Decluttering my entire life! Wanna join me?

Do you remember that post about my decision to try the Flylady method? Turns out I'm not real good at sticking to only fifteen minutes at a time. While I was putting away my Christmas decorations I realized something: I had way too many decorations that hadn't been used in over two years. So why was I holding onto them?

I have no idea!

While I was looking at my excess of...well, Everything, we had yet another flood from a backed up pipe. Turns out there was a bundle of roots growing in there. I digress. While these guys are walking through my basement I caught myself continuously apologizing for "the mess". There really is no reason my house should look like this every day! I clean from 6am until at least 8pm! Yet, no matter how hard I work there's always a mess!!!! Why? That's right - WAY TOO MANY BELONGINGS!

I spent over twelve hours yesterday purging anything and everything that I either a) didn't love b) didn't have a current function, or c) hadn't been used in at least a year. I've lost count of how many bags have gone either into my car to be donated or thrown into the garbage. Really, Christy? You need to hang onto things that "you might fix some day"? Oh don't worry, I promise to post pictures of my very full car before my first trip to our local thrift shop.

While I was going through every nook and cranny in the basement, I had the boys go through their clothes and pick out their favorite 10 outfits each. The rest is going out the door! If you realized how many pieces of clothing they had in their rooms, and how many they didn't wear or didn't fit you'd totally understand! lol My daughter's room is next, although she doesn't have nearly as many as the boys. She's been growing so fast I'm constantly having to buy her new pants to keep her from looking like Michael Jackson in the 80s! Last will be mine and the husband's closet. Mine will be easy because I'm slowly changing my wardrobe over to reflect the 40s and 50s, so anything that doesn't work, or I don't wear on a regular basis is GONE!!!

Once the basement is finished I'll move up to the kitchen and purge all those little butter containers, the tupperwear with no lids, all those extra plates and cups (my sister already asked for those! lol), etc. I'll keep you all updated as this little project moves along!

The husband and I have decided once this is all done I'm going to reward myself by redoing the basement...in a 50s remake! Seriously! I'm going to make my basement look like a 50s house! I'm so excited and have already started looking at paint colors.

Alright ladies and gents...who's with me? Who is willing to take this little challenge and completely declutter your lives? We can all keep each other accountable and on track! Feel free to post pics or leave comments as to your progress.

Flylady Challenge: Day 1 Results and Today's Schedule

I tried. I really did try. However, anyone who has a scatter brain knows how easy it is to get distracted. Yesterday was 1 hour home blessing day, and we were supposed to sweep our entry ways (front porch, or in my case front and back porch). Do you realize how many times I picked up the broom to clean the porch only to find something else that needed to be swept? *sigh* I did shine my sink twice, but ended up leaving something soaking in the sink overnight. And, I got up and got dressed to shoes yesterday morning, but I didn't bother putting on any makeup. I hadn't planned on leaving the house and with as much dusting as I was doing it would've just ended up running down my face.

Yeah, something like this.

 

 

In the meantime, I continued putting up and out more Christmas decorations, and being as the habit of the month is Pampering ourselves, I took time out to sit down and paint Christmas decorations with my daughter. I remember doing this kind of thing with my mom when I was little and wanted to share the joy with my girl.

 

Today we are supposed to keep shining our sinks, no new habits added yet. And here is today's mission:

 

Zone 1: Mission #2 Tuesday 

 We are going to have a multi room mission today, it might take you longer than 15 minutes to do it, so set your timer for each room and FLY through it!

For the Front Porch, Entrance and Dining Room, put out the fires that are burning in your hot spots. Get rid of the pile of shoes by the front door, get rid of the pile of junk mail and put away the magazines and school papers that are piled on the dining room table.

They are smoldering so get to it!

 

If you're anything like me you have a pile of shoes, socks, bags, and other various things lying around. I'm also notorious for hoarding paperwork. No, you'll never see me on the Hoarding shows, I'm not quite that far, but I'm always afraid to throw anything away for fear I'll need it later. So, today, we need to go hit these hot spots, of course only spending 15 minutes on it, and hopefully put out some "fires" before they are too far gone.

 

By the way, did you get dressed to shoes? I'm having a really hard time getting used to wearing shoes in my house as I feel they track dirt through the house, and being as we have hard wood floors, I fear they will scuff or scratch my beautiful flooring. I've dedicated a pair of shoes specifically for inside, but sometimes I've had to clomp out in them. At least I have rugs at every entrance! lol

 

Happy Flying.

