A Wrap Up...

The past few days pretty much proved to me that this public challenge was a good idea. Do you know how many times I've resolved to make a change, and then it all fell apart after a short while, and then I just gave up? 

I've felt pretty icky the past couple of days... and yes, thats why there were no posts. My house looked like a bomb hit it. I was adjusting to the challenge of living with no stovetop- preparing meals was taking all my possible organizational possibilities- I'm very NOT organized and preparing food in the crockpot or baking it meant no last minute dashes to create meals... 

And the cleaning aspect of organization... fell by the wayside.

But I got a few emails, blog comments, and facebook posts asking what happened with this blog...

And that's what gave me the push to get back on track.

I first have to say that one thing I have managed to do is get the bed made every morning, which has made a big difference.

Friday we were having guests for a meal, so the place got cleaned spotless by Friday afternoon. Friday, before bed, it was all clean other than dishes, which I finished Saturday morning. And then Saturday morning I got so into the challenge that I started doing so many other things. I swept the upstairs hallway, swept the bedroom, tidied the kid's bedroom, and emptied the dishrack. The place was spotless today- I didn't let even one dish hit the sink or dishrack- I would wash each dish as it got dirty, then dry it and put it away. The place didn't get one iota dirty the whole entire day.

I'm so proud of myself. Here's how it is now before bed. And it looked exactly like this this afternoon as well. Yay for me!

A bit too exhausted to tally up my points so far though tonight.

Gnite.

December 5th, 2011- Afternoon and Bedtime

Ok, today was better than previous days, but not perfect.

By 3 pm, the counters were cleaned, table was cleaned, floor was cleaned, and all dishes were washed. Didn't snap a pic.

I also had made the beds and sorted out the laundry, for an extra 3 bonus points.

This evening, I really wanted to go to sleep. Instead, I put the few supper dishes in the sink, cleaned off the counters and the dining room table and swept the floor.

Ok, I didn't wash the few dishes (I am cold, the water is cold, and I don't want to freeze my hands right before heading to bed), but I plan on doing them first thing in the AM.

I'm proud of myself for tidying up when I only wanted to sleep.

So, full points for this afternoon, and half points for this evening, plus an extra 2 bonus points. Too tired to look at the tally so far, so I'll add it up in the morning.

Gnite y'all.

How's your house today?

December 4, Afternoon and Bedtime

I don't really know how to give myself points for today. I wasn't even home at 3 pm to get the place clean or dirty. I was in the city from 10 am until 5 pm, so there's no 3 pm picture.
Before I left in the morning, the table was cleaned, as were the counters and floors, and the beds were made, and there were exactly 4 dishes in the sink, which were subsequently washed when I came home at 5 pm.
I think, even though there were those 4 dishes in the sink, the fact that I made the effort to tidy the place before I left at 10 (when I usually am leaving in such a rush that I leave a place a royal mess) will give me full points for the afternoon challenge for today.

Then tonight, I definitely deserve kudos. I was at a marriage workshop this evening and I came back really late (ok, not even so late, but I was tired enough that it felt really late) and wanted nothing more than to conk out the second I walked in the door.
Instead, I stayed up and got the place cleaned up, the counters cleaned, the table cleaned and the food put away, the floor cleaned, and I even mopped the floor!!! When I would have preferred to be sleeping!!!

I'll be honest. This is the part where it becomes hard for me. Its easy for me to get excited at the beginning of a challenge, go all gung ho about a project... and then a short while into it, I kind of give up, and there go my plans.

Its a regular thing for me. In fact, the fact that I've had my Penniless Parenting blog for so long is quite an accomplishment for me, because its the project I've stuck with for the longest time.

I'm having a harder time staying motivated to clean now. The past few day's posts kind of show that I've been slacking a bit. But I don't WANT to slack. I am enjoying the tidiness. I am just also feeling very very very tired lately (no matter how much extra sleep I seem to be getting) which makes it harder for me to motivate myself to clean...

I need extra encouragement to not give up this challenge.

Even though its making my life better and is doing wonders for my marriage, my relationship with my husband and kids, and even is just making me feel better... I still have this little voice in my head saying "Just give up, don't bother, you'll always be messy, you're just trying to kid yourself..."

Anyhow, so in terms of how I scored so far, I got the place to the proscribed standards 11.5 out of 15 possible times, and 11.5 out of 60 total times. I get two bonus points today, one for beds in the master bedroom made, and one for the floors mopped, for a grand total of 24 bonus points.

