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One Dirty Job
I can truthfully say that I hate cleaning bathrooms. It is a disgusting, filthy job that no one will share with you even if bribed. If you ever ask a teenager to clean the toilet, you wouldn’t believe how fast they can leave the room and have something more important to do.A little bit of trivia on my part: The more bathrooms you have, the more toilet paper you use. Go figure.
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Bathroom Cleaning is a Lost Cause
Let’s be honest—cleaning bathrooms is the worst. I’m not saying I love scrubbing anything, but there’s something uniquely soul-sucking about tackling a bathroom. Maybe it’s the combination of soap scum, mystery splatters, and the inevitable hair clog. Or perhaps it’s just the cruel reality that the minute it’s clean, it’s dirty again. -
Mirror, Mirror, Full of Streaks
When I hear people talk about buying a large, beautiful home, I always think the same things. I wonder how many bathrooms it has? My home has 1 l/2 baths with an unused bath in the basement. That means three toilets. More than three is a figure I don’t even want to think about. I’m guessing that people with five or six bathrooms must have a housekeeper to come and clean for them. I can’t imagine cleaning all of those alone.
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Clean Bathoom, Clear Mind
Let’s be honest—cleaning bathrooms isn’t glamorous. It’s not something I dreamed about as a little girl. I never imagined a sparkling toilet would bring me a sense of calm or that wiping down the sides of the bowl (yes, the sides!) would one day be the hill I’d choose to die on. But here we are.When Mom worked Saturdays, Michelle and I cleaned the house before she got home. I knew she didn’t just work at the law office until noon. No, she padded her time—grocery shopping, running errands, and circling town like a hawk—giving us just enough time to complete our chores and avoid her wrath.
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Streamline and Simplify
“The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life.” –Marie Kondo
I love vacationing and spending time at our cottage. It is so “me” to drink good coffee, go adventuring, look for fun earrings to buy, read while the family is watching TV, and write in my journal.Now I can do all these things at home too, of course. But the kicker is that a couple of other things always seem to block me. If I could just let go of them or figure out how to minimize the space they take up in my world…I would be a super happy camper.
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Lookout Springtime
Purging is a concept that I have a challenge with. I think part of it is the lack of desire to make quick decisions about getting rid of things that I might need later. Setting that aside, it is time to focus on one area at a time and to get things that are no longer needed, distributed and out of the house. -
Where to Start
Spring and fall house cleaning always seemed overwhelming to me. The thought of ripping everything apart twice a year seemed like just too much work. I had an aunt who helped to put my anxiety at ease. She said she would thoroughly clean whatever needed it at the time and did not tear the house apart to accomplish spring and fall cleaning. -
Spring Purge
I love the idea of purging, whether it’s diving into “spring housecleaning” or embarking on a minimalist-inspired throw-out session.
Although my closet isn’t bursting at the seams or cluttered with dated items, I relish the process of regularly sorting through my clothes and decluttering. Enlisting a neutral third party makes this task easier. Sometimes, I turn to my daughter Aubrey for assistance, while other times, I seek help from my son Kadon.
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Spring Organizing
I have never been a big advocate of cleaning in general. It’s not my favorite thing to do. So, when asked what I do for Spring Cleaning – you will see a glazed look on my face. As a child, we always cleaned on Saturday mornings, but I don’t ever remember being subjected to a major Spring Cleaning undertaking. Maybe this is an idea from years ago. Maybe some still abide by that idea. I’m not sure. All I know is that I don’t do it.
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Luxurious Indulgences
In the fall of 1992, Tom and I found ourselves seated in the counselor’s office, seeking guidance for our tumultuous relationship and Tom’s battle with depression. Among the various prescriptions for our struggles, marriage counseling was deemed necessary. It was here that the psychologist posed a question that struck a chord: “Tell me why you don’t have someone come and clean your house?”
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Show Me the Money
Chore list from age 5 – Notice no allowance listed! As a child, I remember having some chores, but because I didn’t have to do my work alone, it never seemed to be a big ordeal. Mom had taken the time to type a list for Lisa and me that we were expected to do in order to get a weekly allowance. I don’t actually remember ever getting the allowance, even though there was a spot on the chore list to write down the amount owed.
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The Go-To Kid
When I was young and living at home I was required to do a great number of chores around the house.I have two siblings, one four years older than me and one five years younger than me. It seemed that I was always the right candidate to impose most jobs onto.
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She Can Do It all
This job list is from when I was about 11 years old. Saturday mornings were for cleaning when I was a child. Mom worked in the morning and then went grocery shopping. Michelle and I were left at home to get our chores done.
I remember that my responsibilities not only included making my bed and cleaning my room, scrubbing sinks, and toilets, and vacuuming the house but also motivating my sister to get her jobs done as well.
THAT was the challenge!
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The Guilty One
Being the youngest of three girls had benefits when it came to chores except for the guilt. I often felt guilty because Sandy seemed to be responsible for all the chores. If I wanted to help, I was either too little, too slow or I didn’t know how. My ability to feel guilt got overdeveloped. It never occurred to me that being five years younger than my sister did present challenges. -
Cream Carpet vs Red Jello
Has anyone had a problem or a mishap that felt like an impossible problem when it came to cleaning of any kind? Well, I did. -
My Cleaning Mishaps AKA Not Cleaning
I admit to finding it difficult to write about cleaning and cleaning mishaps because I don’t clean very often. I pick up, I organize and I straighten but I seldom clean. -
The Consequence of NOT Cleaning UP
I was so tired that night in 1999. Instead of cleaning up the kitchen before bed, I promised myself that I would take care of the dishes and pot from our chicken dinner first thing in the morning.Later, I woke up slightly and smelled bacon cooking. I thought, “Huh, Craig must be home.”
