Ever since school let out I have been in major cleaning and organizing mode...it's only taken me 10 1/2 years after the birth of my last child to pull everything together. I think I might actually be able to keep it together, too, which is thrilling. Hope springs eternal, at any rate.
The biggest help for getting my house clean (besides spending all day almost every day cleaning) it that I spent time getting rid of stuff. Half the messes were because we didn't have a proper place for things...either they didn't have a place or the place was so crowded it was hard to deal with it, so things weren't put away because it was such a hassle. So, a place for everything and everything in it's place...you can't have order if things don't have a home. I'm still looking for a home for my vacuum cleaner (besides the hallway), but most things are settled. It's wonderful.
I'm doing several things to help me get things in order. The FlyLady.net has been a big help. She divides the house into 5 zones and each week is for a different part of the house. This week's emphasis is the kitchen. Today I scrubbed down the stove top. She has you do most things for only 15 minutes so you don't get overwhelmed. I haven't been stopping at 15 minutes and so am making great progress.
I also do a daily challenge from a facebook group Refuge for the Organizationally Challenged. Today I spent 15 minutes in the game closet (and 15 in the linen closet which was yesterday's assignment).
On a different level, I am currently 2/3s the way through reading the book Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen. It's more geared towards a business person, but can be adapted for home life as well.
The biggest help this has been a little trick that has helped my procrastination habit. The rule is, if it takes less than 2 minutes to accomplish a task, do it right then (barring other constraints, of course). Wow. So simple. But I was forever noticing something needed to be done (cobwebs, spot on the floor, food spilled in the microwave, etc) and moving on without taking care of it.
I set up my "tickler file" today...a way to remind yourself of future things. I adapted it for my less demanding non-business life and instead of having 31 file folder, one for each day of the month, I have only 1--one for each FlyLady cleaning week. We'll see how it goes.
There's still plenty to do, but I so enjoy having my countertops cleaned off and all the shoes in the closet and being able to take things out of cabinets without having avalanches.
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| craft closet before |
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| one month later and it still looks good! |
