Not a cleaning blog!

I swear, I'm not a cleaning or housekeeping blogger. It's just that this is so on my mind lately. The Boy is darn near walking without assistance now and getting into E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G and frankly being cleaned up and tidy is a great step in keeping him safe and me sane. SO!

I'm going to take a few baby steps here, cause being organized is not my strong suit. I've decided to pick ONE THING that I think will help me the most, and try to make that a habit. I'm going to start tonight, and that thing is going to bed with the kitchen sink empty. I'm including the cutting board and the bit of counter on the other side, since those are also places that dishes pile up.

Now then, the dishes are supposed to be my husband's job, since I cook the meals. We figured that's a pretty fair way to divide up food based chores. Thing is (and I say this with love, Sweetie!) he doesn't do it. He'll load the dishwasher when he thinks of it, if he's not too tired, and then will wander off before doing any hand wash stuff like wooden spoons. So if I want to go to bed knowing that the kitchen is at least ready to make the coffee in the morning (a hazardous prospect in even the best of circumstances) then I can rest a bit easier.

Things that will help me with this adventure? The Boy sleeping in his crib, for one thing, which is another project for another post. Also you kind folks asking me if I've kept up with it. Next week, I'll try adding some bathroom cleaning tricks to my new Habit Forming Commission Checklist.

Hey, whatever gets you through it, right?

cleaning, part 2

In my last post I mentioned a post on Ready. Set. Simplify. that got my mind running more productively on the subject of cleaning. The part that really snagged my mind was this

" have something of a love-hate relationship with schedules. My personality is more

spontaneous and fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants, yet I find that schedules and

structure really help me. In fact, I think as I get older, I crave structure and planning more"

Man, does that sound familiar to me. I really love a schedule. I love being able to know when something is going to happen. I CRAVE it, just like she says there! But- and here's the big thing about it- I need to be held accountable to it because I've learned that on my own I just don't follow a schedule at all. I tend to get caught up in other things, or figure 'Well since I'm the one why MADE the schedule, who cares if I just do whatever instead?' and then I lie in bed that night and feel totally lame for not having gotten done then things I wanted to do. If I'm being held accountable by a higher authority like, a class schedule, or... my mother (hi Mom!) or appointments with other people.

I'm... not really sure how to get better about this. It doesn't work for someone to come check in on me (not even Mom!) because it's still my schedule. :-/ So... I guess I'm going to have to think harder about this. I really like R.S.S.'s schedule though. (The one on the post about cleaning that I linked to yesterday.) I'll probably adapt that somehow.