Day 9: Odd the Way Happiness Works

I hate housework. I loathe housework. There's almost anything I'd rather do than sweep, mop, do dishes, fold laundry, vacuum, swish a toilet.

But this week has the rumbly beginnings of a revolution.

The kitchen on Day 7 after doing the post-breakfast dishes.

Doing small batches of dishes several times a day means they are done quickly, almost painlessly. There's no time for dread: I know it'll be over in ten minutes. There's no huge mountain that takes a full day of repetitive effort to clear.

Laundry was ludicrous. I was scrounging for things to wash after implementing my second "catch-up day" last Saturday and religiously taking laundry to the basement every day and washing and folding a load. We'll see what happens this week as I didn't get "caught up" on Saturday and I'm disinclined to do any laundry today or tomorrow. (Though a load of cleaning cloths is washing as we speak.)

A swish and swipe of the downstairs bathroom takes no time at all. I'd like to figure out how to do the same upstairs: I think after I make the bed would be good--except that while I may have two minutes to make the bed, I may not have four to both make the bed and swish out the bathroom. But, hey, I won't know 'til I try.

Making my bed and picking up the master bedroom is good. Making the bed is a pain with the extra set of pillows I put on it when we bought the new bed frame: but honestly? I love it so much, I don't care. I won't let it be an excuse. In fact: why make excuses at all? It makes no sense.

I added "do one essential task" to my morning routine to encourage myself to accomplish something before my time got sucked away by the computer and reading up on all the other 31 dayers. It didn't work that well: I ofetn sat down and checked the Blogs before I was done my task for the day. But, that doesn't mean I didn't do them. Heavens, the things I got done this week!

My "sideboard" for tomorrow's Thanksgiving dinner is cleared off and ready.

vacuumed the living room carpet
washed the dining room and hallway floors (hardwoods).
"Treated" the hardwood floors
Washed the kitchen floor.
Scrubbed the tub and shower surround.
Cleaned the kitchen ceiling.
Cleaned a cabinet and put down contact paper.
Filed a mountain of paper and cleaned off the desk.



Planned menus for the month, made the shopping list, shopped for food, bagged up and labelled the meat for freezing.
Made a dozen muffins.
Made a huge pot of soup.
Made a batch of Chicken broth and bagged and froze it.
Made up a triple batch of pancakes and froze them for school mornings.

It's about time I lengthened this curtain panel! I'm hoping I'll get to the second one today. This is opposite the desk in the dining room.

Lengthened another curtain panel.
Painted the window trim in the kitchen.
Sewed one cafe curtain.


Before making this commitment to my routine, I would sit at the computer for hours, searching, reading, dreaming. I was avoiding the "unpleasantness" of doing my work. I thought I was happy--even though I would precariously stack dirty dishes as I tried to make another pot of coffee. I thought I was happy when I would rush downstairs to the laundry room after midnight to find clean clothes for my husband to wear to work the next day.

But now, after having done all these things I loathe on a fairly consistent basis: I'm happy. Really happy. Smug happy. Content happy. Some have said they don't even realise some clutter has been bugging them until they've taken care of it. Same thing. I didn't realise how unhappy I was trying to avoid being unhappy--until I stopped trying to avoid it. And now I'm happy.

Go figure.

Day 8: It's all a blur...

Needed the jeep today, so I was up at 5:30am again. I did do the dishes after breakfast--and I did a quick pick -up through the house, but I didn't start laundry (and this is supposed to be "Laundry Catch-up" day).

I ignored the bathroom, and I may have made my bed, I don't remember. I'm not running upstairs to check as I will be underneath those covers, made up or not, it in about 1/2 hour. (cross fingers.)

I did sew up a curtain panel.

I swept the kitchen floor--for the photo shoot.

I was out of the house from about 11:30 am until 6pm or so. I don't understand how women who work at jobs, outside the house (or inside the house, or adjacent to the house, or whatever....) I don't understand how working woman do anything at home at all. My hat is off to all of you who are gone all day and then come home and do what I can't even remember I'm supposed to do, I'm so bagged.

Oh, and we picked up frozen pizza at the grocery store so we could put leftovers on top for toppings--and baked them in an oven still smeared with baking soda and dishwashing liquid.

It was fine. The smell of burnt baking soda didn't seem to dampen anyone's appetite at all.

That's it. That's all. Tomorrow, tomorrow.

Piano? Pillowcase? or Curtain?

I have had this idea for cafe curtains burning a hole in my brain for days. I was up early this morning and decided to just do it. (I was sooo lucky to find this striped fabric last Tuesday--part of the "halloween" fabrics!)

I have long been inspired by this image from BHG. I just love the mix of florals with stripes.


Then, by chance, I came across this photo of the Spade's kitchen in New York.


I'm always intrigued by how others make black and white checkered floors work: so I took a good look at their window treatment. Plain white shades with two different sizes of black horizontal stripes as trim. Love it. I can jazz that up!

But I'm not sure my version makes a happy marriage.

On the sewing table it looked like a fancy pillow case.
When I showed it to my daughter she said it looked like the piano.

And now that it is on the window: I don't know--does it look like a curtain-- or a piano themed pillowcase I stuck in the window?


What do you think?

Day 7: Reflecting

Wow. One full week has passed already!

