ROTM - BATHROOM

I did it. It took me all day, as I ran off frequently. At the end of the day I can proudly say that the whole downstairs bathroom is cleaned, organized and free of toys. The toy invasion really got out of hand lately.

So, two rooms down in January and still a few days left to start a new room. I am tempted to continue in the kitchen, but that is such a monster of a room, I think I need to boost my self confidence a little before I get back to that. I might have a quarter done already, but that was the easy part.

I still have quite a few extra appointments over the next couple of week and I need to make sure I don't overdo it. I am still way too close to that gaping hole called depression to do anything crazy!

ROTM - BOY'S ROOM

Focusing on one room per month has proved rather helpful to me. I made a halfhearted attempt on the kitchen in December and got going for real in January. I went for the easiest room. Kind of funny to think that the cleanest and best organized bedroom in a house is the room of 2 teenage boys.

It took a week but I am proud to say that except for washing the windows and dusting the book shelf they boys did it all by themselves.

We got rid of about 20 lbs of paper, all school related and I hope a few other things. Oh wait. I did vacuum under the bed because the "under the bed clean up" did not meet my perfectionist standards.

Well. I am happy with our work. I started on the downstairs bathroom. Another easy one. Stay tuned for results!

ROTM - UPDATE

I was wondering if I was making enough progress. I have to do 1.75 rooms per month to make it through by the end of the year. So I was a little frustrated because the only room that is done is the downstairs bathroom which is easy peasy. So here is what I have done so far. The kitchen needs another hour and then I will be done. I started on the laundry room, the guest...wait. Lets to this the other way round. The only place I haven't started on yet is the boys room. Do you know what that means? Yes. We got started in the attic! And it feels a lot less daunting!

ROTM 2017

ROTM - Room Of The Month is not a new concept. I am doing it again because it has worked very well for me. I have made big progress by focusing on one room at a time but never made it all the way through the house. 2017 is the year I will make this happen. 

I have changed the rules a bit. I work in more than one room. Sometimes I need quiet chores, other days I simply can't face the kitchen. To make it easier, I don't insist on being done with one room before I can start the next.

I am making it harder by counting the patio, the back and front yard, the car, the garage and the attic as a room, too. This way I have 21 "rooms". So either I have to do two a month or the challenge will go for 2 years.

Thanks to my 2 hours per day and the need for quiet jobs at night with James gone and the kids asleep I was done with the downstairs bathroom before I knew it. So 1 down. 20 to go!

CALLING IN SICK

I should be calling in sick. I really should. I've had sick kids since last week Monday. One of them has been sick, or at least not fully recovery since then. One is back to normal and the 4 oldest are home from school with headaches and fevers. I've had a head ache for days and yesterday I finally surrendered.

Unfortunately I had worked ahead the night before and I figured I better get my 2 hours in. So I decided to finally work on the cabinet full of board games. I can't just put the stuff together. When I do that I have to count every piece and write down what'S  missing. Which lets face it is a ridiculous amount of time spent on nothing.

Now I am sitting on the couch, counting endless stacks of cards and game pieces and am thrilled to finally get this going. The complete games will be upstairs in the living room, the incomplete ones will stay downstairs. I know that there is a ridiculous amount of game pieces flying through the girls' room.

Unfortunately throwing out the games  as long as I think I can find the mission pieces is not how I roll. I guess I could practice doing that. But lets face it. I really don't want to. here is what I will do. The incomplete games will stay downstairs. By the end of the year, after I will have gone through the whole house (yes,y es, I will!) what ever is still not complete will go. 

STUBBORN

Stubbornness is usually not considered a virtue. For once being stubborn paid off. I have so much going on at the moment. One appointment after the other. And the ambitious goal to work at home for 2 hours on maintenance and decluttering. Week #4. Worst day I was 1 h and 40 min behind. Meaning I had 3 h and 40 min to do that day. Well. It took me 3 days but I am all caught up again. And somehow in this tiresome battle I finished the first ROTM for 2017!

MY DAILY 2

Starting on the 26th of Dec. 2016 I have put in 2 hours of work Mo-Sa. As long as the kids where out of school and we had no extra curricular activities it was pretty easy. Once school started back up it got a little harder. I was debating whether or not I should allow myself to work ahead or transfer missing time to the next day. I felt I shouldn't do any of that, as the object is to get me to work daily.

