The Jekyll-Hyde House

Still here... Sorry I haven't blogged in a while.

I've made some success in my cleaning endeavors, and some failures too. My biggest struggle now is just adjusting my expectations and schedule to fit with my work. I have a home bakery. It's become very busy recently and the house seems to take a hit every week that I have more than one or two orders. I have to figure out how it is possible to have young children, a house to keep clean and about 30 hours of work a week. How do women do this?

Some days my house is sweet and clean and I'm smiling to myself and thinking "Wow. I am so happy and proud that the house looks this good." and then other days: "oh my word. I would DIE if anyone walked in right now."

It's as though my home has split personalities. A complex disorder that creates an extremist reaction to me whenever I neglect it. My Jekyll-Hyde house. It's either clean and sweet and welcoming or a cluttered war zone and screaming for attention.

My rules that I posted previously are obviously NOT being kept on a regular basis. This is an issue for me any day that I have a lot of work with the bakery. I can barely keep the cake pans washed and the counter and mixer sanitized. Having to keep up on laundry, clutter throughout the house, bathrooms and beds made just doesn't happen when I'm up to my eyeballs in cupcakes. Out the door I run with a tiered wedding cake, leaving behind me a counter top buried in dishes, a cloud of flour still hanging in the air.

I have to find the BALANCE.

I'll let you know if I discover it. I'm off to tackle Mr. Hyde once again. He is threatening to bury me under the piles if I don't spend time with him. oye.

DeClutter Resolutions

January looms in the very near future and I am feeling a lot less apprehensive about making resolutions,because this year I actually accomplished many of them!!!

Although I have come farther than I imagined I would, I still hear the clutter that is left in the house mocking me. It laughs from the corners, the closets, the cabinets of my home and threatens a take over. I've been scheming about a sneak attack. I dream about moving in with garbage bags and in one fell swoop diminishing the clutter once and for all. But every time it's either the lack of time to really accomplish the task, or my lingering emotional ties to the clutter that win over and the most stubborn clutter remains.

I need to have a plan of action. Something realistic. I want to continue to work on my cleaning habits and make sure the clutter doesn't take over again. But there is hope! I found this great decluttering calendar online. Granted, it's from 2011, but I'm sure it would work for 2012.

http://www.mysimplerlife.com/2011.htm

One drawer a day I can do!

"Take that! you clutter-mound-of-hoarding-stuff you!"

Now, if only I had a mask and a cape I would be all set for my super hero cleaning adventure! But I think I got rid of those a long time ago...

hmmm...

See? That is why I keep stuff around. I might actually NEED it one day!


Well, I am ALSO creative. And garbage bags make GREAT capes! :)

Stay tuned...

The Rules

I have been sooo delinquent on blogging here, but I want to continue to journal about my experience.

I am surprised that keeping my home neat was actually HARDER once life went back to 'normal'. I seem to do better under pressure. But thankfully those two weeks in September when I was watching my sister's children and had extra responsibilities helped me get some rules in place and I have seen a change over the past month.

I started with some simple rules that may seem obvious to you all, but were not habits of mine, so a rule needed to be formed.

1. Dishes done or loaded into dish washer every morning and every evening after dinner. Dish washer run every day. (So embarrassed to admit that many evenings in the past I went to bed with dirty dishes on the counter).

2. Wipe down surfaces every day. (Counters, tables, bathrooms)

3. Floors swept or vacummed every day.

4. Beds made every day.

5. Clean for an hour every morning. I set a timer and blast music (it helps.) :) Some days I do bathrooms, one day I do laundry, another day is for a deep kitchen clean, another day I mop floors. I do what I can in that one hour and go longer if I feel like it. I've learned that if I don't clean the house by noon, it probably won't happen or will cause me stress later in the day right before my man walks in the door (which I don't want).

6. Surface clutter cleared (and that means CLEARED) at least once a week.

7. Things to be given away or returned to store taken care of every week. (I have stuff that needs to be returned to someone from over a year ago!) I'm going to try to put it in the car, to see if that will help.

