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- Aternoon

So last night, in my extreme tiredness, I let the standards of cleanliness in my place slide, leaving a very little clutter on the table and counter, and a small amount of dishes in the sink. After some thought, I decided to give myself half credit for that, because it took less than 5 minutes to clean up last night's "mess" this morning. And even that mess was much better than how my house usually would get.

Today, I got back on the bandwagon and got my act together, and I'm proud of how I got the place clean again, and even did more than the bare minimum standard that I set for myself.

Counters free from clutter and cleaned, and sinks cleaned and dishes washed. I've got some chicken defrosting in the sink now.

Dining room table cleaned, and floors tidied and freed from clutter.

I also made the beds, as you can see through the door in the picture.

Today, one of the "extras" that I did was organizing my freezer. I emptied it all out, and then put it back in neatly, in an organized fashion, so I can see what foods are where and be able to stock my freezer more effectively for after birth.

Top shelf left- frozen fish. Middle- raw meats. Right- frozen chopped vegetables.

Middle shelf left- ready made meals. Right- precooked proteins including cooked gizzards, hot dogs, and cooked beans.

Bottom shelf left- ready made breakfasts (including waffles, crepes, hash browns. Middle- grains and such. Left- cooked broths and tomato paste.

So far, I got the place to the standards I set for this challenge 7.5 times out of the total 8 possible so far (counting yesterday as half), and 7.5 out of 60 possible times for this challenge.

Today I get bonus points-

+1 for making the master bedroom beds

+1 for making the beds in the kid's room

+1 for sorting and putting away the laundry

+1 for cleaning and sorting the freezer

That makes a total of 20 bonus points thus far.

Good for me!

I'm proud of myself for not using last night as an excuse to get back into my messy rut!

What types of things usually get you into a messy rut?

November 30, 2011- Afternoon

Today is proof that this challenge is a good idea for me. I had a lazy morning this morning, let dishes lie around in the sink, and the counters were full of stuff. It was 2 oclock, and I realized that I'd be taking pictures in an hour, and I didn't want my mess posted on the internet! So I quickly washed the dishes in less than 5 minutes, tidied the counters and the floor, and cleaned out the sink. Avoiding public humiliation certainly is a great motivation to not be lazy!

Clean table. Ike took out that toy- the pile of papers from the past few days is now missing from the table.

Clean counters and sink. I started a batch of citrus cleaner, and that now is sitting on the counter in addition. Yes, there are dishes in the dish rack.

So far, out of the 6 times so far in the challenge, I passed the test of keeping the place to the proscribed cleanliness standard 6 times. 6 times out of a total possible 60. That's 10% and that's big!

No bonus points for me today. Floor needs mopping, beds haven't been made, and laundry needs to be put away badly. Thats ok, I don't need to be perfect all the time. 16 bonus points so far. The point isn't perfection and always doing more than needed, its to make good habits and make sure the basic living area in our home stays presentable most of the time, and I've been accomplishing that so far.

What motivates you to clean? Does not wanting to publically humiliate yourself work to motivate you?
How was your house today?

11-29-2011 Afternoon

Today, I am so glad that I didn't fall off the bandwagon last night, because waking up to a clean house, clean counters, and empty sink (with breakfast already made) set the tone for another great day like yesterday. I cleaned up from breakfast, then the kids and I went out for a playdate, then went to the store and foraging, and then came home and did projects while I made lunch. I cleaned up as I went along when making lunch, something I rarely ever do, but it was easier to motivate myself to do that when the sinks started off empty and I wanted to keep them that way.

Here's the kitchen. All clean. Counters freed of clutter and cleaned, sinks empty, and DISHRACKS EMPTY!!! Woohoo!!!

Dining room table cleaned and floor cleaned! Yay!

Through the door, you can see the beds were made in the master bedroom. :-D

So, thus far, I've managed to keep the place to the standards I set for myself 4 out of the 60 total times, and 4 out of the 4 chances so far! I'm really proud of myself!

Bonus points today as well!
+1 for bathtub cleaned
+1 for dish rack emptied
+1 for master bedroom beds made
+1 for kid's bed's made
+1 for sorting and putting away all the clean laundry
+1 for tidying up the master bedroom

For a total of 6 bonus points in addition to the 8 bonus points I earned yesterday for a total of 14 bonus points so far!

Because I'm doing such a good job so far, I realized there's a chance that I will be getting the place perfect 60 out of the 60 possible times, and if I manage that, I'll reward myself by buying myself those nice earrings in addition to taking myself out for sushi.

Today, I was talking with a friend of mine who started reading this blog and was cheering me on (you know who you are!) who is very much "queen of neat", who gave me some tips for some of my messiness downfalls- cooking. She gave me tips how to not get the sinks entirely full while cooking meals, and I applied then when making lunch today and they worked out terrifically.

I also had a talk with my kids about bad habits, bad habits that I have, bad habits that they have, and how its important to break bad habits. I mentioned to them that messiness was one of my bad habits, that leaving things lying around was one of my bad habits, as well as dropping things on the floor and not picking them up. We decided to work on our bad habit of messiness as a family, and when they leave things lying around, I just mention "bad habits" and ask then if they see what bad habits they're doing, and then cheerfully they go up and pick up the things they left lying around on the floor.
I think part of the reason the place would get so messy is that I wasn't good about having the kids clean up after themselves, and then I'd resent having to clean their mess, so I'd just leave it. By working on our habits as a family, I think it'll be less work in general for everyone, and less feeling overwhelmed because no mess is building up.

How was your house today? Did you manage to keep it clean?
Do your kids clean up after themselves or are you always picking up the things they leave lying around?

11-28-11 Afternoon

I'm living up to the challenge so far, not only keeping the standards of cleanliness from last night, but cleaning even more, despite actually living in the house today with my 2 homeschooled boys and taking care of breakfast and lunch.

At 3 pm, the counters were clean, as was the sink. (They only stopped being clean for a few minutes at a time, and stayed clean from 11 am and onwards.)

Floor clean, and dining room table cleaned!

2 out of 60 possible chances to get the place clean, and 2 out of 2 possible chances so far. Woohoo for me!

To be honest, once the place was clean already, it got me motivated to keep it clean, because it was only a few minutes work at a time to keep it that way, and I was proud of how the place looked.

I even got motivated to go above and beyond what I needed to do. The whole tone in the house was pleasant this morning. We were productive with homeschooling, did projects, went to the park, prepared food...
And also cleaned extra stuff.

I get bonus points today.
+1 for cleaning the stove top
+1 for making my bed
+1 for making the beds in the kid's room
+1 for tidying up the master bedroom
+1 for tidying up the kid's bedroom
+1 for cleaning the upstairs hallway and stairs
+1 for sorting and putting away all the clean laundry and washing and hanging more loads
+1 for sorting out the stuff on my shelves

Woohoo for me! I am really proud of myself, and can't wait to keep up this streak!