Vast Improvements

Vast improvements have been made in the realm of cleaning around here.

If you keep up with my blog you remember I was talking just the other day about how I have such a hard time finding time to clean.

Well, I've been reintroduced to The FlyLady. I found her awhile back, and jumped in, against her advice, without taking time to establish habits when it comes to cleaning. Needless to say ... Crash and burn!!!

It lasted 2 weeks before I was back to my old procrastinating self, but this time I'm doing it right. I'm taking baby steps. And so far, so good.

My ENORMOUS pile of laundry is almost done, and actually put away. The baskets of clean laundry that had been in our bedroom for over a week ... gone. The dishes that were piling up in the sink because the dishwasher was full of clean dishes that hadn't been unloaded ... gone.

I still have a long way to go, but I am very encouraged and I would strongly suggest to anyone who is in a similar situation, anyone who, like me, needs someone to tell them exactly what to do in order for anything to get done, check out The FlyLady. You'll be glad that you did.

How to find time for cleaning?

I have a hard time finding time to clean. It doesn't help matters that I hate cleaning. I am what you'd call a planning/organizing procrastinator. I love making lists, schedules, plans ... but actually doing the things on those lists, or in those plans is another story. But something must be done ... it's getting ridiculous.

The main living area of our house is generally picked up ... most of the time. But open a drawer, cabinet or closet and you'll see something completely different. Look in the laundry room, and good grief ... it's bad. The dishes need to be done, there are 3 , yes 3, laundry baskets of clean clothes in our bedroom, and they have been there for a week.

But here's the problem ... my little crawler is always on the move. So if he's awake, I'm chasing him around the house, or changing his diaper, or making bottles or feeding him. So the time just slips by. Then he goes down for a nap (still 2 a day, thank goodness) and there are things I'd rather do than clean. So the day passes me by, Charles comes home, we eat dinner, give Caleb a bath, put him to bed, and then I want to spend time with my husband, not fold laundry or unload the dishwasher.

But there are things that have to be done around here, so whether I want to or not, I've got to do them. If only I could find the motivation.

I'm going to try, I'm really going to work on it. Hopefully I'll make some progress. I'll let you know in a few months if I've succeeded in accomplishing anything, or if there's still 3 baskets of laundry on our bedroom floor. Let's hope that's not the case.

Completely Together

To the outside world I may appear to have it all together. Completely organized.

That, I'm afraid, is far from the truth, and yet something I strive for. If you come to my house, it will be clean, even if I have to spend all day cleaning it.

But isn't that silly? No one is perfect, no one expects my house to be clean all the time. No one expects me to have every detail of my life organized.

So I just need to let it go. Quit stressing over the details. If my house is a mess, oh well. I'll get to it when I can.

But for today, I'm busy trying to dig my way out of the piles (you wouldn't believe how many, even if I told you) of laundry that I've let build up over the last few weeks. And once that's done I'll attempt to clear out our 3rd bedroom that, in the months since Caleb was born, has become a "catch all" for anything and everything that doesn't have a better place to go. So basically, it's a room of junk, and in a house the size of ours, I can't afford to designate a room for junk. Maybe that's something I'll add to my dream home wish list, ... must include junk room ...

Anyways, that's what I'm up to today.

Have a great Valentine's Weekend!

Cleaning 101

After 3 days of cleaning I decided to share my cleaning strategies with you.

First and foremost, I am an avid list maker so nothing starts until the list is made. It helps me to stay on track and feel like I'm getting things accomplished, even when there is so much left to do.

I divide my list up by rooms. I think its easier to clean a single room at a time, for example the den, rather than do a single job at a time, like vacuuming the whole house. Because then, regardless of how far I get at that particular time, at least some rooms are clean, and I can keep them that way.

So, at my house, we have the kitchen, laundry room, den/dining room, office, bedroom, Caleb's room, bathroom and 1/2 bath. Thankfully, the house isn't very big :)

In each room, I have the normal stuff to do, floors, dusting, you know the drill...and I use Green Works Natural Cleaners by Clorox for just about everything. They have a glass cleaner, multi-purpose cleaner, bathroom cleaner, pretty much everything I need. I use Pledge Multi-Surface Wipes for dusting, because in case you missed my last post, I HATE cleaning, and this just makes it that must faster, although more expensive, I realize. And for the floors ( we have all hardwood) I vacuum instead of sweeping. ( It works better and is much faster) And then use Pledge Hardwood Floor Cleaner, although honestly, I only use this about once every few months. Typically, just the vacuuming is enough for me.

So there you have it. I move from room to room and clean as I go. A few jobs, like laundry and dishes, I do as I clean the rest of the house, but other than that, I do not leave a room until it is clean.

So far this week, I have done the laundry room, bathroom and den. Along with part of the kitchen. The rest of the house is picked up, but not cleaned yet, and on this particular list, I have included organizing closets, drawers, and cabinets, so it's taking a little longer than usual.

This morning, I cleaned out my car, which if you've never seen my car, you just do not understand. I think I could realistically, live out of my car for a good week with no problems. But not anymore. It's empty, all trash is thrown away, and clean (floors vacuumed and everything). I just have to keep it that way for another 3 weeks while I'm still keeping the kids, and then it should be much easier to keep clean.

I HATE don't like cleaning

I really do not like cleaning, but it's something that has to be done, and apparently I'm the one who's supposed to do it. So, while I have these few days off of work, I'm attempting to tackle some of the cleaning jobs around this place.

Now, typically, when I talk about cleaning, I really mean "picking up". I'm not talking about getting out the cleaning supplies and vacuum and going at it, I'm talking about picking up the things that are not where they are supposed to be and putting them away. This time...I mean cleaning, getting out the furniture polish, cleaning.

For two days now I've been working on my list of cleaning things to do. Did I mention I'm a list maker? Perhaps, I'll share my cleaning strategy with you later, but for now, just know that it's getting done, slowly but surely and that I'm certain ...fairly certain ...pretty sure that this house will be spic and span before the little man gets here.

Lists, Lists, and more Lists

See, that's what I do. I make lists. I'm a list making procrastinator. I know of something I need to do, so I make a list to "help me stay organized" while doing it, and then I feel like I'm doing something productive without actually doing the thing that needs the doing.

My list today is for cleaning the house. I was in the mood earlier to do the actual cleaning; it didn't last. So I have my list...it's ridiculously long and incredibly detailed. I like making detailed lists, because then I can mark things off my list more often. I'm beginning to think this might make me sound a little crazy, but oh well...it's me.

So I have my list, complete with every little thing that needs to be done in order for the house to be clean and organized. This is hours and hours of work; you should see my house, but I'm giving myself until Caleb get's here to get it done. The only problem is I'm not exactly sure when he will decide he's ready to come. So I have anywhere from 4 weeks (in which I'm still working full time) to 8 weeks. Hopefully it'll be closer to 8.

So armed with my list, in which 5 things have already been marked off, I'm heading off for a night, or maybe just an hour or so, of cleaning.