Happy New Year

The past weeks have been a time of celebration, but also for me, a time of great changes. Adjusting to life without my adult-life-long companion has been emotional. We've also had 2 groups of helpx backpackers now, both absolutely wonderful experiences.  And then there is a Christmas with Dad that we never expected to get, twice over during the past 12 months. And he's seen in another year, 2014 is here, and so is my Dad, against all the odds. Bless him for hanging in there for me and the children.

Today was an excellent opportunity to reflect on the changes I've made in 2013.  They are not noteworthy perhaps, to anyone but myself, and my noting them here, I may not convey the importance or relevance that I feel these changes have, but I'll give it a shot.

Today started off on the wrong foot. My husband and I were not seeing eye to eye and together were on a collision course to ruin each other's New Years Day.  So instead, as soon as we both realised the futility of trying to stay in the same place and be civilised, hubby went off to check on Dad and look after him this morning.  We've done this before, it is the perfect solution in our household to those moments of stupid bickering that lead nowhere pleasant, and fast.  Rather than  bicker, we separate and go in different directions, each doing valid constructive work, so that when we are reunited, we are both grateful to the other for their contribution and any bickering is forgotten. It works a charm.

So while hubby was gone, without interference from a second opinion I launched into a quick cleanup, with a timer from UFYH giving me some structure - cleaning each room for approximately 1/2 hour, allowing me a little time to manage children around that. In two hours I had swept downstairs, finished the Christmas present devastation cleanup and made a tiny dent in the laundry.  The important thing was that it felt good, the house felt cleaner, more loved and I felt calmer than I had in days. 

I feel we have also perfected the 'visit to Grandad' with all children now responsibly behaved in a very boring nursing home, and a habit of watching kids TV with Dad in his room. 

Beneath these changes runs the vein of having first changed my whole attitude to a single-task focus, doing one thing at a time, enjoying and living in the moment. I'm still working on it, but it does make a more hassle-free existence.

In 30 days I will mark 12 months of blogging, something I never thought would happen, I am grateful for all I have learnt from the blog this past year.

What will 2014 bring? Firstly I'd like a magical ability to make a budget from my very unrealistic finances! 

Cleaning party to Springsteen!

There were fabulous parts to my day.   Getting to see the excellent quality live-streamed Rock in Rio concert was one of them.  Doing that while sorting out a massive pile of papers at least got me through the cleaning up in one piece.

Here's what I'm up to - its the Cleaning Grand Plan from Organized Home. I am loving trying something new and sticking with a new method of getting things done - breaking out of my previous habit of insanely repeating the same things over and over and hoping for a miraculous change.  

Today I moved along all the clean laundry from the laundry room into bedrooms and the linen closet, freeing up room to move shelving from in the laundry to it's proper destination - the kitchen.  However the spot for the shelving in the kitchen was a little cluttered with what I like to call "boxes of rubbish" but apparently are made up of equal parts bills and children's artworks with a selection of random craft, mementos and photographs!

This is the pile of papers for my father that I need to copy! Oh how I long for a lackey to do THAT for me!

 I did take some lovely photos of elder child's artwork. I like how insanely bright this is! She doesn't want to throw it all away, but my next project is to label it as photographed and if it drifts out of her bedroom then in the bin it goes. I also hope to print out a collage to frame on the wall, but thats a project for another day.

What I learnt today was that it is a very bad thing to let bills get out of control and pile up, because in this household, that means they eventually end up in a random box with other non-bill things and that's never going to end well.  I also learnt that getting control of paperwork is going to always be an ongoing thing for me, its not at all my strong suit. In fact papers would easily be where I lose the war with 'stuff' - I am reconsidering the sanity of having all bills arrive by email. For me personally that would require a separate 'bills' email account so they didn't get lost in my general and junk mail.  That's certainly something to get onto, as then the 'paper' could pile up inside my computer where only I see it!

This afternoon's exercise was a walk up the hill from the children's playground to my Dad's nursing home, about 20 minutes with views like this along the way.

Sunset over the river. Glorious time for walking in a beautiful place.

