Lightening Online

Time seems to be flying by.  I have no doubt that before we know it, it’ll be time to leave.

Of course, for the kids, it’s dragging on.  Trailer Boy keeps asking how many more sleeps.  When I tried to explain to him 30 more sleeps, he thought I meant 3 and got all excited.  LOL.  The poor kid must feel like it’s taking forever to get here.

I’m now up to week 6 of my week “get the house sorted before we go” rotation.

Last Week

I didn’t really achieve much at all.  We did finish getting the seed in the ground so that’s one thing to tick off the list.

By the time I drove the tractor Monday and Tuesday and went out almost every day this past week for one reason or another, it was hard enough to keep up with the basics, let alone any extra stuff.

Plus, sickness has entered our home again.  I came down with a cold on Thursday.  Farmboy came down with it Friday.  Saturday the 2 boys came down with their own varieties (one with croup and the other with tonsilitis).

I did, however, manage to get rid of a large bag of books and toys early in the week.  The toy cupboard hasn’t been completely sorted but it’s better than it was.  I have done the book cupboard but whether or not it remains “done” until we go is another matter entirely.

This Week

The focus this week is the office.

Our most feral room in the house.

For a couple of reasons:

1.  There’s no need for visitors to go in there.  I can shut the door and not have to worry too much about it.

2.  The amount of paperwork that comes through this house is phenomenal.  The post office has indicated that farmers get more mail than most of the businesses in town.

Plus, the fact that I HATE sorting paperwork and sometimes use it as a dumping ground for stuff I don’t know where to put certainly doesn’t help either!!!!

I’m not too worried if I don’t get it looking wonderful but I would like to get it somewhat “presentable”.

So, my goal this week is to spend 2×15 minute sessions a day in there Mon-Thurs.

We have a big family weekend coming up over the long weekend so I suspect that Friday I’ll be busy with everything I need to get done for that.

Surely, though, 2 hours (which is 30 mins times 4 days) should put a reasonable dent into it.

Keep an eye out for my post next Monday which goes on about how busy my week was, how I had sick kids and a party to plan for and didn’t get anything done! 

Last night over dinner, we were discussing how many weeks we have left until we go.  Two of the kids guessed 6 weeks and 1 guessed 7.  While I thought it was just over 6 weeks, I went to the calendar to count and check.

I counted 3 times and could still only find 5 and a half weeks until we left.   Which totally mucks up my perfect 9 and a half week plan I devised.

After muttering “this doesn’t make sense, I’ve lost a week”, Farmboy decided to check out the calendar himself.

He found my lost week.  Bless him. 

I was counting by Sundays and the 31st was at the top of the month (as calendars sometimes do) so I was not counting that week.

PHEW!!!!

Panic stations off.

My “perfect” plan is still intact.  LOL.

And so, I am now up to the start of the second rotation.  I’m really pleased with how the house is starting to look after each “zone” has had 1 pass through.  Particularly given the fact that I’ve been driving the tractor and dealing with sick kids in the past couple of weeks.  Of course, a lot of it is the culmination of last terms decluttering efforts finally showing.

Last Week

The only thing I didn’t get done in the laundry was to sort and declutter the linen cupboard.  It does need doing but if I don’t get it done before we go away, it’s not really going to matter.  So, if I get to it in another week, I do.  If not, that’s okay.

Now all I need to do with the laundry is maintain it.  Sounds easy but isn’t when it’s such a busy room in the house.  Still, I’ll give it my best shot.  As it falls into the 3rd week of my zone rotation, I’ll be able to give it a “once-over” in the week before we leave if need be.

This Week’s “Zone” : Bedrooms

Last time I was in the bedroom zone, I focused on under and behind the boys beds.

This week I want to focus on under our bed and decluttering our wardrobe.  I won’t get too carried away but even a little will make things a little tidier.

Singstar Princess decided she wanted to change her room around on the weekend.  I cringed because she made a HUGE mess in the process.  And she’s wont to get halfway through a project like this and run out of puff.

This is what her room looked like just after she’d started:

It was actually tidy BEFORE she started but she decided to drag everything into the middle, out from under the bed and clear off her tallboy and bedside cupboard.  To her credit, she cleaned and sorted and tidied and arranged until eventually the room looked like this:

It’s not as streamlined as I had it but it’s her room so I’m happy for her to set it up how she likes it.

