Goal Tracking: Declutter and Cleaning

Low in energy, but have promised myself that I have to do one hour of cleaning this day (I don't have to do the hour all in one without breaks).

You would be surprised how much you can accomplished in 4, 15 minute sprints.

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My side table next to my chair was getting overrun with vitamins and dental floss and reading material and kleenex, so i straightened it up this weekend. I guess i AM doing a square yard at a time after all. So good thing i have a small apartment - a square yard is a good percentage of the space!

Eta - and vacuumed the carpet pile that isnt piled upon

Thanksgiving marathon time - i always SAY im gonna do a carpload of housework and exercise, but then something psychological-bad happens and i get depressed and i do nutlich. Howsomever - i right now have 3 loads of laundry in the dryer (towels and underwears) AND i walked this afternoon, soooooo - looks like we're on our way. And it only took 40 years of therapy to get here! Yay-hooey no really im glad.

luna - "square yard at a time" - hey, I like that. Mabe I can convince myself that getting my apartment restored to nice is achievable . . . if I can think of approaching it one square yard at a time.

Maybe, achievable by Christmas . . . Nah, not this year. We're doing the holidays at my boyfriend's place. Things never get too fouled up there because he won't allow it. Every day he gets after me about any little piles of saved paperwork I manage to accumulate. They seem to pop up wherever I am.

I just posted this on the couch - i dont have time to write another for here!!! I sound calm but you guys know its all an act!!!

Oh it just got serious all up in here. I just got a notice under the door that the city inspectors are coming thru next week. They're looking at all the apartments, not just mine. But i am on their list from last time. Gotta make sure i have 3 foot aisle ways, blah blah blah. Guess i better get back to work!

Oh wow, good luck! Deadlines can be very motivating, but I can see why you don't have time to post!

I set a timer to clean for 15 minutes and it felt like it was an hour. I'm sort of frightened by how easy it is for me to get distracted when I try to clean or organize.

I am also finding myself sort of motivated by the floral arrangement workshop I attended a few weeks ago. I want to do a couple of arrangements but need to clean up to have a nice place to put them. Maybe this would make me clear off all my surfaces that have crap piled on them??

I have a week reprieve!

Awesome! I hope you got to make some headway before the reprieve came through

Oh how I hate cleaning & organizing...it's like I make a really HUGE mess right before it all comes together. Trying to get fall decorations put away & find Christmas/winter. My bedroom was so bad I couldn't even find my shoes for dancing practice tonight in time to go. I took that as tellim
Ng me to stay home & get this mess cleaned up rather than off having fun....so I'm posting on here while getting a bite to eat before I DIG into the mess.

When they delivered my washing machine a few months ago I had to move all the crap I left standing in my entry way....that was good. I washed the parquet floor & put 3 coats of wax on getting ready for winter....lol I created a skating rink for my dogs....they can't walk on the waxed floor without sliding across it....don't think waxing the hard wood stairs they have to use might be a very wise thing to do unless I put a mattress at the bottom for them to land on....I did but a sofs area rug but it might not absorbe a full on tumble down the stairs

I got my report card today. Its not good!!

I was in despair, thinking the accumulation of paperwork in my apartment was beyond me ever getting it sorted out. But today I made some headway on the piles of mail and saved paperwork on the kitchen table. That small achievement has made everything remaining for me to sort through seem doable.

It's amazing to me how just making a decent start can lead to me gaining momentum that gives me hope that I will get on top of things. Someone above mentioned using a timer, set for 15 minutes. That method helps me too.

Sometimes I get all hung up just debating where to start. Then I tell myself that it doesn't matter. I might as well spin a bottle on the floor and start wherever it points. That getting started can be such a hurdle to get over. But today was a small victory at plowing ahead.

Eskie, I hope you made some progress after lunch!

Unaluna, I'm sorry about your not so good report card. I'm glad no one's grading me - not sure what happened but things have spiraled out of control and I have NO interest in cleaning. Less than ever, as impossible as that seems.

Rose76, making some headway really does make a big difference. You clear off a corner of a table and suddenly there's hope! For me, it's like it gets to a point where it's such a dump that it seems pointless to pick up anything. The same thing happens with weight, ugh.

A friend of mine is going to hire a cleaner and tell me how it goes. It's not really in my budget, but maybe it should be? I wonder if there are people who would put away my laundry and do dishes or is it just stuff like dusting??

