Days Nine & Ten - It's about time!

Over the last couple of days on our beginner baby step challenge we've learned how to 'declutter a few minutes at a time' and that we 'declutter anything in 15 minutes.'

Fly Lady's approach to decluttering is that we can tackle it a little bit, consistently over the course of time in small increments. On day nine, we added a 5 minute room rescue to our morning routine. We are to spend just five minutes clearing a path in our worst room. The room you'd never want anyone to see. For me, that's my basement. Albeit a finished basement, it's the landing spot for all things in purgatory, or with no home at all. On an average day I'd have gifts for family members not yet sent, arts and craft supplies I didn't have time to put away, papers I need to "file" or just things that I know I want to keep but I'm just not sure where to put them. And since clutter attracts clutter, it becomes an inferno and somehow multiplies day by day. Occasionally it will get to me enough where I'll spend a good portion of a day trying to make it pretty once again. But in reality, I rarely have that time without a one year old on my hip or getting summoned for a snack. Yesterday, I took Fly Lady's advice and spent just five minutes clearing the path. I used my handy dandy kitchen timer, hit start and began my 5 minute room rescue. I made some serious headway in my basement and almost didn't want to stop after the timer went off (actually I didn't stop right away). Within a few weeks my basement will no longer be my 'dirty little secret', but a place I will be proud to show off.

Today, we took it a step further and learned about the power of 15. Taking just 15 minutes each day, you can declutter anything. On my list: My pantry. My kids' toyroom. My coat closet. My basement (see paragraph above). She walks us through tips on how to properly declutter. She goes into greater detail but here they are in a nutshell:

1. Decide when and how often to declutter. Do a small amount over time so you don't burn out.
2. Have boxes and garbage bags handy, labeled with "Give Away", "Throw Away", and "Put Away".
3. Set your timer for your predetermined amount of time.
   
4. Start at the entrance to the room (or go from top to bottom if decluttering a small space).
5. Ask yourself if it's useful or beautiful. If not, toss it or donate it.
6. Toss the garbage immediately. Put the donations in your car immediately. When the Put Away box gets filled, put the items back in their home.

If you clicked on the link above, you'll see I left out a cheesy song about "let me go, please release me" (as if sung from the clutter's point of view) but if you feel so inclined...

So in 15 minutes today, I tackled my back entry. I've really been wanting to declutter my pantry, but felt like once I got started I wouldn't want to stop (and well, a girl can only accomplish so much during the little one's nap). Doesn't that defy Fly Lady's rule, though? That anything can be decluttered in 15 minutes? I'll have to bite my tongue and tackle the pantry another day and see if it really can be done.

Today, I didn't follow the rules exactly. I didn't have the three boxes/bags, but rather just one for donations and did the other two mentally. I figured I'd use most of my 15 minutes finding the boxes and knowing my type A personality, I'd end up wasting time making some pretty signs for them on my computer. Since my purse was in the back entry and it really needed to be decluttered, I spent over half the time going through my purse pulling out old receipts and filing them and making a pile of lipstick, jewelry and other personal items that needed to make their way back up to my bedroom. In 15 minutes I had a clean back entry AND a clean purse. Nice. I'll take it.

As for the other things I'm supposed to be keeping up with on this journey, I'm doing most of them, although to be honest, can't seem to tackle all of them exactly the way I want to everyday. I've been getting dressed, but not to the shoes. Here's the thing...I need a cute, comfy pair of lace up shoes. Wait. Was I just making an excuse to go shopping? I did, however, find a pair of lace up shoes in my attic that look like the old bowling shoes we used to wear in 1996. I wore them one day. Yeah. With a clean house and sane mind, comes looking like a dork. I'll need to work on that one. If anyone finds any cute lace up shoes for everyday wear - please post about it!!

I am proud to say my sink shines most of the day now. Yay! (Yes, that was the ex-cheerleader coming out in me.)

By the way...is anyone out there? Please post a comment here on the blog so I can have some company on this journey. I'm starting to miss you all.

