Getting It All Together

So, I've been dealing with this topic for a while now, and just wasn't yet ready to admit to myself (much less anyone else) that I really need to get my stuff together. With the craziness of a full time job, and a full time teaching business, I've let things slide at home. I hosted a group of Thanksgiving, and we had a great time, and they are all friends, and know about everything that has been happening in my life, so they didn't have any great expectations that my house would be spotless. But I did. I want my house to be organized and easy to clean. And I don't want to spend every waking our of the 1 day I get off every month cleaning it. That's just not a good plan. Yet, that is exactly what I have done for the last 6 months or so, spent my one day off doing a mountain of laundry and vacuuming and dusting every surface, and still feeling like it wasn't as clean as I would like it to be. I've realized that this has been my life not just the last 6 months, but the last 25 years. I'm a crisis cleaner. I clean when I am either - incredibly bored (and let's face it, it takes a LOT to be that bored), or when having people over. It's just that I used to have more of a life. I used to have people over every week, so it never got too bad. But with my current schedule, which doesn't look like it is going to change in the near future, I need to get control of it.

So I reached out to a couple of friends who have immaculate houses that are immaculate all the time, to see how they do it. Of the four of them, three sent me to the Flylady system. I've heard of it before, in fact I am pretty certain I started her program a couple of years ago, but never really got committed. I never got tired enough or frustrated enough to finally really make it happen. But now, I am. I am ready to get all of this stuff organized in a way that makes sense, and makes it easy to follow. So, I spent a couple of hours reading through her attack plan this weekend, and preparing myself. I got my control journal started. I got my dry erase markers ready. I made my lists for home blessing hour, and I decided on my decluttering attack plan. So, now its just a matter of putting in the time every day (15 minutes is all I am supposed to need, per the FlyLady). And getting stuff done. Flylady says it's baby steps, which makes sense to me. It's how I got my finances in order with Dave Ramsey. So, Baby Steps it is.

First Step - Shine the Sink

So, I am off to shine my sink (which is going to be interesting since it is black enameled cast iron, and not at all shiny)!!!! Wish me luck!!! I'll see you tomorrow to see what tomorrow's challenge is.

I am going to try to update here every day,so you can see how it's going. I'll even try to do pictures, hopefully I will remember to take them.

Do you want to join me??? DO you have any advice for the perpetually cleaning???

See you soon!

Catherine