 I have a thing for clover on the side of the road. Especially around the bottom of very old telegraph poles :)

Tomorrow is a work day, also a day for sorting out quite a bit for my Dad. Hubby should be working on the shelving while I'm gone, so kitchen progress will be made. Tuesday all going well I will move on to the next cleaning adventure on the Grand Plan.

Two weeks of grand cleaning!

Over the past few days I decided to try a new way to attack the organisation and restoration of order in my home.  I realised that I was embodying the definition of insanity - to repeat the same activity over and over and expect different results!

What I intend to do instead is to be guided by what seems like a reasonable 'guide' to Spring cleaning and follow that guide through for the 2 weeks of the school holidays.  I've modified it to fit in with my time frame, but I'm also committed to repeating the whole process over the following 14 weeks to achieve a decent level of household loveliness.  Here is the guide I'm following.

That's the plan and this is where you'll see my updates. At the moment I'm on day 3 of the clean. Today I will finish the laundry and kitchen - this involves taking some shelving that was always meant to go into the kitchen and finally put it up, which will leave me more room in the laundry.

My first day was a successful cleanup of the entry - I've done that about 6 months ago and this time an armchair had drifted into the room next to the door, where it collected clutter. The armchair is now gone and so is the clutter.

My arthritis is playing up so behind the business of tidying will also be the restoration of my salad based diet, frequent walks and removing bread and milk from my diet again in the hope to restore some functionality to my poor arthritic hand!

My hubby and I are still almost full time caring for my father, as the nursing home staff do not supply him with enough fluids during each day and it is critical he gets what he needs.

These next few weeks will be challenging, as the last few have been, but the rewards will be worthwhile.

For those who are Springsteen fans, here is the youtube link to tonight's Rock in Rio concert!

I can't wait!

Hi Ho! Off to work I went.

Today's update isn't very newsy. Monday is my workday and its a long commute. I had terrific plans of a long walk, but really I don't like to spend any more time than I have to at work. 

Dad is unwell, so with hubby sitting by his bedside there was no evening walk for me either. Tomorrow I will have to do a long walk with baby girl in tow (somehow) as well as my Tai Chi class.

Tonight's goal is to finish the washing up and leave the kitchen benches, table and floor tidy and clean. Sounds simple but its not an every day thing around here, my kitchen genie ran away a long time ago. I still have trouble sleeping if  I get too enthusiastic about the housework in the evening!  

Speaking of goals though I need to finish more water, only 1 litre so far today. Another litre to go. 

How long does it take to lose oneself? It's just a jump to the left?

That's me right now. Stuck in a time warp. Apparently it takes one week post-party to have regressed to a state of household chaos that very much resembles pre-party house chaos. With the addition of post-party mind-bending, Springsteen tour ending, hormonal panics. And a husband with a very very sore gum.

And how do I feel overall?  I feel rather remarkable.  I've only had to remove 2 items from the kitchen windowsill in a week, that is pretty good going for my compulsive surface covering hubby.  There are no extra do-dabs or non-belonging items on top of the bookcase.  The pantry is a little chaotic, but I'm onto that.  The laundry is getting a bit dodgy, but again, I'm keeping it in check. The kitchen table and kitchen bench are suffering post-party agonies (I can't see either)

On the flip side I have my blackboard, I have my daily quotes on it. The untidy 'hot spot' dumping ground near the stereo is tidy.  The fridge is tidier than it used to be.  The chaos at the moment is within me, but I'm also calmer with this month's hormonal cocktail.

Time is fleeting.

I am feeling a strong sense of that at the moment. That I must make choices that are best for the whole family.

At the moment that doesn't seem to include a trip to Santiago, much as I would LOVE to see Bruce and the E Street Band in concert again on this tour, I think I will miss out, in favour of the following range of alternate activities:

• walking the 5 km (or 10km) part of the local marathon.
• spending 5 days on the Gold Coast in a special 'children-friendly' resort 
• campervanning in the September school holidays
• my daughter's only gymnastics competition this year
• spending some time alone / with other women crafting / crocheting as an 'escape' for me
• visiting my Aunt as she celebrates her 90th birthday
• anything else that seems healing and energising that doesn't cost a small fortune in airfares.

