Wednesday I had to face facts and realize how nasty I’d let my house get. I got really depressed about it. After a bit I realized crying wouldn’t help anything (I express emotion through tears), so I decided to get to work. I worked that evening and night until about one in the morning, got a good night’s sleep, and worked most of the day yesterday. There is still a lot to do, but I made some progress. Some progress is better than no progress compiled by ever-growing mountains of dirty laundry and dishes (not to mention the general dirt, dust, spider webs, etc.).

Living Area As Of Wednesday Afternoon

Remembering Fly Lady’s words of wisdom I first cleaned my sink and washed the dishes. It is amazing how much influence the kitchen holds over the rest of the home. I still have a bunch of stuff to organize in the kitchen (stuff I pulled out of cabinets weeks ago), but I did get the items all into the kitchen area rather than kitchen and living room. I don’t want to just shove everything into the cabinets. I want things in some sort of order. Part of my problem is my huge but not storage-friendly lower cabinets. (I’ll post pictures of them soon.)

My Shiny Sink Woohoo!

I washed, oh I don’t know, 5 – 7 loads of laundry. I actually had done laundry about a week and a half ago, but with that round of laundry I ended up with a mountain of clean laundry. It was so annoying that after days of wading into the heap to find something my husband folded what was left of the pile! I appreciated him doing that, but I felt terrible that I let the pile happen in the first place. He folded everything that was clean and put his stuff away; he left the towels and my clothes since he wasn’t sure where I wanted them. I re-folded most of what was left, but I didn’t tell him that. It’s the thought that counts. It was sweet that he folded them, because laundry is pretty much my department. (Note to self: A clean laundry pile is only slightly better than a dirty laundry pile!) Oh, and this time around I got everything folded/hung up and put away. Yay me!

I straightened, did some sweeping, did some rearranging in the living room, gathered trash… Started on the bathrooms. I got our shower/toilet room cleaned (not perfect, but HUGE improvement over what is was). Still have to do the rest of our bathroom and the other bathroom, but I woke up today with a splitting headache and haven’t felt like moving.

Much Cleaner Living Area Thursday Afternoon

The shower/toilet room was the most offensive area of the house. I took before pictures, but I am too ashamed to share them. Maybe someday I’ll be brave enough, but it was BAD.

Gearing Up To Attack The Nastiness

Yes, I really wore a dust mask in the hopes of breathing in a minimal amount of spores. (I sprayed the room down with strong bleach water Wednesday night and let the fumes die down overnight. I prefer to use vinegar and natural cleaners as much as possible, but I felt like this job called for Clorox.)

Cleaner Toilet/Ugly Flooring

A Huge Improvement, Believe It Or Not

Yes, this is the “after.” If you are thinking it still looks icky be glad I didn’t post the “before” pictures. And yes, that is good ol’ duct tape. The plastic shower is old and keeps cracking. (The plastic shower is also stained.) We will have to remodel the shower/toilet room at some point. Ah, one day…

I really hate parts of my house… I use the term “house” loosely; it’s actually a used mobile home. (I need to do a post about our land/home.) We went against the cultural norm and went into minimal debt starting out in our marriage. I don’t regret for a moment our decision to purchase a used mobile home (even if there are many things I would like to change/upgrade). It gives us shelter, and we don’t have a 100K+ mortgage hanging over our heads. Peace of mind is worth a lot.

The floors in particular are terrible. Patched and broken vinyl tile-like stuff and old, icky carpet. The tile-like stuff is the hardest to live with because it’s impossible to clean thoroughly. I hypothesize that that is one of the reasons I procrastinate cleaning the floors; even when I clean them they don’t seem very clean. That is disheartening. I had to give myself a talking to Wednesday whenever I decided to buck up, get off my butt, and make a dent in the mess I live in… I reminded myself why we live in an old trailer with crappy floors. One day I will likely have nicer flooring. Having ugly parts in my house is no excuse for not doing the best I can. As Tony Horton would say: “Do your best; forget the rest!” That is wonderful advice. My floors may be ugly, but I can clean them to the best of my ability. I want people who enter my home to be able to tell that I care for it and clean it.

I believe my biggest problem is laziness. I’m great at making excuses. My favorite is: “One day I will be a mom, and I will never have time to be lazy ever again.” I have used this excuse for all kinds of reasons. This week through spending time with God and reading the bible and reading certain blog posts I’ve been reminded that now is the time when I need to be preparing to BE a mom. I will not overnight learn how to keep house, cook from scratch and manage my time well. It’s ok for me to enjoy things now that will be a luxury later on (like sleeping in), but I really need to practice for the days ahead. One source of inspiration was this post by Whitney: Homemaking Without Children.

On a happy note, as part of my recent motivation I baked rolls yesterday. I really wanted to do something nice for Tyler. I’ve been talking about making more of our bread. I knew it would make me feel awesome and domestic to bake bread. I modified one of Amy’s recipes. I made the dough required for her Ham and Cheese Pockets, but I didn’t add the filling. I separated the dough into twenty balls, flattened each one with my palm, and pinched the sides together on the bottom so that the top would be smooth when they baked. They turned out great!

Hearty, Delicious White Whole Wheat Rolls

In closing, I’ll say it for you as well as myself: It is so much more fun to read blogs about keeping home than to actually get up and clean something of our own! But trust me, living in a cleaner house feels SO much better than living in filth. For the past several weeks I’ve been obsessive about blogs/blogging because I decided to start mine, and because I love reading home-related blogs! I’ve neglected my house for too long due to laziness and blog obsession. That ends now. One of the reasons I wanted to blog was to hold myself accountable for keeping home (and all the other things I need to be doing).

When I was in tears Wednesday about the house and what a “terrible wife” I was, my sweet husband assured me that I was a great wife and that I simply need to focus a bit on time management. I love that man with all my heart. I’m going to work a whole LOT on time management.

What about you? Do you need to shut the laptop and  shine your sink? Do you hate to clean? Do you put off cleaning your bathroom until you simply can’t stand it anymore? This is a safe space. lol. I won’t judge you as long as you don’t judge me.

- Miriam