Okay, as I have said before, I am not perfect with my Fly-Lady stuff, but I am loving it so far! Even though at the moment my house is pretty thrashed from the work we've been doing on it the past day or so, I don't feel overwhelmed by any of it. That alone is a pretty huge change! Normally I look at a mess and freak out because I don't know where to start, and there are so many freaking details to finishing whatever it is I want to finish, that I don't end up doing it. But with Fly-Lady everything is simplified. When I'm washing dishes, I don't need to make sure that everything is perfectly sanitized and disinfected, the floor is swept and mopped, and that everything is picture perfect nice and cute, I just need to wash the dishes and wipe out the sink. If I want and I have time, I can sweep and sanitize everything, but I don't HAVE to every time. And freeing myself from that actually enables me to do more than I would normally do.
One example of this is sweeping. I have avoided sweeping much of my house for (literally) months because there are so many construction materials out everywhere, and dust-bunnies get caught on the sub-floor (the floor beneath your floor! Didn't know you had one, did you?) and it was a big hassle and sometimes more messy than just allowing the dirt to be there. Between drywall dust, mud and texture remnants, and the grout for the tile in our bathroom, it just wasn't worth it to me. But about a week and a half ago I decided that I wanted to sweep at least 4 times a week, and preferably every day. So I started doing it. I gathered all the construction materials into one small spot (I need to do this again because things are spreading out as we use them!) got everything off the floor that had no business being there, and started sweeping. I started in our room, and then the bathroom and hall, then moved to the living room, and by the time I was done I had a fairly decent pile of dust and debris gathered up. I swept it up, threw it out, and for the first time in months, walked from the living room to my bedroom without shoes on, and didn't worry about getting splinters!* It was pretty encouraging for me. I have been sweeping every few days since then, and I can really tell the difference. When I sweep I do the everything from the kitchen on in (I don't do the mudroom every time because my dog and cat just thrash it within 10 minutes!), and it usually only takes me 10 to 15 minutes to do. Which is another thing that I like. Fly-Lady says to break your work down into manageable portions, 5,10, 15, or 20 minute segments, and when the time is up you don't have to keep at it. Only start what you can finish in your selected time period. Sometimes I have gone over my time- only by a couple of minutes- because I have a bad habit of leaving projects unfinished and I am trying to break my habit. One time I had my three biggest house cleaning projects done in just under an hour. It was awesome! I am feeling a lot more in control of my household now, and I think that the Handsome Boy is liking it too.
In fact, he is liking it so much that he put floor down in our bedroom this week!!! About a week ago we found a great deal on flooring and we bought enough to put down in our bedroom and our living room (just to get us started, the deal was too awesome to pass up!). This past Saturday the Handsome Boy spent the whole morning clearing out a space for our vegetable garden, digging out a ditch down the driveway so our back yard wouldn't flood, and then he came in around 2:00 or 3:00 and put the entire floor down in our bedroom. Watching him go made me feel somewhat paltry and insignificant with what I was doing, it was like watching a freaking tornado go through! He finished our entire bedroom floor on Saturday, which means that I now have a floor in my room!!! I love it too, its a nice blonde laminate floor, and it looks beautiful. I am amazed at how much he did! He is such a good example to me. He is one of the hardest working people that I know and I always feel lazy when I'm working with him because he does so much! He is my biggest motivation to change myself, because I know that he deserves someone much better than the person I currently am, and I want to change that. I am so excited about my floor though!! I know that people live in houses under construction for years at a time, and we haven't even been here a full year yet, but I am ready to have this sucker finished! It will be so beautiful once it is done, and I can't wait to see it.
I know, I'm a dork. But you love me anyways, don't you? :-)
*One thing you have to realize about sub-floor is that it is basically particle board. Its not meant to be used as a real floor, and will start flaking and it will give you splinters. Not pleasant! As such we always wear shoes in the house, which I'm not too fond of... :-)
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