The main thing is that under her bed has now been sorted and cleaned so that’s another job I can tick off the list.

The other job I’d like to get to is decluttering some of the boys toys in their wardrobes.  But we’ll see how the week pans out and whether or not I get that far.

Anyway, best I get off the computer and get started. 

Last week turned out to be a rather busy week.  You may have guessed that by my  not posting as often as I usually do.  I had sick kids home from school 4 days out of the 5.  I was busy doing shifts on the tractor on top of trying to deal with sick kids, general housework, preparing for a busy weekend and so on.  Oh, and trying to get the washing done at MIL’s (that’s Mother-In-Law for those not familiar with net-speak) and deciding what to do about repairing or replacing our broken washing machine.

Suffice to say, I didn’t get anywhere near the amount of “extra” housework stuff done I was planning to.  I did try to do a couple of smaller jobs, so that I could at least feel like I was making some progress toward my goals.

Family Room

DONE:

• Cleaned out kids drawing drawers.  I swear our textas are breeding.  Must get the kids to go through and chuck out whatever doesn’t work.

TO BE DONE:

• Toy Cupboard sorted and decluttered
• Kids books (which are currently in the cupboard) sorted and decluttered

Kitchen

DONE:

• Re-sorted and cleaned the cutlery drawer.  I don’t understand how something holding CLEAN dishes gets so dirty!!!!
• Cleaned the dishwasher.  Farmboy wanted to know how I got it so clean (he’d run a cleaning cycle through recently).  “”With a cloth” I told him with a roll of my eyes.  LOL.  He’s of the opinion that dishwashers should be totally self cleaning.
• Cleaned and resorted medicine cupboard.   Oh my!!!!  That was well overdue!!!!  No wonder I couldn’t find anything!
• Cleaned the top of the fridge and freezer.  Not too much clutter up there but boy were there dust bunnies breeding happily!!!!

TO BE DONE:

• Plastics drawers
• Corner cupboard

Other

While the washing machine was out of the laundry, I cleaned under and behind where it goes.  Also cleared and cleaned the window sill while it was easier to get to (the washing machine sits under the window).

One less job to do now that I have a new washing machine - don’t need to clean the old one! 

This Week’s Plan

This week is the final on my 3 week rotation.  The focus is laundry and office, both of which are the more neglected (hidden away) rooms.  I’m going to focus completely on the laundry this time around and see if I can get it completely decluttered, tidied and cleaned.  It’s a job that really only needs doing about once a year so once it’s done, I should be able to maintain until we go away and can focus on the office on the next 2 rotations.

TO DO:

• Empty freezer, defrost and clean
• Deal with stuff stashed on top of freezer
• Deal with stuff that’s been accumulating in the corner (mostly stuff that needs some decisions made about whether it’s being decluttered or not)
• Deal with stuff that was on top of the washing machine
• Clean tumble dryer
• Sort through linen cupboard
• Sort through cleaning cupboard
• Sort through cupboard underneath sink
• Clean sink

Will see if I can get through that list this week.  No sport on Saturday so I can put some time into it then if I don’t get it all done before then.

Now that the school term has started, our trip seems imminently closer.  We actually leave THIS term.  Okay, it’s right at the end but it’s still THIS term.  And school terms seem to speed by rather quickly.

Rather than get in a panic and overwhelmed, I’ve decided to set myself a focus for each week.  This will be stuff that I want to get done over and above my normal weekly routines.

The biggest issue will be pacing myself.  Last week I started off the week with a bang and ended up exhausting myself.  Balance….easier said than done but I need to try.  Don’t really want to go away with a perfect house and too exhausted to enjoy myself.

As it turns out, the house divides up nicely into 3 “sections”:

1. Bedrooms

2. Kitchen and Living Areas

3. Office & Laundry (the “unseen” areas that always get left until last)

There are 10 weeks this term but we’re hoping to leave part way through week 10.  That leaves me 9 weeks.  This will mean that each section gets “focused” on 3 times before we leave.  That takes the pressure off in these early weeks although I am trying to get as close to organised as possible before the end of the May so that June isn’t too busy/stressed.

