Paper, paper everywhere....

So finished surface decluttering in the kitchen (well, if you ignore the clotheshorse & laundry basket full of clothes - I'll go sort them out in a second, honest).  It's only taken me a week... (I need smiley's here so I can put an embarassed one in)  I suppose that's only just over an hour if you consider I was doing it in 10 min/day increments....  I've bought a new bin (oh the glamour!), one of those twin recycling ones, which takes up the same footprint as what we had before but is one bin instead of 2 stacked up so in practice takes up less space & is actually easier to put stuff in... (the old stacking ones are currently soaking in a bleachy bath to be recycled as toy containers for the boys - I have an exciting life!!)

Anyhoo, I've moved onto the dining room/office today.  It took 10 mins just to clear the top of the boiler & another 10 mins to clear the table - which is re-cluttered already...  Which brings me to the point.  Along with dishes, another one of my (many) weak points when it comes to being a calm, tidy, organised domestic goddess is filing (or rather the lack of it)  I have so many good intentions but alas, I can never keep up with it... and I constantly seem to have a paper mountain to deal with... (if anyone has any tips, please DO NOT send a postcard, but do feel free to comment!!!)

So the reason I've re-cluttered the table after clearing it, is I'm going through some of my Avon paperwork & attempting to put that into some sort of order...  I promise that for once we'll be able to eat at the table tonight!!  (where I'm actually going to put said paperwork once I've sorted it is another matter - the stuff that's not being kept is obvious - it's the stuff that needs filing that's stumping me!!!)

Anyway, ciao for now!!

Cutting the Clutter...

OK, it's time to stand up & admit it...

My name is Terri & I'm a slob as far as housework is concerned...  I don't want to be - I'd love for my house to be neat, tidy & organised but it's not....
Maybe I'm a perfectionist (therefore if I haven't got time to do a perfect job, I won't bother at all), maybe I'm just lazy, maybe my inner teenager is STILL rebelling against the idea of tidying up, maybe it's a little of all 3...  Either way, my house is an absolute tip....  And unfortunately my boys are copying the idea.... (which doesn't help!)

But I've decided ENOUGH IS ENOUGH - it's time to do something about it...

I've devised a babystep-by-babystep program for myself to start getting some routines/habits down as far as changing my slovenly ways is concerned.  I'm going to add a new step every 21 days (it may be a little longer - there may well be (ok, there will definitely be) times when I need to just stop, take stock & stay where I am for a little as I get overwhelmed...  Hopefully there won't be too many of those times.

Anyhoo - first step for me is to declutter/tidy for 10 minutes a day & to make sure the dishes get done every night before bed...  I usually fall down at this stage.  I don't know what it is about dishes, but I can't get it into my head that yes, they do need to be done (although admittedly, it was a lot easier when we had a dishwasher...)

6 days into my new regime & I've actually only missed one day (yay me!)  I'm so hoping I can stick to it this time round...

I'm taking pics as well, so I'll share those when I've figured out how!!  I started the decluttering (tidying) in the kitchen (I figure that part of the whole dishes problem is that the kitchen never seems to be tidy...)  I made the mistake of not taking "before" pics till today mind, but as there is currently no cooker & it needs decorating, (plus I've only surface decluttered - the cupboards are awful) then we should still see a difference....

Anyhoo - that's me signing out for today.. I'll see you soon!