Days Seven & Eight - One Not So Great

If you're following along with our Fly Lady Beginner Baby Step challenge day by day, you might have noticed I didn't write a posting last night. Day 7 on our 31 day challenge was to pick out your clothes for the next day. Easy enough, right? Welll, around 9:20pm last night, I went upstairs to tackle my challenge when I saw that my bedroom light was already out and my hubby was fast asleep (he's a hunter and it's hunting season, which means he was up at 4:30am). Needless to say, I didn't feel right about turning on the light and rummaging through my closet to find an outfit for today. So I 'mentally' picked out what I was going to wear, hoping Fly Lady would forgive me. I have, however, already picked out my clothes for tomorrow and they're hanging on my closet door. Although it's hard to explain, I have to say there's a nice feeling about having already made that decision. One less for tomorrow. I'm starting to feel like a well planned woman.

Today's task was to start the beginnings of our control journal. Simply to get a 3 ring binder and put some paper in it. On one sheet we had to write "Morning Routine" at the top, on the other "Before Bed Routine" and fill in the simple routines we've learned so far in her program. She insists to write in pencil (which I hate) and to not let our perfectionism get in the way (I have a real problem with this). I attempted this challenge several years ago and didn't follow her advice. Of course I drafted a long list of things I thought would make my life easier by implementing them into my morning and bedtime routines. I neatly typed them up, printed them out and placed them in clear plastic sleeves before putting them in my binder. The result? Burnout. I became overwhelmed with all these new routines and gave up. Her process is designed to implement routines slowly so you're more likely to keep with them.

This time, I followed her recommendations. I took loose leaf paper and used pencil.  Here's what she has us doing and here's where I stand so far...

Morning Routine

- Get up and get dressed to lace up shoes; fixing your hair and face - having big challenges getting dressed before having to go downstairs. I end up feeding my daughter her bottle and heading back up to shower/get dressed etc. I am however, getting dressed and ready for my day much earlier than I did before this program. But will have an ultimate goal by end of the month to be dressed to the shoes before my kids get up. Anyone else struggling with this one?
- Looking at your posted reminders in the kitchen and bathroom- the one above my sink is definitely working. A visual reminder to keep my sink shining (ie. empty of dishes and other crap). The one in my bedroom reminding me to get dressed to the shoes isn't helping much. I don't know if that's because it's not in a noticeable enough place or if it's because I do what I have to do (like feed by daughter), regardless of the reminder. I think it's the later.
- Reading 2 minutes of reminders - I have been logging on to my email and reading Fly Lady's flight plan (I get the daily digests as getting the emails individually would be annoying to me). I don't read all the testimonials, mostly just the flight plan and anything else that grabs my interest. It's helped in that it inspired me to do a complete meal plan for the upcoming week because it reminded me that the habit of the month is menu planning.
- Recognizing the negative voices and changing them; YOU ARE FLYing NOW! - I didn't really write this in my routine...it's just in hers. ;-). I haven't needed to pull out by dusty pom poms yet.
- Put out your Hot Spots for 2 minutes - this goes by quickly and works!

Before Bed Routine

- Keep your sink shining - doing well on this. yay!
- Lay out your clothes for tomorrow - check!
- Put out your Hot Spots - I'm finding that I leave this until right before I head up to bed and have no mental energy for it and sort of half-ass it. I think I need to move it a bit earlier in the night.

Thanks for sharing in this journey with me. If nothing else, it's motivating me to keep at it. If Fly Lady and her program have changed the lives of thousands, I'm hopeful she can change mine too. If you're missing my regular posts on tips I've found that save time, money and sanity, don't worry! I'll be aiming to post one per week while I'm tackling the baby step program. Gosh, that sounds like I'm in rehab. Good thing we're all friends. 

Day Six: Hot Spots!

 Today we learned about hot spots on day six of Fly Lady's Baby Step Program.  A hot spot, is an area, if left unattended, will eventually take over, making the house look awful. When you walk into a room, the hot spot is the first thing you see.  We all have them.  It's where you drop things when you come in the house. It's where you temporarily put things that have no home. In my house it's the back counter in our breakfast nook and the back entry area. The back counter is the drop spot for mail, my son's art projects from school, cell phones, sunglasses, hand lotion...you get the idea. It frequently becomes overflowing with papers (mostly junk mail), catalogs and magazines (that I can't bring my self to toss yet) and other "useful" things we need regularly. The back entry is the drop spot for shopping bags, coats, backpacks, dry cleaning...whatever is in our hands that needs to get unloaded. Sometimes things sit there for days on end. Fly Lady is right: clutter attracts clutter. If the hot spot is cluttered with items, then it's not a big deal to drop one more thing there - you barely notice it. But if it's neat and organized you're less likely to "mess it up".