I’m hoping that a weekly progress report put here will help keep me motivated.

Week 1 - BEDROOMS

Singstar Princess’s Room

Decluttered a Heap of Stuff and packed away a few things into the wardrobe so that less is out.  Sorted out the top of her bedside cupboard, top of her drawers and the top of the drawers inside her cupboard.  Her bedroom is looking really good.  Not much left to be done in there if we can maintain it until we go away (well, I can live in hope can’t I????)

OUT - About a garbage bag size of rubbish, toys and clothes/shoes

TO BE DONE - Pull bed out and vacuum behind.  Some sorting of drawers.  Window and window sill needs cleaning.

Boys Room

Moved both beds and cleaned out underneath them.  Dusted and vacuumed.

OUT - Almost a garbage bag full of rubbish and finished with kits.  Some clothes and shoes that are too small.

TO BE DONE - Trailer Boys toy cupboard.  Clean window and sill.  Tops of drawers.

Our Room

Dealt with some paperwork that was accumulating (not sure why in there?).  Put away washing that had been accumulating on dressing table *blush*.  General tidy up and dust.

OUT - Some old bits of make-up and a couple of pairs of pants.

TO BE DONE - Go through all of my drawers and wardrobe.

Other Decluttering

Google Reader - big clean out of blogs I rarely read to make it more manageable.  None of yours of course (unless you’re a lurker and I don’t know you’re here - hint! hint!).

Resigned as an Admin at Aussie Bloggers Forum.  I’m still very passionate about the forums and will still be there as a member but don’t really have the extra time to invest right now so I’ve stepped down.  If you’ve not checked it out, please do so.  It’s a great place to be.

Working on decluttering some email subscriptions to reduce the amount of email  I get.

Week 2 - KITCHEN & LIVING AREAS

Week 2 has started today and I haven’t gotten very far as I spent a few hours on the tractor this morning then went into town for my gym session and to research washing machines (ours is broken ).

Hopefully tomorrow I can make a start.

I’ll admit it, I’m a bit of a clutterbug.  I tend to worry that if I get rid of something, I might decide I needed it after all.  Not that I’d ever be able to find it if I did need it!!!  Combine that with a natural penchant to procrastinate on tasks I don’t enjoy (such as decluttering) and you can have one big recipe for disaster.

A number of years ago, I stumbled upon Flylady and that system worked for me for a while.  Then I got pregnant which left me tired, sick (I get sick all the way through my pregnancies) and ended up with post natal depression (which I actually think started during my pregnancy) and 3 kids.

Moving house helped me deal with a fair amount of clutter but we’ve been here for 4 years now and with everything else that has happened in my life, dealing with clutter has gone to the bottom of the priority list.

My goal last term was to go through and declutter the entire house.  Ha!!!!  I’m so good at setting myself unachievable goals!!!  :(  Sure, we got rid of quite a bit of stuff.  Just NOT.  ENOUGH.

On Sunday my frustration with clutter reached it’s peak.  We had a busy school holidays and the house was a disaster zone!  Staring down the barrel of Term 2 starting and realising that half my plans for term 1 just hadn’t happened and that I only have this term left to get the house to the point where I’m happy for someone else to stay in it in my absence.

*sigh*

Of course, there’s nothing like a deadline to help a procrastinator get their butt into gear. 

I’ve decided that for every week this term (what’s left of it given we leave before it actually finishes - eeek!!!), I’m going to set myself a focus/goal.

This week’s is bedrooms.

They get tidied every week but there’s tidy and there’s “tidy” if you know what I mean.

In a marked act of bravery yesterday, I actually ventured UNDER the boys beds!!!!  I found some interesting science experiments and the dust bunnies were multiplying happily!!!!

I think the hardest thing about being a “clutterbug” myself is that I can hardly expect my children to be any different.  And they’re not.  They’re hopeless at getting rid of stuff.  And then when they do decided to get rid of something, it’s something I don’t want to get rid of.  LOL.

Is it any wonder we’re struggling to conquer the clutter monster???? 

The good news is, we don’t have a very large house so we HAVE to get rid of stuff from time to time.

More stuff has been leaving this house than has been entering it of late so SURELY we have to start seeing the difference soon!!!!