Still later, I woke up a little more and smelled burned bacon. I got up and walked along the hall and down the stairs. As I neared the bottom of the staircase, a thick cloud of smoke erased the landing.
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Yes! A Roomba CAN Vacuum Up Poop!
When initially thinking about getting an automatic vacuum (iRobot, Roomba or whatever you want to call it), I read the horror stories of vacuuming up shit. In my head, I thought, “Oh – that won’t be an issue.” Boy – was I wrong! -
Craft the Life you Want…Start with Organizing Your Sock Drawer
The first step in crafting the life you want is to get rid of everything you don’t.
-JoshuaBecker
It was November 1998. Tom and I had just listed out the household items that we were dividing between the two of us. We were getting a divorce. He got the leather lounge chair with the matching ottoman, the good blender, and our best set of knives. I kept the master bedroom furniture, the new sofa, and the dishes we got for our wedding 13 years prior. He took the new Acura. I kept all of my flea-market treasures.
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Time to Clean – Becoming a FlyLady
If you are anything like me, I have a hard time wanting to clean my house. I don’t enjoy cleaning at all. Growing up, my mom did it right. She had it set up that Lisa and I had jobs to do to clean the whole house by the time she came home from work. I dusted and Lisa vacuumed. On Saturdays, you didn’t do anything else until those jobs were done. -
Is Spring House Cleaning Even a Thing Any More?
The first day of spring this year is just around the corner. And that gets me thinking about…”Spring House Cleaning”! Crazy, I know. Isn’t this an antiquated activity?
I remember when some of the most beautiful spring days were dedicated to emptying out one room of a house at a time. Then we spent days cleaning windows, washing walls, scrubbing floors, shampooing carpets, organizing drawers, sorting out closets, you get the idea. We used to basically clean the whole damn house, from top to bottom, one room at a time. -
Letting Go, Decluttering and Streamlining
A magical night (in the perfect dress) We work from the time we’re old enough to make money to buy stuff. Actually, it’s true that there’s a lot of good stuff out there like collectibles, beautiful crystal, all of the issues of Oprah Magazine from Day one, clothes, furniture, decorations, and shoes (my special weakness). This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to stuff. Then one day when we’re older, our desire to have things turns into the need and desire to purge and to work on letting go of the extras in your life.
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Changes are Coming – Time to Streamline My Life!
The women in my life are facing many changes and it’s brought to mind the idea that to have the kind of life you want, you need to let go of what you don’t want in your life. So it’s time to ask myself, what kind of life do I want and what do I need to let go of in order to obtain that kind of life? The first thing that comes to my mind is the clutter that I’ve accumulated since I moved out on my own. I tend to be a pack-rat and my basement contains so much clutter. The storage room contains toys and games from when the children were little, ceramics that Grandma Is never got around to painting, old prom dresses, etc. For whatever reason – I have a hard time letting go of the old stuff. By letting go of this clutter, I can make room for the new and simplify my home. I’ve currently been cleaning up some of the paperwork clutter. I’ve been shredded old documents that I’ve been holding onto dating back to 1986!!! (Don’t ask me why I’ve been saving documents for that long!!!)
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Walk to Downshift
Stress makes me crazy. Literally. I want to sleep the second I get home from work and then when it is actually time to hit the hay…guess what, I can’t shut my brain off! It doesn’t make sense.I wish I could drink and the calm continues. But alcohol just makes my brain depressed and my body tired. Besides that, I don’t need the empty calories..and I wake up in the middle of the night..and I can’t get back to sleep…My brain is on while my body feels groggy and heavy.
So..is downshifting an art? An art that I have a very limited talent for?
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What Downshifting Means For Me
Beaver Dam has become a member of something called “Blue Zones”. I am a beginner in what that means exactly- but with time I’m sure I’ll be on board. One of the elements that resonates with me in the “Blue Zones” information is something called “downshifting”.
What does that mean exactly? To me, it means letting go of all the crazy things that make me grumpy, psycho and just plain bitchy.
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Doing Nothing
The question is how do you downshift at night? How do you relax?
Well for me – it’s very easy. I am not a big drinker, so it’s just a matter of sitting down and doing… NOTHING!!
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Surrounded by Clutter
I deal with clutter on a daily basis. At home, at work, in my car… everywhere. I can never seem to get ahead. At work – I deal with clutter for clients. Taking all the miscellaneous paperwork they have and trying to help offices go paper-less. Wow – do some of them have a lot of paper around!! -
My Life is a Mess
The first thing that pops into my mind is….a messy desk is the sign of a creative mind. Is that how it goes? Well my desk is messy, my home is cluttered, my life often seems to be on the verge of chaos.
Kitchen…see that cute plant on the right?
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Clutter Be Gone!
Clutter in my life takes many forms. My main living spaces are clutter-free. My bedroom, kitchen, and living room are clear of clutter. I can’t stand it any other way. I am a pick-up as I go kind of girl. (Please don’t count the dust and dog hair)
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Clutter or Decorations?
Clutter makes my butt feel big!!!! Having a lot of clutter around makes me feel weighted down and out of control, depressed and rather hysterical.
I think I hate clutter and love it at the same time if that is possible.
