There was a time, many years ago, where I was kind of a total neat freak. You would not know this about me if you've seen my house, especially in the last two years... since moving to Davenport... since leaving South Bend.
One of my biggest problems is really the overwhelming nature of *all that domestic stuff* (I'm not always polite enough to use the word "stuff" there).
Laundry never ends, there aren't enough drawers in the kids room to put away the clothes, what do you do with the single socks waiting for a cycle of laundry to "finish" to see if they match up with something?, I should change out the winter clothes with the summer clothes, these don't fit, these are ragged, these are just old...
Each task is like that for me, thinking about it leads to another thought and another action and another "I really should..." which totally incapacitates me into sitting on the couch watching TV or (more lately) reading a good (or even not so good) novel.
A week and a half ago we made an effort to all work on something domestic. Jordan wanted to help me clean my bathroom. She likes the actual CLEANING part: spray, scrub, rinse, shine... She doesn't understand that the hard part (picking up, sorting, putting/throwing away) comes first.
Anyway, i told her she could help me, but first I needed to go through all the drawers in there and get rid of anything we didn't need or use (who needs two hair-dryers when no one in the house actually USES a hair-dryer except on the rare hair-flattening experiment)? But, also, I'm reading the Lazy Environmentalist on a Budget and want to be careful to reduce, reuse, recycle and do so responsibly. (You shouldn't throw out old batteries or prescriptions, for example).
It took a little bit but I emptied everything out of every drawer in the tiny little bathroom and got rid of what I could, organized and put away what was left and then Jordan cleaned.
This week I started in the kitchen, not making a big deal out of each area, and just taking one area at a time.
First it was the freezer (this was prompted by an ice-cream sandwich I ate that tasted like freezer burn). I got rid of a bunch of old old old stuff and organized everything that was left (and also took inventory for what needs to be used up!)
Then last night it was the pantry and the two other cabinets that hold food. This project took a little longer than I expected and dinner was later than any of us wanted it to be...but all my dry-food/non-perishables are organized and easily "findable".
Today it was the fridge, which ended up taking WAY longer than my lunch break and I still need to actually empty and CLEAN the drawers that hold the veggies and fruit, but everything else looks awesome and is easily found.
We (Aron, Jordan and I) will leave this Sunday and except for one day on the 16th when we collect Eric, will be gone the entire monthly of July. It would be so nice to have the house all organized and clean before we leave so that coming back won't be such a chore.
The next big project to tackle is clothes - I think it'll take a few hours at best. But I can put on Netflix and just slowly make my way through, not thinking too far ahead, one step at a time and MAYBE it'll be done by Sunday morning when we leave.
It does feel good to know I've done what I have already done.
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