If we don’t, I might just sit down and cry.  LOL.

And no, you can’t have it.  Well, you can if you like.  You just can’t have mine.

I’ve been concerned that my term of “long service leave” is flashing past at the rate of knots and I’m not going to get anywhere NEAR the number of things done I wanted to.

I probably missed the point a bit in that my plans for long-service leave have pretty much been all related to the house.  Catch up on the housework, decluttering the cupboards, do some deep clean and some painting.  Not too much in there for “me”.

Mind you, a clean, clutter free, freshly painted home would sure make me smile. 

And I’ve been spending some of my time planning our big trip which definitely feels like time spent for me.

Anyway, back to my point about the “roundtoit”.

I’ve been working on a slight change to my weekly schedule.

Back when I had kids at home I used to think of Friday’s as my “day off”.  Not that I actually had the day off (since the kids were home) but it was a day I gave myself permission NOT to feel guilty about not doing any housework.

LOL.  Pretty sad that I needed to give myself permission not to feel guilty really isn’t it?

But housework is the kind of job that is never done and this somehow helped me to go easier on myself.  Whatever works right?

Well, now I’m trying to schedule in time for “me” every day (easier with no kids home during school hours) so I’ve decided to make some changes to my weekly schedule.

I’m making Friday’s my “roundtoit” day.  Every Friday I’m going to try and do something that has been bugging me but I haven’t quite gotten to.

Last week it was washing the lounge room windows and flyscreens.

It’s awesome because everytime I look at them now, they make me smile.

This week was going to be oiling the front decking but I did that yesterday instead.  I’ll probably do the family room windows and get 2 “roundtoit” jobs done this week.

Once I can organise the paint (need to decide on colours first), I’m going to start painting on Fridays.

I’ve realised that if I leave it until I get “round to it”, or I feel like I have the time, it just isn’t going to happen.

For now, this is what my weekly schedule looks like:

MONDAY - Office Day.  Pay Bills, Tidy Desk, Declutter Office/Paperwork (a never ending task).  Gym inthe afternoon.

TUESDAY - Cleaning Day.  Dusting, Vacuuming, Mopping, Bathroom, Toilets.

WEDNESDAY - Town Day (piano lesson, grocery shopping, banking etc) plus “Make It Better” Day where I visit each room and just do something small to “make it better”.

THURSDAY - Kitchen Day.  Clean oven, microwave, fridge and cupboard doors.  Baking.  Also working on decluttering and resorting kitchen cupboards/drawers at the rate of 1 per week.

FRIDAY - Roundtoit Day.  Deep Cleaning (such as windows).  Painting and other niggly jobs that just need me to get around to doing them.  P&F meetings are usually a Friday too - which is another “roundtoit” since I’ve been planning to get involved with P&F for some time now.

SATURDAY - Bedrooms get tidied and a few other small jobs.  Soon to be taken up with sport so we’ll have to rejiggle a bit.

SUNDAY - Church in the morning followed by family time/rest day.

Washing gets done on a daily basis (other than Sundays).  I find it helps to have a theme for each day.  It helps keep me on track and breaks up the week.  Some weeks more gets done around the house than others but that’s life.

Do you work with a weekly or daily schedule?  How do you organise your week so that everything gets done, while still having time for the projects you really want to get to?

I’m having a decluttering blitz at the moment.

It feels good.

To be honest, it’s been a while.

The best way to keep a home clutter free is to constantly declutter.

Yeah, well, I rarely do things the “best” way.

So, in the past few weeks, a LOT of stuff has gone into our landfill.

The good news is that I think this might finally help me turn around the bad spending spree I’ve been on for a few months now. Frugality has gone RIGHT out the window. And I’ve been having trouble finding it in our overgrown shrubbery.

Anyway, my goal is to get at least a garbage bag load of “stuff” out the door each week.

I think we’re probably getting to the end of the “junk” and getting to the actual “decent stuff that others can make use of” type junk now. Toys and clothes that are outgrown. That kind of thing.

I’ve considered trying to sell some of it on ebay to raise money for our trip. But in all honesty, I think I’m better off giving it away. Getting it out of the house is giving me a LOT of satisfaction and curbing my desire to spend. So I think at the end of the day, this is the best way to deal with it.

