often we will vacuum.” My only goal was to do the dishes every day, as you instructed. But even though it took 5 months to get in the habit, we FINALLY, FINALLY got caught up enough that:
* We do the dishes. Every day. The dishwasher gets run every night before bed and emptied [less on a schedule than I’d like but presumably] after breakfast the next day.
* Tomorrow is the Big Day for Scrubbing the Kitchen–and the “before” picture looks like our old “after 18 hours of scrubbing” picture.
* We had a family gathering at our house last week, and it took no more effort to prepare than scheduling the usual weekly chores on a specific couple days right beforehand. Days that also involved a lot of the usual move watching. Everyone had enough energy to socialize with the family while they were here, without recovering from a binge cleaning or worrying about the mess.
* I finally feel in control of my kitchen–and that I have enough space in it!–that I just started making my own sourdough bread, yogurt, tomorrow is mozzarella day…
It’s been a long, hard road, and anyone who wants more details can read my blog. But Nony, I needed to thank you. Because my OCD often gets in the way of taking things one step at a time, but your e-book helped me calm down, to just focus on doing the dishes, and let everything else fall in line behind that. Thank you so, so much for writing it.
Christie says
I just read The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. I think doing the dishes qualifies as one of what he calls “keystone habits” that lead to other habits falling in place. Really fascinating book.
Anna says
I manage to tackle the garage in June and madge huge progress in there… only to pick up two free (but dirty) bookshelves and dump them in the place I had just cleaned up. My van sat outside in the sun for three months!!! I was so disappointed that I couldn’t enjoy my big project success.
This last weekend, we did it. Moved the bookshelves inside and parked my van in the garage!!! It feels great.
Then we filled an entire 6 foot bookshelf with books that were scattered through the house- on the floor, in boxes, everywhere, and put the boxes into some of the empty space I’d just cleared in the garage. *sigh* It’s a process, right?
BTW, my parents are coming Saturday. SO not ready.
Rebekah says
Thanks for the great post. Loved it! You describe a scenario similar to the one I am living right now. I am trying to turn the room where we teach music lessons into a bedroom. Right now my soon to be 11 year old daughter shares a small bedroom with my 7 year old son, and it’s nearing the time that I’d like them to each have their own room. OH my goodness, there is so much stuff in the music room closet! I had squeezed three bookcases into that closet to hold all our sheet music, homeschool books, photo albums, CDs, Bible reference books, etc. My house looks like we are moving. Getting back up to get back to it,
Rebekah