But for now, I'm a bit in the time warp. About to turn 40. Listening to live music as I type that is tonight soothing and quietening the conflicts within.

I met (for the second time) a lovely man today, who hopefully has given me the direction and strength I need to deal with family conflicts. He's certainly given me a large list of things to look after. Who'd have thought a solicitor would be so helpful. Hopefully his charmingly brusque and forthright manner will help see me through the chaos there.

I've put on weight from doing so much Tai Chi and less walking (and lets face it, eating too many jam drops and chocolate cake slices!). I'm sure there is a balance there, but hubby needs to get out and exercise himself. Maybe some of our walks can include the children. I would love that, although its hard to get them all in the one place cooperating!

Have I said anything tonight? Probably not, but

"With a bit of a mind flip, you're into a time slip", so what does it matter?

:)

PS I learnt tonight how to change to a nicer font, yay me for conquering HTML. Also it occurs to me that blink and you miss a whole 7 days. What did you do with this week?  (tramps* don't answer, I know if you're in Europe what you've been up to!)  Blink again and 6 months have gone by.  Morale of the story? Blink infrequently, and make some memories every day.  Today's memories are of my daughters delight at jumping, her kisses of Grandad and the glorious smell of dinner cooking when I arrived home. Tomorrow I will aim for more memories and less chaos.


*aka Bruce Springsteen fans.

Wow, extrinsic motivation central!

Today I'm writing to begin to come to terms with the fact that my motivation is extrinsic. Pretty much all of it. In fact I can't imagine what it must be like to be any other way.

This week has been a rollercoaster. I have spent quite a bit of it preparing my Rainbow Jelly Cups.  Then there are the hours spent agonising over the soon-to-be-over Bruce Springsteen and E-Street Band tour in Europe. I dearly wanted to see it, and have been quite challenged by my initial indecision and ultimate realisation that no, there is no way I will.  Of course now the announcement of Santiago as the next-to-last-stop has me excited all over again.

Closer to home, the great birthday party, combined with the 'best friend visit' sent me into a frenzy of cleaning like I haven't managed in this house in years. Not since before children.  It was really quite something.  The threat of new people in the house, with a short time frame had my frenzy of activity both focussed and effective.  Some things I tidied, others I threw into corners to be sorted later.  But I know where those corners are, I do not intend for the house to get into a state like it has been in the past ever again. 

In fact, for the sake of noting it down, those corners are 1. beside the bed in the family bedroom and 2. hidden in the cupboard in the front room - some reasonbly important papers disappeared into there!

What was the result? A relaxed happy me who felt I'd done what I could, plus the amazing feeling of an uncluttered space. VERY uncluttered compared to just days ago. I am loving it.

I really felt like this party had me pulling together all the things I've been learning about myself this year, I took breaks when I had to, I prioritised what to stress over and I owned my happiness. When guests were arriving and I was cake decorating, I just happily stayed in my happy place, loving the cake decorating moment with my friend Lyn. Everything else was taken care of (once I shoo'ed my hubby into the backyard to supervise children). It was lovely. This is the result of my decorating happy place. The butter cream was not smoothed beautifully. But the cake is for a little person, who isn't going to worry about that!
 

Since then I've also managed to calmly handle the alarming sisterly crisis (a very complex situation) and taken myself for a walk in the rain this evening, reminding me of Irish weather, of Bruce Springsteen in Ireland and of all the fans enjoying this kind of warm soft raining weather at Bruce concerts.

The fun part for me now is two challenges. The first relates to the house - keeping it tidy, keeping on top of my clutterbug husband who I notice has already found a new spot to mess up (the upstairs bathroom that we don't use!!!!). To make sure of this I need to stop blogging very soon and tidy up the room I'm in and the entry.

