• Home
  • Get Started!
  • About
  • Blog
    • Cleaning
    • decluttering
    • organization
    • All posts
  • Podcast
  • Books
    • Organizing for the Rest of Us
      • Claim Your Preorder Bonus
    • Decluttering at the Speed of Life
    • How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind
  • Video
  • Shortcut Solutions
    • Take Your House Back
    • 14 Days to Opening Your Front Door to Guests e-book
    • Make Dinner Happen
    • The 5 Day Clutter Shakedown Video Course
    • Printable Checklists E-Book from A Slob Comes Clean
    • Teaching Kids to Clean e-book
    • Giving God the Worst of Me - free e-book
    • My Book Publishing Journey
  • Decluttering Certification

Dana K. White

A SLOB COMES CLEAN

Reality-Based Cleaning, Decluttering, & Organizing

 

  • Contact
  • TV & Media
  • Speaking

  • Home
  • Get Started!
  • About
  • Blog
    • Cleaning
    • decluttering
    • organization
    • All posts
  • Podcast
  • Books
    • Organizing for the Rest of Us
      • Claim Your Preorder Bonus
    • Decluttering at the Speed of Life
    • How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind
  • Video
  • Shortcut Solutions
    • Take Your House Back
    • 14 Days to Opening Your Front Door to Guests e-book
    • Make Dinner Happen
    • The 5 Day Clutter Shakedown Video Course
    • Printable Checklists E-Book from A Slob Comes Clean
    • Teaching Kids to Clean e-book
    • Giving God the Worst of Me - free e-book
    • My Book Publishing Journey
  • Decluttering Certification
Videos
Blog
Podcast
Products & Courses
Books
About

Back to Blogging (Since the Kids are Back to School) and my Summer 2016 Home Report!

August 23, 2016 By Dana White | 13 Comments

  • 123shares
  • 119
  • 1
  • 3

Our summer break is over. I’m sad. As always, though, I feel some excitement about getting back into a routine. Yesterday was a little stressful as the boys are starting in new buildings as they go into Jr. High and High School.

No more little kids for me.

I thought I’d start back to blogging with the traditional What I Did Over the Summer essay. Just don’t grade me on it.

We stayed pretty close to home for the summer, and while we spent quite a bit of time at the local pool, we’ve definitely arrived at the time in our lives when the pool isn’t the end-all-be-all of our summer world. With the kids involved in all sorts of different things (one was in a play, one was in summer workout or full-on practice for both football and band and one was on a swim team), they weren’t always available to go. And when they were, we had to check to see if their friends would be there. I’m so thankful texting is a thing as we hit this phase of life.

But enough about that. You care about the house, right? And how the loosi-goosiness of summer affected it.

It did.

Here was my view as I sat here typing yesterday:

Summer Survival Home Report from ASlobComesClean.com

Things about this photo:

I didn’t move a thing before I took it.

I wish I had stopped the crazy backpack loading and clothes checking Sunday night long enough to do a five minute pickup.

I wish my view was of the kitchen instead (since I cleaned it up yesterday morning) or a before and after of the laundry piles, since yesterday was Monday and that meant it was Laundry Day.

Or even of my master bedroom, which had a nice cleaning to get it ready for the delivery of a new mattress.

But alas, this is my reality. Y’all, it could be so much worse.

This is nothing compared to any day of the year pre-blog.

If you’re completely horrified by this photo, you are probably in the wrong place.

So what worked well over the summer?

Five minute pickups. 5 MINUTE PICKUPS, y’all. They’re magical.

Did I do them nightly, at a certain time, like clockwork? Ummmm, no. Not even. But as soon as I started to get that eye-rolling, panicky, this-place-is-a-mess feeling, I announced it was time for one. Or when I tripped over something.

I even, get this, would text my kids from the grocery store (or the doctor’s office, or wherever) to do a five minute pick up and clean the bathrooms before I got home.

For real.

Mamas Whose Kids Are at the Age When a Five Minute Pickup is More Hassle than Help, take heart! The day will come when your kids will actually sleep past 6:45 a.m. You’ll be able to grocery shop alone, even in the summer. And if you work hard to make five-minute pickups normal now, one day they’ll be able to make a positive impact on the house without you micro-managing.

What didn’t work well for us?

It wasn’t all feather dusters and roses. My kids have also hit the age when “getting to” do laundry isn’t thrilling and when cleaning a mirror isn’t their idea of a fun Tuesday morning. They cleaned bathrooms when it occurred to me to tell them to clean bathrooms. No routine or schedule whatsoever on that.