This weeks was absolutely CRAZY with appointments. Add some snow and icy roads which added to my commute time and added taxi rides to my schedule I found myself out of the house on Wednesday for a total of 7,5 hours in 2 blocks. Believe it or not, I was able to get 1 h and 40 min in that day. I decided to allow myself to transfer the missing block to Thursday. Thursday I was on the road for a mere 4,5 hours but I was emotionally exhausted and I ended up having 1 hour and 20 min left. It felt like to much to transfer but I really, really wanted to keep this going

Here is what I came up with:

•  It is okay to work ahead for busy days. 
• you can transfer missing time to the next day
• you can not accumulate more than 2 hours of missing time 
• you need to catch up by Saturday, the clock will be reset on Monday

I can live with that. I think I need a little flexibility for crazy days and to stay motivated, but I know what happens ponce you are "in the hole" and how frustrating it is when you can't dig yourself back out.

I am so close to finishing week 3 of this project. I CAN DO THIS!

14 DAYS

I am itching for another 14 day challenge. Considering that I am having serious trouble with the ROTM this sounds ridiculous. I guess it is the hyper focus that appeals to me. Do nothing but that one room. Easier not to get side tracked.

So here is the deal. I did 3 rooms so far, I should have 7. 3 more are started. I will just pretend I am on a 14 day challenge and play catch up. I am going full speed into August so if I am honest with myself I have 5 rooms that need to be done just to be where I ought to be.

So. Off I go. Girls room here I come!

ROTM - JUNE

I just checked my blog stats. One of the most read articles is titled ROTM. YIKES !!! I totally forgot about that concept. I guess if I wanted to jinx myself I would pick Ella's and Marie's room as I tend to not get around to the room I picked originally. The mere thought of a ROTM makes me shudder.

Oh. Wouldn't you know it. I just checked. Girls' room was ROTM in JANUARY! It just never got done.

I'll just do the guest room. This is the only room I feel I can get done!

ROTM - MAY

Room of the month for MAY will be the kitchen. And yup. It's done. Cupboards emptied, cleaned, reorganized. Declutterd. Yes, no worries. To be honest. There was not much clutter and I pride myself in still having shelves that are basically empty. I might still be working on the January and February rooms, but I believe I just earned myself  2 extra weeks for those!

How on earth did I pull this one off you wonder? Well, 2 days of hard work and some cleaning fairy magic of course!

ROTM - APRIL

I almost forgot about the room of the month! YIKES! But I remembered in time and decided to take the easiest room to keep the stress at bay. Easiest at the moment was upstairs bathroom. I did a quick declutter and cleaning of the cabinet, looked at the the bottles standing around to see if any where empty and left the deep clean to the cleaning fairy. Voila. DONE!

Editors note: I never posted this!

1 DOWN, 3 TO GO - ROTM

Believe it or not, I ALREADY dealt with 1 of the baskets. True. "Already" might not be the correct term.  I DEALT WITH IT! Yes, I cheated a little and put some stuff in other baskets. But only because I really needed the empty basket to do laundry. I was only able to do that because I have been taking things out of the other baskets, too. I put things back where they belong. I fixed things, I tossed things. I DEALT WITH IT! I might want to step it up a little. I don't want to be working on this for another month, but I DEALT WITH IT! Yes, I know, I already mentioned it. Deal with it. hahaha!

THE BASKETS OF HORROR

4 Baskets. 4 horrific baskets. I moved them from the girls' room to the boys room. I told them 1 day. 4 days later they are still there. Yes. I am dealing with them. But I am far from done. I am halfway through the first. Most of it ist stuff that actually needs to be dealt with. And every item that I can simply toss I have to earn. Puzzle pieces, Barbie shoes, pens. Legos. LEGOS. Always Legos. The boys gave me permission to keep the baskets there for a little bit longer. I know if I move those baskets back into the girls room they will tear them apart and stuff will be everywhere. AGAIN! I don't think that I can handle that at the moment. 

I have made progress. I really have. And it was easier than expected. One day at a time. 

ROTM - NIGHTMARE

What a nightmare that room is! January will haunt me for the rest of the year if this is not resolved soon. I made the boys work on their room to keep up appearances. And I just worked in the girls' room for an hour keeping them working without seeing much progress. Yes, I see progress, but if we keep going at this rate this room will at least 4 full hours of work with the 3 of us. And that is assuming that they won't play in it or toss clothes around. That'S also assuming their little brother will stay out of it. Fat chance, I know. We already spilled the same game box 3 times. I am ready to just toss the game if it weren't for the fact that Ella bought it with her own money just 6 weeks ago. Not even my husband's approach to cleaning seems to help in their. He just takes a broom swipes everything into one big pile and then picks out the keepers. But if you first have to clear enough floor space to even start sweeping you know you are doomed. 

On the upside. I am finally catching up with laundry it seems. The hampers might be pretty full, but none of them is full enough to justify starting one load. Only one load to fold and about 3 or 4 to put away. If I stick with it, I can get it done today.

Editors note: I didn't. I was too busy having fun with the kids!