 

Are you following along? How did you do yesterday? Any better than I did? (I hope. lol)

 



Day 1 of the FLYlady challenge starts tomorrow.

I'm posting this tonight so that those of you interested can follow along and implement this into your own life. Supposedly, by following these steps you create habits for yourself. Of course, this isn't an exact science, and she doesn't promise to change your life, after all it's up to us to stick to it. This challenge will last thirty days at which I will post my results and sum up my experience.

Okay, so tomorrow is Monday. Here is what we're supposed to do, starting with waking up. The very first habit we are supposed to implement is shining your sink every morning and night. In other words, just make sure to dry out the sink when you're finished using it.

Monday is Home Blessing Hour. Here's the deal: you can only spend about ten minutes on each chore, thus taking approximately an hour to complete. Here's the list for the Blessing Hour:

Vacuum - center of the room only. No lifting furniture or getting on your knees to get all the crevices.

Dust - this is done with a feather duster, not deep and dirty dusting.

Quick Mop - supposed to be a damp mop, not carry a bucket around the house

Polish Mirrors and Doors - you can't be caught scrubbing. You're just cleaning these things.

Purge magazines/catalogs - self-explanatory

Change Sheets - Nice to have a specific day to do this each week. I've done my sheets twice in a week because I couldn't remember which day I'd done them.

Empty all trash cans - again, self-explanatory. I always recommend grabbing a garbage bag and emptying each can into it instead of carrying each can outside.

Seems simple enough, right? The real challenge to this is not trying to do everything at one time. You're supposed to stop with these chores at the end of ten minutes. We'll see how many of us can discard our perfectionist/defeatist personalities and stick to the plan. For more details on this, go here.

Also, there are zones we work in each week. If the method works the way it's supposed to you're not supposed to ever really need to spring clean again. Because we spend time on each zone, really purging unnecessary items and deep cleaning it's pretty much done on a regular basis instead of once or twice a month. So, this week's zone is Entrance, Front Porch, and Dining Room. Go to the link to get the details on this zone.

Here's the instructions:

 

Zone 1: Mission #1 Monday 

 We are in Zone 1 this week, that is the Front Porch, the Entrance area and the Dining Room.

Today you are to sweep your front porch area around your front door. Shake out your welcome mats and wipe down your front door. This makes a huge difference in how your home looks. We have a tendency to neglect this area and yet it is the first thing that people see when they come to your home.

Spend 15 minutes taking care of this, you will be pleased with the results!

I don't want to have to tell you every single word on this site, so make sure you go to Flylady's site and read everything. I would definitely do this when you don't have anything pressing; I got carried away soaking everything in for hours one night! lol Happy flying, and wish me luck!

New Challenge Starting Monday, December 2

Have you ever heard of the Flylady?

If the answer is no, you need to go check the site out. The system by the Flylady is for SHEs (stressed home executives). There is a day by day, week by week, and month by month schedule for not only getting your house clean, but most importantly clear of clutter. In this method you go about building routines and habits by doing certain things every day, and you only spend 10-15 minutes a day on certain tasks. This type of thing is supposed to get your house in tip top shape and help you avoid CHAOS (can't have anyone over syndrome). Oh come on, you all know what that is. You get a phone call that someone is going to stop by to visit so you run around like chickens with your head cut off, hiding things in bedrooms, scooping all that junk on your counter into a basket, etc. I refer to this as the Flight of the Bumblebee cleaning.

This is what I hear while running around cleaning as fast as I can with sweat running down my back!

 

 

The Flylady is big on starting where you are and you are not behind. So, having said that, I'm going to attempt to start each day with the flight plan of the day, and implement things such as the control journal.

 

 

Here's the funny/fun part....I'm going to post a Vlog of myself on here each day, first thing in the morning, and after I've (hopefully) accomplished the daily habit and the flight plan for the day.

Any chance I'll look like this at the end of the month?

 

 If you join me in this you HAVE to start from Day 1, no skipping ahead because you got so much done for the day! lol Who am I kidding?! You all know I'll probably still be doing other housework/yard work while following this schedule.

 

See you all Monday morning! And have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving!

Almost There!

