Day 15

So I totally didn't pick out my clothes last night and today I regretted it. We had to crisis clean the house because Nate was having a couple people over to record. It wasn't nearly as bad as it usually is, it didn't take me very long to get it company ready. I however, was not ready. I did not get dressed as soon as I woke up again because of my getting over this sickness and trying to get as much sleep in as I can.

So then we had to hurry and clean. It also involved my "decluttering" the porch of it's huge mountain of trash. We have to drive our trash to dumpsters, so it's a rather involved process that doesn't happen until it is pretty bad. So I did my five minute room rescues and hot spots all this morning.

We got done cleaning just in time, but I was a total mess. I badly needed a shower and I had to be done before anyone got here so they couldn't hear the running water in the recording, lol. Then I checked my messages and someone was coming over to adopt our cat at the same time! So I had maybe 15 minutes to nurse, shower, get dressed, put my hair up and slap some makeup on. I took a little longer, but it all worked out. But it would've been faster if I didn't have to search for clothes. So I keep seeing more and more benefits to getting dressed first thing and setting out my clothes the night before. And taking time for me to shower or take a bath is something that needs to happen much more often than it actually does.

My sink is shiny again and my table is set. I even picked up my bathroom. Today's baby step is to add making my bed to my morning routine. I'll do it before I hop in tonight, and then tomorrow morning. And I'll pick out my clothes for reals this time...

Oh, and my 'me time' was that I made some yummy pumpkin pie mousse after dinner just because I wanted some and ate it with cinnamon chips and graham crackers... oh it was SO good! :D

Day 13 & 14

Yes, yes, I skipped a day. I was gone all day Saturday and I've been feeling pretty lousy, so by the time I got home I was super overwhelmed, so I just went to bed instead. It was still really late, but earlier than usual, lol. It is a lot easier if you do some things in the morning and some things at night (that would be why I have a morning and before bed routine...). I'm still really struggling with the morning. I've never been a morning person, and since I keep going to bed so late and then waking up multiple times to nurse Liam, I'm not really getting sleep. Even when we 'wake up' at 7, I'm a zombie until at least 10 and I keep trying to go back to sleep, and then by the time we actually are really up and eat, I've got other things going on/places to be. I know getting dressed as soon as I wake up would help a lot. I think I need to go to bed a lot sooner too. Here I am venting again... I go to bed so late because it's the only time I'm really able to do anything. Liam's naps are usually only 20 minutes long, and I can't really do much when he's awake. So it's a vicious cycle. Still, maybe I could go to bed just a little earlier or something. I'll figure it out. Or I just keep doing my best until Liam's in a better sleep/nap schedule.

So I just did double today. We stayed home since I'm sick and Nate is working on his next project like crazy. I finally got the tree fluffed and most of the lights up (saved a strand for pics tomorrow). My hot spots turned into my decluttering for the day since I spent so much time on it, but now my desk is usable again. I caught up most of the dishes and shined my sink, just need to toss a few pans in the dishwasher in the morning. I also started my inspirational page for my control journal finally. I did a mission (the new baby step for yesterday): cleaning out my trash can. It wasn't as bad as I thought (I think that a lot lately). I read some Flylady emails.

The baby step for today was to learn about calendars. We have an online family one we use. I love it! If you are looking for a good family calendar go check out Cozi! It syncs with our phones and computers. I keep all of my lists on there: budget, shopping, to do... it's great. I also got a paper calendar because I'm so visual, but I haven't been great at keeping up with it. I either need to get in that habit or just only work with the online one.

The Flylady habit for this month is to pamper yourself. I was never very good at that, but I'm way worse now that I have a baby. I think I'm going to start adding that in to my day. I was "going to" take a bath tonight, but got sidetracked with a bunch of other things... so I think I'll start telling you what I do for myself everyday so that I do it. ;)

I just need to pick out my clothes for tomorrow (yet another busy day... and I wonder why I'm sick?) and I'm off to bed. I must say that I am very proud of myself. I'm not sure I've ever done anything this consistently. I've been shining my sink for almost 2 weeks. That is pretty awesome. And I really am getting a lot more done than I was. Go me.