But we managed. It was worse than the rest of the year for sure, and the dining room (which just so happens to be what anyone who comes to the front door sees first) was a disaster pretty much the entire summer.

But . . . we survived.

Mondays were Laundry Days, and even though I re-washed at least two loads each week and rarely finished until Thursday, the fact that Laundry Day existed meant we almost always had clean clothes to wear.

Almost.

And even though I never did quite get on the rhythm of running the dishwasher at night and emptying it first thing in the morning, I did run it at some point every day. And that fact alone meant we almost always had clean dishes and more often than not didn’t have dishes piled in the sink and on the counters.

Perfect? No. But as I looked at the old posts scheduled to go out on Facebook a few weeks ago, I noticed this one that’s classified as “summer” focused. For each of the past few summers, I purchased a jumbo pack of paper plates at Costco and used them for survival. I was proud of the fact that we made it with only the one package, since pre-blog, paper plates ( lots of them) were a necessity in our house.

This summer . . . I didn’t use a single paper plate. We might have eaten a sandwich off of a paper towel once (or twice), but we survived. Three meals a day for four-to-five people, and clean dishes (almost) every time? Go me!

Fine. I did occasionally drink icewater out of a cereal bowl, but my cereal bowls have handles. Technically, they’re humongous mugs. So if I wrapped my hands around it and closed my eyes and acted like I was smelling it, an unsuspecting passerby would totally think I was drinking a big cup of coffee.

Not that we had many unsuspecting passersby in our kitchen, but whatever.

My point is that we survived. And instead of digging out of a mess, I just need to get back into all of my routines to make it pretty.

Yay me.

In addition to surviving, here are some other things I got done this summer (posts coming up soon about these projects!):

I decluttered the master bedroom (always a dramatic project).

I helped my mother-in-law declutter her linen closet.

I decluttered the kids’ rooms.

I decluttered half of the gameroom.

I painted our half-bath.

I had meetings with publicists, marketing directors and PR people about my upcoming book launch in November. I met deadlines for edits and even opened a box full of Advance Reader Copies of my actual hold-it-in-your-hands book, live on Facebook.

I also put out three videos! Two were ones I did before summer, but hadn’t posted. I’ll share them here soon, or you can go to my YouTube channel and watch them now!

If you’re feeling left out, you’re probably not signed up for my free email newsletter. That was pretty much my only reliable communication over the summer. Sign up here and you’ll get my best decluttering solutions delivered to your inbox!

 

--Nony

Related Posts:

Read Newer Post 099 – Things that Change and Things that Don’t – Podcast
Read Older Post Mr. Clean’s Classic Jingle Gets an Update! (Sponsored Post) #mrclean #fbf

Filed Under: random reality check | 13 Comments

Comments

  1. Tera B says

    August 23, 2016 at 10:54 am

    Yay! I haven’t even read the post yet, but I was just so happy to see a post from you. Welcome back! (I have 8 more days ’til school starts…)

    Reply
  2. Leslie says

    August 23, 2016 at 1:32 pm

    Thanks so much for this! We’ve had a lot going on with things going wrong at our house, leaks and wet carpet, ruined stuff. I walked in last night and thought, “I can’t breathe, this is too much,” and then thought, “Go do some easy stuff.” Washed dishes, took the garbage and some recycling out, things I don’t have to think to do. The big stuff is still there waiting to be handled, but I made a small dent and can move forward from there.

    Reply
  3. Linda S says

    August 23, 2016 at 2:24 pm

    Hooray! She’s back! Love this ‘state-of-the-home’ post and so happy to hear I’m not alone when I dream up explanations/justifications for those times I might possibly drink ice water from a cereal bowl/mug or some similar practice. Looking forward to a new year with Nony and can hardly wait to get my hands on a copy of that new book!

    Reply
  4. Jessica says

    August 23, 2016 at 4:18 pm

    Hooray! You’re back!

    I had my fourth baby in May, so we’ve been in survival mode this summer. I’m looking forward to getting some decluttering done with your encouragement.

    Yay for you getting some decluttering done over the summer! And thanks for the encouragement about kids and five minute pick ups. They’re not accomplishing a lot now, but I have high hopes for the future.

    Reply
  5. Melinda Mitchell says

    August 23, 2016 at 6:00 pm

    Congrats on not even ONE paper plate!! That’s huge!!

    Reply
  6. Lora says

    August 24, 2016 at 9:46 am

    Must keep my break from scrubbing the tub very brief (or time-passage disorder will take over as auto-pilot) , but want to let you know I’m VERY GLAD that you are back!

