Do the Flylady daily missions

I don’t know how to stop doing this, so I won’t. I’d done the dishes last night, so a clean kitchen was nice to wake up to.

I refilled the bathroom soap, and then with the desk still a focus, I went through the cabinet next to it. I had an art & craft supply basket that was piled so high with miscellaneous stuff I had to move half of it before I could even get to the part I needed to declutter.

Then I cleared out the top drawer of the cabinet, which was stuffed so full of paper that it hardly closed anymore. It all came out & was weeded. Years worth of paper. Eek. A little overwhelming (I didn’t sort all the old mail, but I stacked it all up together).

I managed to sort a lot of stuff into coloured file folders and an accordion file, but I should come up with a better system. A bonus? I found an envelope from our last flight with $30 for airport taxes we didn’t need, and another $20 in a birthday card from nearly a year ago. Not bad not bad. I also went through my ‘trash’ bin and recycled what I could.

I need to pick a cleaning/decluttering goal to keep adding to. Maybe I’ll stick with this one for a while longer, it seems to have really worked for me.

I’m marking this one off! I’m not leaving it behind though – it’s been too helpful with the clutterbutt kicking.

Today (after the kitchen cleaning) it was time to deal with the rest of the desk, so I weeded and tidied and cleaned the final cubbies. Ug. I think I may get a portable hard drive instead of having disks all over the place. A future project. A big one. I polished the monitor too.

In the bathroom, I laundered the towels, washcloths, and bathmat. I cleaned the sink, bathtub, and cabinets.

I did another big load of laundry & dealt with the giant mass of clean laundry that’s been spread all over the bedroom for the last few days. I piled it on the bed, folded it, put it away, then made the bed.

A good friend dropped by later in the afternoon, which was great. Now, for the first time in ages I don’t feel like I should apologize to people for the mess, because it isn’t there anymore. There are still pockets to be dealt with of course, and the daily things, but there isn’t that stagnant, overwhelming, bursting at the seams clutter & mess that was making me feel crazy & stressed for so, so long.

Yes, I’m checking this challenge off to honor tomorrow being the first day of spring (and 80 days straight of decluttering!), but I’m not finished with this one.

Another intensely productive day. Starting with the dishes, sink, counters, stove top, fridge toss, sweeping & recycling. Then onto the office.

The desk area looks 100 times better! I carefully cleaned & dusted things (some of them I didn’t even remember having, like the brass incense holder that was thick with dust. I burned one of the sandalwood sticks inside) taking special care with the winged mermaid – she’s bright again. Then I started pulling out everything on the right side of the desk. Crikey.

Papers, papers, papers. Notes, appointments, manuals, catalogs, maps, receipts, photographs, coupons, cards, tax forms, writing, it went on and on. I found multiple things we’ve been looking for, and lots to recycle.

I went through all the pens again, tossing the defunct ones, refilling others. I put all of Markus’ papers in one cubby, mine in another. Two are now free. My journals & appointment books are in a better spot, and the dreaded desk drawer has been dealt with. A clown car of a drawer that was, but there were some fun things there. It’s nearly empty now. And clean.

I wiped down the desk (even under the printer) the keyboard, and the monitor, vacuumed the carpet, and picked up various scattered things.

Afterwards, Isak helped me with the Great Wipedown. I used some wonderful new wipes (his, actually) that are green tea & cucumber scented. We started in the bathroom (doors & toilet seat) and continued in the kitchen (upper & lower cabinets and oven drawer. Also the window sill & everything on it) and finished up in his room (clothes drawers).

I decided to take down a print in the living room & put up one of my own photos – even just to remind me that I have some goals pertaining to that. Then I realized that the painting Paul’s mother wanted me to have hadn’t been cleaned. I got out some windex and was pretty shocked at what came off. It was much lighter with all the nicotine wiped away. That was strange to think about, seeing as it came from him breathing out smoke – when he was still breathing. I really wish he was still here.

Onto other things—ah, there were a lot of other things. Isak washed his car (the one he rides and the little green one he’d been carrying around) and was pretty pleased with himself.

Looking at the space around me makes me feel happier. More clear. This has been one of those satisfying cleaning days where you can really see the difference.