So, how do you work when it comes to motivation? Do you start a project all enthusiastic, and then the enthusiasm wanes and the project peters out? How do you learn to stick with a project or task?

December 2-3, 2011

Hrmm. Slacking off with the pic taking and blog posting, I know. I just had a crazy past 48 hours, including not having any gas in my house and having repeated black outs, and having lots of cooking that needed to get done. I pretty much spent the whole day yesterday at my friend's house, cooking all my food there, and then lugging my things back and forth repeatedly. No fun.
And then on top of that all, I've just been so exhausted that I've been crashing at 9:30 pm and on top of that, taking naps during the day.
And on top of that, Ike's been having lots of potty issues so.... yea, there goes any modicum of relaxation I might be able to get.
So I don't really have pics for Friday afternoon, evening, or Saturday afternoon. Only for Saturday night. But I am keeping track of whether or not I accomplished my goals.

So, how did I do?

Friday Afternoon:
The place was pretty clean. Dishes washed, table cleared, floor cleaned. Full points for Friday afternoon. Two bonus point for the kid's bedroom and master bedroom's bed's made.

Friday Night:
No points. I crashed at 9:30 pm with a sink full of dishes, counters full of stuff, and supper stuff still on the table. Hey, at least the floor was clean.

Saturday Afternoon:
No points. Dishes on the table, in the sink, on the counter. Yea...

Saturday Bedtime:
Finally. Back on track.
Full points.

Counters cleaned. Sinks cleared. Floors cleaned.

Table cleared.

No bonus points though. 

Total tally so far- I've gotten the place cleaned to the standards I set 9.5 out of 13 possible times, and 9.5 out of the 60 possible so far.

22 total bonus points.

I gotta get back on track. Being tired isn't an excuse to let the place slide into disarray.

But at the same time, I'm not going to eat myself up for being human. Even when the place was a mess, it was a far cry from the accumulated mess that I've managed to let build up in my home at times. My house was never messy for more than 24 hours at a time, and that's saying something, fortunately. (Not sure if more about my current standards of cleanliness or my previous lack of one, but any improvement is great!)

Anyhow, I'm off to bed now. I'm STILL tired. Even though I've slept more the past few days than I have in a while!!!

How was the cleanliness of your place these past few days?

December 1, 2011- Bed Time

Ok. Moment of truth has come to pass.
I went to bed last night and left the house a royal mess. Too tired to tidy up even a drop. Too tired to even take a pic. I need to get more sleep regularly so this doesn't happen again. But I KNOW the house will get in tip top shape by 3 pm today and will be clean at bedtime tonight.

Eek.

Embarassing.
But I need this to be my motivation.

(I snapped these pics first thing in the morning and didn't move a THING to be as honest as possible as to how it was before bed.)

No words necessary.

Aside from- "Well hey, I've seen the house get worse than this, and this will take less than 30 mins to clean up."

Lol does your house get this messy, less messy, or worse?

November 30, 2011- Bedtime

This post was going to be entitled "Mess, and I'm too tired to care." Up until 5 minutes before I took this pic, there were supper dishes on the table, food on the counter and stove, and things on the floor. But yea, I decided not to leave them as is and to put them away. Mostly, anyhow.

I have dishes in the sink overnight for the first time since starting this challenge. Not a million dishes, but still dishes.

And I honestly am too tired to care. Too tired to wash them. Went to sleep too late last night and was up with the kids too many times in the night to stay up later to wash these.

Oh well.

I'll decide tomorrow if that means I "failed" this challenge today, or if I passed, or if I get "half credit". I'm leaning towards half credit.

Because other than those eggs, the counters are clean. And so is the floor.

And aside for that backpack that I'm too tired to deal with at the moment (emptying it out, etc...), the table is also free from clutter.

I'll tally up the score in the AM.

Good night.

I'm zonked.

What do you say? Points for cleanliness for tonight, or my first "incomplete"? Do you leave dishes in the sink overnight?

11-29-2011 Bed Time

Got the place cleaned before bed tonight! This wasn't such an easy feat as I did a massive grocery shop tonight and only arrived home late, but even so, sinks and counters are cleaned. Dish racks empty!!! Yay for me!

Dining room table free from clutter and dirt.

And floor mopped!

