Multi Tasking Reigns Supreme - House In Chaos

Perhaps the holidays weren't the best time to start a 30 day challenge. Between work, family, friends, a death, writing a script for a video game, article writing, research...I haven't had much time to myself, much less even an hour to clean. Which means of course that the house is trashed. But I've been trying to do little bits here and there, while I'm on the phone, while waiting for something to upload, any little bit of downtime I have I'm cleaning.

I have gotten very little sleep...usually on the go from 7 or 8am all the way until 2 or 3am. I am trying to take care of myself, and take care of the spawn...but as you can see, I do have quite a bit on my plate right now. But as FlyLady says...one babystep at a time. Even though I cannot cram much more in (and I really can't do the entirety of those four things on any one day) I have been trying to do what I can, when I can. It can't get much worse then it is right?

I'm sure many of you are going through a lot of insanity this holiday season, and my thoughts are with you. We can all find some time to do something to bless our homes...and if you have ANY time management tips for a busy single mom, please share them.

*Runs off screaming like a banshee....*

30 Days To A Clean Home - Day Six

Image via WikipediaDay Six

Was a completely lost day. Due to weather issues, we had no power for hours. It was going off and on all day, and then when it went out it really went out, so I was incapable of doing anything. But I'm still going to count it.

On the upside, I did take the time to make some cookies! Anyone want any? That is the nice thing about a gas stove...I can cook and bake even though I have no light!

30 Days To A Clean Home - Day Five

Day Five

Day Five (Monday) was a great day! I got all my work done long before it was time to go get the spawn from school, and all in all I worked for less then 2 hours. Not much less, but every little bit counts! My internet went down again later that night, so that was annoying. I guess they were doing some maintenance or something.

I started the day with the four things I must do daily, and as is the current trend, I was able to get more then just those four done in the allotted time. I find things have a much better flow if I keep working for the 15 minutes verses taking that time to sit on my butt. Sometimes I even get the next item done before its time! Believe it or not though, I'm still having some issues with getting started, even though its merely an hour per day of cleaning. Most of that seems to stem from my constant exhaustion. I always feel sleep deprived, its quite annoying...especially considering I'm getting about 7-8 hours of sleep a night. Once I get going though, I'm usually fine.

I also did the Weekly Home Blessing Hour today...although it only took about 30 -40 minutes. I didn't have to do the magazines, and once again the flow helped. I just seamlessly did whatever was next on my list. I think the only thing that took the full 10 minutes allotted was dusting, and the only room I didn't hit was the bathroom, so I'll start there next Monday. I vacuumed the rug in the living room and the one in the kitchen, swept and mopped my floors, did the mirrors and basically had a good time cleaning!

I did break the two hours up with a 20 minute nap, and I definitely broke into a sweat doing the cleaning! And now on to the pictures...

30 Days To A Clean Home Deux: Day Five

Day Five

Yesterday I did no housework, save for picking up a bit here and there. I couldn't update last night due to my net going down, so you'll get a double dose today. Yesterday was Renew Your Spirit day, and that's literally what I did. I didn't end up going to work, as the spawn was still sick, so I spent the day reading various books, contemplating, meditating and absorbing information until my head felt like it was going to explode.

I also had some fun with the sick spawn, dancing around the living room. And acting the complete fool...90's dance music does that to you sometimes. Though it wore the spawn out, poor baby was in bed before 8pm.

I'm still counting it as a day, as its in the Spirit of flying...even though I did not do my "routine". I feel charged and ready to go today, so it couldn't have been a bad thing. It was nice to do something for me and the spawn and not feel guilt over it. Can't wait to see what this week brings!

30 Days To A Clean Home Deux: Day Four

Day Four

Who hoo! Four days in, go me! :) Yes, I get excited easily. Anywho, today was one of those days were I REALLY didn't want to move, much less think of doing those measly four items. I couldn't focus on anything, was drained and just blah. Didn't help that I woke up to a dusting of snow either. Not my cup of tea right now. Don't get me wrong, I love snow...I'm just not quite ready for it!