    Reply
  7. Jacqui says

    August 24, 2016 at 12:19 pm

    A+! I’m so glad you’re back!

    Reply
  8. Sally says

    August 25, 2016 at 12:50 am

    I am so glad you’re back. I need you. And my husband doesn’t really realize it but he needs me to need you. Since finding your blog, I have kept things slightly better. I am more willing to toss actual garbage out. To declutter. To try to keep things clean(ER).
    Thanks for being back- I’ve missed you!
    Quick question- what to do when the house just got exterminated and everything you own is in boxes or bags and some aren’t even home. I don’t want to put any clothes back unless I like it/it fits me/I will wear it. But it’s taking forever to put it away. And I know if I don’t do it now, I will procrastinate until we move. And then I won’t have time and will be rushed and will just box it all up. And then when I unpack I will be in such a hurry to unpack I will just stuff it all in a closet…
    Tips? Just knowing I got rid of 10 pieces of clothing enough? I want it done!!

    Reply
    • Sarah says

      August 27, 2016 at 7:58 pm

      If you put it back but hang it up backwards (so the hook part of the hanger goes over the bar from back to front) then as you wear stuff, you can hang it back up “right”, after a couple months, you can find new homes for the clothes you don’t wear.
      Same with dressers. Fill only half of each drawer, and leave the rest boxed up, then put clothes you wear away in the other side of the drawer After a couple of months, rehome what you haven’t worn and put the rest of the stuff in the drawers to see if you wear it or not. Or put t-shirts where you’d put underwear, and vice versa, and only move stuff you wear to where it belongs.

      Reply
  9. Jackie White says

    August 25, 2016 at 10:44 pm

    I have been using the five minute pick-up technique with my 10 yo and 7 yo. And let’s be honest, myself. Really great way to not get things spiraling out of control. And you are so right–it’s not about loading or unloading the dishwasher, it’s about having an empty dishwasher so the sink doesn’t pile up. Thank you!

    Reply
  10. Kristine Puzel says

    August 28, 2016 at 8:22 am

    I’m a newer reader, but very much enjoy your quirky humor and your generosity (and courage) in sharing your real life with us. Still need to ‘start from the beginning’ – I am really looking forward to learning more!

    Reply
  11. Annie says

    August 29, 2016 at 11:52 pm

    Welcome back! I have to say that I am so excited to have your new podcast to listen to! I have been saving it up to enjoy at the right time–maybe when school starts for my son on Thursday!

    I have tried to sign up for your email newsletter a few times and it isn’t working. Do you have any detailed tips?

    Reply
  12. Stefanie says

    September 5, 2016 at 1:15 pm

    Nony, you are just awesome. I so appreciate you and your blog. You make me feel not alone. Love it! Keep up the awesomeness and I’ll try to keep up!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

A Slob Comes Clean is the completely honest (and never-ending) story of my deslobification process. As I find ways to keep my home under control, I share the truth about cleaning and organization methods that actually work for a real-life slob. And I'm funny.

About Dana Get Started

Solutions to Your Biggest Decluttering Problems:


The Container Concept Explained:

YouTube player

Dana's YouTube Channel

Popular Posts

Why-I-Have-To-Run-My-Dishwasher-Every-Single-Night-at-ASlobComesClean.com sidebar
Five Truths about a Clean Kitchen even without a dishwasher at ASlobComesClean.com sidebar
How to Clean a Messy House at ASlobComesClean.com sidebar

Topics:

blogcast Cleaning daily checklist decluttering failures figuring myself out kitchen laundry Menu Plan Monday organization parenting podcasts progress random stories reader stories recipes sponsored posts Uncategorized

Want solutions to your biggest decluttering problems?

Join the newsletter and I'll start by teaching you how to declutter without making a bigger mess.

  • Home
  • Get Started!
  • About
  • Blog
    • Cleaning
    • decluttering
    • organization
    • All posts
  • Podcast
  • Books
    • Organizing for the Rest of Us
      • Claim Your Preorder Bonus
    • Decluttering at the Speed of Life
    • How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind
  • Video
  • Shortcut Solutions
    • Take Your House Back
    • 14 Days to Opening Your Front Door to Guests e-book
    • Make Dinner Happen
    • The 5 Day Clutter Shakedown Video Course
    • Printable Checklists E-Book from A Slob Comes Clean
    • Teaching Kids to Clean e-book
    • Giving God the Worst of Me – free e-book
    • My Book Publishing Journey
  • Decluttering Certification
Search

  • Contact
  • TV & Media
  • Speaking

© Dana K. White | Site by Little Leaf Design