Let's Clean Together

DH brought a couple of bags full of unwanted shoes & clothes to the local salvation army store. Later on we tried to bring the electronic towel rail which we didn’t really make use out of, but was told that they don’t take electronic goods. It’s been hanging around us without being used but it works perfectly fine so I was hesitant to let it go but now that I can’t let it go it probably means that it wants to stay with us. That’s fine, I’ll use you & let you live!!!

It makes me sad to have to admit it, but this goal didn’t work out at all the way I hoped it would.

I had dreamed that it would somehow become a way to work together mutually on housecleaning goals. It never really did turn into that. A few tips were shared, perhaps. Mostly though it has only ever been a place to brag that yes, a person has done something…and encouraging each other when we’ve done something is great…but I never was able to gel a real “team spirit” out of it all. I never felt like there was any sense of working together towards a specific mutual goal.

I had wanted something a little bit like FlyLady, I guess, without being as nitpicky or all-pervasive and vehement as she was.

I can’t blame anyone but myself. I’m the one who hasn’t changed. Other people who took this goal on made WONDERFUL changes, and for them I am SO happy and proud! But for me, I’m going to have to keep looking. I need something more intimate, perhaps. Something more direct. Maybe something more directed. Maybe I’m hoping for an impossible balance between encouraging support and leaving me the hell alone when I just can’t damned well stand to do anything.

I don’t know. Somehow I feel like this almost worked. Like it might have worked, if I’d just tried harder and done something better. But for me I guess it isn’t really working. I’m letting it go now, because I don’t want the guilt anymore. I want to make room for a better idea to come along.

To anyone else who stays on the team: Please let me know if anything cool starts happening! I still care. I just don’t know what do do about myself.

Clean off the coffee table and tidy the living roomdone Tues
Take the covers off the big throw pillows on the couch to washdone Tues
Fold the new clean laundry on the bed
Empty the dishwasher, put new dirty dishes in, clean the iron skillets and the sink_{The Boy is so cute…I asked him to bring me a dishtowel from the clean laundry on the bed. He comes downstairs loaded down with a beach towel, a hand towel, a wash cloth, and a rag. Everything but a dish towel. “I didn’t know which one was a dish towel.” Gonna have to teach him that one pretty quick!}
Wash a load of towelsDust the living roomdone Tues

I also need to spend some time with my son (MOST important thing) and I brought home some work to do. Pffft.

_{edit: Too tired to finish anything else tonight! This is it for me!}

but I need to give up on this goal for awhile. It’s just not happening; whenever I try to take steps toward this I get sidetracked with all the other house restoration projects. I don’t end up cleaning anything, and then I just get depressed because I’m such a slob.

I’m trying to simplify my goals because right now they just read like a list of unattainable things that make me feel like crap. So, until there’s not plaster and drywall dust and insulation fibers everywhere, I have to let this one go. Hopefully when things get more settled I can pick it back up!

to clean the downstairs bathroom and mop the floors in both bathrooms earlier today. I used the bomb timer at onlinestopwatch.com just to add to the sense of impending doom in the event that I did not complete the tasks at hand. The future of humanity depended on me cleaning the bathroom and floors in under 20 minutes, people! Now I’m going to set it for 15 minutes and see how much of the dining room table I can take care of… be back to inform you of my glorious success or humiliating defeat..

15 minutes later…

HA! Took me 15 minutes to the second!!! I was just throwing the Zambian one ngwee coin that I received in the mail with a charity solicitation into the junk drawer when the bomb blasted off. Pretty dang good. Well, I didn’t do the filing, ‘cause that’s a different job, but I moved all the stuff for filing to the top of the file box in the closet. And the stuff to go upstairs is on the stairs. But it still counts, right?

Right?

Yeah, that’s right.

huge project at work distracted me from my housecleaning duties. And it turned into a dump. For like, a week and a half, people! But over the last two days, I:

• Folded all the laundry on the bed. It’s now clear.
• Did all but a few pieces of laundry needing special attention, and folded it, too.
• Took everything off the kitchen counters and cleaned every corner, appliance, bottle, glass, fixture, and also removed any clutter that had been lingering like coupons and the tag that tells you how to care for your orchid.
• Cleaned the sink, vanity, mirror, and toilet in the upstairs bathroom. Getting ready to clean the floor up there and also the downstairs bathroom. Later tonight when I shower, I’ll scrub the shower. (Um…I find it convenient to do that just prior to turning on the shower water, then rinse the tub and shower down as I take my shower…)
• Later tonight I’ll clean the dining room table (I hope – have to go to work and want to exercise, too.)

Anyway, I love it when my space is clean!! It’s on the road to clean again! Going to check out flylady.com today, too.

_{edit: Forgot, I also organized my two sweater drawers on Friday…}

The other day a good friend took her day off of school to help me get started in this… room that wants to be better. My room has lots of things, so: starting in a couple of hours I will clean this mess, leave my room neat and feel joy of making my friend proud of my self-motivation to stick with the words that come out of my mouth… that I WANT this dream room in my head to materialize in front of my five senses.

Gonna sleep and let my body take this flu out of my system… and when I wake up, I’m gonna finish what I started!

I was just about to vacuum under the bed and it JUST ran out of its battery. OH WELL :P

These past weeks I have been totally inundated with personal troubles and work load and things that kept not calling but screaming for my attention. My own wellbeing not being the least of them. And I listened – and totally neglected many things, such as doing administrative things. Paying bills… meh, it happened to other people.

Be that as it may, Mr. Insurance Company would still like to see my cash you know? Yet the pile was growing and getting more intimidating every day. It was not just bills (gods no, luckily) but also other things that simply need to be dealt with. I need to get rid of my business so I need to do away with the forms for that, and also close the business bank account – after all, they’re still charging me for the priviledge of not-quite-owning my never-used bank card… There were postcrossing cards to register (shame on me!) and postcards to snap for 43.

Just did it.

Tackled the pile. Went at it knife and fork, so to speak. And how long did it take me? About an hour but that is including Facebook, 43 and boy in the background. I could have done it in 20 minutes maximum. Ten if I put my back into it.

So now for the other action points on my list.

Would anyone be willing to join me in a cleaning challenge?

I really need to do some work in my bedroom. I’ve been putting it off for a very long time. I don’t even know how much progress I might make if I tried. The whole chore seems so daunting I haven’t done anything to make it better in months. It’s just gotten worse and worse. I can’t even see my carpet any more.

If anyone else has a specific chore they’d like to tackle, I’d like to coordinate one hour (synchronized) when we can pledge to both be working on our “challenge chore” together.

I live on the west cost of the USA, so for me right now it is almost 10pm as I write this. I think that the entry will timestamp with whatever hour is local to you, though. Knowing that, we can allow for the time difference when we set up our challenge.

I am free most of the day tomorrow (Friday). I would specifically like to do my challenge hour sometime between 10am and 3pm my time. If anyone is free at the same time, and would be willing to check in with me as we get ready to do this, I think it would be very encouraging to know I wasn’t the only person out there working at a boring, scary, annoying, potentially very rewarding chore that’s been hanging over my head for too long.

Any takers?

Any would-be takers if we scheduled it for next week (same hours)?