BECAUSE I LOVE HIM

At first glance, James and I don't have much in common. He is quiet, I am loud. I talk, he listens. He watches sports, I could care less. His focus is on keeping the kitchen and living room clean, I prefer starting with the bed room and bathroom. We do share at least one thing. A deep love for each other.

After a good start in the morning and an appointment at 10 am (you know how I feel about those on a Monday), things started getting slow and my motivation took a nap somewhere in a corner.

By 4 pm I had enough and wanted to give up. I forced myself to clear a few things off the kitchen table. Than a thought struck me. "If I finish cleaning off the table, James would be so happy." I decided to do it for him. Because I love him and because I like to see him happy. Obviously I only love him  enough for half of the kitchen....No. I love him enough for the whole kitchen, I simply ran out of time and had to go to yet another appointment on a Monday.

Love is a miracle drug. It even makes me clean a kitchen! I think I will let this be my motivation more often!

Surface of the day: counter top

5 a day: about 30 magazines and around 20 recipes

LAZY SATURDAY

I shouldn't feel the need to justify, but I do. I have a million things to do. I also had a crazy week. That little sore spot in my lower back is acting up. A sure sign that I feel stressed. You know what. Today I took it easy. I worked hard all week. Even yesterday, when I was just tired, tired, tired, I tried hard to keep it up. I cooked a nice healthy dinner, I kept the laundry going, kept the clean downstairs clean. Shuttled kids back and forth, and it's not even TUESDAY!

Years ago I read a book called "The Sidetracked Home-executive". Peggy and Pam are sisters who were both trapped by chaos. They found a way out and it worked so well for them they decided to share. They stress that you need a day off every week. For years I've been telling myself that Sunday is my day of. But guess what. I attend church every Sunday. If you have ever tried to doll up 5 kids and have them out of the house by 9 am, attend church meetings and make sure they behave well, when volunteering in your congregation takes up more of your free Sunday and half of the day is over by the time you wonder about what to feed the kids for lunch, than it isn't a day off. So from now on Saturday is the official day off. Time to hang out as a family, play games, go to the lake, you name it.

This morning I told the kids that everyone who cleaned up for 15 min would get to play a board game of their choice with me. 2 of the 4 kids in question jumped at the opportunity. Okay. so they "paid" for game time with Mommy, but I am not perfect and today is only the first attempt. I am sure I will come up with improvements!

Oh my stars. I had a guilt free happy break day and wouldn't you know it. Around 5 pm I started working. And man, I got a lot done!

Surface of the day: piano (a favorite)

5 a day: 2 pieces kids art, grilled cheese that was still good, but that no one will eat anymore, 3 will have to do for today

CLEAN UP FOR THE PARTY

I am a very social person and having people over is a delight for me. It can be a source of stress as I want the house to be clean, but it is also a great motivation to clean up. I used to do emergency clean ups for occasions like that (grab a laundry basket stuff everything in it and hide the basket, fill up as many as necessary to clear the area in question) but I have learned that even though they look like a great fix all they do is create another emergency. 

In the aftermath of such an emergency clean up I would find myself asking the following questions

• Where on earth is x? 
• If x isn't in this basket which basket could it be in?
• Who will clear out all those baskets.
• How am I to do the laundry? All the baskets are full!
• Will the 3 laundry baskets I hid in here fall out if I open this wardrobe?

You get the idea. I think I told you that when last time I was really tempted to do an emergency clean up I decided to be brave and face the situation. Well. Today I was brave again. The hardest part for me is getting started. It feels like I have so much today. In order not to feel overwhelmed I wrote down the rooms that will be used by the guests and an estimated amount of time necessary to cleanup each of them. That already made me feel better. My estimate was 2,5 hours of work, which is only 30 min than my daily routine. So I decided which order I would tackle them in and got started in the kitchen. 

I promptly faced my first obstacle. I should have just started the dishwasher the night before. So once the dishwasher was started I decided to move to the next room, the hall. AsI went to get water to mop the floors I quickly got sidetracked by laundry. Realizing that all my floor rags are dirty did not improve my mood. By this time I was officially behind and ready to just get lost in the big maze that is called the worldwideweb. I lucked out big time. The internet was on my side for once and not working.

