More on Cleaning Up

This is becoming quite a dominant theme lately. First of all, I have to make a correction to my last post about cleaning: vomit is an even bigger motivator than house guests! Yes, I spent today cleaning all sorts of stuff because poor Noah has caught a nasty bug. And the thought of of us all getting a stomach bug has whipped me into shape. So there is a positive side of vomit but that never seems to get mentioned in any of the organizational books or websites out there. Forget the professional organizers, the cleaning lady, the fancy cleaners... just give me some good old fashioned vomit (and what the heck throw in some urine ala potty training!) and I can suddenly get all of my floors mopped!

Halloween Faces

The Halloween decorating has started and since we didn't pack any of our Halloween stuff we'll be very busy over the next couple of weeks. Yesterday I picked up a pack of pre-cut foam pumpkins. I didn't really have a plan for them but Noah quickly found the perfect way to spice them up with scary faces. We used some of the "foam paint" that was sold in the same area but after that ran out we just used acrylic paint. Our front door is metal so we may be sticking magnets on these guys and using them to decorate our entrance.

Cleaning Up

Thanks for the suggestions and support regarding my clutter issues. Several of you recommended the Flylady. I tried that about a year ago (perhaps even around this time last year?). Anyway at first I was all fired up and convinced that this would finally change things. During the first few weeks I did the daily suggestions with gusto. But soon the e-mail reminders started to pile up and "clutter" my mailbox. My e-mailbox is also a big problem. I currently have over 3000 messages in my mailbox (some from the year 2000). Yes, I know I need to delete a lot of stuff, but now it just seems like such an overwhelming task. One of those tasks that always seems to be getting pushed to the bottom of my "to-do" list. But the bigger issue with the Flylady is that I started to feel like a failure and a cheater. And how crazy is that? I was worried about letting down an on-line stranger? I wasn't keeping up with the e-mails and eventually just stopped doing any of it. The one thing that has stuck with me is her sink advice...never go to bed with a dirty sink. That doesn't mean my sink is always clean, but I do try and when it is clean I really do feel a sense of accomplishment (it's the little things, right?).

Honestly the most effective method for getting my house in shape is having company. My mother-in-law and I were laughing about this the other day. She knows me well! I wish I could be more self motivated but really it is the fear of having others witness my mess that gets my butt in gear and gets the house cleaned. If the Flylady had surprise visits, I think I would have been a star pupil.

And speaking of mess, what about these current issues? I am honestly shocked that anyone even wants to run for President. So many messy issues to clean up and so much pressure. Makes me happy to just worry about keeping up with dirty dishes instead of the massive clean up job our new president is facing.