The second challenge is a new one, but also old. I need to make sure that I make a daily documentation of all the work I do for my Dad as it may be required soon. I write so much down but its something I could do better at, so thats my challenge for this week, beginning with today's trip to take him his special drinks. I was very happy that he enjoyed them and also a 10 minute phone conversation with his beloved sister in law. These moments are precious.

Pulling together and Being Prepared!

One of the most significant concepts for me since I began blogging is that of being prepared.  It was the subject of one of my very early posts as I reflected on my mother in law's incredible pre-preparation for just about anything.

Particularly now, as I am feeling more positive, happy, upbeat and capable than I have in years, I find myself reflecting on this concept of preparation.

Recently (during that quiet time when no blog posts appeared) my husband travelled away for work.  He was driving to a major regional town, about five hours away.   When he'd been gone 4 hours already, and I was mid-breakfast, mid-getting children to school, the whole trip hit a terrible snag in the form of my coming down with a very severe case of gastro. I couldn't move, and he was 4 hours away.  I am so grateful for his boss, who immediately drove him home again to look after the children, as I was so incapable.  I spent the next several days feeling quite off, but the worst passed that first day, and along with the sickness came some pretty significant realisations for me.

The first one was that there was no way that hubby could travel for work again, at least not until our youngest is a little more independent. We simply don't have a 'backup' network to call on, other than each other. This didn't take much contemplation, after the horrible hours waiting for him to arrive home, I'm not doing that again with such small children.

The other realisations however came hot on each others heels and do require a bit more contemplation and change.  After a very upset week, I realised that not only have I established a solid family routine since returning to working, but that this routine was hanging on by a thread. We simply aren't that used to it, haven't settled into it, or gotten comfortable enough with it that it tolerates much battering. The week I was at home sick threw the entire concept of 'calm', 'organised', and 'routine' out the proverbial window, it seemed at the time as though never to be seen again!  (luckily I'm more resilient than that and this week is going OK)

Hand in hand with how precariously our little family is balancing its 'routine' is the entire concept of being prepared! After all, if we are more 'prepared' then by extension our balancing act is more stable, and less likely to topple at the slightest adjustment required.

Which leads me to my focus for the moment. I am still determined to lose weight, keep exercising with the same intensity as in the last month or so, and still quite keen to keep my positive attitude, however I feel a little like the tough work of beginning those changes has been accomplished and I need to consider how being prepared will accentuate the positive attitude and exercise transformations. 

Firstly, simply being more prepared in the meals department will provide me with an even better daily diet to get the best nourishment without any excess sugary carbohydrates!

Being a step ahead of where I am now would mean having an idea of tomorrow's food, and it being in the fridge (its been a lean food prep week this week!); not running out of cat food; having photos uploaded every week; having activities ready for the children when they get home (OK that one is only if I turn into super-Mum!). It would also mean being on top of the mountains of paperwork for myself and my Dad. I feel like I'm drowning under papers at the moment, but will leave that conundrum for another day! I like the sound of being a step ahead, however for now, the tiniest fraction of being prepared that I see now is a bit less dramatic, but might give me a few hints about how to operate in a prepared way.  I've already noticed that the better my communication, the more we are able to negotiate through things as they crop up. Put another way, two grumpy snappy adults don't make great decisions!

Since the returning to all hands on deck working, we've established some routines that sort of work. Hubby does early mornings (when my arthritis still makes me a slow turtle) and drops big children at school before work; I take our little one to her various morning activities; we come home and she naps while I get housework done; the almost 2 hour pickup of big children happens at the end of nap-time; we have a very early tea when we get home; then homework after Daddy gets home and a bit of chaotic energy, then bedtime. This is what is working for us.  

Two times I am focusing on improving is the activities I get done while little miss takes her nap, and what I get done after hubby is home at night.

At the moment, I am happy that at nap time daily I seem to be managing to completely clean the floor off in the entry and kitchen as well as downstairs toys.  This is a bit of an extension of what I've achieved in the past, and this week I'm trying to work out how to extend past that point into uncharted cleaning territory.  I'm still not sure, but some experimenting is on the horizon to find the balance that will fit in my 2 hour time frame. 

