Organizationalitude continues

Now about 2.5 weeks in and I’m still cleaning every day. I’ve spent a week split between bathroom/back bedroom, a week in my bedroom, and am now three days into organizing the living room. I think a big part of my success to date is the mindset I was in when I started. I was fed up and ready to try something new. I think the reason I’ve managed to stick with it is the change in scenery each week thanks to zones.

I’m getting to the point where I average at least two 15 minute intervals on weekdays, more on the weekend. I’m still impressed by how much of a difference each one makes. I’m sure they’ll get harder as I repeat zones after getting rid of the easy and obvious stuff the first time around. I’m now getting sucked into the idea of buying more storage containers. So far I’ve resisted other than a much needed new file box, but odds are I’ll give in sooner or later. Ideally purchase number one should be a nightstand so that I can repurpose the two empty bins I’m currently using for that purpose.

This whole thing has been weirdly contagious too. Even places that aren’t in the current zone seem to become incrementally more organized as I go, as if by magic. And I’ve gotten organized in my shopping and meal planning. I’m becoming a grocery ad reader and a coupon hunter. It’s weird.

I think next week is supposed to be a zone for front porch, entry, dining room. Not sure what I’ll do with that. Part of that is the same as living room and there’s only so much I can do on the front porch. I guess I’ll figure something out…

Getting organized

Ooh, a blog post from the elusive Kelly…

(Yeah, Twitter has pretty much killed my blogging unless I have something long form to talk about.)

My house has gotten out of control. Not that it was ever particularly *in* control to begin with. Even when it’s been “clean”, that always involved the stashing of stuff out of the way, quick cleaning the obvious areas, etc. It frustrates me that despite my OCD tendencies, I never managed to pick up the cleaning part of it. Instead, I see crap piling up, I stress about it. I want to do something to fix it, but the overwhelmed “where do I even start” thing generally leads to nothing happening to fix it and it just gets worse and worse.

I’d heard about this Flylady system from a few places before. They all used the caveats that they liked the ideas behind them, but not so much the delivery. I wholeheartedly concur on that. It’s mostly geared to stay-at-home moms who feel bad about themselves for not being able to keep up. I totally understand the need for that (having witnessed my own inability to accomplish anything during my bouts of unemployment), but it certainly doesn’t fit where I’m at right now. For example, I don’t have a hard time managing to get dressed in the morning, what with the whole job thing. A lot of it feels very “southern” and makes my skin crawl.

Also, the website is insanely overcrowded and confusing. They want you to sign up for an email list, but they clutter your inbox with approximately 3,453,874 emails per day. (Note, I do get the emails, filtered to a separate folder, and I’ve figured out which ones to delete instantly.)

But, like I said, the underlying principles are good. So, I started this thing exactly one week ago. So far, so good. I feel like I’m reclaiming my house a piece at a time. The main takeaways I’ve gotten from what I’ve read:

1. Don’t think of yourself as behind. You’re just starting from where you are. Appreciate the progress you make, don’t dwell on what you haven’t done yet. You’ll get there.
2. It didn’t get this way overnight, it’s not going to get cleaned up that fast either.
3. It’s important to establish new routines. It takes about a month of doing something every day for it to become a habit.
4. Babysteps. Don’t try to rush into doing everything right now. In order to establish those routines, just add small bits at a time.

As for what to physically do:

1. “Shine your sink” is their first step. Basically, really clean your sink, take pride in it. Don’t ever let things stay there after that. (I’m surprised how much this has helped me.)
2. Set a timer for 15 minutes and declutter as much as you can during that time. Every day.
3. Special assignments, such as setting a timer for 2 minutes to clean off a “hot spot”.
4. Work in zones. Each week is set for a different area. Decluttering should be focused here (and later, detailed cleaning). There are also cleaning tips for each day in that zone that come via email. Last week was bathroom and junk room. Next week is master bedroom. Following week is living room. It loops around each month.
5. Once per week (they call this “weekly home blessing hour” Blech.) Set a timer for 10 minutes and vacuum (it’s OK to vacuum around stuff). Then 10 minutes for mopping. Then 10 minutes for dusting. Then cleaning mirrors and doors, etc. So a total of 1 hour, with set time. (I’ve realized I need more time for vacuuming and less for some of the others, so I trade off the time a bit.)
6. Daily routines about unloading dishwasher (which is so not a daily task for this single girl), starting a load of laundry, “swish and swipe” in the bathroom, etc.

It’s surprisingly empowering to do the 15 minutes, know I’ve accomplished something, and feel OK with rewarding myself with laziness. I’ve been astounded by how much I can accomplish when I’m rushing through my 15 minute intervals. That corresponds to almost 2 hours a week. However, if I just decided on Saturday to work for 2 hours, I wouldn’t get even remotely this much accomplished. The renewed eyes thing helps, but the 15 minutes almost makes it a game. It’s been fun to watch little bits of my house getting reclaimed. I also have two big boxes of stuff to donate now. (And I wish the trash/recycling thing could happen more often during times like this…)

So far, the changes are in less-obvious-to-everyone-else areas. I look forward to the living room week for making it more presentable. But still, I’m in no hurry. The last thing I want to do is a stash-and-dash type clean. But it will be nice to get to a point where I can feel comfortable having people over. Another thing I liked about the intro on Flylady is the “Are you living in CHAOS (can’t have anyone over syndrome)?” Oh, yeah…