This means that so far, I succeeded to keep the place to the standards I set for myself 5 out of the 5 times so far, and 5 out of the total 60 times possible for this challenge! Really proud of myself!

2 bonus points tonight.
+1 for the mopped floor
+1 for the empty dish racks

Total of 16 bonus points so far!

Aight, have a good night!

Will you manage to have a clean house before bed tonight? Why or why not?

11/28/2011- Day 2 Bed Time

I'll be totally honest here. I was about to fall off the bandwagon tonight, after only my third post. I was in the city this evening meeting my doula, and came home absolutely wiped out. I actually fell asleep on the bus and wanted to roll into bed and sleep for the rest of the night, even though it was still really early. Last night I only slept 2 am until 6:30 pm, so that's understandable, but I was torn.
My bed was desperately calling me.
But the supper dishes were on the table, and there were the lunch dishes in the sink. I really didn't want to leave dishes overnight, because I was afraid that that would stop my clean streak and just encourage messiness. And because I knew I had to post here tonight with a pic... and I didn't want to post a pic of a less than spotless kitchen, especially not on day 2 of the challenge.

So I convinced my husband to wash the dishes while I made his breakfast and lunch for tomorrow (extra challenging because I haven't been grocery shopping in 3 weeks and am really short on ingredients- I ended up making him pancakes- with eggs and milk- and mashed potatoes with green beans).

So... This clean house. Well, for the most part it was my doing. I didn't let it become the royal bomb it usually does with toys all over the floor and dishes piled high in the sink and pots and pans all over the counter and stove, etc...
But the fact that the sink is all the way clean, that there are no dirty dishes in the pic... That is thanks to my husband, Mike.
Of course, Mike often does do the dishes in our marriage and often resents it, because there really is no reason why someone like myself home all day should be messing the place as terribly as I generally do and not clean up after myself (and today proved him right about that)... but because he saw how hard I worked to not only keep the place clean but to work on the other things as well today (cleaning under the bed, et al), he was more than happy to clean up the few supper stuff while I cooked food for tomorrow.

Clean sink, post breakfast and lunch prep for tomorrow. I actually did wash those dishes (hubby just did the dishes that were in the sink prior to that) as well as cleaning off the counter.
Yes, I do want to start having the dish rack empty before bed, but that'll come in time, I hope.

Ike sitting at the clean table on a relatively clean floor. Yes, he's still up. Thats what happens when he falls asleep at 6 PM while I'm out, wakes up at 7:30 asking for Mommy and doesn't fall back asleep because he wants Mommy. 6 PM is NOT a good time for a 2 year old to nap.

And no, he's not wearing pants. He's holding them in his lap. Somehow, he's not cold. 2 year olds...

As for the cleanliness state of the house- laundry on the line that will be dry by tomorrow AM and needing to be sorted, laundry in the machine that needs to be hung up, and the floor could use a mopping.

Tomorrow, they say, is another day.

So far, 3 out of 3 possible chances for a clean house. 3 out of the potential 60 times for this challenge. No bonus points for tonight, and I really shouldn't be getting today's points either because my husband did help with this one... But the fact that I did stay up and didn't go to sleep when I wanted to, but instead stayed up to get things done that needed to get done... I'll give myself credit for this one.

Oh, and as for rewards and motivation, I allowed myself to window shop and look at a display of nice earrings while I was in town today, to show me what I can have if I stick to this resolution of mine. And I passed by the sushi place, was very tempted to treat myself, and then refrained, saying "No, Penny, that's only if you manage to keep the place clean. No cheating!"

So, did you manage to keep your place clean today?

11/27/11- Bed Time

I cleaned the place pretty well this afternoon. It really set the tone in the house, and two people who came over commented on the place. That was enough to motivate me, and to get me to want it to stay like that. The atmosphere in the house was very relaxed because of the state of the house.

Even after the house was clean this afternoon, the kitchen got a little messier again because of making and serving supper, and then making my husband's breakfast and lunch for tomorrow. Even so, I washed up and tidied up before bed.

Here's the results!

Cleaned kitchen counter, empty sinks. Dish rack full of dishes, but that's fine.

Dining room table clean. Floor free of clutter. (Yes, under the table that's a booster seat. That's where we store it. Lol.)

Floor in the general kitchen area also clean.

Yay for me! 

So far, 1/60 possible times cleaned up to the standards I set for myself! 1/1 chances so far successfully completed. 

Yay!!!

Three cheers for me!