In the evenings I am juggling between walking (its not practical at 9pm any longer due to the cold!); school homework; and cleaning!  I am using the early evening time to get into extra projects or washing up, whichever is needing doing more.  This is how I managed to get the floor scrubbed on Monday night, determination!

I need to refresh and revisit the concepts of this post about Working Smart. That's the essence of what is going on here, an attempt to make the obvious easier!

There is something else I'm realising as I go over all this while listening to Bruce Springsteen's Darkness on the Edge of Town album.  It's that I need to find a way to really ENJOY getting more prepared!  I remember when I was in Girl Guides, that my Guide Leader instilled in me, for the shortest moment, a flame of inspiration of REALLY wanting to 'Be Prepared" and obtain my Baden-Powell emblem, the highest achievement for a Girl Guide.  Years later, I feel I'm finally getting the point of all those badges and things. A sense of purpose about how I am going about this domestic life, to relish and delight in what is necessary.

I think I'd much rather relish and delight in more Bruce Springsteen concerts, but in order to do that I need my house to be respectable and presentable for house-sitters, so it's delighting in house cleaning for me in the interim.

Hang in there Bruce, I'm coming to a concert soon!

Still determined, still upbeat

Despite the past week being somewhat traumatic with extra bills, illness and other conundrums, I'm so proud of myself tonight to discover that the unstoppable post-Bruce spirit is still kicking, despite the knocks.  I am beginning to see glimmers of progress, where I am finally making inroads into all areas of my life, not just treading water.

After a 12 hour day at work I came home to a lovely dinner and happy children, making it easy to get into getting homework done with the bigger two, and elevating my calm levels.

So while hubby took the small ones to do groceries, I was determined to mop the floor, it's been put off for a very long while.  There was a moment of annoyance when I phone to find out where the bloke has left the dustpan and brush this time (he never ever ever puts it back where it belongs).  Hubby informs me its out in the pitch black near the shed!  So it was a quick return to the old days and sweeping up the dust into a piece of paper - does anyone remember how to do that?  Full steam ahead for mopping, until I discovered that we have no mop fittings!!!  No problem for determined woman - I just grabbed myself an old towel and a scrubbing brush and started burning those calories. 

An hour later, and some very tired muscles I have a very bleached, lavender smelling floor that is shining at me all sparkly-like.  In the end I was using my foot to scrub in the hallway to the laundry because my back and knees were protesting, but it all got finished just as hubby returned with 2 sleeping babies. 

A successful day :)

The continuance of clean

Another weekend approaches and I'm glad to say that our house is looking pretty good. By comparison to how it normally looks that is.  We still look a little like we might be making the effort to join the hoarders show, but not quite making the grade.

Strangely I'm suffering from a fair chunk of fatigue, even when I am taking arthritis medication, so I am finding that frustrating.  But it is incredible how much difference it makes to keeping an area clean if you can get it back to a clean state to begin with.

Our entry is now devoid of all floor-based muck and junk. Which makes tidying in there so simple - anything on the floor doesn't belong in the room, with step 2 being straight into sweeping and mopping!

What I'm finding is that the everyday work of laundry and washing up never end or ease so although I'm feeling tired, I'm keeping up with those things while my husband is getting into the cleaning up / decluttering.  I'm happy with that, because normally what would happen when I'm feeling this low is that the rest of the house would go to seed and become very untidy (or like a bomb hit it); while I dragged myself through the laundry and washing up basics.

Is there any rhyme or reason to our new cleanliness? The obvious is my husbands contribution, but in addition to that we've also had visitors again yesterday. I think keeping a constant supply of people visiting the house means that we do keep up that little bit of extra effort. Yes the state of the house should be worth the effort for ourselves, but there is such a strong inbuilt tendency to 'make nice' for other people that why not take advantage of that, to work to our own benefit?

A great weekend!

I've been away from the blog because I've been too busy getting other stuff done!

I am thrilled to say that for whatever reason my husband found some inspiration and it is incredible how much gets done when both adults in the house contribute!

This weekend I have managed to get back on top of washing up, keep up with laundry and feed everyone healthy foods.