ROTM - MY TIME IS UP

My time is up. The room isn't done. I am trying to feel like I failed, but I can't. I started in the middle of the month and the project was insane. To add to the madness last week brought with it 6 additional appointments that took a total of 15 hours out of my week. Basically to full work days on top of my normal madness. 2 things I had no control over, 1 was a doctors appointment I made weeks ago not knowing how full this week would be and the other 3 were school and medical appointments where I felt if I didn't act fast I might miss out on getting the help we need. 

When I first picke dthis room I had no expectations of actually finishing, which makes it hard to feel like I failed.

So the room is a mess still. But less of a mess. there is enough free floor space that the girls actually started playing in their room again. we are far from done, I know. The last thing I did in that room was 5 days ago and I added more stuff figuring it wouldn't make a difference. It didn't. 

What now you wonder? Well, pick a new room of course. That means now I have 2 rooms to work on. The boy's room is next. Why? Because that was almost done during the 14 day challenge and I can take advantage of the progress made back then. Plus. They will be doing most of the work, which means I can focus on the girls' room still. 

PRESENTS

Let's not talk about the room of the month today. Way to depressing. When I did my 14 day challenge I came across a bag with books and CDs in it. I knew it! I told James that we had more books for Alex for Christmas. OF course I found the bag AFTER Christmas. All of a sudden I even remembered moving it from spot #1 down to the basement as the kids were less likely to come across it in the basement. 

Today I decided to not only be happy I found it but to make sure I won't lose them again. As we have birthdays coming up I went ahead and wrapped a few items. When I was done, I hid the presents in my wardrobe and put the paper and scotch tape away. The scissors are still upstairs as they are Marie's long lost scissors for school. Oops.I am afraid I for once am the guilty party "losing" them. But I am proud of myself. One birthday is taken care of this way already and everything is back where it belongs. I can do this!

SYSIPHUS

Sysiphus I fell your pain. I have this 3 year old living with me. If I put it in a box, he will take it back out. If i collect it off the floor, he will throw it right back. If I  make a neat little pile he will walk right through it. It couldn't have been much worse for you.

Despite the cruel 3 year old I got 2 waste baskets full of recycling out. I have also started picking pieces to games out of the random things on the floor. I have 8 days left and I will make the most of it!

ROTM - PUTTING THINGS BACK

As I predicted, little people went through the things left on the floor and created extra work by dumping out games and spreading the content of boxes. I knew better than to leave the stuff out. Case of self sabotage? Most likely. But the Unstoppables have made some serious progress. Besides picking up at least 300 items in this room every day, (we found the floor! Yeah!) I put all the clothes and linnen back into the wardrobe. Most of the games went into the big wardrobe in the guestroom in the basement. Why? No time to deal with them, plus they were stacked in so tightly the girls couldn't even get any game out without creating a mess.

Over the last few days I realized that there is not much storage space in that room. There is a wardrobe that has enough room for clothes. A bookshelf, loaded with books and a tiny cluttered bookshelf in the corner. Anything that is "art related" is packed into dense piles on the little table and the rest, which is a lot, is more or less flying around loosely. I have a random assortment of boxes the stuff is supposed to go into, but the boxes have nowhere to go. I am not quite sure how to solve this dilemma yet. I would love to cut the amount of stuff in half, but will settle for parting with a third. SO far things are looking good. My head cold is a nuisance but so far can't stop me. I can do this!

ROTM - TEARING APART THE WARDROBE

I had fun tearing apart the wardrobe. I took all the clothes, games and linnen out, and washed the shelves. Too bad I lost my stamina and never got the stuff back in. Games and puzzles are out for little people to peruse and clean clothes and linnen are available to be torn apart and trampled into the dirt. Considering that the floor is covered in toys and clothes and no floor is visible, the wardrobe  that was in semi order might not have been the most obvious place to start with. On the other hand it is the only section of the room where everything already has its place and it was more a question of cleaning and sorting out items, torn or too small. Which I did. I got a few items back in but most is still stacked across the room. Funny thing is Marie assumed it was her little brother and came to tattle. I am not sure how she thinks the little one reached the top shelf, but I am glad I am not suspect #1 when chaos is involved. Tomorrow's mission is to get the stuff back in.

ROTM - THE GIRLS WILL CRY

Why would I pick the girls' room as the room of the month? It is definitely one of the rooms that will be the most work and the month is half way over. I picked it because this room REALLY needs some TLC. Every time we were able to clean it up, it fell apart within just a few days. Proof enough that something is off, or we would be able to maintain it. Other reasons to pick it are:

• I have helpers (like it or not)
• I have started this room a few times and never finished
• I was in no mood to tear apart rooms like the bathroom just because I didn't wipe down all the shelves

So here are the rules:

• take apart
• deep clean
• declutter
• put back together
• available time: 1 month

Lets get cracking.