January = Organizing

I don't know what it is about this month... is it the newness of the year? Perhaps it has to do with all the new things we received at Christmas time? Or maybe putting away decorations sparks the interest? Either way, I have this urge to organize and finish unfinished projects, set goals (some realistic... others not-so-much), and go crazy with cleaning.

I don't know how many of you have seen the FlyLady website, but I started working with her last year around this time. It starts with shining your sink. I followed her pretty well for a few months (I loved my shiny sink), but got bored with all the emails, and found the daily challenges to be pretty much the same from month to month. So, as normal, I modified her formula to fit ME. And the basic thing I kept was the 15 minute per day cleaning, the weekly cleaning day (of just the basic stuff, like sweeping, dusting, vacuuming, things like that), and focusing on one room (or area) per week. I made myself a weekly schedule (which has worked rather well for me this year) and kept it. And I was able to get all my weekly stuff done during 'nap time'.

I figured I'd share with you a snippet of my month.

My focus this month is going to be on finishing unfinished projects (mainly smaller ones), and my cleaning goal is going to be the floor registers. Yes... the registers. Have you looked at yours lately? I saw mine one day and almost dropped my broom. It's incredible how much gunk they collect.

So, here is my weekly list (yeah, I'm crossing off the stuff I've done this week)...

• sweep
• vacuum
• do basic bathroom cleanup (toilets, sinks, etc)
• laundry (3 loads, maybe 4?)
• farm books
• personal paperwork
• exercise daily (burn 100calories on wii fit plus) - this is a new goal for the year month.

Last week I did the following (the focus was the living room, dining room, entrance and hall)

• take down Christmas decorations
• put up hook shelf
• dusting in the living room
• dusting in the dining room/hall/stairs
• dust baseboards in the two areas
• put up living room curtain
• put up dining room curtain
• put up ENJOY letters
• organize entrance closet... again
• move photo albums from living room to bedroom

Here is the hook shelf I made in November... which took THIS long to finally get on the wall! Isn't it nice? I'm so proud of myself!

This is my current week, focus being the kitchen...

• back up laptop and reformat (because the thing is ANNOYING the CRAZIES outta me)
• shine kitchen sink
• clean microwave (including vents)
• clean toaster of crumbs
• clean fridge
• clean stove/oven
• hang kitchen organizer rod I've had for ages
• hang kitchen door rack I've had for ages
• wipe cabinets, walls, and countertop
• quick vacuum of bottom of pantry
• mop
• dust THE shelf in living room
• dust above fridge/stove in kitchen
• clean registers in dining room and entrance (can't remove one in kitchen)
• make kitchen curtain
• price out chalkboard paint ($21.50 for 887mL)
• Dr appointment Monday
• ultrasound appointment Wednesday
• do blood work

Funny thing is, I make enough 'cleaning' tasks so that I do about 1-2 per day (about 15minutes in that room total), not including the weekends. Instead, I did all my 'extra cleaning tasks' except for maybe 2 or 3, yesterday. I happen to do that often. I figure, as long as it gets done and I don't feel overwhelmed... I'm good. And I tend to focus on tasks a LOT once the kiddo is napping.

I'm done the majority of what I wish to do from this list today... except finishing two loads of laundry... and then I wish to focus on exercising and maybe working on one of my 101 in 1001 tasks. I made a list of those I wish to accomplish this month as well. I want to have 38 or less remaining once January is over (to correspond to the 380 days that will be left).

Think I'm task oriented?

Really?

For me, especially today, this helps. This morning was... just... one of those mornings. Everything frustrated me (I got irritated seeing my 'freshly spotlessly cleaned kitchen' dirty from my husband making part of supper last night... I tend to clean as I go... and he doesn't. It shouldn't irritate me so... but it did. Had to give it to God. Then baby M decided to follow me around instead of sitting with daddy, pulling all the lids out of the cabinets and onto the floor for me to trip on, step on, and hurt myself on, not to mention go into cupboards she is not allowed into... and my dh, hearing my frustration from the computer room, starts calling her name... instead of coming to get her. She is not going to go to you because you call her... she knows better than that. Sigh. Again, shouldn't be so frustrated. Had to give it to God. I could go on). So, checking things off my list (and writing about it) makes me feel better somehow. I'm not sure why. My lil girl needed me to focus all my attention on her when daddy was out of the house (and even when in the house... sigh), and I complied. Otherwise, when he is here, I generally get to work. She finally went down for an ACTUAL nap about 30 minutes ago. Meaning I can do some things I WANT to do right now instead of HAVE to do. Today will get better, right?

Right?

Anyone else doing crazy organizing and such? Anyone want to join me on monthly house cleaning challenges? Broken down into weekly ones? If so, leave a comment! I'd love for you to join me (and I'm sure you'll love it when you're done the challenge too!)