So much has happened!

So much has happened since I last posted.  I found out that my parents were coming for a visit. YIKES! Now my father wasn’t the neatest man when I was growing up, but he was raising my brother and me, working, and going to school! My mom (step-mom) is however the neatest person I know. Everything has a place and everything is IN its place! I didn’t grow up with her in my home so I didn’t get a chance to learn a lot of her tricks. Her two kids however are also very neat people. I always had a goal to be like them. 

Anyway, so my parents are coming over, which means my house needs to be clean clean CLEAN! I know they know I’m not a neat person because obviously my father saw my bedroom. But I want them to think I have changed. I know I haven’t but I AM working on it. So the crazy cleaning session had begun.  I immediately started working on the hardest hit areas that were not my childrens’ fault, my daughter’s room, the kitchen, and the hall way and entrance way. 

My daughter’s room was difficult. Because she is not sleeping in it and wasn’t even allowed in it except for diaper changes and clothes changes we had been storing a lot of things in there that didn’t have other places to go.  I emptied the room of all my stuff and put it in categories: to go in the basement for now (kitchen items and other items that were out of season), to go in the garbage (two kids in diapers means a lot of boxes from those diapers), and to go upstairs in my bedroom. 

Now I know, I know.. I shouldn’t move clutter from one area to the other. But my parents were coming. I had to move it. The stuff in the basement will be dealt with as needed. A lot of it was decorations for the kitchen (we recently remodeled it) that I don’t know where to put up or that I had no room to store them in the kitchen. Luckily we had been working in the basement and made space for some items. My daughter’s exercauser also went down there. We have a lot of items that are still in good shape from the kids that we are going to try to sell at a tag sale, that is one of them.

The garbage was obviously put into the garbage. Luckily we have a dumpster because we’re cleaning out big items from the basement and garage from my husband’s grandparents.  Now the items to go upstairs. A lot of it is my stuff. Stuff that was brought down stairs for me to “work on”. Some of it was baby clothes that I want to keep from the kids. Luckily there wasn’t too much that had to go up there from her room.

The hall way wasn’t too bad. I had cleaned it the week before and tried keeping on tp of it. I did do some major changes to it, however, after my daughter’s room was all cleaned up. I put the baby gate in the kitchen doorway and moved the one enclosing her in the living room in my son’s doorway. She has freedom! And she LOVES it! She runs back and forth so excitedly. It does mean more “kid” messes to clean up but it also means less “mommy” mess to be made in her room. I have to keep it clean so that she doesn’t get into anything.

The entrance way wasn’t too bad. But it had a lot of my stuff there. It was on the other side of another baby gate so a lot of things just got “put” there. If we didn’t want her to get into it.. there it went. I went through everything and put the garbage in the garbage. Most of it went upstairs to be piled in our bedroom. That is a MESS! But now that the downstairs is getting cleaned I can tackle that soon.

The kitchen.. oh the kitchen. I was trying to keep up with it but lost track after a few late nights at work. I worked my rear off to get the counters mostly cleaned off. There is still too much stuff on the counters for my liking but I need to clean other placed before I can get rid of some of the items on there. I had to sweep and mop the floor. And the dishes desperately needed to be dealt with. It’s the dishes that have to be hand washed that give us the most problems.  But they got done. My husband did that part for me because he saw all the other work I was doing.

He also tackled the bathroom for me. My son likes to experiment in there with water. So there is often random items in there. The kids are the only ones that bathe in there so we don’t have to worry about many bath products other then toys. 

The visit went well. My house was as clean as it was going to get. I still had some areas that weren’t perfect.. but I’m not a perfect person.  I, in a way, want them to see that I am not the cleanest person and I never will be, but I’m working towards making my house neater and a happier place to live. I noticed how stressed everyone was today as we scrambled to finish those last cleaning projects that had to get done before my parents walked in the door. I didn’t like the feeling in the air. I didn’t like the tension.

Tomorrow I have to work at night, but I plan on keeping up with things. I also plan to work on my home binder and maybe starting a new cleaning project. I’ll keep it slow so I don’t burn out.  I need to make myself a schedule and stick to it so that things that need to be done..get done..  Daily, weekly, monthly tasks need to be where I can see them.  It’s getting thee. Slowly but surely. Sometimes we need a big kick to get us jump started.

Still chugging along..

When I go to bed at night I have all the intentions of waking up early and getting a good start on the day. It never seems to work.  Flylady says to wake up 20 minutes before your family. Well my family never gets up at the same time. Sometimes my daughter wakes up at 5am! I am NOT getting up at 4:40am every day. Especially when I occasionally have to work until midnight!  That is one part of Flylady’s plan I can not follow. Which is why I need to make my own plan, personalized for me.  Everyone’s life is different and everyone needs modifications to any plan to make it work for themselves.

Last night I did a quick clean of the hallway again. It seems to attract every little thing. It is “the other side of the baby gate” so the kids just toss stuff over it and it accumulates. So I cleaned everything up, threw out the garbage and vacuumed. It looks great. Even my 4 year old noticed I vacuumed! He was so happy that he could “walk without tripping over anything!” (Although he does trip over his own feet once in a while!). I was proud non the less.

Today I plan on helping my husband in the basement. There is a lot of stuff down there that isn’t ours (the house used to be my husband’s grandparents’ and great grandparents’). Things have accumulated and we finally have the time to go through them. I also plan to do more work on the first floor. My living room needs to have the toys picked up and then it needs vacuuming. My son’s room needs a lot of work too. But that may need to wait until tomorrow. My kitchen still looks pretty good. I need to load the dishwasher and sweep the floor again but the table is still cleared off and there are no major spills anywhere. Toys have seemed to stop making their way in there because they are taken out right away.

