Tuesday, June 15, 2010

The new me

I hate posting things like this due to the fact that I want the changes to truly last.
Confession: I am a messy person. Just ask my college roommate, my hubby of 10 years, or special friends who have actually been invited over before the clean up occurs. (Or those who have been allowed to see the "junk room" once they did come over.

On our way back home from Tennessee I mentioned to Daniel that I would like to be known as a person who...and listed off a ton of things I'd like to be know for, but don't do regularly right now. We do not live routine lives by any means so setting up routines (even though I love routine) didn't always fit into our way of living...like it did when I was teaching and had a set schedule.

Don't you just love it when lots of things come together at the same time and reiterate a point.

I had browsed the organization/decluttering books many times at the local book store, but had never actually made a purchase. A couple of weeks ago I actually bought a book called "Simplify Your Life: Get Organized and Stay that Way". It was exactly the motivation that I needed. One of the things that stuck out to me was- imagine if two things that bother you the most were just the way you wanted them. My two were paperwork and laundry. I would dread cleaning the bedroom because there were piles of laundry...either clean or dirty to contend with. This past week after everything was in order it only took 10 minutes to clean the bedroom. Amazing! Progress!

So now I have a system- a routine- and I'm loving it so far. This is week two. (Before week one I took time to get things just right so that week doesn't count.) The first part wasn't that bad either- I spent time knocking out small tasks (clean out a drawer) and also 15 minutes a day on big tasks (the "junk room"). Daniel has noticed a difference and that lit a fire for me to continue.

Another thing that came into play was that we went to stay with friends a week or so ago and she is definitely the opposite of a messy. We hung out for awhile and even though it was late when we were heading off to bed she stayed up an extra 10 minute tidying up. I thought- why am I not doing that? Why am I staying up so late that I just put things off till the next day? So I started doing just that. I started tidying up before I go to bed each night. I know to you super clean people you are thinking umm you just started this? It's natural to you, but not so much to me. I would tell myself that I'd be here tomorrow and so would the mess. I'd just get to it later...and later...and later...and the mess would be 10x's as big as it started.

So far so good. We will see how long this lasts, I'm hoping for a good long while. Yesterday I cleaned the downstairs and so today when we have Community Group over I won't have to be slaving away all day making sure things are just so. Now that is a good good feeling. :)

So cheers to a new not so messy me.

5 comments:

Deirdre said...

congrats on getting organized! I read your blog comment on the LPM blog.

dottie said...

Good for you. Keep it up and you will be so proud of your accomplishments. Taking a few minutess every evening really helps. Won't be long and Manny will be into everything within his reach. Hopefully you will be a step ahead of him.

Elizabeth said...

Oh! You captured my heart here! Big hugs :) Just wanted you to know you are not alone there!

Elizabeth said...

Oh I completely know where you are at on this one! Big Hugs! :) Just thought you should know you're not alone!!

Bullock Family said...

You go girl! I have always been "clean" but J has gotten me hooked to "neat" and now I love it! Feels so good! One thing I do about 100 times a week is start at one end of the house and one room at a time I tidy until the whole house is picked up. I also have it totally picked up the night before my "cleaning" day so I am not as overwhelmed! Keep up the great work!
K