Challenge: 31 Days to Change

...my heart
                ....my mind
                               ....my motivation.

This challenge and this ebook came along just in time.  It was like it was meant to be.  I can do all the FlyLady stuff or read all the books by the local Queen of Clean but in the end if my heart, motivation, and reasoning do not line up for what my Lord has deemed for me as a wife, mother, daughter, friend... woman... then it is all in vain.  My ultimate desire is that my husband, my children... and then myself.... would feel comfortable in our home.  Safe.  Relaxed.  I want them to see that from me as well.  I don't want frantic and task to be my default mode.

While I have already skimmed over most of the month there are heart things that I will find VERY challenging.  I am not sure that the "tasks" will help get my WHOLE house clean it will help in some trouble spots.  Some of the tasks don't apply.  (For example, I don't have a window in my kitchen to clean)  But I will supplement other things that I am doing and try to keep up with what has been working so far.  There have been some recent developments that will challenge me further in a good way but those things will be revealed later in the month as we encounter different challenges and tasks throughout the month.

If you would like to join in on the challenge you can click on the photo in this post and it will take you to a series of posts that will let you know what to do.  I appreciate that we will be taking the weekends off for this challenge (Which also means it doesn't start until Monday, May 2nd).  It will take us a little beyond May 31st but that is just fine.  You can also buy the ebook as a download or for the kindle for $4.99 -- totally worth it even if you don't do the challenge.  It will be an interesting journey to take with other women (one of which is a long-time friend!)

Let the cleaning (of heart, mind, and house) begin!!

Laundry Room

Last week part of FlyLady's challenges were to clean up the laundry room.  We have this partial shelf that was driving me bananas.  Stuff was on there that didn't really belong in a laundry room.  Well, all that stuff has a new home or was tossed.  Everything is looking lovely in there and I know where it all is and what I have.  Novel idea, right?

I wiped the shelf down and wiped my freezer down as well as the washer and dryer.  It made me happy to see them shine.  Because of our hard water here I noticed some deposits on my washer "window" and need to look into how to get that gunk off.

I want to add some fun decorations in there.  There is a definition of laundry piece that I like but I am having a hard time locating the one that I want without having to spend a lot of money.  I saw a DIY project for it but I was SO not interested in all that it entailed.  I am also looking around at some fun vintage laundry signs.

Suggestions?

Wash, Fold, Repeat

I have said it before and I will say it again,

Laundry, like sanctification, is a continual process.

It's true.  Especially if you have little people around.  Their laundry seems like the most difficult to me.  Not that their's is all that hard to clean it just seems like there is just SO much of it no matter how small the load.  It probably doesn't help that I let it pile up because they both have SO many clothes they could go awhile without washing.  It's a vicious cycle that I am trying to break!

Before we moved the chore of laundry was the easiest for me to keep up.  It also helped that I loved my new washer and dryer (I still do.)  However, since we moved and especially since Miss A arrived on the scene laundry has been hit and miss.  It's sad really.  This week has been the beginning of new habits and getting laundry back on track has been one of those things.  Granted we are only on Tuesday but it looks good so far.  We will see how I am doing come Friday.  HA!

There are times that I end up doing laundry all day.  Not really my cup of tea.  Although, if that is the place that I have worked myself into then I need to suck it up and press on to get the job done.  FlyLady has recommended that if you do a load a day you will keep Mount Washmore away.  I tried it before and it worked really well for me.  For us, it can be more than one load a day but it beats five, six, seven... or more all in one day.

Here is what our schedule looks like:

Monday - Shirts, Diapers*
Tuesday - Whites
Wednesday - Gentle, Diapers
Thursday - Kids
Friday - Sheets, Towels, Diapers
Saturday - Pants, Any Catch Up Laundry


* These are the days we wash diapers when using cloth.  It may or may not require more washings depending on how old baby is and how many diapers we have in our stash for that particular stage, etc.  But this is usually what it looks like.  Is it weird that I was WAY better at keeping up with laundry when the cloth diapers were in play?

The whole routine may look different for each person.  Shirts are usually sorted in lights and darks.  However, these mostly comprise of Husband's work shirts and generally can fit into one load.  There will come a time when I sort by color the girl's clothes but right now they go in together and only sorted by if the belong to Miss L or Miss A.  Sometimes it gets mixed but that's not a big deal at this point in time.  Obviously Friday is a big day but I would rather have the extra family time on Saturday.

What does your laundry routine look like?

Zone Cleaning Rooms with Older Children

I love technology.  In a different generation I would not be able to glean from a friend's experience as she lives in New Hampshire and I haven't seen her in about six or seven years.  However, I was able to glean future wisdom from her in a virtual blink of an eye.  My dear friend read my post about learning to "fly" again and she had just posted about breaking down her children's room into zones a la FlyLady.  She has three boys and is homeschooling them all.  I love it!

You can read her original post here.

I will highlight her post below:

• Create Zones (Closet, dresser/chests, toy shelf, bookshelf, under bed)
• Each weekday has an assigned zone to work on.
• Daily (besides each zone) they are responsible for making beds, clothes in proper places, and tidy floor.
• Take a picture of a good standard of how things should look for point of reference.
• They can have their prized possessions or some other fun thing on their dresser or desk but it cannot be in a pile and should be there neatly.

That's her post in a very short and condensed version.  I think that there are ways to teach wee ones to help out with different things and to begin their training young and make it fun.

• Giving them their own (age appropriate) tools - peeler, duster, rag, shelf in laundry area, bowl, etc.  Those are their tools too help you in whatever task. 
• Involving them - Miss L loves to help with putting clothes in the washing machine.  She is also all about being right by my side while doing dishes -- even if it is only for the bubble and water entertainment value.

However, I am not sure what to do about the fact that Miss L is so very afraid of the vacuum cleaner and Miss A is at the stage of not really caring.  I thought Miss L would grow out of it but we are going on a year of this fright.  We may just have to grin and bear it.

Learning to "Fly" Again

Before we moved and before Miss A was even on the radar I had started to "flutter" with the Fly Lady way of cleaning.  It just made sense to me after trying a variety of other methods.  I had been hesitant to try Fly Lady in the beginning but that is a whole other story.

While I have not been "flying" with Fly Lady for quite some time I know it's time to jump on board again.  I was looking through some of the e-mails that I still get from her and they are working on decluttering as the theme of the month.  Oh, man... I needed to see that!  I also happened to read...

"You can't clean until you get rid of the clutter."

So true!  The zone that they are working in this week is the Master Bedroom. That's where I jumped in this week.  I am getting rid of the clutter in the bedroom.  I want it to be a place of peace for me and my Husband.  There are a few things to take care of here and there but already it looks SO much better.  Even a box that has been sitting in there untouched for over nine months was sorted and thrown out!  It feels so much lighter in there!  Plus, nothing feels better than a clean pair of sheets.  YAY!!

I think that I will just declutter each room as we go along and start there.  There are a few habits that I struggle with in Fly Lady but I think I can work on that.  ha ha ha!!

I like that Fly Lady says, "You are not behind!  Just start where you are."

What a relief.  It helps me have some grace but encouraging to get going and start figuring it out.