8. Once a room is cleaned and everything has a place and I am 'proud' of it - DECORATE. This is my reward for keeping a room clean and presentable. I will put up the picture on the wall I've been meaning too, place seasonal decorations around. Something about adding those special touches help me fall in love with the room and I have more motivation to keep that space neat and clean. I'm anxious to feel this away about our office area. (Still VERY messy. But I have high hopes that the 'rules' can apply to this room too and soon be transformed).

9. If a place that I have designated for some of my 'stuff' isn't working, I find a new one. I found that a lot of my spots for things were not functional, or had ceased to work for whatever I had designated them for. This was new for me, but I decided to start in one corner of the room and review item by item and evaluate whether it was something I liked and was working for me and my family or if it is something that needed to change. I try to only tackle one thing a week or two if I can. Sometimes it means purchasing a new container or something functional for the home, so cost is a factor.

10. Take a day off. Sundays are my day to do NOTHING (except dishes). After church, I relax with my family, spend time watching tv shows that I recorded or a good book or movie, catching up on things on the internet etc. I can push myself during the week, knowing that I have a day 'off'.

I've broken these "Rules" a dozen times already, but I've kept them more than I thought I would. I find that I am happier, and the home is a happier place when I stick to it.

I'm still a little weak in the house cleaning realm of things, but progress is being made.

My next big issue: The hidden areas (closets, uncommon areas of the home, storage and garage) I seriously dread going through all that junk especially since I didn't have that garage sale I promised myself I would have. sigh.

At least our common areas of the house are livable and are beginning to resemble a normal happy home. :) There is hope!

I think I can, I think I can!

When I think back to my house as it was when I was at my lowest, surrounded by cluttered chaos and general feeling of being overwhelmed, I am shocked at where I am today. I am so stunned that it was without fear that I had a new friend over for lunch today. And (I might add) it was with very little stress!! :)

My entryway, kitchen, dining room and living room were actually pretty clean!

And GET THIS! It was during a couple weeks of crazy business! I have been more busy in the past two weeks than I have ever been. I haven't stopped! I have some health issues and have had numerous Dr.'s appointments, the kids started school again and of course there are extra trips to the stores and teacher's meetings and back to school meetings etc. Our schedule has been so crazy!

I'm watching my sister's 3 children while she and her husband are out of the country for 2 weeks. All of the kids are school age, but my two attend a local school and her three are home schooled. So I am helping my nephews and niece with their home school work. I also have a baking business from my home and had cake orders. I drive over to my sister's house a couple times a day to take care of their pets. I have other obligations and errands that creep up (like they do for all of us).

I also went away over Labor Day weekend and packed everything and didn't forget anything!!! You have no idea how huge this is that I didn't forget anything. (except my pillow - oye). I made lists! (LISTS!) We went away because my mother in law has cancer and we went to see her. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to hold up physically or emotionally while I was there with all that we have going on in our own lives. But, I felt such a strong sense of God and His strength come over me that I was able to be calm and peaceful in the face of negative turmoil and also (I think and I hope) be a blessing to her as I cooked and cleaned there at her house. We returned home last night and everything is unpacked and put away. This morning, I only had an hour or so to get ready for my friend to come. In the past, I would have cancelled or begged her to meet me at a local cafe, especially because she is a new friend who I wouldn't want to scare off my usually cluttered and messy abode. But I didn't cancel and my house was actually presentable!

I don't say any of this to brag or be filled with pride, please don't read those 'I' statements above and misunderstand. You have to know me to realize how HUGE it was for me to do all of the above and then have a house TODAY that looks like this:

There is HOPE:

I think today... I found MY HOUSE!!!!

Reinventing Myself? Or...

I've been abducted by aliens and replaced by a mean cleaning machine!!

First, a disclaimer: I have had some health issues which have landed me on steroids. Apparently, there are some pretty intense side effects with the dosage I am on. I have only noticed a few and ONE huge side effect - My ENERGY and DRIVE.

I have accomplished more in the past four days than I have in the past four weeks!!! I can't stop. I am also very disciplined all of a sudden.

My kids are on a schedule, I am on a schedule. I am getting things done when they should be and not putting them off.

Example: Dishes all done after dinner and/or put in dishwasher. Run the dishwasher every night and empty it every morning. Dishes never stay in the sink at all.

