Dana K. White

A SLOB COMES CLEAN

Reality-Based Cleaning, Decluttering, & Organizing

One Week Down . . . 51 to Go

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Things got back on track pretty well this week. Not perfect, but better.

I didn’t do any major projects, but did make some small progress. As long as it’s progress.
First, I decided to use what I already have. A few years ago, I bought a set of four very cool laundry baskets at the Container Store. They really are cool. They stack on each other in a way to form a sort of laundry tower/shelf/thingy. I was great about using them . . . for a while. But then, as time went by, and they were no longer as inspiring, the laundry in them multiplied until it didn’t really fit in them anymore. And then somehow the colors no longer magically sorted themselves. And then they must have fallen in on themselves (I honestly don’t remember it happening) and these four wonderful, innovative, and rather expensive laundry baskets became just one basket, with a few items of neglected clothing being smushed into the layers of the bottom three. And they’ve been that way for several months. At least.
So I decided that since obviously it’s me that is the problem, not them, I would give them another shot. Two had broken handles, and so I put them at the top so they wouldn’t have to bear as much weight. (Each one sits on the handles of the one beneath it.)
I love gadgets. And often gadgets are worthless. But in this case, it’s not the gadgets that were the problem. I have to actually use them for them to work. Hmmm.
Here’s the before:
Here’s the after:
Not what some bloggers would post as a gorgeous laundry room makeover, but for me, a big improvement.


And then there’s my desk. As I’ve been sitting here typing about working on noticing clutter in the house before it gets out of hand, my desk was gradually getting like this:

Now I do have the excuse that my 3 year old has been obsessed with “playing Christmas” for the past week. She brings me all sorts of presents with “pretend Christmas paper” to unwrap. She brought me quite a few while I was on the computer one day. One day that was several days before this picture was taken. I just looked down and realized it had all been there for a while. I should have been clued in when I didn’t have a place to put the keyboard.

I guess the good news on that one is that in my pre-blog days, I wouldn’t have noticed for, let’s just say, a LOT longer.

And then the biggest accomplishment for the week has to do with a personal goal I made for myself this year. It’s too easy to get caught up doing your own thing and not reach out to people. I have to make a conscious effort to have people over. My daughter LOVES to have friends come play, but it’s me that has to make the effort. Especially for that first invite, when you really also need to invite the mom so she can see that we’re not (totally) crazy people and it’s okay to let her daughter come over.

So I invited someone (whom I barely know) over for yesterday. At the last moment, she wasn’t able to come, but thought she probably could come today. It’s harder for me to be motivated by “probably cans” than by “here we comes.” So I didn’t know for sure that she was coming until an hour and a half before she came. In that hour and a half, I leisurely made some soup for our lunch, an awesome Spinach Meatball Soup recipe that I’d never made before. I leisurely picked up around the house, checked the bathroom for a flushed toilet, took a shower, got dressed, and then sat on the couch waiting for them to arrive. Rewind to a year ago, and I would have been frantically running around the house, opening canned soup, and vowing to never ever invite anyone over again. Ever.

Daily tasks, I love you.

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Daily Checklist

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It’s the nightly tasks that seem to get me. And yet, I won’t be giving up on them, because I can say in truth, that they make a huge difference. I used to be jealous of people who said that they couldn’t go to bed at night if there were dishes in the sink. I […]

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Clean Sheets for EVERYONE!!!!

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I am so random. I act like changing the sheets on four beds deserves an “Extreme Home Makeover!!!” moment. Although I’m grasping the concept of the need for daily tasks slowly but surely, I am still so incredibly random when it comes to non-daily tasks. I love clean first-night sheets. Oprah once said something about […]

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Daily Checklist – Off the Rhythm

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I’m off rhythm. I have forgotten to start the dishwasher the past two nights. This means that I obviously can’t unload it the next morning before the kids get up, and start putting in the day’s dishes as they happen. It really throws things off. I also forgot/refused to wipe down the bathrooms two nights […]

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Daily Checklist

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Made bed. Started the dishwasher (since I forgot to start it last night, grrr). Did 5 minute pickup. Checked bathrooms for clutter. Wiped down bathrooms (since I forgot/refused to do it last night). Made lunches (same reason as above). Hung up/put away clothes in our bedroom, including a pile of slips and pantyhose (kept because […]

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Daily Tasks

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Today I: Made bed. Emptied dishwasher. Did a not-totally-focused-could-have-been-better pickup cleaned up kitchen (tonight) swept kitchen (tonight) Last night I: put out clothes wiped down kitchen made lunches checked laundry As I type the last night list, I realize I have to go do those again right now for tomorrow. Ugh. Didn’t make a list […]

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