I really feel like I have done well--in spite of the fact that this has been a horrendously busy week. No, not because of it. The point of this exercise is to do my routines whether I am motivated or not--and I was highly motivated this week! Next week should be calmer--I'm looking forward to it. (The week after that, my husband has a week off. Things always fall apart when he has a week off. I really don't want that to happen this time.)

So far, today:

I made my bed and picked up in the master bedroom.

Last night my husband started the dishes and I helped, and then this morning I did up what was on the counter after breakfast. I even swept the kitchen floor!

Walking into the kitchen and seeing this is like being hit with a tingly Spring breeze of contentment and calm. I have another coat of paint to put on my windows but I am procrastinating as today's high is going to be only 10 degrees (Celsius.)

I wiped down the fixtures in the downstairs bathroom.

I started a load of laundry and folded what was in the dryer.

I did a quick pick up through out the main floor: things are looking good!

I made my To Do list while my daughter had breakfast and I've even finished my One Essential Task for today which was to clean the bath tub. It needed it. I won't tell you how badly.

I am feeling quite smug and content today: but I shouldn't. There's still the oven to finish cleaning--(I use this method, so things have been resting over night) and this mess to deal with.


This desk will become my sideboard and hold all our food on Thanksgiving. (I serve buffet style, as the dining room table is just large enough for our place settings--but not large enough for place settings and food!) As you can see, I have some work to do!

6b: Getting Off the Catastrophic Cleaning Cycle

You know--you wait until the area is a catastrophe of grossness until you clean it. Oh, this is embarrassing stuff. It isn't nice to say it out loud, it's horrible to admit. I don't want to bare my soul too much. Either you have the problem, in which case I don't need to air the (a-hem) dirty laundry in public--or you don't--in which case it serves no purpose.

Notice anything missing? No venting fan over the stove. See that corner bit of ceiling--over the cabinet, there? It is the hardest spot to reach.

I just checked the blog--in Sept of 2007, I washed my kitchen ceiling. I checked to see how long ago it was because I just did it again, today.

I noticed how nasty it was when I was cleaning the trim over the kitchen cabinets prior to painting them last week. I wiped away at it--and then REALLY noticed a difference between where I'd just cleaned--and where I hadn't. I'd say it was about a year (or two) over due!

I also washed the hardwood floors in my dining room and downstairs hallways today, too. Clean Mama is doing a 31 day series on cleaning your house: and Thursdays, apparently, is the day to wash the hardwood floors. Yes, Thursdays. As in, every week.

Really?

I try to do my kitchen and bathroom floors once a week--the last time I washed the hardwood was sometime last Spring, during the self-imposed Spring Cure of 2011.

Doing Spring and Fall cures has meant that my house doesn't get overwhelmingly nasty (well, with the obvious exception of my kitchen ceiling) but it also perpetuates a cycle of bouts of intense take-it-all-out of me cleaning alternating with long stretches of inactivity and oblivion.

I'm hoping that this week will be different. I've been telling myself that these mad, crazy few days of cleaning and preparation for Thanksgiving are creating a "point of return"--I'm establishing a base-line, as it were. A memory of how things could be if I stay on top of them each week.

I hope so. I hope I'm not just setting myself up to crash and burn. Because these floors look amazing. I wouldn't mind if they looked this good every week.



The question I'm asking myself now is: What's it going to take to keep going?

Day 6: Moving Along

Made bed

Wiped the fixtures in the downstairs bath.

Started a load of laundry.

Did a general pick up throughout the house.
This is really beginning to pay off! There was almost nothing out of my clutter comfort zone. It was amazing. I'm so glad clean has a cumulative effect!

Master bedroom all picked up.

Reviewed my calendar and consulted three previously made "To Do" lists.

Chose my One Essential Task and did it (bag up and freeze the last of the meat purchased on Tuesday.)

---all before breakfast!

Then, I did my dishes, even though there were hardly any.

It is going to be a great day.

Day 5b: Sidetracked

It was really hard to focus today.

First, we slept in. My first thought was: it's another day out of my routine--so how can I do the routine? Honestly, I was truly thrown for a loop. I don't think we have had one day that counts as "normal" yet since I started this project --and I realised, so, so what?

The tasks are just tasks--they don't even have to be done in order--or by noon for that matter.

I made my bed.

It was hard to get going. I made my coffee around this:

Yes, those are the dishes from last night.

I fed my late-for-school daughter a frozen pancake and hot chocolate and told her we didn't have to rush. I gave the same advice to myself. I started filling the sink with hot sudsy water.

I washed one rack full of dishes. Just one. Then I had breakfast and kissed my daughter good-bye.

I had to keep consulting my list to see what was next. I collected some laundry. I threw in one load to wash.

I did a leisurely pick up through the main floor. I didn't set the timer. Slow was better than not at all.

Then I got on-line. For a long time.

I decided my One Essential Task for the day would be vacuuming my living room carpet and washing the kitchen floor. I got sidetracked by the state of the dining room floor.



I was distracted looking for the linens for Thanksgiving.

Sweeping up the kitchen floor, I decided I had to put down shelf paper in this little cabinet beside the stove.


Had to. Couldn't wait another minute.


Then, I washed the kitchen floor--and ran out of floor cleaning stuff. One half is washed properly, the other half with vinegar. Something was better than nothing.


Tomorrow is another day and I have a list as long as my arm. I feel a bit panicky but I'm hoping a full nights sleep and clean counters in the morning will calm me down.