So today's task was to practice putting out our hot spots for two minutes. I set the timer and went to work on my back counter (and boy today was a good day to work on hot spots!!). Although I didn't finish, I made some major progress in two minutes. And although it went super fast, it became clear that we can make a difference in just two minutes.

My sink is shining. See you tomorrow!

Day Five Love Fest

Today's task on Fly Lady's Baby Step program was to write down what you hear in your head...that nagging voice that speaks negative thoughts in your head, and turn them around and say something nice to negate those nasty words. I feel like I'm in a psychotherapy session - learning to love myself. Perhaps this is really intended for those stuck deep in the depths of chaos and/or depression. But I bit my tongue and jotted down those negative thoughts that pop into my head. And then I attempted to turn them around. Honestly, I felt like I was just making excuses for myself. But I think the main objective was to not allow these negative thoughts to keep you from moving forward and accomplishing what you set out and need to do. By acknowledging them, we can move beyond them and keep them from creeping into our minds moving forward. Awe. Now a big group hug!

It also has us "reading reminders for two minutes" again. In yesterday's post, I admitted I didn't know what this referred to, but I contacted FlyLady and got a response within a couple hours. Now that's organized! (Considering their following and the volume of emails they must get). Here was the response...


Dear Janelle,

Thank you for your email. We suggest that you read our daily Flight Plan. It has everything you need for that day...However, just read..do not do..we only want you to start to become familiar with the email(s). Then delete the rest of the email..Yes, delete..delete... :-)

If you have not subscribed to our Big Tent email(s)..the daily Flight Plan is located on the home page under the section..Today, We are in Zone... :-)
Hope this helps!!!

Flylady Laura

Day Four Finished

Today's task for Fly Lady's Baby Step program was quite easy and I was finally able to tackle one day of my 31 day challenge without too much interference. I set my alarm for 6am thinking it'd be my only way to get showered and 'dressed to the shoes' before my kids got up. But silly me, I forget that my daughter has a supernatural sense of bad timing and just so happened to wake in unison with my alarm clock. However, I was able to bring her into the bathroom with me, plop her on the floor with a basket of her tub toys sitting nearby and get a shower in. I spent most of it peering out to make sure she didn't yank her glasses off her face and start chewing on them (her favorite pastime - we're on our fifth pair for the year so far). The challenging part is what comes after the shower. It's not always terribly difficult to fit in a 5 minute shower. It's the tedious blow drying and flat ironing (yes, I need it) and makeup and the whole process that follows a shower that's the time-eater. So today that part didn't happen. I went downstairs fully clothed (to lace up shoes!) but with wet hair and no makeup. I figured I'd get her bottle in and then mosey back upstairs to finish the process once she had something in her tummy. It seemed to work okay - although it wasn't exactly in line with Fly Lady's process. It was one step better than yesterday!

So today's task was to simply write down reminders on sticky notes and put them in places that will remind you to do those things. The old me would have kicked into perfectionist mode, pulled out the laptop and spent 15 minutes picking out my favorite font for my homemade reminder notes (you can stop laughing now). But I didn't do that. I grabbed a good 'ol pack of 3M sticky notes and wrote "Get dressed to the shoes" on one and "Keep your sink shiny" on the other. I did take a pair of scissors and cut a wavy border around them to make them feel a little less sticky note-ish and that seemed to appease me. I put the "get dressed to the shoes" sticky on the door jam next to my door so I see it when I'm walking out. I put the "keep your sink shiny" on the frame around my windows above my sink. Done. Now, let's hope they work.

It also says to "read two minutes of your reminders" on days 3 and 4. Now, what does that mean? It can't possibly mean the two sticky notes we just made - that would be quite repetitive for two full minutes. Perhaps it's the reminders she sends out via email from her site. I'll have to email them and ask. See ya'll tomorrow.

