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