By this time I had worked only 40 min and lunch was approaching quickly. I grabbed my timer and set out again. As I was behind I decided to forget about my order of things and do the fast rooms first. It payed of. 2 rooms later I was back on track! Hooray!

It was time to face my nemesis. The "coat room". I have very mixed emotions about this room, but let me tell you, it is the hardest room of the house to keep organized! 20 min later I was close, but behind schedule again. And I had cheated a little. I had stuffed the little knick knacks that are at home all over the house into a clear box but as I left the box there and in plain sight I figured I can get away with it. The kitchen went faster than expected.

Eventually life got in the way. Once life was out of the picture again, I tossed my timer and simply kept working until the living room was clean. Things might not have gone as planned, but the downstairs is clean. I am very happy with what I achieved today.

If you have made it to the end of this post in one long swoop it proves that you have what it takes! So get your rear end up and go WORK FOR 10 MIN!

surface of the day: living room

5 a day: I am afraid, I didn't get rid of anything today

2 HOURS PER DAY

It's been a true challenge so far, with the week being extra crazy, myself still feeling queasy with some random slight stomach bug, that makes up for being only faint by staying longer. I think the second the kids are in bed, I will retire, too. At 4 pm I finally caved and decided to take a 30 min power nap. Of course the phone rang after 5 min. It rang twice. My friend had called but realized the moment she hit dial that she forgot about an appointment. So I was awake and didn't get to chat with her. Oh well. I am dragging my feet , but I am happy to report, that I am completely unpacked, that the laundry is done, (at least the laundry from our trip) and I found a worthy cause to donate to. My neighbor brought over kids clothes, and today I found a bag of shoes in front of my door. I hate it when people just drop their stuff off without asking me if I want it. 

I keep fighting down the thought that I have to start my 14 day challenge again. The house really isn't that bad. I will just need a little patience. Today I am happy to report that tomorrow I will be done with the downstairs. 2 hours should do the trick. 

Surface of the day: coat room (almost done)

5 a day: various pieces of kids art, a dysfunctional pen

AIRPORT TAXI TUESDAY

To give today's Taxi Tuesday a little twist I started it with a 7 am airport run. Things went a lot smoother than I expected and I was back before 10 am. Unfortunately the mess was still as bad as it was the night before.

Stuff that is lying around always attracts clutter. Even if it is stuff, that is used on a daily basis. Right now I am not sure what is clutter and what is being used as their is so much of it, but I have already found the first few items my sister forgot. Of course if every surface is cluttered it will be a lot harder to notice a little thing or 2 that you forgot to pack.

I put on my timer and got to work. It was tough but I ended up getting 2 h and 20 min in. My husband needed the car so he took over the second to last run and Alex got a ride with a friend so I didn't have to do the last run either. 

All in all it was a smooth day considering it was a Tuesday.

Surface of the day: inside of the car

5 a day: parts of fast food toys that I would have just a year ago tried to reunite with the rest of the toy, a key chain that might just make it's very own blog post one day.

LET'S DO THIS!

I managed to put 2 hours of maintenance work in today. Thank you sweet little 10 magic minutes! I barely put a dent into the chaos, but what do you expect with 14 people in a home. After 2 weeks of partying it is hard to get back in to work mode. MY goal for tomorrow is to crawl up into the attic so I can fill the nearly empty recycling trash that will be picked up on Wednesday. I'll let you know how it goes. For  now I will be smart an go to bed to catch some sleep! 

surface of the day: 2 suitcases and one bag unpacked

5 a day: husband's wallet (silly story), 4 pieces of kids clothing (ruined),

FORGIVE ME

One shouldn't just simply vanish for 2 weeks. I should have told you. The first week I thought I would have internet so I didn't think it was necessary to tell you I wouldn't be online. Turned out I had no internet access what so ever for an entire week. It felt so good, that I decided to stay offline for another week voluntarily. I know. Totally unheard off. 

What have you missed? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Not one bit of decluttering was done. Even worse, I acquired a thing or two, but I think I will tell you about those some other time. I had family over, we hung out with friends, attended a wedding, and only did about a third of the wonderful things we planned to do.


