Coop Redux - Coop Scoopin' Boogie

Dear Friends,
I know I said I'd be posting about making my home into the comfy, cozy nest I see in my dreams.
But.


Why must there always be a but?
Those bosersome buts seem to be the root of many of my problems.


I would love new kitchen cabinets.
But.


I need some more sleep.
But.


I wish I fit into my pre-Pip clothes.
Great big BUTT.


And on with the dance.
The first part of the project wasn't the fun part. as much as I really wanted to break out the rollers and paint like a mad woman...


I held myself in check.
(darn conscious)


Alas, I knew better than to dive into anything too involved (read: fun) without starting with a clean slate. So I've been working from that day 'til this getting my house clean and up to par.


It would help a lot if we didn't live here.


Here's a few tips from the experience:

1. In order to get ahead you have to clean-up MORE than you/he/they mess-up in a day.


2. Your children are less likely to drive you batty through the process if you feed, read, clothe, bathe, cuddle and tuck them in on a semi-regular basis. Demanding creatures they are, children.

3. Your project is less likely to spur you into insanity if you eat, sleep, drink, snuggle, read, pray, breathe at fairly frequent intervals. High maintenance beings, humans.


Flylady rules I've been following (sorta, most of the time):


1. Don't pull clothes out of the drier you don't plan to fold RIGHT THEN. This prevents mountains of clean laundry from taking over your living room couch. The laundry process stops if the next load can't go in the drier. The process cannot stop. CAN. NOT.


Period.


2. Don't burn yourself out by working too long, too hard on one task.
Baby steps. Baby steps. Baby steps.
Set a timer, work as fast as you can on one thing for fifteen minutes then go ___ (insert some living here) for a bit.


You'll get more done.
And you won't despise the housekeeping tasks.
Much.


Amen.


As a perfectionist, I tend to see all the problems of a room and try to tackle all of them at once. I want it to be perfect. Not just picked-up. Sparkling clean. Organized. Alphabetized. *Bam*
So I spend WAY too much time on that one space and then run our of steam before going any further. This makes for very poor housekeeping. The whole house is rarely clean all at once. We can easily see-saw from 'spic and span' to moldering just by walking from one end of the roost to the other.


So, what to do?


I saw a tip in a magazine (don't remember which) that I have wanted to test ever since. The experiment involved the advice that to be truly efficient at cleaning house you should stick to one type of task all through the house instead of cleaning a whole room at once. For example, do all the picking up, then wipe/dust all the surfaces/fixtures, then all the sweeping, and end with all the mopping.


You get the idea.


The happy news is that (as long as your house isn't a complete pigsty, or chicken coop) you CAN clean the whole thing in about four hours this way. And there is much less temptation to sort through closets and wash dusty mop boards.

Well, four hours give or take...
Depending on how many times your children need you to help them out of trees.
How many times your neighbors call about the racket coming from your house.
How many times you need to stop to rock your sweet-cheek baby.

I'm pretty sure the whole world is already aware of all these things. Your houses are sure to be in much better shape than mine. I'm a slow learner.

After all, it's elementary my dear Watson.

Love,
Sherlock Home in NE