Day 12

Oops, forgot my inspiration page again. But it's after 2 am, so I'm not gonna worry about it. I went grocery shopping at 11, didn't get back until 12:30, and then I had to put everything away... it's just easier to go shopping when Liam's sleeping.

It was hard to get up today, I'm fighting a sore throat so I think I was extra tired. Even after getting a relatively good night's sleep (Liam slept 5+ hrs in a row after I went to bed... hallelujah!) I decided to nap with Liam again around 11. I slept for about an hour expecting him to only sleep for the usual 20 minutes, but he was still sleeping when I woke up, and he kept sleeping! For another hour and a half! I actually was able to do some things! So I didn't actually get dressed until about one, but hey, I have a newborn.

I did my five minute rescue in Liam's room. I decluttered the rest of my coat closet for 15 minutes and now it's all done! Hooray for knowing what's actually in there now... including roller skates we bought when we were first married and haven't touched since. Hmmm. I also have a huge bag of shoes and coats to give to the thrift store. I'm really starting to love getting rid of stuff.

I realized today that a lot of things that I have been dreading doing for forever really aren't that bad once you just start it and do it. I worked on the hot spot by my desk and it really isn't too bad. Four minutes made a big dent. It really won't take me too much longer to get rid of it. I think my biggest problem, well one of my biggest problems, is that I don't have a home for things. And I think everything is important. And I don't clean up after myself... baby steps, baby steps. I have to remember that. I'll get there one day.

I very quickly shined my sink. I got caught up on dishes yesterday only to find when I put away groceries that I have some questionable tupperwares I need to clean out from the fridge... I guess I need to get out of the mindset that the dishes will ever be "done". It's an ongoing process. At least I have a working dishwasher now. That makes things way easier.

Well I'm off to pick my clothes for my busy day tomorrow! Good night and good riddance. I need to get to bed way sooner.

Day 11

Yet another crazy day! The new baby step was to declutter again for 15 minutes and to add an inspirational page to my control journal. Unfortunately the page will have to wait until tomorrow, I forgot about it and it's too late now.

I did declutter my coat closet which houses all of my shoes. I have so many! And they've just been tossed together in a nightmarish heap for probably the last year. If there's a pair that I need I have to dig through all of them to find it... yikes. I can't believe I let it get that bad and never fixed it. I would just forget about it until I was late somewhere, then would frantically throw shoes around only to shove the whole mess back in the closet and run out the door only to forget about it again. Yup, sounds like me, lol. It feels a million times better now! And I have a whole pile to give away. I probably should give more away, but I'll get there one day. I just have the shelf left and that really shouldn't take too long. Well, it is super late, so I'm going to go to sleep. I need to more deliberately pick my hot spots and work on getting dressed sooner.

Day 10

Why are the holidays so busy? Holy crow! I have a ton of stuff every day, I still haven't put even lights on the tree. I've been too obsessed with rearranging everything. Do you ever feel overwhelmed by stuff? I'm starting to get to the point of just wanting to throw everything away! We're definitely running out of room in our mobile home now that we have all of Liam's stuff too. 

Last night and tonight I decided to move our tree to the living room (it was in the kitchen, and we just couldn't fully enjoy it in there). That entailed moving our love seat to the kitchen, a table to a different wall in the kitchen, our long sofa to a different space/angle, a small two drawer piece of furniture and file cabinet to under the table in the kitchen (which I had to clean out under), another end table by the front door, the baby swing and jumper to another wall, our fireplace space heater... and of course when you move things you have to clean under it, put things away that were on it, etc. I can't believe how much time it's taken me! But it is feeling better. And I think I want to get rid of our love seat, we just don't have the space now that we have all these large baby things! Oh man do I want a house. 