So I finally scrounged up some motivation at around...9:30pm. Couldn't let a day go by without doing my cleaning! Good thing I didn't...I finally finished all those dishes! It took 15 minutes and then a small portion of left over time to do it, but its done! I used my 15 minutes decluttering time to do a quick clean up, just putting things away as I saw them, tidying up the living room, finishing the dishes and a few other things. Its really nice to just keep working when something doesn't really take a full 15. I get more done then originally intended. Sneaky, aren't I?

I only worked for 45 minutes today...I skipped the 15 minute hot spot time period. My main hot spot only took like 30 seconds to tidy up. Guess I am going to have to add another hot spot to the list for next week! Maybe my end table...that thing ALWAYS looks horrible. Its kind of funny, in one way I'm cheating because I'm not using that 15 minutes, but in another way I'm getting a ton more done in 45...hmm. Every little bit definitely counts!

And of course, the pictures are necessary. :)

30 Days To A Clean Home Duex: Day Three

Image via WikipediaDay Three

Well, today was a pretty lazy day all in all. I didn't go to work today because the spawn was too sick to go to school, so I spent most of my day doing research, both online and off. Quite the relaxed day.

I did manage to break from the relaxing pace of things enough to get some things done around the house...actually I more or less did all 4 things that I planned on hitting! The more or less comes from my hotspot, which took about 4 minutes to do. All it needed was a quick tidying, and I got that done with some extra time from laundry.

That is one thing I found to be very helpful, using the left over time to do other things. Today I mostly just did the next thing on my plan or used the extra time to do a bit more on one of my earlier projects. Like using some extra time to finish drying the dishes and putting them away. I'm also finding it easier to just continue with small projects in the same room, like when I was decluttering the bathroom cabinet, it just made perfect sense to do a swish and swipe while I was in there...I had to clean the mirror anyway, so why not do an extra step or two? Definitely an attitude adjustment from my previous attempts.

I think part of the change is that even with only doing 45minutes to an hour a day of housework, and 4 things, my house is already taking shape. I have more then enough time to do whatever else it is I want, I'm only requiring an hour of myself to bless my home. Perhaps next week I will add in a Weekly Home Blessing on Monday. The house could definitely use a good sweeping, mopping and vacuuming! But I'm not going to stress if I can't...I can always sneak it in when I have some extra time on my timer. :)

And of course, now its time for the pictures!

30 Days To A Clean Home Duex: Day Two

Image via WikipediaDay Two

Well, I managed to hit all of my four things today. I did 15 minutes of dishes, one load of laundry, decluttered in this weeks zone (the bathroom) and hit my hot spot. I did forget to take before pictures of my bathroom counter, but otherwise, I did good today. I also used any extra time I had to pick up things I noticed, like some trash in the living room.

I didn't really want to do anything, as per usual, I came home after work and getting the spawn from school exhausted. So I set a timer for 25 minutes and went and laid down. Of course the usual story played out...the timer went off and I reset it, hit snooze if you will. But as I laid there, I kept thinking to myself, "Is this going to get you where you want to be?" And once that thought crept in, I found it impossible to go back to sleep. Dang it. So I got up and got some coffee, waffled for a few minutes while drinking it, then picked myself up out of the chair and got to work. I actually worked up a sweat!

The nice thing about getting my stuff done, was that I calmly got through the rest of the day...even with a plugged toilet and a very sick spawn. I was able to call my Dad, get the toilet taken care of without any screaming, flipping out etc (even better was that HE didn't do any of the above either), and get the puking spawn to said toilet without freaking out over the fact that she...didn't originally make it. I just took a couple of paper towels and wiped them up, got her a wet cloth, some more medicine for her fever, talked to her, hugged and kissed her and got her back to sleep. Its a good feeling. :)

And as always, I have pictures!

30 Days To A Clean Home Duex: Day One

Day one:

Today wasn't too bad, as I managed to hit 3 out of 4 tasks today. I'm trying to keep myself to about an hour of cleaning per day, as more then that tends to wipe me out. Its also far easier to squeak in an hour and then have 23 to do what you want with. :) There was no whining today, and as I did 45 minutes of cleaning, I felt it was rather productive. I also had to take Mom grocery shopping, so the rest of the day was rather shot.

