Happy New Year

So was 2009 draws to a close, I, of course, begin to think about resolution. My goal this year is (obviously) to keep my house cleaner and in better shape. But honestly, I'm very content with the system I have going. I make a new resolution every week. Something simple and manageable and it seems to be working. But then I began to wonder, will at the end of 2010, will I have 52 daily tasks? and my answer:
I don't know.
Maybe.
My ultimate goal is to be a clean person, and in the habit of being clean and organized. So if that takes maintaining 52 daily tasks a day, then I really hope that I do all 52 of them. So I don't have a new years resolution goal. I have new week goals. New day goals. That's how I'm going to do this.

Daily check in

Not a totally productive day since company was over for most of the afternoon. I did:
-do the dishes. There weren't any so this was easy. Lunch was chips and salsa and an orange. no dishes necessary and for dinner, Russ and I went out!
-wiped of the bath counter
-did a focused 5 min pickup. I did the mandatory 5 minutes, but didn't pick up much longer after that. also no pictures since I didn't focus on one area like before.
-washed the sheets! finally!!
-sprayed the shower down w/ that no soap scum stuff. It's not on par with cleaning the bathroom like I need to do, but I did do something.

Why I do this Part 2

Ok, here's the story. Last night I changed in the bathroom and left (please do not ask me why) my dirty undies on the floor. This morning I get up and Russ is still asleep so I go into the bathroom to get ready for the day and see the lowly undies on the floor, pick them up and throw them in the hamper. I go and do my grocery shopping and when I get home I see Russ has some friends over. I'm thinking, phew I'm glad I picked up the floor last night so the place looks relatively decent. Then one friend excuses himself to go to the  bathroom. When the door clicks shut I freak out (on the inside of course) thinking did I? I did pick up those panties, right? Luckily I did!! I would have been more than mortified if he had seen them! This is just another reason for this blog. People stop by. Russ's sister and bro-in-law stopped by over the holiday weekend. If they saw this place even two weeks ago I would have been so embarrassed. It's nice to know that your house is picked up so company can come over and you can actually feel comfortable inviting them into the house.

Daily check in

Yup, I did 'em. I:

-did the dishes

-wiped the bath counter

-picked up for 5 min

Since my other check list post I even

-wiped off the stove

-finished the laundry and folded the clothes, put them away

-turned my hanger around. (I figure whatever hangers are still turned around in 6 months. I don't wear and therefore will be donated.

All in all a pretty productive day, despite the fact that Russ was home all (well most of) the day. He's even distracting me now with optical illusions. haha. But there is still a LOT to do!

My new daily task

Today was the first time I did my new task of picking up for 5 minutes. I even set the alarm on my phone. Then I got distracted by my dog :) and had to reset my clock! 

The area I focused on was the foot of the bed. Clothes just end up there! And there's my dog, Sadie in the corner there. This is obviously the before. 
And the after:

Not a big change but there is definitely a change and it took me exactly 5 minutes. Not long at all. I didn't rush or hurry. I went at my normal speed. A lot of what was here did need to go to the hamper, so that made it easy. I did clean up a little more after the alarm went off (after this picture was taken) so my floor is even cleaner than this. Honestly, once I started I was kinda on a roll. It was easy to keep going. 

So Far Today

I wanted to take a break from working today, but then I started feeling really unproductive, so I figured I could at least blog about what I've done and that'd be at least doing something. So far I've:
-Taken down the Christmas decorations
-Realized that the basket I've stored my decorations was not near big enough so I went to Big Lots and got bigger bucket and switched everything over there.
-Unpacked and put suitcase away
-Emptied my car trash bag and replaced it with a new bag
-Took the dishes out of the dishwasher
-Ran the dishwasher with vinegar to clean it
-Organized my cookie cutter collection into a little bin
-Ran one load of laundry that's drying right now and one load is in the washing machine. both need to be folded
-Took out most of the trash in the bedroom
- I even did the most unpleasant task of paying my credit card bill!