11 am. Well idk when the inspector is coming back. I think it will be a while, as in months. But i really do want to get this place DONE. i got cute new narrow shelves for the kitchen - they are 8 inches wide, those laundry soap shelves? - im gonna put some of my kitchen cupboard stuff on them, and hopefully fit most of my illegal wide shelf stuff into the cupboards! Then move out the shelves. Not necessarily in that order.

Okay breaktime is over. I kinda exhausted myself putting together the first new narrow shelf, two more to go. And i need breakfast, ive only had coffee so far.

1 pm breaktime again! I worked two hours, thats pretty good! Put together 2 more shelving units, filled 2 shelves (ziplocs and paper plates). These shelves have rolling casters on them so i dont HAVE to scrub the floor today, i can just swiffer them. I also contac papered my box that holds my plastic utensils, b/w checkerboard - it looks nice!.

I did not do anywhere NEAR this much work the last time the inspector came thru here a few years ago. Mostly then i just worried! But this time i was cleaning my apartment BEFORE his visit, so really i am just continuing that effort. Only now, i know that what i end up with, will pass inspection and wont have to be changed.

Got the old big shelves out of the kitchen; swiffered the floor - it looks clean enough! I will get on hands and knees to scrub it when i know i can get back up! I had 3 rectangles of black plastic waddyacallit pegboard - i am attaching them to the back of the little shelflets for additional storage of like strainers & other light stuff. Maybe baskets of tea bags? Idk.

The rest of the apartment is looking worse, but it'll get there. Its like a rubik's cube!

Got all those boxes organized & stacked in the other room which is closed off from my dogs. Then came all the laundry baskets with cloths that need hung. Problem is I have no closet hanging place. Took it down when I moved in to put up those new wire kind & haven't been able to do it myself. I have those wreath hangers hanging over all my doors...one of these days that will get accomplished. Have has too many things I have been on the go doing to get out my Christmas decorations but have a few around. Still need to finish washing & waxing the stairs & one small section of the entry way floor. Got most of my outside plants in before it froze & now we are back up to 70F. This is not our normal winter. Getting all my recycle stuff I didn't get recycled before all together to haul away. This is the most work I have done around the house in years...the best I have physically felt in years also so I'm sure that helps too....but it's still frustrating because I make such a mess while I'm organizing things & if I don't get it all done before I have to do something else then it's even harder to get back to because the mess gets even more messed up before it finally gets done which hopefully it will. I worked in the kitchen cleaning off part of the island. The other day I got dishes in the dishwasher & cloths in the washer before I had to run off & get my repaired truck & get gifts ready with a friend for the sweet people in the extended care facility at the hospital. At least my machines were working while I was away & those jobs got done. Don't know how I, just being one person can make such a disorganized mess in a house other than because there is no furniture & it just doesn't feel like a home to organize....there is no set place for anything other than where I'm using it....grrrr. I am honestly tired of living like this but leaving bad marriage after 33 years & moving 2100 miles away with basically nothing & no money after buying my truck & farm....oh well this too shall pass some day in the future

I finally did all the piled up dishes. My BF is very bothered by me letting them pile up and has asked me to stop doing that. We each wash the dishes we made and if one of us cooks for both, the person who didn't cook has to wash.

So it's been three days in a row of no dishes in the sink, we'll see how long that lasts!

My goal is to clear the clutter in the living room by tomorrow so my son can test the new TV he bought so he can decide keep it/return it.

Tomorrow I will return an item at the UPS store, return ship Gwynnie Bee item at USPS. Also draw CBC tomorrow and refill Rx meds.

Tonight or in am go to gym and shower/brush & floss teeth.

Any of you join Flylady.net? She makes money selling stuff but she has a good plan for staying organized.

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I came home from t and got right to work. I sorted thru another box behind the bed. Then i had lunch and took a nap. Im throwing out about half the stuff. I think thats good, idk. Time to get back to work!

I got thru all the boxes behind the bed. (I have the bed sideways centered on a short wall, so i mean behind the headboard.) As i suspected, i had dumped stuff there after i had my stroke thing in fall 2012 and never really looked back. Ruh-roh! Anyway, i thought i would NEVER get thru that stack of junk, but i did! I did! tomorrow, more stacks of junk! .

So I shipped items from UPS and USPS and got my CBC drawn. That is more than I accomplish on some days when I stay in bed most of the day.

I'm glad I stopped by this thread! I always feel a little more at ease knowing I'm not the only on struggling with these things.

Things on my to do list for the week:
1. Take care of dishes
2. Do laundry and sort through clothes to determine what fits and what I actually wear
3. Make sense of the storage room because whoa...

I got a lot accomplished this past weekend and got on the right foot in terms of keeping on top of the housework. Now to get hubby on board.

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