Long Time No Flylady Post
X-posted to flylady
I have been slowly fluttering along. When I'm not working (or way too sore from working), it takes about 45 mins-1 hr to keep the house maintained. And by 'maintained' I mean have the necessities taken care of - not to keep it pretty or clean. It's still not there yet. After, what, 9 years of Flylady? Off-and-on. But it's better than it ever was, and I keep working at it, and that's good.
My daily routine usually consists of:
* Get dressed to the shoes - when I can tolerate my shoes. Being all big and pregnant with sciatica, I think my shoes might be a major part of my problem. After a day at work on my feet with no breaks, I find that I am so sore I can barely walk, even for days afterward. I've stopped wearing them around the house as much as I should. I may need to go find a real shoe store one day and have myself professionally fitted, but that would take a day trip to one of the bigger towns hours away from us.
* Make bed
* Do at least one (usually much more) load of laundry
* Dishes/wipe counters
When I'm really on a roll, I throw sweeping the kitchen in on that last task. When I'm really, really on a roll, I also add vacuuming the living room or doing the daily missions. Sadly, I don't often hit those daily missions. I'm trying to get better at them.
We now live in a home with MUCH more storage space than we ever had, and yet it's still cluttered. I'm trying to declutter and get the family to declutter before the baby comes. I still feel like I have all these things I absolutely must do before the baby comes (only 4 more months! OMG! AAAHHH!), but then I take a deep breath and focus on 15 minutes at a time.
I did two rounds of 45 minutes today. Got a lot done! Including a few missions from this week. I feel really good about that. I find myself really hoping that Josh finds a job soon so I can go back to being a SAHM. I think it's always worked better for us that way. I just wish this area would cooperate.
The girls and I have all been culling our clothes. I threw away a lot that I finally admitted I'll just never fit into again. I boxed up a lot that I don't fit in now, but hope to after I have the baby. I want to get some good hangers or organizers for the girls' closets so that they can utilize those more. I think that would help. If I could get a handle on the paper clutter that takes over all of our tables, it would be a vast improvement. I really need to go through the filing cabinet, cull, and make new folders. I hesitate because a lot of mom's stuff is in there, and even now, three years later, I have yet to go through all of her things. I've procrastinated far too long. It will be done before the baby arrives, though. Maybe not right away, as the anniversary is coming up and is far too hard for me, but I will do it.
I found mouse poo in our towel closet. I'm trying to find a new place to put our towels! Our outside cats have disappeared (Josh thinks coyotes may have gotten them), and looks like we've got at least one mouse in the house. That hasn't happened since we've had cats. I impressed upon the girls the importance of house maintenance and not letting food/junk/crumbs take over. At least it really motivated everyone in the house to do a good cleaning today! Looks like we need a new cat.
Slowly but surely, it is coming together. I find the Flylady facebook page to be really helpful, although I get discouraged with lack of feedback. I get much less encouragement & feedback since I went back to work and don't post every day. I have 35 flylady friends, and yet the only ones I ever hear from are the friends from my LJ. The rest of my friends are probably tired of hearing about it. But posting publicly somewhere really helps keep me accountable, and reading other people's accomplishments really motivates me when I don't feel like doing anything.
I'm hoping to get everything caught up soon, so I can begin detailed cleaning. I really want to do things like paint the porch and a room or two, finally go through the pictures I've been avoiding and put some up on the walls, start personalizing this house and making it really ours. I still hope to have a housewarming/baby meeting party this fall, if there's a bit of interest. I can't exactly invite folks in to show off our dream home when it doesn't look like a dream home. But, I'm doing much better than I ever did before, and I'm still plucking away regardless, and I know it will come together if I can keep with it. The girls are learning to help and do more tasks, which is only fair since they are the major destructive force in the house! We are trying to get into the habit of seeing tiny toys, BBs, beads, and other little chokeables and keep them off the floor. I try to do at least 15 minutes, even if I do nothing else.
There used to be many days where I would do nothing. I think we've all come a long way in the last nine years.