And of course, I have some pictures for you! I'm sure to make you feel MUCH better about your own homes. :) The kitchen table and the area around it took ONE 15 minute time period, I just worked until the timer went off. :)

30 Days To A Clean Home - Restarted

Image via WikipediaI'm restarting the 30 days to a clean home trial. I got WAY off track, due to my thrown back, family, and that exhaustion that hits like clockwork once a month. My house is literally disgusting right now...at least in my eyes! I don't think I have a clean dish, or any clean clothes, the piles are growing...ewww. I think some of them have teeth.

Today is grocery day and trash day, so I want to get as much done as possible before its time to leave. I should have about an hour and a half before Mom calls to get going.

Daily Focus:

• Dishes
• Laundry
• Hot Spots
• 15 Minutes decluttering in current zone.

30 Days To A Clean Home: Revised

Image via WikipediaWith my latest issues, I have decided to back off on some of my initial plan. I'm only going to focus on four things for the remainder of the week, and on Sunday I will readjust if necessary.

As a reminder, my initial plan:

Initial Plan For The 30 Days To A Clean Home:

• Write Down Things As I See Them
• Listen To FLYLady On My Ipod
• Read Sink Reflections
• Write Dow Excuses/Negative Thinking
• Take Initial Walkthrough, then photograph before/after pictures for each step.
• Use The Timer For Everything (15 minutes at a time.)
• Revisit Plan Each Sunday, and make changes as necessary.

The only thing on there that I am taking off is the first one, as you can see. But in replacement for that, I am going to focus on the 4 most important things...2 that are "world-stopping" and 2 that will allow me to feel some sort of progress.

For the remainder of the week I will only focus on

• Dishes
• Laundry
• 15 Minute Declutter in Kitchen
• Hot Spot Maintenance

30 Days To A Clean Home: Days Three And Four

Day Three: The only thing I got done was a living room rescue. I was so tired, and rather apathetic the whole day. I took 4 naps of random lengths.

Day Four: I got 15 minutes of dishes done, but since its grocery day, I didn't have much energy by the time I got home. Though I did put away ALL the groceries, instead of just putting away the cold stuff and tossing the rest on the floor.

I didn't take any pictures, I've been superscattered, and just blah. I'm not sure if I'm fighting this, fighting an illness, or just in one of those moods. I couldn't even bring myself to update on here, and even right now I'm forcing myself. I really don't know what is with me lately.

30 Days To A Clean Home - Day Two

Boy, did I have a hard time getting started this morning. I woke up feeling scattered and kind of hazy, and I allowed just about everything to distract me...the computer, watched the same movie twice...it was like my brain refused to function in the new (ish) surroundings. Poor thing. I confuseded it.

I did have a shining moment before noon though. I had been dreading making a trip all weekend, I didn't want to do it, didn't want to drive all that way, didn't really think I needed it. But I could see the upside of having it. So I start getting ready (abet slowly) and I had the thought to call first and see if I could just fax the information over, instead of driving an hour and a half. So I call and the lady at the desk didn't know, so she transferred me...to a voicemail. Oh, forgot to mention the procrastinating voice in my head throughout who didn't want to make the call either. We had a good argument, obviously, I won. So I left my little voice mail asking my question, figuring its going to get lost in the common voice mail hell at this place. Not even 20 minutes later she called and all I had to do was make a trip to the Town Office to fax and the Post office to mail. Saved myself a whole lot of headache...and to think, I didn't want to make the call to begin with!

Then I get home, and the scatter demon attacks again. Completely unmotivated. And I wore my shoes the entire time. So I picked up Sink Reflections and read a few chapters in it, hoping to shut up the scatter demon. I was really resisting cleaning. Finally, after a good long talk with the scatter demon, I get up and figure I might as well do something. Resisting the urge to plonk my butt back in front of the computer. Grabbed up my Ipod to realize...dead battery. Oh well.