My plan is to update you periodically to keep me accountable.

So far this week:

1 x garbage bag of rubbish

2 x grocery bags of clothes (to Vinnies)

1 x kitchen tidy bag of toys (to Vinnies)

I’m pretty happy with that effort. Mondays seems to be my day for getting enthusiastic so not sure if I’ll get motivated to do some more later in the week or not. We’ll see.

How do you deal with your clutter? Are you a hoarder or are you good at keeping clutter down? I know for me it’s a constant struggle.

I did something I swore I’d never do - I bought something from one of those television infomercials. I couldn’t help myself. I’ve been wanting a steam mop for some time now and couldn’t be bothered doing the research on the best one. So I took the easy path and just ordered one over the internet. The H2O steam mop that I’d seen advertising on The Morning Show.

I don’t image it’s my most frugal purchase ever (ie I may have gotten it cheaper if I waited for the copycat products or on a clearance sale) BUT I have it NOW and it’s been put to good use over and over already.

Sometimes convenience has to take precedence over frugality (sometimes - not always).

I’m pretty happy with my purchase and I think Farmboy is too.

For a few years now, he’s had the job of mopping the floors. He doesn’t usually do the bathroom or toilets (for some reason he doesn’t even THINK to wash those) but he does the lino in the kitchen/dining/family room. My back doesn’t hold up very well to mopping.

However, with the H2O steam mop, I seem to manage okay. It’s more upright and takes less “muscle”. It’s still reasonably heavy but doesn’t require the “grunt” to clean marks from the floor.

Plus I love the idea that everything is sanitised by the steam - no chemicals whatsoever.

AND you can clean the carpets with it as well. I just cleaned a mark out of our office carpet this morning. It seems to do better on some marks than others but some of mine have been in the carpet for a while now. I guess it’s not a miracle worker. But I’m still REALLY happy with it.

Oh, and I should mention that I do dry my floors with a towel after mopping - it does leave the floors wet. But then, I usually do that anyway.

Anyway, Tuesdays is my cleaning day so I guess I should get back to it.

** This is an unauthorised review written simply because I wanted to tell you about it (no request from the company). It reflects my personal opinion only.

It does happen that the very thing you hate MOST about something could turn around and become the thing you LOVE most about it.

I usually HATE the way housework can be mind-numbing and repetitive.

Especially after a decade of dealing with not much more than housework and children under 5.

But today I’m very GRATEFUL for it.

I’ve been chopping up vegies to make vegetable soup.

And finding it quite soothing.

You see, my brain seems to have gone on holiday.

Without leaving a date of return for when I can expect it back.

So I’m quite thankful for mind-numbing activities like chopping vegetables and ironing clothing.

The number of posts swirling around my brain begging to be let out is growing.  Some have even gotten as far as drafts.

Hopefully one of these days I’ll successfully spit them out on to the page.

In the meantime, my posts may well be as mind-numbing as housework.

Apologies for that. 

I’ve finally gotten around to going through the boys clothing and seeing what they need for winter. We’ll do some shopping during the school holidays (start at the end of this week here).

I now have 1 very full garbage bag and 3 grocery size bags ready to leave the house (clothing that is too small). Plus another bag of clothing with rips etc that really is past it’s use by date, some of which Farmboy will be able to use for rags.

What an AMAZING feeling. It’s almost like I’ve decluttered some body weight it feels so light and freeing.

I don’t know why, when it feels this good, I don’t do a better job of decluttering more often.

I guess clothing is easy. Once it doesn’t fit, it doesn’t fit.

Paperwork on the other hand…..

And the good news is, I don’t think I’ll need to buy ANYTHING for Trailer Boy. His drawers are now packed full with the next size up (brought down from the top shelf of his cupboard). Leighton on the other hand…. Seems I’m always buying clothing for him. Of course, that has something to do with him being the first baby on either sides of our families I guess.

Hopefully later in the week I’ll have time and energy to go through Singstar Princesses wardrobe and see what she needs.

My biggest downfall with decluttering is actually getting the stuff out of the house once it’s bagged up.  Farmboy has just taken a load of stuff (including a couple of bags of stuff that have been sitting in the laundry for months) into town with him.  So it really is GONE for a change.  Yah!!!!