Daily check in

Oh no! I forgot to do the daily tasks last night. I really was sooo tired and just wanted to jump into bed. I knew there was a lot I had to do tomorrow (today) but I didn't even remember what I had to do then! I cannot forget again tonight. I have to get back in the habit.

Week 2 To Do List

There's a ton to do this week. Russ will be home all week, which makes it SO much harder for me to be productive, but I'm going to try really hard! I want to keep up the momentum.
1. Clean the bathroom
2. take down christmas decorations
3. do laundry. esp. uniform and sheets
4. Wipe off the stove and kitchen counters
5. Unpack and put suitcase away
6. Dust and vacuum bedroom
7. Take of the trash
8. Empty car trash can
9. Bring Diet cokes in from car.
10. Return netflix
11. Clean and organize the kitchen corner, beside the freezer

Daily Task

Ok, Christmas is over! I was away from home since Thursday, and somehow my house got soooo messy while I was away. There's a lot to get done! And since it's the start of the new week, I am going to add another daily task to my list. Pick stuff off of the floor for 5 minutes.  I'm just going to set my clock for 5 minutes- that's all- and pick up the stuff off of the floor, and put it away, not just move it to another stack or another 'holding place.' It can be all throughout the house, but in the beginning I really need to focus on the bedroom. It's a mess! So every day I'll
1. do the dishes
2. wipe down the bathroom counters and sink
3. Pick up for 5 minutes. 

Why I do this

Why do I do this? Plain and simple: being a 'slob' makes life harder. We lose things, we can't invite people over to our homes because of embarrassment. We destory things, even things valuable to us, because of  our disogranization and messiness. I can't tell you how many times my life has been hindered because I was too lazy to take care of something right away.  Why am I telling you this now? Because...
I bring my lunch to work. I have a pink lunch box and I pack my lunch either at night or that morning and that way I don't waste money buying a lunch everyday. Well, since I cleaned out my car, I've developed a sort of system. I put my purse of the floor of the passanger side- since I don't take this in with me- and I put the things I am taking on the passanger seat-mainly a lunch and a jacket.
So this morning was a particularly difficult morning and I knew I packed my lunch last night, so I didn't have to worry about packing it before work. Well, when I got to my car this morning, I put my purse on the floor and put my sweater on the seat and thought to myself, "what's missing?"
If I hadn't gotten responsible and cleaned out my car, I wouldn't have developed this pattern, and I wouldn't have noticed I forgot my lunch!
That would have been especially hard today, because I work at a grocery store. The days you do forget your lunch- no big deal, there's a whole store at your fingertips, but on Christmas eve day? The lines were miles long- (it was a hectic, awful day and I am soooo glad it's over) I probably wouldn't have had the time (nor do I ever have the money) to buy lunch today. I'm super happy I remembered.

P.S. I'm at my parents house tonight, for the holidays and all, and my father's keyboard is way weird. The keys are sticking and it's just not what I'm use to, so sorry it there are errors and misspellings. Plus, they have the slowest connection ever. Really? What in the world is up with there interent? How could they deal with this all day long? It's the worst.
So tomorrow, I go to my sister's house till Sunday night, so this will be my last post for a while. Happy holidays everyone!

Daily check in

I can't wait for this week to be over!

Today I:

-made dinner

-did the dishes. Ran dishwasher

-wiped the bath counter (and boy did it need it!)

-packed for my trip

-packed my lunch for work tomorrow. leftovers!

-made a gingerbread train =)

 

Daily check in

This week I mainly want to focus on these simple daily tasks, just to prove to myself that even though life canget hectic and busy, I can still maintain the basics of a clean house. It's working so far, of course I only have two tasks to maintain so far. But it's like we've said before, it has to be a slow process or I'll (like many [or all?] hoarders) will revert back to my old ways in no time.
Today besides working 8 hours (ok, 7 and 1/2. Got off early!) and grocery shopping, I:
-did the dishes
-made dinner (super easy (and cheap!) chili dogs but it was messy)
-wiped down kitchen counter
-put my work uniform in it's place back in the bin!
-I even packed my lunch for tomorrow, to save time in the morning!