Day Three Do-Over

Today was a do-over day. Day three of Fly Lady's Baby Step program was to "do what we have already done". Repeat steps from days one and two: Get up and get dressed to the shoes and keep your sink shining. So, considering yesterday I wasn't able to accomplish the days task first thing in the morning, I was really looking forward to waking up and hitting the ground running today. Until...I woke up and heard my husband on the phone with the car company that was supposed to pick him up and take him to the airport for this business flight, but didn't.  He's stressed that he's going to miss his flight and the next thing I knew I'm swapping my pj's for a pair of sweatpants and sneakers and I'm in the car with the two kids on our way to the airport. Crap. So much for Day Three's Do-Over! I did end up getting dressed for real after I returned from the airport, while I heard my daughter fussing in her crib attempting a morning nap (unsuccessfully).

I also had to "keep my sink shining" (as I will have to do every day forward until the 31 days is complete). I just read that it said "keep". Oops. I thought I was supposed to do it right before bed. Oh well. Needless to say it didn't shine all day. A few moments ago I realized I still had a couple of sippy cups in the sink and I was soooo tempted to just leave them there for tomorrow. I'm tired. Who would know? But that commitment to following through and documenting it here prevailed. I muscled through two more sippy cups, rinsed it down and dried it out with a dish towel (much to my dismay). And then I turned around and saw one more cup of milk on the counter and a glass of wine I took one sip from and got too tired to drink (gasp-have you ever?!). What the !@#%#$^! So I repeated that step all over again.

Okay, so what I've learned so far about my life in this process is that I can't count on a whole lot of consistency. Well, at least for now.

Day Two Down, But Just Barely

So today's quest on Fly Lady's baby step program was to "get dressed to the shoes". By this she means first thing, before anything else. This includes "fixing your hair and face" as she puts it, and putting on lace-up shoes. The idea behind it is that you act differently when you've got clothes and shoes on. Being a stay-at-home mom, I've had many a day where I'd still be in my pj's at lunchtime (not that I'm proud of it). Getting dressed first thing gets you ready for your day. You start your day off purposeful. Totally agree Fly Lady. So here's how I fared on today's challenge...

Last night my 18 month old daughter had us up several times throughout the night (which is unfortunately quite typical) so of course I used every last minute she gave me in the morning to sleep. The problem with that is that it pretty much extinguished my chances of getting "dressed to the shoes" first thing this morning. See, little Chloe is pretty high maintenance for her age. As soon as she's up she's ready for her bottle or the sky will start falling. So down the stairs we go. Day two's challenge already on the back burner. Ugh.

Lucky for me, my dear husband is an early riser and happened to be up, dressed and working from home today. He agreed to postpone his workday just a bit to help with the kids so I could shower and get dressed. And yes, today, I needed a shower. Now, if you work outside the home, then you probably get the luxury of showering and washing your hair every day. (Settle down, I was saying 'luxury' tongue-in-cheek.:-) Please, you working moms out there - tell me your secret to getting this done with young children that seem to need you every waking moment! But for now, I rely heavily on my favorite dry shampoo and quick body showers (quick enough that my daughter doesn't ingest her cute little glasses on her face before I'm done). Let's just see how today's task works out for tomorrow morning when he's in Denver. Hey, I thought these were baby steps!

I don't really have lace-up shoes (that aren't sneakers - and I wasn't wearing sweats today) so I put on flat knee boots, thinking it was still within the idea of not being easy to kick them off. I typically wear socks or bare feet in the house so my feet were quite tired and not happy by 5pm. I'm thinking I need to figure out a comfortable alternative.

According to the baby step program, we're supposed to build on each day, so I "shined my sink" before writing this post. I still think it's silly to wipe a sink dry, but did it anyway. Actually, from 'somewhere out there' I got some energy to clean the rest of my kitchen the same way. I began taking off the drip pans on the stove and spraying them with my favorite cleaning spray. Before I knew it, my whole kitchen "shined". And then I sat down and had a beer so I wouldn't have to clean a wine glass and mess up my shiny new sink.