clean my room for 15 minutes a day for 10 days

put away most of my sweaters
threw out old sunless tanning bottles
took broken CD player out to car so I’ll remember to take it to the electronics disposal at the landfill

Vacuumed the floor and took out a bag of recyclables. Looks much better already.

Found: high school yearbook from my senior year, a bunch of old calendars, foot spa I never use, photo montage made by one of my elementary school teachers (3rd grade maybe?)

Found: pair of work-appropriate comfy green pants, electric blanket that no longer works but is still a nice blanket, American Girl marbling craft kit.

Didn’t find anything today, just rearranged. My room looks a little bit cleaner, so it’s still progress.

Found: 2 tapes from All-County Band concerts in high school (1997 and 1998), a love letter from middle school, broken alarm clock, a box of Levenger highlighters, and Chicken Soup for the College Soul (left on my sister’s bed for when she comes home for the summer).

The bag of leis has been given away on freecyclers.

Found: broken CD player (I think the tape deck still works), bag of silk flower leis, bag of newspapers that need to be recycled, and a bag of those sample sized toiletries you get in hotels.

Definitely worth my 15 minutes.

I started cleaning little by little, and suddenly it built up to a whirlwind.

This weekend I FINALLY took down my Christmas decorations… (Thank goodness my tree is artificial.) The holidays were hectic, then I came down with a flu, bad family news, etc, and totally feel behind.

I still have a lot to do, but the studio, front entryway, landing and the living room are organized. Mostly now it’s the spare room and the bathroom/laundry room.

Wish me luck!

Doing very delimited tasks, like washing the dishes or carrying out the garbage or doing the laundry, is fairly easy. Something like “clean the room” is more of a stumper. I move around erratically in a “booming, buzzing confusion.” I’m trying to establish “5 minute targets”: setting up small targets that I can turn into a game enlists the flip side of A.D.D., the power of hyperfocus, in my favor.

I haven’t been keeping up with this goal of “Clean my room 15 minutes a day for ten days”—more like, “I cleaned my room for 15 minutes total over the last ten days.”

In the meantime, Wes got incapacitated.

Friday afternoon his scooter ran afoul of some storm debris on the sidewalk, and he took a spill. He hates the emergency room so much that he was going to wait until Tuesday, when he already had a doctor’s appointment scheduled, to get himself checked out for serious damage. Sunday afternoon, however, his left arm hurt so much he gave in and went to the emergency room. After what he claims was “20 x-rays” they told him he had no broken bones, just “bruises, contusions, and lacerations” that only time would heal. Mostly, the doctor was just tickled pink that, at 57, Wes was getting so much exercise.

Right after he left, however, they found something they’d missed; a hairline fracture on a bone in his right arm. He had to go back the next day for a “splint”—which looks like a lightweight cast, covering his entire forearm between his elbow and the base of his fingers.

So, with one arm in a cast and the other twanging painfully every time he moves it, Wes is delegating washing dishes, and a lot of other housework, to me for at least ten days.

Maybe that will be long enough for me to get into the habit. :)