I wipe down counter tops and other appliances randomly through the day.

Bathrooms wiped down about every day. Scrubbed this week.

Beds made every morning.

House is picked up and cleaned up and vacuumed by the time the hubby gets home.

This would seem normal for many stay at home moms but because I have a busy bakery business out of my home and I am a typically undisciplined and messy person this is almost a miracle!

I have answered emails, made phone calls, am getting organized with my business.

I have made all sorts of cake decorations in advance and I'm eyeing my enclosed porch which has become a junk room again. I"m thinking if I need to make the best use of these steroids and my new found energy and get that CLEANED out.

woo-hoo!

The bad news is that the drugs won't last. This side effect can wear off and I can't stay on the medication long term. Hopefully I will have given myself a 'clean slate' and new habits will be formed before that happens.

Here's to HOPE!

Settling

I guess I just never thought it would be any different. I didn't know what I was missing? Or perhaps thought what my mind imagined could never become reality.

I grew up in a poor home. A messy and cluttered home. I went on to make my own home with my husband and now two kids and the mess and clutter followed. I have never known anything else.

Today, I wanted to 'start fresh'. I walked in from church and there were piles everywhere. Piles of dishes, piles of laundry, piles of clutter. "That's IT." I thought. Frustrated, I took off my high heels and got to work. I've been at it for hours now and have barely made much difference. The kids have already tracked in grass from outside and my husband just plopped more dishes in the sick (after I had put the last clean one away.)

Feeling discouraged, I wandered into the bathroom to grab the towels the kids left on the floor after a romp in the wading pool. I looked around "I guess I have to wipe everything in here down again... does it ever end?" and then I looked beyond the towels and finger prints on the glass.

"I don't really like my bathroom."

I had never said that before.

Or even thought it.

The lighthouse decoration was rusty and dusty and has a loan cobweb coming from it's beacon.

"I don't like lighthouses as home decor." I thought. But it was a gift from my Mother in Law and since my husband is from Maine I thought I should go with that.

There are WAY too many towel racks and hooks in our small bathroom. The previous owner must have loved them or something... but it doesn't look nice.

The hardware on the tub doesn't match the sink hardware and the cabinet below the sink doesn't match the woodwork in the rest of the bathroom. The glass globes that cover the lights on either side of the mirror don't match.

Then, I began to get it. If I could see past the daily mess... the daily clutter... I could see the potential.

Every room has potential. It can be something more than just a room. It can be a canvas for me to create. It can be a way to express myself and my style. All together, rooms can create mood and thought and ambience... Together rooms make a house and a house that is a home, when kept properly and decorated purposefully, can be a haven.

As I said in the previous post, my friend Amy and I had an amazing conversation. It was about this very thing. Because she knows that I love to decorate for parties and events and am meticulous in my planning and execution she said that she felt I need to carry that same passion into my home. I realized while talking to her that I have taken all my gifts and abilities, all my creativity and poured it OUTSIDE the walls of my home. When it came to the house... I just settled for whatever was there, and whatever we had and even let some of it go.

I was thinking that I have 'settled' and that I'm the only one standing in the way of my home being a haven.

Amy said so many profound things that I will share in another post, but one that we talked about is having a 'blank canvas'. She wondered if that might help me get started and not just look at all the piles and the mess. It may be hard to see beyond all that. I find it overwhelming sometimes. I guess I could always just take a day and completely EMPTY a room to get that blank canvas. Then, only put back what looks and feels right to me. I can't practically do that today, but I'm still attempting to create that blank canvas. I am just purging some things today. I'm cleaning and getting things put away so I can step back and look and see the potential.

Hope that this works.

One room at a time, right? :)

Still here!

I yell from under the pile)

sigh.

Yep. Still digging out and I feel like I accomplish one goal and clear out one corner or space only to discover another.

Feeling discouraged.

Also wanting to blog and record an AMAZING conversation I had with my friend Amy Grace who inspires me on a regular basis.

I'll be back to tell you all about it.

I have to go and wash my dishes though... for the FIFTH time today.
(I mean, seriously folks, do you all do this? I wash dishes constantly only in a meager effort to MAINTAIN. This is so NOT my idea of a good time.)