Urggghhhhhhhh.

So I have mentioned lately that I feel like I have fallen off the wagon, the Operation Me wagon.  Well it is official.  The only good news is that it is driving me crazy.  Last week was SUPER CRAZY for us with so many extra things happening.  All good but just very busy.  Friday for example was Todd's birthday.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODD!!!  I got up and made a breakfast, used the griddle for bacon and eggs, made biscuits...well Grand made them I put them in the oven.  After breakfast I HAD to order our new iphones because there was a problem with http://www.myverizon.com/ when I got up at 2:55AM to order the phones at 3:01 AM when they were first available.  YES I am that desperate for a new phone, mine blows and has unbelievable amounts of problems and I have waited and waited for the new iphone to come out which kept getting postponed and blah, blah, blah... I know you know how this story goes.  So I was able to call at 8AM and get that problem fixed but that had us running out the door to E's first field trip to Sinkland Farms.  They were so cute!

Then after work we were rushing around to meet for dinner at 7:30PM at Kabuki for Todd's birthday dinner.  Run, Run, Run.  So by the time we got home its close to 10PM get E in bed, I was not about to clean up.  Then like always its snowballs.  Plus no one was rushing to help get me motivated to get it done either. 

BUT tonight I made a dent in the problem, hoping to finish it tomorrow.  I have lunches packed, clothes are not picked out but almost everything is clean which makes the selection process so much easier.  This weather is difficult to plan for.  So having everything clean is great if you have a place to put it.  I am really making progress in our bed room in my clothing storage situation it is just very slow.  The 10-15mins I put towards it daily is in the morning before E gets up and like always I make a bigger mess before it gets better and you can probably guess where the mess is...that's right, the bed in the guest bed room!!!

I have changed my control journal.to a notebook, the kind its harder to tear the pages out of.  The first page has my current morning, after work, and evening routines.  The other pages have to do lists and grocery lists.  I have also gotten some small post its which can come in handy.

I have also been good about planning my meals again this week which is so nice to have that decided in the morning before you go to work!  I CAN DO THIS!  I CAN DO THIS!!!! ~ Lisa

Put Your Home on a Diet.

How to Declutter... "Put Your Home on a Diet."

How great is this idea!  I need to put everything on a diet! 

I think that #2... "Decluttering Equipment; You will need garbage bags, boxes, magic markers, and a dust rag. Label the boxes "Give Away", "Throw Away", and "Put Away". Line the "Throw Away" box with a plastic garbage bag"... is great and might save the bed in my guest room from being the largest hop spot in our house.  I just cleaned out E's closet.  It was ugly.  It is not done, but it is on the way.  Unfortunately the bed in the guest room is back to its normal full of crap-ness.

#3.  "Set your timer:  for 1 hour (or 30, 15, or 10 minutes - it doesn't matter how long). Just do the job as fast as you can and do not pull out more stuff than you can put away in that length of time. This means just one drawer, one closet (or even one shelf in one closet), one magazine rack, or digging under just the furniture in the zone. Not all of them at once!"... This is really hard for me.  I can't really organize something until its empty and I start from scratch which is why I tend to make a bigger mess before its gets better.  Hence the guest room bed hot spot.

#4.  "Start at the entrance to the room: Then, work your way around the room clockwise. Do not skip a spot. Whatever happens to be next, just do it"...  GREAT IDEA, and the entire guest room is going to need it by the time I am done with E's room!  My closet is in the guest room and it looks like it is going to be last.

#5.  Declutter Away! With boxes at your feet and dust rag in your waistband, start off by cleaning out and getting rid of the things that do not belong in this room. Put garbage in the "Throw Away" box, donations in the "Give Away" box, and stuff that goes somewhere else in the "Put Away" box. Don't worry that you do not have a place for everything right now. By the time you finish you will. That's a promise from FlyLady!... Okay, this is sounding better. The "Put Away" box doesn't have to be put away right then.  I wonder if I have a box big enough for the "Put Away" box.  I am going to need big one.

"Cleanse this room of everything that doesn't make you SMILE"....OKAY, that is...well, that doesn't work for me.  I have lots of things that I need that don't make me smile.