I do feel productive.

Daily check in

So, not a lot got done today. I woke up late and gone for most of the day. I did:
-do the dishes
-wipe down bathroom sink/counter
-wipe down kitchen counters

This week is going to be a little crazy. I work Monday - Thursday. Then Thurs night I'm off to my parents house, then earlier Fri morning we're driving to my sister's house (about a 5 hr drive) where my brothers and sis-in-law will meet us. I should come home next Sunday.
The only things on my to do list is
-vacuum
-wash sheets (and I really don't know when I'm going to find the time for this)
-pack.

Daily check in

Not a lot gone done today. It was mostly a relax day with Russ. One of my biggest problems is that when Russ and I are home together I just want to sit and watch tv with him or whatever. I want to relax and spend time with  him. I don't want to clean! Today I:
-organized my craft box
-Took the dishes out of the dishwasher
-did the few dishes that were made today and put them in the washer/ drainer.
-wiped down the bathroom sink.

I was quite surprised at how dirty the bathroom counters and sink were. I just cleaned them yesterday, and normally I wouldn't clean it again till weeks later, when it really needed it. So I basically thought I was just cleaning it to fall into a routine, but when I did clean it today, I noticed the rag was pretty dirty. You do need to clean it every day, because we use it every day and therefore it gets dirty every day.

Hoarding

Have you ever seen the A&E show Hoaders? Man, I LOVE that show! And I love reading blogs and articles by and about hoarders. But as I "research" this, I realize that I am not a hoarder. I have no problem throwing things away. I throw out bags full of trash every week. I do have a lot of stuff, lots of clothes, shoes, books, craft supples. But honestly, they all have a place, and they all fit. (the  reason they're on the floor is only because I don't put things away-- not that I have so much stuff there isn't room/space.)  On the hoarding scale, I'm at worst a 3. (find out your # for the living room, bedroom, and kitchen.) So hoarding isn't my problem, like I thought. My grandfather is a hoarder. He will not through anything away. So I assumed I got this problem from him, but I do throw things away. I give things to charity.
My mom is super neat and clean. Her house is always 'company ready.' Mine never has been. When I was a kid the only thing I got in trouble for was my room being messy. And it was!! I'm not as bad as when I was a kid, but still. I would be embarrassed if someone came over right now. I was taught to be clean, but I never was.
I think I feel into this rut of not cleaning. Putting my dish in the sink instead of the dishwasher. Dropping my clothes on the floor instead of putting it in the laundry basket. I think I just need to develop new habits and routines. One day, I want to be so clean and organized that I can barely remember my old ways. I want this new lifestyle to become second nature, as opposed to me now having to be consciously thinking about it all of the time. This is a good start to that new life.

My craft box

This is my craft box. I try to keep things organized, that's why I got this box thingy (what is it, a crate?) in the first place. Put after I do a project, it usually gets all jumbled about and disorganized. I've been meaning to get  to this for a while now, so I decided to tackle it while Russ is sleeping. (he's still sleeping! He normally wakes up way earlier than I do!)

Here's the new box.
From another angle:

I really do have soooo much craft supplies. This is mostly paper and stickers and envelopes. Plus extra pens, markers, etc.

A while back, I even bought one of these things 

from organize.com. I'm like a kid at a candy store about that site! So I stuffed this full with pens, scissors, stamps and ink. Now at least everything has a place. All I need to do now, is make sure I put things back when I'm done. Haha.

Epiphany!

I don't know why I'm learning things now, maybe it's because I'm paying attention now. But I am and better now than never.
I just got a craving for a pb&j sandwich. (early into our relationship, Russ introduced me to the idea of putting nacho cheese doritos in our pb&j. Sounds TOO weird, right? It's my FAV food.)
So, I was craving one, and while I was waiting for my bread to toast, I got out the peanut butter, jelly and doritos, and saw the dish drainer full of the dishes I'd washed earlier in the night. So I put them and the drainer away. Took less time than it does to make toast! Literally! I probably wouldn't have done it before. I probably would have just sat there and waited for my toast. Aw, improvement!