And I have a to do list about a mile long... I try to get at least a couple things off of it everyday, but then I have to add more. It would be nice just to catch it up! I think I'll try to have someone watch the baby for a few hours a week so I can make some bigger dents. Babies take a lot more time than I expected! I love him so much, but his naps have only been 20-30 minutes lately, and 3 hours super late at night goes by really fast when you have a lot you want to get done. I wish he would take a little longer naps! Hopefully we'll get there. 

Anyway, today's baby step was to actually declutter for 15 minutes. I decluttered under that table I've been working on as my hot spot. I've been dreading it: there has been piles of stuff under there for at least a year. But you know what? It only took me 15 minutes to go through it, put away or throw away the stuff under there. That is something I am really learning, that things really don't take nearly as long as I think they will. I really am quite the perfectionist, if I can't do it 'right', why do it? Flylady keeps saying that I just need to do it now! I picked up the living room, my hot spot was the table top and our launch pad by the door. I didn't get that one totally taken care of since most of what is on there are things I need to return to people. But I think I'll stick those things in my car (once I clean it out tomorrow...) instead of just having this huge pile by the door. I also shined my sink and reset and 'shined' my dining table. I also caught up the dishes, again (lol), except the pans, which I want to do tomorrow after breakfast. 

I really need to work on doing the actual morning tasks in the morning instead of just doing everything at midnight. Maybe then I'll go to bed at a more decent hour. Well, I'm off to pick my clothes for tomorrow and go to bed. 

Day 9

Day 9: It is super late, so I'm going to keep this short. Today's baby step: keep doing what I'm doing, including a hot spot in the morning for 2 minutes as well as one at night, and to add a 5 minute room rescue.

The room rescue went from me picking up the living room to completely rearranging it so we could fit the Christmas tree in there... thus why I'm still up at almost 2 am, lol.

My hot spots were my diaper bag (I just stuff everything in there. So I cleaned it and it's already messy... ah well. Things get frantic when you're grabbing things out for the baby is my excuse. ;) ) and the back of my couch. I lounge there when I'm nursing and stuff just piles up.


I did some laundry so I could have an outfit for tomorrow that I feel comfortable in, I've got a very full day. Sink is shiny, dishes are not. Oh! I also learned about decluttering today. I've know about it and been doing it here and there, it's good stuff.
 

Day 8

Hooray I've been doing the baby steps for a week! Go me!

Today was a hard day. I backslid a little. I still did the 'bare minimum' of everything, but there are dishes on the counters and I didn't reset my table today. I had a really rough night.

Normally I have a few hours to do things once Liam goes to bed around 7, but that time disappeared tonight. I wanted to pick all of our outfits for our family pictures tomorrow and make sure they were clean. But I couldn't find my stupid jeans. I literally looked all over the entire house. I was so frustrated! I spent almost 2 hours searching and re-searching everywhere. Then I went into my room and just cried for awhile. I know it sounds silly, but I just got those jeans and I don't look very good in most of my clothes right now, so having one pair of pants that I feel good in is important to me. I spent at least another hour trying to figure out what to wear without the jeans. Then I found them stuffed inside a shirt, and decided on another outfit anyway. I really want to punch someone actually.

The new thing for today was to do 2 hotspots, one in the morning and one at night. I missed the morning one so I did 4 minutes on one tonight. Also I was supposed to create a control journal where I keep my routines to help me stay on track. It's not pretty at all, but flylady said not to be perfectionist about it, so I scribbled the basic morning and before bed routine down and stuck them in a binder.

Day 7

Today I rocked it! I got dressed: although I changed into lazy clothes after work and put on fuzzy socks instead of shoes... lol. Read me some of the emails, look at post-its, and positive thoughts towards myself: check, check and check.

I needed to put out a hot spot for two minutes: back to the table I went. I cheated again and did more like 10 minutes... but now I'm pretty much totally ready to put the village on it (I might put it on the piano tho... I'm still deciding).

Shiny sink: I get lots of gold stars today: I finally caught up my dishes! It did take a minute since I had all of last nights dishes as well as the pots and such from the rest of the week. It took about 1/2 hour, then cleaning the counter took another 10. Still, that's not too shabby. And the plan is that it doesn't get like that again! I even did all of my breast pump parts that I hate to do (It takes forever since I hand wash everything, but I want to know it's clean!).