Now before you start thinking I didn't get anything done, I actually did well. But I was amazingly resistant today. I got a mild flow of energy from moving and getting things done, but I felt as if I were trying to swim upstream all day. My mind would visualize the next project, and it was ready to work...it was just hard getting my body to follow suit. I didn't write down any specific excuses, as it was more a pervasive sense of blah today.

Accomplishments:

• Dishes
• One Load of Laundry (hmm, I believe I forgot about the rest of it...oops)
• Cleaned off Kitchen Table
• Swish and Swiped
• Picked up trash and other odds and ends
• Decluttered Kitchen chair
• Decluttered Freezer
• Picked up floor by both.

Not too shabby for someone who didn't want to do anything! And of course I have pictures! I still haven't gotten completely in the habit of using the timer, Ipod or taking pictures.

30 Days To A Clean Home - Day One

All in all I would say I had a decent day one. I got off to a far later start then intended (had intended to be "done" by about 6 or 7 pm) due to family arriving. Can't miss an opportunity to play with my nephew. And in true awesome aunty style, I had him fast asleep in my arms in moments. Between that and the thrown back (here's a hint, 130 lb women and 25 lb frozen turkeys do not mix) it could have been a recipe for disastor...or at the least, serious procrastination and the "I don't wannas." Complete with sticking out tongue. Fortunately, it wasn't.

One thing I am doing during this trial that I have never done before is keep a trial journal. In it I am writing down the excuses, moods, and any ideas that pop into my head as I go. I also have my initial plan on the first page and the "as I see it" to do list. The purpose behind this is too help me keep my focus, I'm building a habit here, and you have to remain focused on it and the little quirks of it in order for it to be successful. Perhaps I should say that I am undoing bad habits. :)

When I started today, my mood was rather lethargic and frankly kind of grumpy. Just looking at the pile of dishes sent my brain running for cover. Its amazing how that happens. It took me 3 15 minute sessions (with breaks, I'm not a masochist) but I conquered the dishes. And survived to tell the tale. I guess housework won't kill you, but the jury's still out...you'll know by the end of the 30 day trial!

Some excuses my brain conjured up:

• I have no energy (true, but I can sit on a computer can't I? That's what I thought.)
• My back hurts (also true, but see above.)
• I'm off my scheduled time (time is irrelevant anyway, but funny.)
• It can wait til later (sure, but can I? Nahhh)
• The spawn is already in bed, so it will have to wait until tomorrow (good point, but that's when piling becomes a handy trait.)

Once I started getting some momentum, I actually started to feel more energetic and my back wasn't hurting as bad. Although, I can blame that on the drugs. :) That energy lead to more things getting accomplished, which left me with a pleasant feeling. There is peace in a clean and empty space. The only downside currently is my mind is a little ticked that I have not journaled or written yet today, and automatically assumes that I now will not have time. Yeah right, I have two hours...just need to start. Another thing I noticed is that I was forgetting the timer occasionally and even more so my Ipod. Guess that is another habit to instill during this.

Accomplishments:

• Dishes - 3 15 minute sessions, plus I whipped up the dinner dishes before sitting here to blog.
• Load of Laundry - Technically two, but I'm not counting the one that was in the washer already...in dire need of a rewash.
• Swish And Swiped
• Swept the Floor - I had time at the end of my last 15 of dishes.
• Cooked Dinner
• Took Out The Trash

And now I promised you pictures!

30 Days To A Clean Home

Image via Wikipedia30 Day Trial

My house is a disaster. Life knocked me down and I couldn't get back on. So I'm going to immerse myself in FLYlady and see if I cannot have a clean home in 30 days. I've been too caught up in mental/spiritual matters, and my environment needs to catch up with my newfound peace. One would think it would be the other way around, but sometimes I work a little bass ackwards.

Initial Plan For The 30 Days To A Clean Home:

• Write Down Things As I See Them
• Listen To FLYLady On My Ipod
• Read Sink Reflections
• Write Dow Excuses/Negative Thinking
• Take Initial Walkthrough, then photograph before/after pictures for each step.
• Use The Timer For Everything (15 minutes at a time.)
• Revisit Plan Each Sunday, and make changes as necessary.

Anyone is welcome to join me in this. Please leave a comment if you intend to, so I know where to look. :)