The kids go back to school tomorrow and I'm ready to start my old and new routines! Originally, I would get up at 6am, wrap my robe around my cold body, then go about waking the kids up and making coffee. I would stay in my robe and/or pajamas for half the day, usually only getting dressed before I had to run errands, or just before the family got home. After the kids were gone I would make myself some oatmeal for breakfast (I have fructose malapsorption and lactose intolerance, so I'm limited on what I can eat), and wash dishes while the water was boiling. Eventually, my bed would get made and some cleaning would get done in between writing and/or researching.

No more. No more will I hang out looking like Mrs. Frumpalot for the whole day. That does absolutely nothing for my self worth, nor my self-esteem. Starting tomorrow, I will brush my hair and teeth before waking up the kids, and will "get dressed to laces" including my hair and makeup.

Along with my physical appearance, I've been compiling my daily routine list and forming a control journal to keep myself on track. Have I mentioned how much I love the Flylady website? FLY stands for "finally loving yourself". In her way of thinking taking care of yourself and your home is something we all deserve, not something to strive for perfection. We are right where we're supposed to be. I love that way of thinking. Instead of giving up before I even start because of feeling overwhelmed I can jump right in where I am at the moment. Yay for not feeling like I don't measure up to someone else's expectations!

Time to Make the List!!!

Going with my new theme of getting things done, and sticking to it, I've decided to make a list of major to-do's around the home. These are not major remodels, or even major repairs, but little projects I've neglected or put off out of sheer laziness. Of course, at the time I didn't call it laziness; I always had an excuse for something getting put off - laundry needs to be folded (even if I never got to it), my book needs to be finished (instead I'd play on the Internet)...you get the point.

So, without further adieu, here's the list. (pics of before and after to come later):

1. Living room needs to be painted. Already painted two walls, but it would be nice to finally finish.
2. Started "antiquing" my dining room chairs. Now, I have six chairs with four different colors.
3. Ceiling tiles in the basement really need to be rehung, and some more need to be bought for the rest of the spaces.
4. Chimney REALLY needs to be cleaned before I start a fire!
5. Tupperware and kitchen appliance cabinet needs to be organized.
6. Plastic needs to be hung over the rest of the windows.
7. Bathroom closet needs to be cleaned and organized.
8. Curtain in hall bath need to be hung.
9. New toilet seat for hall bath.
10. I have three patterns and fabric of dresses and aprons I bought and never finished.
11. Do you realize how much outdated makeup I have?
12. Garage needs to be cleaned. I had intended to have a garage sale over the summer and it flopped. I still have BAGS of clothing to take to the Goodwill. Plus, my poor husband can never find any of his tools due to my bad habit of just tossing the tools on the closest shelf.
13. Front porch needs to be cleaned off. (This is actually on this week's Flylady schedule.)
14. My coupon stash is out of control and desperately needs to be filed properly!

That's all I can think of at the moment. It's hard to think clearly when kids are constantly talking to you! I'm sure you can all sympathize.

Happy New Year!!!!!!

I have a game plan!!!

Okay, so this is the second post of the day. I've done so much since my last post, and still have so much to do to get my home where I want it. I've heard of people doing just fifteen minutes a day to keep their homes up, but they don't live with my kids. They have dirtied the same room three times now, so I've put them to work.

I came across a website some time ago and revisited it today. It's called flylady.net. The way these women do it is by forming routines, or habits. They're big on "not being behind, but starting right where you are". Their program splits up the home into zones, and you work on these zones throughout the week, while doing your usual upkeep of the home. In other words, your home gets a deep clean every month, rather than just your typical spring cleaning.

Another huge focus is getting dressed to lace up shoes as soon as you get up. In other words, get up, get dressed all the way to your shoes (including hair and face) before starting anything else for the day. Now, I don't know about doing my hair and face first thing in the morning, but there's no reason I can't get dressed, brush my hair and teeth and have my shoes on before I start my coffee or wake up the kids. I mean, really, how long does it take to throw on some clothes and run a brush through your hair. Granted, we start our day at 6am, but that's no excuse for looking like a slob every day!

Okay, so there's my game plan. While I'm working the steps on Flylady.net, I will also tackle one project every day. I have so many projects that need to be done, anything from socks to be darned (yes, I do this. I see no reason to throw them out if the elastic is still good in them), to walls that still need to be painted. We've lived in this house for over a year and I still haven't finished painting.

Here's the deal: I will post a pic of what I'm wearing and what project I've tackled every day (or at least I will try to. I do work from home as a published author, and writing must be done in order to get paid). I will also post what I've accomplished on the Flybaby list for the day. I hope you will join me in reclaiming my life!

Have a great New Year's!