I also did my dining room 'shiny sink', the dining table. I washed and dried the dishes as soon as we were done eating and reset the table to look pretty. I also finished decorating the table today. I put up an ornament display on the light fixture. I'm pretty proud of myself. :)

The new baby step for today is to lay out my clothes for tomorrow. Haven't done it, but I will on my way to bed! Here is a picture of my cute baby that I took the other day for his 3 month shoot:

Day 6

Today I learned about 'hot spots': from flylady's website: . 

A Hot Spot is an area, when left unattended will gradually take over. My favorite analogy is of a hot spot in a forest fire, if left alone it will eventually get out of hand and burn up the whole forest. This is what happens in our homes. If left unattended, the hot spot will grow and take over the whole room as well as making the house look awful. When you walk into a room, the hot spot is the first thing you see. Your eyes are locked on it. Over the years my hot spot has migrated. As a child it was a chair in my bedroom. I would pile it to the ceiling. Right now I have two hot spots in my home: the dining room table and the bed in the extra bedroom. The dining room table is a staging area. We put the unopened mail there, as well as any thing that needs to go to the basement. Some times you cannot see the top of the table. This is the first thing I see when I walk into the kitchen. Granted, the pile has only been there since last night, but if I don’t deal with it first thing in the morning, it will collect many more items by evening. CLUTTER ATTRACTS CLUTTER. The Bed in the extra bed room is just the same. I use it as a place to put things that don’t have a home. Do you have areas like this that continue to grow if left alone? Does the rest of the family see this as a place to put things when they do not want to put them where they belong? It is our job to NIP this in the bud. Get rid of that pile, find the surface underneath, and stop the Hot Spot from becoming a raging Clutter inferno! – FlyLady

The challenge for today was to take care of a hot spot for two minutes. Guess what? 2 minutes is like no time at all. I started my timer and attacked the table that we don't eat on (therefore everything, and I mean everything! ends up there...) I barely put away three things and it dinged. So I was in the zone and spent maybe ten more minutes on it. And it's almost done! What seemed pretty daunting really wasn't a big deal. I'll be able to finish it tomorrow and then use the table for my Christmas village.

I got dressed to my shoes, and I shined my sink again. I had guests until really late so the dinner dishes aren't done. But having a shiny sink makes me feel like it won't be so bad tomorrow. Hopefully I can just catch up the dishes tomorrow (did I say that yesterday? lol) and have an empty dishwasher so I can throw things in there as I use them. I didn't really read any of the emails today (I was gone most of the day and then had a dinner at our house). I saw my post-it reminders. I'm working on being more positive to myself.

I did do a frantic cleanup today. I hate those. I really want to get to the point where I'm not embarrassed by my house if someone is coming without much notice (happens a lot when your husband is a composer and has to record musicians...). But the house does feel nicer, even if I had to stash some things in the baby's room. Oh and my holiday table? It's like the shiny sink of my dining room now. I did clear it off and set it back up nice after our guests left. It makes me happy. And then I don't want to put stuff on that table. Which is why the other table was is so bad, but I'm going to eliminate that hot spot too so I actually have to put stuff away or find a home for it! :D

Day 5

Definitely feeling empowered. Shink is shiny, clothes got on to my shoes and I makeup-ed my face. I looked at my reminders.

The new thing for today was to turn the negative voices into positive ones. That's going to take some work. I think my problem isn't necessarily "negative" voices, just lazy ones. I think for some reason that tasks will take me a super long time, so I don't do them. The reality is it probably would take 2 minutes. I did load up my dishwasher, so now I only really have pots left to wash before I'm caught up on my dishes. It sounds like I had piles and piles of dishes, I really don't, it's just taken me 5 days to realize that it's not that bad and doesn't take that long if I just do it.

Ah well. That's why I'm doing this. Any change worth making means taking steps towards it.