Daily check in

Today I:
-cleaned the bathroon (including finding a place for m vase)
-took out all the trash that had been collecting since we filled up the outside bins. Trash pick up was this morning (yay!). 2 bags of trash out the door!
-Cleaned off my desk (and finished my to do list yay!)
-Made dinner
-Did the dishes
-Wiped down the door knobs and frames that get all fingerprint-y
-Cleaned up the sticky mess from Russ's spilled Coke.
-Wiped up the sink and counter in the bathroom again. I wanted to get into a habit and not give myself any excuses to not do something.
-I also went to the DI to get books to read while on vacation over Christmas.

The more I do this, the more I realize I LOVE getting stuff done. I love the feeling of scratching something off my list. Is being messy fun? We already discussed that it takes up more time? So what is the pay off? What am I getting out of my slobby ways?

The desk.

Cleaned up my desk today. It's a small space but it gets piled up with paperwork and diet coke cans. So today I finished clearing everything off. I love clean things. Why don't I keep my things nice and clean? I'm still trying to figure this out about myself.. Anyway, so I cleaned this off and all the stuff-mostly papers- that was under my desk. Random recipes, things that need to be filed, etc. And I was sitting in my desk chair with my feet touching the carpet- and my toes can feel all the little crumbs and things on the floor. So gross! Cleaning off my desk was the very last thing I had to do on my week long to do list, but I know what is going to be #1 on my next list: VACUUM. 

Bathroom is done!

This morning I cleaned the bathroom! That's the before shot of our counter. It's ALWAYS a mess. I blame the pile of pills.

That's the mess of pills. I have 4 prescriptions and 2 OTC's I'm "encouraged" to take. Plus vitamins and Lysine for my chronic canker sores. I HATE pills and look at this. Depressing.
So today, I cleaned off the counter, wipes it down and the sink, cleaned the shower and the toilet and cleaned off the mirror again. Then I organized everything. Here's the new counter.

 My side it the right. Russ's is the left. There is a huge difference. haha.
From another angle:

With the counter cleared off, my new vase doesn't look so out of place. K, maybe I'm not the best decorator, but I fell in love with this vase! It really is pretty; this picture doesn't quite give it justice.
So that pile of pills- organized. I moved a bunch of them- the like extra pills and ones I don't take every day to a bin in the cabinets under the sink.

It looks so much better. The reason I'm focusing on the counter is because I've already decided on my next daily task.
Do the dishes every night has made a big difference. Not only in the appearance of our kitchen, but also in my attitude and POV. I've learned that piling it up doesn't help one bit. It doesn't save me time, because it takes so much more time in the end. Washing a plate takes 2 seconds. Washing a plate that's been sitting around for a week takes 2 minutes. Times that plate by the 20 others that have sat around...well it's not pretty.
Anyway, so I wanted my next daily task to be wiping down the bathroom sink and counter every night. This part of the bathroom can get pretty gross. Dried toothpaste, soap scum, Russ's hair trimmings. It looks so nice today, I want to keep it that way. Next week is christmas, so it'll get a little crazy, but that shouldn't give me any excuse not to keep up with the good work I've been doing.

Daily check in

It's a late post today, but that's because I wanted to be honest. I wanted to say I did the dishes, but honestly, I JUST finished them. But they are done. I even made dinner tonight, so we had a lot more than the past few days. and I realized that doing dishes an hour of two after dirtying them is a LOT different than 2 weeks after dirtying them. I have to remember that. It's not the hard, disgusting chore I think it is, or want to think it is so I give myself an excuse to not do them.
Moving on.
Today, Russ and I took out our trash cans- because trash day is tomorrow morning. We filled up our bin (it's overflowing) and the bin that belongs to the empty house next to us. The trash men won't notice, will they? And I did toss my uniform right into the bin!
Not a lot got done today, (as I also worked for 8 hours today) but hopefully I get to tackle more tomorrow.