#9. Donations: When the "Give Away" box gets full, seal it off, and put it in your car. The next time you are out, you can donate to the area thrift shop. Do not save your clutter for a yard or garage sale, you will be blessed by giving it away. The value can be deducted on your income tax. Remember you are trying to get rid of clutter - not relocate it somewhere else in your home. Now, grab another box, label it "Give Away", and get back to work... AMEN FlyLady.  I hate yard sales.  I don't like saving stuff or pricing it.  I am horrible at pricing it.  I do not care for the back and forth of yard sale sales.  Maybe its from owning and/or working in retail but I figure if there is a price on it, that is what it costs.  The part about deducting the value from your income tax means that you have to price the stuff, which is similar to yard sale prep and then you have to keep the receipts...and that is another blog all together.

#10 "Put Away" Stuff: When the "Put Away" box gets full, take the box in your arms and run around the house (good thing you have shoes on - right?) and put the items in the room where they belong. If they have a place, put them there, if not put them in the room where they logically belong. By the time you have finished you will have a place for everything and everything will be in it's place... sort of contradicts #5.  I know that it really is the best way to do this, but I really have to be careful about putting stuff that I am just not sure about somewhere else and it turns into clutter in its new location.

How did I get this way.  Is there a gene that is hereditary?  I really don't want E to be like this.  I want him to want everything to have its place and for him to want to put it there so things will always be nice and tidy.

When we moved I really wanted to have a clutter free house, sort of like the houses in Japan that you see on TV, but seriously where do the Japanese put all of their stuff.  Maybe those bamboo paneled walls really slide open to reveal utter clutter and disorganization.

So here is to putting my home on a diet! ~Lisa

E's Closet.

So I decided to tackle E's closet.  It wasn't in the best of shape.  Most of the stuff in here was his, clothes and shoes that don't fit or baby toys that I was able to hide away to get out of the mix of toys we play with in hopes that they would be stored away properly in the basement at some point, hopefully sooner that later but the later won.  There are some boxes of memorabilia that I have in here that I am trying to keep at a minimum but some things I just don't want to get rid of. 

F.L.C. Day 7-8.

So Day 7 (F.L.C Day 7 Link.) is about picking our your clothes before you go to bed.  I think that this will become easier for me when I get to the closets and drawers.  Having the space to put my clothes, in the same place every time I believe is key for this to happen.  Reading this back to myself it just sounds so ridiculous.  BUT I know I have had clutter issues my entire life. 

My Melted Crock Pot.

So I believe that sometimes things happen to me that just don't happen to other people.  For example my crock pot melting, literally.  Let's start with the Chicken Teriyaki dinner I made for Monday. 

Crock Pot Sunday.

So leave it to me to have a crock pot dinner not go as planned.  I am telling you I can screw up even the simplest meals if given a chance.  I decided to try another crock pot recipe tonight mainly because I haven't used the crock pot in a LONG time and I was worried it might turn itself off during the day tomorrow and we would come home to raw chicken and carrots marinated in a teriayki sauce.

Crock Pot Mondays.

So I think that the Crock Pot Girls have hit something HUGE here.  All of us are busy, who has time to REALLY cook EVERY night?  I know I don't, and even if I did I wouldn't want to because I am just not a very good cook.  It seems they are featuring a recipe every Monday?  Not sure exactly as this is still very new...

F.L.C.Days 5 & 6

Here is a link to Day 5.

F.L.C. Baby Step 5 Link.

The only thing I have to say about this and that I don't think this step is necessary for me.

NOW Day 6 is a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT STORY.

F.L.C. Baby Step 6 Link.

I totally have hot spots in our house.  The kitchen island (which we have already "uncovered"), the dining room table, and the bed in the guest room. These areas tend to fill up in the order listed above, except for right now the bed in the guest room is taking the brunt of the load because we are doing a pretty good job keeping the kitchen island clean and we do eat at the dining room table nightly. 

The Kitchen Island.

In our kitchen is an island, butcher block top a few drawers and shelves.  I will never again get an island like this, I need more drawers or cabinets with doors to hide all of my crap.  The top of the island is the perfect place to set stuff on when you walk in the door.  It can get quite piled up.  On Sunday I started to tackle the island.  I realize that it sounds ridiculous that I couldn't just clear it all off at one time, but the stuff had to go somewhere and if I just shoved it somewhere else then although the island would be clean, something else would be a mess.

The Shoe Baskets.

I attempted to start the house part of Operation Me. several months ago, and for whatever reason, well I can actually give you at least 10  (I guess really they would be excuses not reasons), I didn't follow through but on a few items.  One of those was the shoe problem we have at our house.