On top of that the list of clean spaces is long! I spent my alone time on Friday cleaning the kitchen floor, plus beginning some of the other spaces. That night my husband took only one hour to clean junk off the spare bed downstairs! (it was piled up with toys and other flotsam).  Then my husband got very inspired by his friend's visit and he cleaned the rest of the entry, moved the old bed from our sons room (finally) and rearranged and cleaned our elder daughter's room. Plus in the process, the steps were cleaned off and vaccuumed by elder daughter, and hallway cleaned!  Our house looks almost like real people live here!

The difference that is made when he participates is remarkable. I am shocked at how easily he makes a big change, and stunned that for the past two years he has not been a part of the solution. 

We were able to have my father for lunch from the nursing home and it is simply lovely to walk around the house in peace, without feeling crowded in by mess or clutter or untidiness. 

I feel so much lighter and I am holding my breath, hoping it lasts. While it is here, I'm taking advantage of the extra cleanliness to keep up my pace, so even if hubby goes back to being part of the problem, I've taken full advantage of the momentum happening right now!

Some pictorial evidence to follow in the next update!

Cleaning habits, Challenge week works!

I've come to a realisation about the creation of good habits. Small good habits, or small efforts made repeatedly, lead to a self-regulating habit. Just like this post on "Habit V's Guilt" I am discovering that baby steps do indeed make cleaning progress. Not only do baby steps eventually lead to real changes, but the slow creation of habits over time creep in.

There is something about confidence that makes a contribution here too. The entire theme for this post started out when I happily noticed that the laundry has managed to stay in a state of what I'd call controlled chaos since the great laundry challenge week (updates found here, here and here).

The state of the laundry looks pretty awful at the moment, but the reality is that I'm getting through my 1-2 loads a day from beginning to end and for the most part, everything is where it should be. The same kind of thing is happening in the kitchen. Sure the hard-to-wash-up stuff sometime lingers, and there always seems to be leftover washing up, but its not the same dirty pot sitting here on Thursday that was there last weekend. Its a new pot, replacing the cake tin.  I think when I am more confident, and my habits are even better, I can raise the expectation that no dirty dishes will be there from one day to the next.

I think I'm getting all my concepts mushed up in a mess here, but what I'm figuring out is that by giving myself permission not to be perfect in my habits, while simultaneously keeping up some confidence that I'll get these things done, I'm managing to keep on top of some routines.

All I need to do now is keep up with the decluttering and slowly add in more routine cleaning.  Seems so simple but I suspect it will be a slow road.

Something also seems to be brewing in the wider family as this evening my husband has swept the floor without any prompting. 

Cleanup Challenge - the Final Review

Last week I was busy doing my 30 minutes a day cleanup. It taught me a lot about motivation, and about the limitations of my illness (cleanup at night is bad for sleeping). It also did get me out of a few bad habits and into some good ones.

Bad habits that bit the dust last week during cleanup challenge were:
1. Resentment at jobs not done by my husband. This week past, I just got on with doing them myself.

2. Avoiding the rooms that are cluttered or messed up. This has been a big one for me, as the longer I avoid a room, the more opportunity that my clutterbug husband has been in it making a disaster area! So getting myself throughout the whole house daily has been important.

And the positive habits I am beginning have been:
1. Leaving each room a little brighter. This goes hand in hand with the whole concept of a daily clean-up and some days this is the way I spent my whole 30 minutes of the cleanup challenge, just going back and forth brightening up by de-messing. I have even started contemplating indoor plants again!



2. Continuing good habits in the laundry - I've made an effort to keep up the good progress from the laundry challenge and continue to complete a load of washing, not just keep putting more and more in the machine until the clean laundry ends up all over the laundry floor!

3. Keeping busy. Its kind of like leaving the room brighter, but more about the energy. I've just made sure that I have kept moving, kept cleaning and tidying as I go, rather than stopping to let myself get bogged down thinking about it all, I'm just getting stuck into the cleaning.