I also plan to work on my binder today.  A little at a time and I don’t get overwhelmed.  That’s how everything is. I chug along a little at a time, slow and steady and things get done and stay done! Instead of working like a crazy person and burning myself out.  I found that setting a timer doesn’t work for me. I’ll set it for a certain amount of time and do what I have to do. Then I’ll set it to take a break and never come back from the break. If I work slow and steady for as long as I want then I can accomplish more and then reward myself with a break without having to go back. Like I said earlier, not everyone has the same needs. Some people may need the timer and are able to go back after a short break. I need to just clean and organize until I reach a point, not a time limit. One thing I do follow of Flylady’s is the babysteps. A little bit at a time so that you don’t get burnt out.

We’ll see how today goes.

Moving right along..

So Monday was a hard day to do any cleaning. We were hit with a huge snow storm. This meant my husband had to go outside and shovel while I entertained the baby and dealt with my son coming in and out of the house because he was cold. Then I had to go to work! I worked until 10pm so when I got home I just wanted to relax and go to bed.  Luckily while I was gone a huge mess wasn’t made.  We used the crock pot for dinner that night and my husband washed all the dirty dishes in the sink and put the others in the dishwasher.  Yesterday was better but still hard to get too much done. I was able to do a load of laundry. I did clean up the kitchen before I went to bed. making sure that the table was washed and the floor was swept. It wasn’t perfect but something is better then nothing.  I also started making my “home binder”.  It is a mixture of the control journal from www.flylady.net and the household notebook from www.organizedhome.com I like the idea of having what needs to be done all in one place. I have a feeling though that I will be the only one to use it.  Even so it is a fabulous tool for our house.

The home binder will contain all of the information I need. The binder is a 3 ring binder that  has different sections.  It will have an area to check off each days chores. It will also have an area for weekly chores and monthly chores. I’ll check them off as I go.  I feel proud when I can check something off a list.   The binder will also contain important phone numbers, grocery lists, addresses, and anything else I find important. I like the idea of having it all in one place, so when my husband asks “what’s the phone number for the pizza place?”  I can tell him to check in the binder.

Today I have to work again but not until tonight. My husband has already thrown in another load of laundry. If he hasn’t folded it I will do that tonight when I get home.  I’ll will make sure the kitchen is  clean still before I go to bed.  I also plan on cleaning up the toys from the hallway. And possibly working on my son’s bedroom a little. I also plan to work on more pages of the binder. When I get a chance I write them out on a piece of paper and then when I get free time I type them out. I like to write them out first because then I get a chance to edit them easier. I can move things around so that they are in the order I like. I also can add things easily or remove things. Then when it is all set I make the final typed version that everyone can read (my handwriting isn’t always so neat lol).  

Each day as I do a little and maintain what I have already done I can see the progress. I just have to remember to maintain it and not become lazy.  Taking 3 toys out of the kitchen each day seems like less work then taking out 21 at the end of the week and getting frustrated that they’re in there! 

Little by little I will get there.  It may seem hard now starting out because I tend to have to do things late at night. But as things get cleaner and more organized it will be easier to maintain them during the day and then I’ll have my nights free to do what I like!

Operation:Clean the House has begun!

I knew I wanted to start today but wasn’t sure I was going to get to it. I had to work this morning. Which meant when I got home both kids would be awake and wanting to play with Mommy. That’s exactly what happened. Plus because Daddy didn’t get a good night sleep last night so he decided to take a nap. Also hampering my efforts were our Sunday dinners at the in-laws. We luckily left early because of impending snow and we were able to get the kids to bed on the early side. I did relax a little while and had some “me” time chatting with friends. Then I made a plan. I would work for a half an hour and then give myself a break. I stuck to my guns and did it. I decided to tackle the area which I thought would benefit most: The kitchen. I jumped right in emptying the dishwasher and adding the new dirty dishes from the sink but because my husband was taking a shower I didn’t get to clean the dishes left in the sink. Because I was on a roll I decided to hit the floor. I gathered up all the toys that were scattered about and put them in my son’s room (which needs a LOT of work!). I swept the floor and then used the Swiffer Wet Jet to get all the sticky messes left by the kids. I was going to stop there when I saw my husband had hijacked my computer. Taking it as a sign I decided to continue in the kitchen after a short break to watch the weather. (We’re getting a major snow storm tonight) Then off I went. I cleaned off the table of all the things that didn’t belong. I gave the table a good scrub and added the lazy susan and banana holder (with bananas). I took a step back to admire my work and was proud. Granted it still needs work but the table is now ready for breakfast tomorrow morning. I don’t have to worry about stepping on a toy every time I walk in there. The floor needs to be Swiffer Wet Jetted by the back door but because of the weather its just going to get dirty again every time we come in and out. I’m very proud of what I accomplished in just an hours time. I’m so happy that when its time for the kids to eat breakfast tomorrow they have a nice clean place to do it free of random mail and other things. My goal for that area is to clean spills up as soon as they happen and to sweep after each meal (regardless if it looks like it needs it or not). I know with a little bit of work it can be done. I just need the willingness to act on it.. and I need the cooperation of my son and husband (daughter is too young yet). We shall see what time brings. Tomorrow is another day to get more done. We will have a lot of shoveling to do tomorrow but I don’t have to work until the afternoon so I’ll be able to do a few things in the morning to add to my progress.

The Dilemma

I have a dilemma. I can not seem to keep my house clean and organized. No matter how hard I try it just never seems to stay clean for more then a half hour.. sometimes less! I do have two kids so that adds to the pandemonium. I’ve tried many online sites but can’t seem to find one that fits my lifestyle. I’m going to bring you on my journey to get my house in order. I will use methods from other people and I will adapt them to fit my own needs. I hope you enjoy the journey and I hope it may help someone too.