Do you know how hard it is to get in 10,000 steps if you don't go on a long walk? Very hard. The only solution I have found is to do a lot of house cleaning. Not exactly my favorite activity. Unfortunately, due to my Downton Abbey and Sherlock addictions, my house has gotten a bit shabby over the past week and I needed to do some scrubbing today. I got as far as the bathrooms, dusting, and wiping down the counters before I collapsed in a pile of...well, MI 5. Darn it.
Some of you are Stay at Home Moms out there. Some of you are moms who work outside of the home and yet still need to keep things clean. Some of you run businesses from your home. Some of you are rockstar dads that take on this role. How do you keep things clean? Do you have a schedule or do you clean as you go? My bestie is extremely OCD (I think she has to take some deep breaths before entering my house) and her house is spotless 99% of the time. I have tried to be like her. In fact, every time I leave her house I have a new plan in mind for organizing mine. Then I walk in my house and wonder if I can get a quick episode of British Drama in. We all have our priorities, right?
I am reading the book Organized Simplicity by Tsh Oxenreider I am neither organized nor simple, so I am hoping that this motivates me to migrate in that direction. So far what I have read is that she got rid of everything and chooses what to keep around very selectively. If I follow that, the yard sale would be massive. I'm about due for that anyway, but I always wonder who on earth would want any of my crap. Then I think maybe someone would because my next door neighbor is a garage "sailor" and she always finds diamonds. She has even trained her kids to look for bargains. So you never know. It's the end of January. I may be able to get things organized for a garage sale in say...May. Or June. Or whenever my next door neighbor puts out a "Anyone want to have a joint garage sale?" email. Hint hint.
In the meantime, a plug for her. She has her own eBay store and scours the streets/shops for great deals. I will look there first if I am in need of some retail therapy because I have gotten a few skirts from her store. Check it out - she works hard to make sure that her items are stellar!
I sweep and mop the kitchen EVERY day. And I vacumm the rooms we use the most at least twice a week. Every time I am in the bathroom, I try to wipe something down if it needs it. If my kids complain of boredom I hand them a disinfecting wipe and make them wipe off baseboards and shelfs. Also, and this is BIG- we don't allow toys in bedrooms. We have one playroom and toys stay in that playroom. So it makes my kid's job of having to keep their rooms clean a lot eaier. Plus, they all know that once a week they are expected to pictch in and clean and organize the playroom. Our new house won't have a playroom (no space for it) so I will have to adjust the whole 'no toys in bedrooms rule'. But I say, if you have the room in your house-designate a "play area". It makes life so much easier!!
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