I have been slowly fluttering along. When I'm not working (or way too sore from working), it takes about 45 mins-1 hr to keep the house maintained. And by 'maintained' I mean have the necessities taken care of - not to keep it pretty or clean. It's still not there yet. After, what, 9 years of Flylady? Off-and-on. But it's better than it ever was, and I keep working at it, and that's good.
My daily routine usually consists of:
* Get dressed to the shoes - when I can tolerate my shoes. Being all big and pregnant with sciatica, I think my shoes might be a major part of my problem. After a day at work on my feet with no breaks, I find that I am so sore I can barely walk, even for days afterward. I've stopped wearing them around the house as much as I should. I may need to go find a real shoe store one day and have myself professionally fitted, but that would take a day trip to one of the bigger towns hours away from us.
* Make bed
* Do at least one (usually much more) load of laundry
* Dishes/wipe counters
When I'm really on a roll, I throw sweeping the kitchen in on that last task. When I'm really, really on a roll, I also add vacuuming the living room or doing the daily missions. Sadly, I don't often hit those daily missions. I'm trying to get better at them.
We now live in a home with MUCH more storage space than we ever had, and yet it's still cluttered. I'm trying to declutter and get the family to declutter before the baby comes. I still feel like I have all these things I absolutely must do before the baby comes (only 4 more months! OMG! AAAHHH!), but then I take a deep breath and focus on 15 minutes at a time.
I did two rounds of 45 minutes today. Got a lot done! Including a few missions from this week. I feel really good about that. I find myself really hoping that Josh finds a job soon so I can go back to being a SAHM. I think it's always worked better for us that way. I just wish this area would cooperate.
The girls and I have all been culling our clothes. I threw away a lot that I finally admitted I'll just never fit into again. I boxed up a lot that I don't fit in now, but hope to after I have the baby. I want to get some good hangers or organizers for the girls' closets so that they can utilize those more. I think that would help. If I could get a handle on the paper clutter that takes over all of our tables, it would be a vast improvement. I really need to go through the filing cabinet, cull, and make new folders. I hesitate because a lot of mom's stuff is in there, and even now, three years later, I have yet to go through all of her things. I've procrastinated far too long. It will be done before the baby arrives, though. Maybe not right away, as the anniversary is coming up and is far too hard for me, but I will do it.
I found mouse poo in our towel closet. I'm trying to find a new place to put our towels! Our outside cats have disappeared (Josh thinks coyotes may have gotten them), and looks like we've got at least one mouse in the house. That hasn't happened since we've had cats. I impressed upon the girls the importance of house maintenance and not letting food/junk/crumbs take over. At least it really motivated everyone in the house to do a good cleaning today! Looks like we need a new cat.
Slowly but surely, it is coming together. I find the Flylady facebook page to be really helpful, although I get discouraged with lack of feedback. I get much less encouragement & feedback since I went back to work and don't post every day. I have 35 flylady friends, and yet the only ones I ever hear from are the friends from my LJ. The rest of my friends are probably tired of hearing about it. But posting publicly somewhere really helps keep me accountable, and reading other people's accomplishments really motivates me when I don't feel like doing anything.
I'm hoping to get everything caught up soon, so I can begin detailed cleaning. I really want to do things like paint the porch and a room or two, finally go through the pictures I've been avoiding and put some up on the walls, start personalizing this house and making it really ours. I still hope to have a housewarming/baby meeting party this fall, if there's a bit of interest. I can't exactly invite folks in to show off our dream home when it doesn't look like a dream home. But, I'm doing much better than I ever did before, and I'm still plucking away regardless, and I know it will come together if I can keep with it. The girls are learning to help and do more tasks, which is only fair since they are the major destructive force in the house! We are trying to get into the habit of seeing tiny toys, BBs, beads, and other little chokeables and keep them off the floor. I try to do at least 15 minutes, even if I do nothing else.
There used to be many days where I would do nothing. I think we've all come a long way in the last nine years.