Daily check in

Here's what I've done today
1. Cleaned out my car- and yes I did eventually vacuum it out. No trash can though :(
2. Found a place for my uniform
3. Did my daily task of putting dishes in the dishwasher.

It doesn't feel like I've done all that much today. But I have to tell myself: baby steps. This is a process. I've cleaned and purged my house countless times, and yet it always comes back to what it looks like today-- a mess. I can't just throw everything out and start all over or I'll end up back where I began. It has to be different this time. The daily task is working so far. It's only been a couple days but I've done it every day since and I can really tell a difference. It's a good start.

My uniform

I've been struggling find a place of my uniform ever since...well since I started working where I am now, over a year ago. It's one of those things, I don't wanna hang up every day...ok, it may sound silly, but it's true. I always just throw it on the floor, where it will stay till I need it again- sometimes the next day and sometimes, 3 days away. The point is there was no place for it. I had an idea to use hooks and just hang it on the hook, but it doesn't all fit on one, and I didn't want a whole bunch of hooks lining my wall. It just wasn't going to work. BUT, then I saw the basket that I store my purses in. I only have about 5 purses total; one is really big and the rest are rather small. So I had the great idea to store my little purses inside the big purse, and use the basket to store my uniform. That way I can just dump my uniform in there, and if something falls out of my pockets it'll still corralled in the bin. I'm excited that I've found a solution and hopefully it will end the problem of my work clothes being tossed on the floor!

The car.

I'm SO mad that I forgot to take a before picture! Anyway, my car is (was) a freaking mess and I new I had to get it under control so that was my big project for today. And while I don't have a picture of the mess here's a picture of the huge bag of trash that came STRICTLY from the passenger seat and floor.

Pretty gross. I cleaned out the trash and took a rag and cleaned up all the spots. I still need to vacuum out

the floor.  But it looks tons better. (A before picture would really make my point.)

 On the passenger seat, I stored a basket that had important things in it: wipes, a cd case, car phone charger, sunglasses and a cup of pens and pencils. I still need to configure a trash can. My original idea didn't pan out, but I knew some parts of my plan would have to change.
It was interesting to see some stuff that was stashed under the pile of mess, including a pair of shoes and 2 shirts. I figured if I hadn't missed them, then I shouldn't keep it.
Which brings me to something else I'm proud of. I've always donated what I didn't need to the Deseret Industries, instead of just trashing it. But, I wasn't about to run down to the DI every time I had something to donate, and I did not want to keep them with the rest of my things, and just add more clutter to my life. So I found this basket- they really are handy.

I put this on the top shelf of my laundry room. It's completely out of the way. I didn't even have to clear a space, because nothing was up there to begin with. I can just toss everything I plan to give away into the basket, and when it gets full, then I make a trip. Simple.

For my next trick

Last week I organized my deep chest freezer...I wrote about it somewhere...anyway, the night before I did it, I thought about it and made up a plan. (I even too measurements!) So today--well it actually started yesterday morning. I woke up Really early to go to work and didn't realize until I opened the front door that my windshield would be frosted over. I was sooooo not prepared for this (I HATE winter.) So I had to root through the pile of junk/trash on the floor of my car to find my scraper thingy--only to find that it was put away in my glove compartment after all--course I didn't see it there when I looked for it first because it was buried under a pile of junk in there too. So I realized I've GOT to clean up my car and get this together.
So, I realized that when I successfully organized my freezer I went at it with a plan. Here's my plan for my car. Of course I also learned that while a plan is quite helpful, it needs to be adjusted during the process so here's my "rough draft" plan.
1. Take out ALL of the trash and throw it all away.
2. Vacuum it out
3. Configure a trash can and get trash bags- I'm thinking grocery store plastic bags
4. Clean out the glove compartment and make sure a) registration b) insurance info c) bank deposit envelopes and d) window scraper thingy are readily accessible.
5. Get a basket (I really want another of the another one of the baskets I keep my cleaning supplies in. In fact, my cleaning supplies don't quite fit into the basket anyway, so I might just swap it out.)
6. Put all the things I need but are floating around in that basket. Much inspired by orgjunkie. In this I'm thinking I'll put: handiwipes, pens, sunglass case, tissues, bobby pins, cds, and change.
7. Lastly I want to find a place for the grocery reusable bags.