Bathroom:

• skimmed ceiling perimeter w/duster
• decluttered & cleaned glass shelves
• cleaned mirrors
• cleaned long light
• swish & swiped the toilet & sink
• wiped the floor around the toilet

Office:

• cleared the pile of clutter to the left of the computer (how did she know?)
• wiped down computer gear & desk
• transcribed miscellaneous notes
• switched mousepad & mouse
• deleted 300 megs of bad photos & spam

• put away Isak’s clothes

Living room:

• picked up toys, books, movies, etc.
• vacuumed
• cleared table
• emptied one more clutterbox

Bedroom:

• vacuumed
• cleaned mirror

Kitchen:

• washed dishes
• shined sink
• wiped counters
• cleaned stove top
• stripped & washed recycling
• tossed fridge experiments

• cleaned catbox

More of the same. Dishes, laundry, toys, hotspot busting, chasing bloody dust bunnies around the house, etc. Oh, and an electronic cull of 8000+ files. It’s dreary. I’m low energy.

Catching up… with laundry, with dishes, with sinks, with counters, with garbage, with dust bunnies, with a toy car traffic jam, with mysterious muddy footprints… nothing dramatic, just random acts of cleanliness.

What, you don’t have an army of tiny robots on top of your refrigerator?

Strangely enough, I was planning on cleaning the top of the fridge (as a self imposed weekend mission) after accidentally seeing it the other day. Ew. Since it turned up as today’s mission, after doing dishes and taking out a bunch of recycling, I dragged in a chair and up I went.

Oh how I love that greasy, dusty, kitchen scum. After clearing off everything (there was so much junk hidden up there! Receipts, coupons, toys, candy dishes, etc. – I managed to find other places for it, including the cereal) except the microwave, I took a hot bucket of water and a sponge up, but that honestly didn’t do much, so I sprayed on some Vim & waited. It worked wonders.

I had to shift the microwave back & forth, but I cleaned it too (inside & out), even got in the micro-crevices with a toothbrush. I went over everything three times (Vim, soapy water & rinse) and it’s positively shining now. The only thing I put back up there was the robots.

Markus noticed as soon as he walked in the door.

I already did the sweep & mop dance several times the other day, so I went really nitty gritty, down on my knees with a bucket of soapy water and a toothbrush. Down where the mops don’t go. Under the ridges and behind the ledge, along the yucky painted cord. I managed to clean up quite a few places that the sun doesn’t shine. It was remarkably gross, I have to say.

Under my sink
The spot that once had me down
Under my sink
The stink that once made me frown

Its down to me
The difference in the junk that’s there
Down to me, the change I think,
It’s under my sink

(Ain’t it the truth babe?)

Not only is it clean, but the rags are consolidated, the gloves have been culled, I hung up a fresh cloth, and we ripped out the old, disgusting shelf cover and put in a new one. I also washed the garbage bin under the sink, and scrubbed the hind wall with hot, soapy water (it looks the same, but it smells fresher).

Yesterday I’d done a quickie wipedown of the stove top and counters, so today was more thorough. Out came the toothbrush and steel wool. The focus was mostly in the kitchen, but branched out quite a bit into the rest of the house.

I put clean dishes away and washed a load before clearing the counters and giving them an extra good scrubbing.

I ended up taking apart the stove top, cleaning underneath and polishing all the rings & drip catchers (it’s been a long time and someone had forgotten to replace the foil, so it was pretty gross). The steel wool worked wonders, and I did the sink & drain as well, which made it extra shiny. I found new boxes of foil and replaced that, then re-washed the counters since they were grey and frothy from the steel wool business.

I wiped down the face and front of the stove (especially the drawer and door tops), sides of the fridge, toaster, table, and lower cabinets.

I swept, washed & rinsed the floor in the kitchen and hall, then re-washed it again after breaking a glass. I even threw a rag down and nudged it into hard-to-reach corners with my foot.

I washed, stripped, and took out the recycling (and garbage), did a composting with all the flowers & fruit/veggi dregs, and tossed some fridge experiments leftovers. By this time I had another load of dishes to do, and afterwards I wiped down the dish rack.

Other places:

• Bathroom: poured the soapy water from the floor into the toilet & gave it a swish.

• Living room: picked up toys & books, dusted quickly, put away movies & music, and cleared off the table.

• Isak’s room: Tackled the large pile of clothes on the chair.

• Bedroom: Picked up another pile of clothes (and tossed lost flower petals).

• Patio: Wiped down two dusty chairs in anticipation of nicer weather, even though it’s cold & pouring out today.

Then I decluttered & transferred all the old diaper bag stuff into a new bag. It’s smaller and much better organized.

I’m super pooped, but I feel like I really accomplished a lot today.