keep a cleaner house

To my shame, I bought a book, How to Clean Like a Man, but I ended up reading it more as a theoretical journey than as a practical guide. God knows I can clean the place when I want to, but I haven’t yet figured out how to keep it that way.

I thought that putting this goal on this site would help me achieve it, but the reminder emails just make me feel horribly guilty about not making any progress. Then, because I feel so bad I avoid this site.
I’m going to try again. I’m going to look at other people’s goals and entries for inspiration and see if I can get myself going again.

I lost some of my Uni work that I wanted to put on my portfolio. My hard drive on my old laptop died, and I am sure I had a copy on CD. last night I turned my house upside down looking for it. I found lots of unlabeled Cd’s but none of them were the right one’s.
I am so annoyed at my self for being more organised and tidy. I could have backed up my computer before it died. I could have labeled my CD’s and kept them on a shelve… Instead I just have boxes of rubble.

Need to sort it out!

I vacuumed under the cushions today. wooo. oh, ya and under the computer desk. Gross.

Well, I haven’t really made any progress but I’ve been maintaining the mess where it is. It hasn’t gotten much worse, but not much better either. The kitchen floor is getting kind of bad. There are Donnie Darko dust bunnies along the baseboard.
I have plans today that will take me away from the house. So the plan for tomorrow is the kitchen floor.

I motivated myself today by making the rule that I couldn’t watch one of my favorite TV shows (So You Think You Can Dance) unless I did dishes on commercial breaks. I washed all of the utensils, plates, bowls and pots we use day-to-day.
Right now I could actually cook and eat something in my kitchen without having to wash the dishes I need to do it first. I know that may not sound like a big deal, but for me right now it is encouraging.
My plan now is to keep the day-to-day dishes done for the next couple of workdays so I can get some serious kitchen cleaning done this weekend.
When I look around the house and think of everything that needs to be done, I get overwhelmed and shut down. I think that this site will really help me to set and keep smaller goals until I start feeling better about the whole thing and can tackle more.

I am such a slob. I have many excuses including I’m a single mom and I work full time and I never really learned about cleaning from my single dad growing up. Those excuses need to go.
I have dishes in my kitchen that have been dirty for so long I don’t remember when I used them last. I am afraid of them at this point.
I need to learn to just do the things I don’t like to do but that everyone has to do. I have just let it get to the point that I feel overwhelmed.
My house could be worse. I haven’t reached the point of the people on “How Clean is Your House” but the clutter is getting bad.
Writing this is making me cry.
I’ll try again another time.

I am going to sparkle-up my sinks today. Nothing major, just a small bit at a time. Then I’m going to get outside. It’s looking like a nice day.

I cleaned this morning by getting rid of half of my rags. They looked really sloppy in the space I keep them. Some were old t-shirts from a job I hated. It felt good throwing those in the trash. A lot of what I need to keep a cleaner house is getting rid of a lot of my clutter.

instead of Christmas shopping like I want to. But this is good because I need to clean and I am broke until I get paid. This way I have a clean house and am not using credit cards for Christmas. Although I’d really like to go to the grocery store and get some stuff for fudge….