Marie's Musings

Musings from the mundane day to day life of a mom of 9 to more serious ponderings of the day.

Sunday, March 01, 2009

Lots of stuff

I often think of blog posts thruout the day as I go about being a wife and a mother. Most of them never seem to make it to the blogosphere -- time, brainpower, energy -- all play a factor in that.

Lately I have been really reflecting on ways to reduce the amount of mess and clutter in the house. As I have said before, cleaning is definitely not my strong suit. In fact, 9 times out of 10, left to my own devices, Ill put cleaning up off to another time. I find once i get going, a momentum propels me forward and I want to do more. Its that initial jump start that is the hardest for me and of course the interuptions that having kids brings(especially a nursing baby)

So with lots of prayer(I mean lots!), I have been embarking on trying to make some better habits that thwart my laid back, proscrastinating nature. Since this has been a lifelong struggle for me, Im starting simple. Simply committing to wiping up after breakfast, sweeping the floor and loading the dishwasher every morning. For those of you cleaners out there, I realize this sounds unbearably simple and easy. For me, though, Im forcing myself to think what would a person born with a "clean gene" do here.

Right now the season of life(having a nursing baby, special needs toddler and two preschoolers home daytime) means Im not putting time limits on my quests right now. I am trying to get the kitchen clean every morning. That gives me 4 hrs between when everyone is gone to school/work and when Andrew comes home for lunch. Im happy to report that I have been sucessful about 90 percent of the time over the last three weeks. It definitely has helped start my momentum.

The next goal that loosely have been working on is washing/sorting/putting away 4 loads of laundry a day. In the past I generally would do several loads of laundry a day but not always getting to the folding or putting away. Side note here, all the kids (even Gideon helps now) put away their own clothes. I just wash it and sort it into baskets or piles. That quite often would lead to a giant pile of clean laundry 6 , 8 or even 10 loads to fold at a time. Ive taken to folding upstairs at the kitchen table. This has done two things to help. The first being that Im on the same leval as the main bathroom, the kitchen and my bedroom -- then as Im folding -- I hang up work clothes or put away towels right away. The 2nd being is Im folding standing up which takes away the option of getting too comfortable and falling asleep. I tend to fold during quiet time/naptime, thus the tendency to be sleepy!

I plan to add in more goals and spruce up current ones(doing them better or faster) as I go along and master the current ones i have.

God is good ... all the time
MJ

1 Comments:

  • At 3:55 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Hey Marie:)
    I have the same house struggles as you and have found that if I follow flylady.net it makes a big difference. Granted I get off track but when I want to get back on...it always helps.

    I love your blog by the way and am glad to have reconnected with you!

     

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