The final step would be to make sure I actually empty the trash can and not let it spill over to all over the floor.
I'll come pack and let you know how it goes.

Bookshelf

Yay, the bookshelf is all cleaned off. I don't know why I let it get so out of control:

Oy! This is embarrassing! Looking at this old picture you can SURE see a change. I took this picture yesterday- and have been slowly cleaning it up so today when I finished I didn't see much of  a change, but now. EW.
Stop looking at that. Here look at the new clean version.

 Much much better. Okay, so I didn't clean up much on the sides- to the right Is our very overflowing trash can. Like I mentioned, there's  no room in our big outside bin, so the cans inside keep getting more and more stuffed full. Anyway, I'm much happier with the improvement. In case you're wondering, that's our "junk drawer" on the bottom left corner. As a kid, we always had a designated junk drawer where things that had no home (ie batteries, rubber bands, tape, playing cards, etc...) could go. Now I don't have a junk drawer- and yet I still have things that have no home. Not having extra drawer space I had to get creative and so this box was invented and found its way to the bookshelf. It works quite well. And my hole puncher on the floor normally goes on the top of the bookshelf in the very right side, but my nativity scene is there for the holiday season. It's there in the first picture too, but you barely see it. What's the point of a decoration if you can't see it?!

To Do List Update

Today I got started on my long list of things I have/ wanna get done this week. I think I've made some progress. (And I think that a blog with pictures is just more fun that a blog without).

1. I cleaned off the price tag sticker off my new picture. It matches the bathroom perfectly. It says "live the life you imagined" and I love it. I don't think Russ has noticed it yet.

2. Since I put my new picture where my old one was, I had to find a new place for this. I just moved it to another wall in the bathroom. (The sink room part, whereas the "Live the life..." one is in the toilet room part.)

3. I took the dishes out of the dishwasher. Now it's ready to be filled up tonight!

4. I even put away the dishes in the dish drainer and put the dish drainer away. (As in, found a place for it. Ever since I got this new drainer- like 2-3 months ago, it's sat by the sink the entire time. Now there's a place for it!)

5. I wrapped my Christmas presents. Just 3 this year. 1 for Russ, 1 for my parents and 1 for my friend I'm visiting  over the holiday weekend who lives in CA. Then I stored the presents in my suitcase I'm taking on the trip and...

6. ...put my suitcase away.

I also:
7. Put up the mistletoe and more Christmas decorations.
8. Threaded Russell's sweatshirt string
9. Cleaned off the computer screen

10. Washed the bathroom mirror

11. Put a load of laundry into the washer and moved them to dryer.
12. Took out the bedroom trash. (Too bad we missed trash day and our can is FULL! Next trash day is Friday!)

Yeah, it sounds like I did a lot today. And I did! But there is still A TON to do, like fold all that laundry!

But that's okay. This blog is already helping. I'm seeing the difference my little efforts make and that I can get there.

Whew!

Just wanted to follow up and say that YES! I did do the dishes! And you know what, I'm proud of myself for getting off my butt and doing it even though I did not want to. AND- some of those dishes were pretty old and gross, but I got it done- even the big dishes that I had to do by hand, not just pop in the washer. One step towards progress!

Daily Task

I'm going to start off really slowly. I'm following in A Slob Comes Clean's footsteps and making a list of things that I must do every day, and then every week I'll add a new task. Since Russ said he wished the dishes were done more often (when I asked him what part of the house he wished were cleaner) my task this week is:

Put the dishes in the dishwasher every night.

And with that, I have to take the dishes out of the dishwasher when they're done.