Today's keeping busy has rather shocked me - I seem to have blitzed a few things. I've been maintaining the newly cleared off windowsills free of my husband's attempts with several stray items over the past week or so to re-clutter the sill area with random things including: an electrical plug, random spices outside of my spice basket, washing up that needed doing (yes he put this on the windowsill!) and at one stage the random knives that USED to live up there were returned by him instead of thrown out! Never a dull moment living with a clutterer.

Laundry day 3 Cleanup weekend day 2

Yep, thats the inspiring title today. Labelling whats going on in the land of lets clean up. Todays goals were to clean off the kitchen bench, kitchen table, bills from my desk and 1 other job. I got through the bench and table, paid a few bills, left the rest for Monday when I can confirm what amounts I need to pay and then I got stuck into the overloaded medicine box. Which brought me up sharp against the fact that my husband is not a compulsive hoarder, but he is compulsively untidy. Everywhere I turn in this house there are signs of his neverending efforts to make the house messier. Every surface in our house looks like this and worse.

I googled a bit and found some good links that helped me realise I could keep going with getting the house clean around him. http://www.compulsive-hoarding.org/About.html has a good insight into some of the underlying hoarding stuff. I found this site particularly useful with great tips that seem practical - http://www.lifedesignstrategies.com/art/my_partner_is_a_clutterbug.html Basically going to visit those sites got me past the overwhelming sadness and despair that hit when I realised how insidious and constant the cluttering is in my home. I really need to continue every day taking the time to fight the clutter or I will never get on top of it. I discovered today that in addition to a big box of medicines at the top of our pantry, and a selection that had expanded above the microwave, that my hubbie had taken off with my large Tupperware cake carrier and loaded the lid of that up with more medicinal stuff!!! All of it got tipped out onto the kitchen table and I repacked and re-sorted it all out so that I have a small neat group above the microwave, the original medicine box and one small box for the excessive amount of bandaids I found! Tonight I'm continuing my laundry 20 minutes. I have finished a load all the way to put away and will head in there now to put away some more of the clean washing pile. It is helping to focus on the laundry to help catch up or get ahead on that area for this week. Tomorrow's cleanup focus is on the outside of the house, mowing the lawn and possibly tidying up the back verandah.

Working Smart

Today was bin day. I'm not very organised, hence the interest in how to organise my energy better. One thing I've learnt, at least a little bit, is the value of working smart. Something I'm proud to have accomplished, almost regularly, is the simple art of cleaning out the fridge before bin day. That way at least I don't have ikky stuff in my fridge for more than a week, and what is in the bin thats on the iffy side doesnt sit there for 6 days attracting the fly population of the whole street.

Sometimes I get it done on Tuesday night, sometimes I get it done thoroughly, including wiping down every shelf. Other times I toss the clearly too-old leftovers that stare at me as soon as I open the door, but don't get to the slightly iffy food lurking at the back of the bottom shelf. How smart I work is still variable on a lot of other factors, but if I get SOMETHING out of the fridge on bin day, I give myself a pat on the back for working smart that day! I also try to do a quick '27 fling boogie' (flylady again!) around the house to ditch any more stuff that I don't need as the bin is ready to go out. If its not too full, I make sure to try to fill it up from rubbish I don't need or old broken toys, anything I can get into the bin. For more info on 27 fling boogie visit www.flylady.net There are plenty of other examples of working smart. One I also do regularly is to open all the mail at the recycling bin. Junk mail and envelopes go straight into the bin, never coming into the house, because they don't need to be inside cluttering up the house. Then filing goes away straight away and bills go to be paid. One I don't do (because my kitchen sink is often full) is to fill a sink with hot soapy water before you start to cook, and as you cook, used utensils go straight in the sink and you wash up as you go. A friend of mine downloads her photos at the end of every week. She also sorts them at the same time into the various albums that she then prints when she has enough photos, eg. an album for each of her daughters and one for the family. I find myself not as organised as that, but when I do download photos (I try to do it monthly) I save them into a folder under the year and month, with months labelled 1- Jan 2013; 2- Feb 2013; etc so they stay in order. That way its easy to find by date. What 'working smart' tips do you have?