I do hope that you, my 2 readers will forgive me and not leave me. This journey is easier with someone to tell it to!

LANDING - CHECK

The upstairs landing is clear. Well, forgive me if half of it just went up into the attic, but I am under a little time pressure at the moment and I did pick through the stuff as it let the playroom and a second time before it went into the attic. Churning at it's finest, but I still haven't learned to make quick decisions. If the decision has to be quick I will most likely keep it. As one never knows it just might come in handy one day. 

Last time things went up into the attic I felt bad about it. This time I don't. Why not? I assume because at least half of the stuff belongs up there anyway. I'll be a hero some other time. I think another reason I don't feel bad about it is because now the house is clear. Granted I still have a few cabinets to clear out but there is nothing lying around on the floor or stacked in boxes or laundry baskets. The last bit that went up is the last bit that will go up. And even though there is more up there again, the attic looks better than weeks ago when I posted pictures for the first time. 

I am not sure how I will proceed now. I might turn to the patio and backyard, and of course keep up the house and finish those last few drawers and cupboards. 

I am not sure. I worked hard for 4 weeks, but also realized that I could work a lot more if I was just willing to put in the emotional energy. Bumping up daily working time seems to have made a difference this week, so I will stick with it. 


surface of the day: upstairs landing

5 things a day: random bits and pieces, broken toys, parts of board games that have been discarded of a while a go. I think I will keep finding pieces for quite a while still.

PLAYROOM - CHECK

Oh, where should I start. In a corner. But I didn't. I simply started by picking out stuff that either was to go into the trash or stuff that had a place to go. Like the one million pieces of Lego of all shapes and sizes that were lying around. Oh.Wait.I made the kids pick those up. I also made them pick up all the cars. After attempting to clean up the playroom for over a week I finally was annoyed enough to do it. I sat on the floor in the middle of the room with a grumpy baby in one arm and handed stuff to the other kids giving commands like "in the trash", "your room", "bookshelf". That worked quite well. 

The kids were just as overwhelmed as I was. How did Matt put it? "No wonder it takes so long to clean up this room. We do it like once a year."  Well, here is the news kids, you decide if it's good or bad. We'll be cleaning up this room more often! 

Believe me, it was quite the challenge. It took me all day to muster up the courage to actually go through with it. I am not sure how long we worked, with all the breaks we took in between it took more than 5 hours.

I must admit that a little cheating was involved. I will not go into detail about how the landing looked after we were done with the play room. There is definitely enough work left to keep me entertained tomorrow! 

surface of the day: playroom

5 a day: a million bits and pieces of broken toys, board games, puzzles, fast food toys

SMOOTH TAXI TUESDAY

Believe it or not, today went rather smoothly. I even got things done in the morning. I am working hard. Very hard. It seems to finally be paying off, but I am not sure.

I tell myself that I don't have to be perfect every day. But sometimes I don't believe myself. I tell myself, just because I worked out today, doesn't mean I need to keep it up every day.

I really need to get to those leftover rooms. I hope that will make me feel better!

Surface of the day: cleared the passenger part of the car

5 a day: kids art

I TOOK ACTION

I am a great planer. I come up with the best plans ever. Detailed. With a time schedule of what to do when and how long it will take. I am just terrible at execution.

But as professional organizer Rachel from Green and tidy likes to point out, it is important to make time for action. 

Over the last couple of weeks I made time to fix 3 pairs of pants, a skirt and a humongous stuffed animal. None of the tasks took more than 20 min. 2 of the projects I finished while chatting with friends, once face to face, once on the phone and I FELL SO GOOD about finally having them done. I have wasted so much energy keeping those things on my to do list, dreading them more and more every time I actively pushed them further down the list.

I once read an article about being more efficient at the office. And the person, I don't even remember if it was a man or woman, said that since they did every task that would take less than 3 min (like answering an email) immediately things went so much smoother. He/she planned half of their time during a workday for "immediate action". And it worked out really well he/she said.

I wonder what my time limit should be. Any job I encounter that takes less than 5 min? Or things that take less then 10? Hm. I wonder how a distracted soul who needs to have a 10 min plan for cleaning up a room can handle doing things immediately. On the other hand if I finish them. Well. They would be finished. Maybe I will try it one of these days.