Sounds simple, but I'm already rethinking this. I HATE doing the dishes. But I've been thinking about this. Normally I would wait till this sink is piled high and I absolutely have to do the dishes before I would do them. By then they've gotten...well...disgusting and it's a big job. But if i do them every night after dinner, before they're disgusting, it shouldn't be such a big gross job and should go a long way to making my kitchen look better. My mom says that the dishes are her favorite chore because of such a big impact it makes on the kitchen when the sink is clear of dirty dishes. Makes sense. So this week, after dinner I'll do all the dishes and put them in the dishwasher right away. Sounds like a plan. That means I gotta go do the dishes now, though. :(

Accomplishment #1

K this may not be the prettiest picture but I'm excited. I've FINALLY found a place for the towels. The thing I do not like about this house is the only linen closet is why down at the other end of the hall, which can be really annoying when you've already taken a shower and forgotten to grab one before you went in. So either they're in a heap at the end of the bed, or they're...ok, they're pretty much always in a heap. 

So I finally had an idea to roll them up, store them in a bin and store the bin in the tub. This way they're right when we need them, and when we need to shower, we just take the bin out and then put it back when we're done. I keep them in the tub because there's a bout this much floor space in the bathroom, and this way they're not always in the way. Makes sense to me and I'm super excited. 

I thing a lot of people like me- you know, messy- really struggle with just having a place to put everything! I have SO MUCH stuff. (really what do I need so much stuff for??) So finally finding a place for this makes me very proud of myself. Now I just need a place for my work uniform!

Week 1 To Do List

I'm a BIG list maker. I live out of spiral notebooks and just make a new list on every page. So I've been making a list that need to get done that day (ok, maybe that week) and usually I just add onto that list.
So here's the list of things that need to get done before next Sunday. Some are little things, but some are rather big. Either way, they gotta get done. Here they are:

1.Put up mistletoe
2. Put suitcase away (yup, from thanksgiving)
3. clean off desk (this one's 1/2 done)
4. clean off bookshelf
5. clean shower
6. do the dishes.
7. Get the family presents
8. wrap breana's present
9. take out the trash
10. Make and Iron Russ's shirt
11. Find a place for my work uniform
12. Call the 401K people  (decided against this.)
13. Thread Russ's sweatshirt string
14. Wipe off computer screens
(thats all I had written down previously but now I can add SO Much more)
15. clean off mirror
16. Clean off sticker residue from new picture frame
17. Find a place for that Super cute new vase I got
18. Find a place for the old picture that's been replaced by the new picture. (does this one make sense?)
19. Make a meal plan and stick to it!- (Well I made a meal plan, now just gotta stick to it...hmmm)
(that's all I could think of but really, 20's a much better, rounder number, so...)
20. pick up clothes off bathroom floor.

K that's a lot. I'm already overwhelmed by all that I need to do. But this is about taking things slowly so I actually learn something and become a better housekeeper.

Getting Started

Okay so here goes. I ran across a blog called "A Slob Comes Clean" and was super impressed. But I was also inspired. I'm a slob too. My place is a mess, always has been. I've always been messy and cluttered and disorganized. When I was a kid I kind of thought that when I grew up I would just become neat and clean. Like all of the sudden I would be a totally different person. And now that I am "all grown up" and still messy, I'm realizing that I have to learn to become neat and organized.
I've decided to blog about it for 2 reasons. 1) I need to be accountable to someone, anyone, even if that is only to a blog that happens to have 0 readers and 2) Russ is almost done with the semester. Okay, that needs further explanation. Monday through Friday, I can be super productive and responsible and get everything on my to-do list checked off. But once Russ gets home (and this goes triple on the weekends!) I lay around the house with him. Nothing gets done! I'm not quite sure why this is, but it's true. In a week, Russ's school semester will be over and he goes on vacation from work. So for about 3(!!) weeks he'll be home all day everyday. How is anything supposed to get done?? So I need to learn to work when he's home. I still will have responsibilities that I can't put off till he goes back to work.
Hopefully through this process and this blog I can learn to keep my house clean and organized.