keep my house clean enough for visitors

This didn’t work so well throughout 2009. I used my annual New Year’s get-together to Motivate me into taking care of it, and for now, the place looks great. But there’s a lot more we need to do (see: cleaning out the clutter). We’re going to try to keep the momentum…and see where we are in the next few months.

New Year’s Eve was GREAT! The best part: since I’d already cleaned up for Christmas company and maintained the neat, I didn’t stress myself out getting ready and was able to have a wonderful time.

In light of this, I’m changing “get my house clean enough…” to “keep my house clean enough.” Obviously, I can get it there (with my husband’s help), so now it’s time for new habits to maintain it all the time.

Even better: my husband is now inspired too, and wants us to invite people over more often. I agree with him. A house seems more like home when friends and family visit regularly!

And the progress continues. More boxes are gone, our parents came over to a clean (if not completely neat) house for Christmas, and another NYE party is keeping us focused on the goal.

Yesterday, my husband and I were talking about all the forward movement – and I realized that if we keep up the good work, next year we can do the holidays with almost zero stress. What a concept.

We’re doing this a little bit at a time. But now I’ve planned a party, which is the one sure way to get me in gear – so for the next couple of weeks, I’m going to rearrange and go through boxes, take donations and recycling out of the house, and generally slack off a bit less.

We completed our move December 2, but have been nursing a very ill cat since then. But he’s improving, and we were able to clean up our common areas enough to have friends over for NYE! We even had plenty of seating, and a living room that looks like a living room (thanks to Target curtains and an IKEA rug).

We’re keeping it up and hoping that things will calm down a lot more soon…so that we can have more good times with visitors!

A week ago Sunday, I dragged my office chair into the kitchen and cleaned out the fridge. This was a SERIOUS clean-out – I must have tossed 25 pounds of old condiments and packaged foods (fortunately, only one science project). I also pulled out shelves and drawers and cleaned EVERY SURFACE.

My husband and I are also taking time to handle piles of recycling, and getting old clothes ready to donate. It feels great!

Some days it’s tough to do anything, but it’s improving gradually. A friend who I’ve become very close to in the last few months actually came over on New Year’s Eve, which inspired me to do quite a bit. Since then, I have been keeping my bathroom counter mostly free of clutter every day (a BIG step), doing a better job of hanging my clothes up, cleaning up in the kitchen…even getting help from the husband. :)

The important part is, we’re not just shoving things out of sight; we’re actually throwing away papers, donating clothes, organizing books. There is still much, much to do, but slow and steady wins the race.