Day 5 - Attempt number, I've lost count!

Ok, so I never got past day 5......  however there are post it notes around the kitchen & bathroom now....  but however I have failed miserably.  I guess that all isn't really lost.  I plan to get back on track when I get home tonight.

So far, I'm blaming not being home until severely late (try after midnight), a broken glass in the sink (seriously I keep cutting myself when picking the damn thing up) and just pure exhaustion.

I'm coming to the conclusion that I stick to this better when the house is FULL of children.  Don't ask, I have no idea why.

Now I'm going to stop making excuses with everything, I truly do want everything clean & tidy....  so I am going to start again from day 5.  Minus the make up thing, my skin HATED wearing makeup all day....  and tbh I'd rather be sans-makeup than with loads of pimples & loads of makeup on.....

today's motto, when I'm not trying to grab 2 minutes for a nap, is going to be....  I can do this, I can do this, I can do this....  I can keep a clean house and I can continue reversing the chaos.....

Heaven help me, I'm going to need all the luck & motivation that I can get!!!!!!!!!

Day 5 - Faultering.... badly

I admit it.  I'm faultering.  More so because I'm tired rather than lack of motivation... ok so maybe its lack of motivation too...  lack of motivation to do anything other than want to sleep.

Yesterday I started off with the best of intentions, sink done, makeup done, post it notes in my bag to go home and be filled out and 'posted everywhere'....  truly I did have the best of intentions.

But of course, my normal avoidance of housework kicked in.....  and I didn't have the energy to fight it....  instead I had the energy to put together a BBQ for my Fiance (belated fathers day gift to get around his $100 limit; that and I haven't had a bbq for the last 2 y rs)......  and then take the girls to Baseball, as this was the last game and my Fiance was stuck at a golf tournament.

So we got home, met my Fiance there, the girls showed him his surprise and then it was time for them to go to bed, and then time for me, since the toothpicks holding my eyes open were no longer working.

Needless to say.....  the PostIt notes never made it out of my bag and onto the walls in the kitchen & bathroom....  I am going to write them up at work today and make up for lost time, and I'm going to put them on the walls when I get home.  Just in time to get changed, load all the kids in the car and head out on a long journey to drop our step daughter off to spend time with her bio-dad.  I'm not sure if I'll get Day 5 challenges completed today..... 

Actually just having read on what day 5 is....  I can do that while I'm at work too....  I also need to write down everything that I tell myself when I look around the kitchen and bathroom....  that I can do...  :)  I already know most of what that will be as I tell myself that all the time.

Then again, my makeup isn't done yet....  my skin is going stupid as its not used to makeup and I'm not impressed.  I might just keep the makeup for special occassions again.  But I do have it with me in case I need it for some reason.

Surprisingly enough, writing this has provided me with that little bit of motivation thats needed to push on through my exhaustion....  and I'm hoping that it lasts until I get home tonight.....

Day 4 - Post-Its

Yip, Day 4 requires PostIts... of course I don't have any at home, but thats something that can easily be fixed by the time that I get home today  :)

I am meant to be putting them in the kitchen & bathroom, so now the cleaning has expanded to the bathroom....  I've told my fiance about this, and he is more than happy and is even offering to do whats written on the Post Its.....  So I'm hoping that this goes well.....  and that the kids don't pull them down and ditch them....  I mean really, from a kids point of view, what the **** are Post Its meant to be in the bathroom for???

Well last night I got the dishes all sorted, shined my sink up again and felt quite proud of my achievement...  sure its only been 3 days...  but thats 3 days longer than its ever stayed like that before.....  until this morning when I got up and someone had left water stains in it....  then I realised that before I'd never really cared about it and laughed at myself for something so 'stupid' and then promptly shined it up again and then left the kitchen feeling proud of my achievement.

So today I was meant to do make up again.....  as far as I got with that task was making sure that my face was still clean and put on lip gloss......  I did however tie my hair back differently today.....  the small things.  I really think that I am going to struggle with the make up thing the most....  but I swear I will get used to it at some point.  one day.....  far far far away from this one......

This make sound fairly stupid, but just by starting on this journey and doing these small little things each day, I'm finding that I'm also then taking just a few minutes out to do other stuff...  like fold the laundry straight away.....  vaccum pack up the last of the packet of pasta and the chocolate chips that have been sitting on the kitchen bench/counter for over a week, as part of my 'when I get a round to it' pile........

Now i mustn't get a head of myself....  this is only Day 4, and its only just started......  Also I know that I'm going to have restrain myself from leaving Post It notes like 'for gods sake rinse the sink', 'Shut the door, you weren't born in a tent', 'what part of No Dishes in the Sink wasn't understood'......  but thankfully the majority of the kids at home cant really read yet.......  but I am going to refrain myself to things such as 'wipe the sink', 'replace the toilet roll' (this one purely because it seems that the toilet roll holder is going to eat everyone else in the house alive if they touch an empty roll........).

I can do this, and I am going to do this...  CHOAS will eventually be a thing of the past, just like my santity.....  :)

Day 3- Exhaustion Hits

Alright its Day 3 now.........  I do believe that todays lesson, is of the 'Rinse & Repeat' kind....  complete with some surfing of the FlyLady's BigTent website.......  well Yay for extra surfing, and tbh I'm glad that its that kind of day.....  Didn't get the kids into bed until 10pm!!!!  (I know the horror and on a school night to boot!)  Baseball ran late (9pm), so lets just say 'not impressed'.......

The sink is still clean and shiny and I even got my dishes done and a load of laundry folded & put away before bed last night.....  and yes I left the sink all shiny!!!  :)

Here's a small dilemma that I faced today, as I rushed to get hte boys out of the hosue this morning.....  What to do with the bowl of cereal that still has milk in it.  I am refusing to put it INTO the sink...  my quick compromise, put it beside the sink...  lol.  But however I know that I am going to face this more often than just today and must come up with some other solution...  like flushing the contents of the bowl.

Well anyhow, this morning my hair & makeup was done in the car.  Its the only time that I can say that I am happy for road construction when I'm stuck sitting perfectly still....  previously doing nothing.  Although does it count as my make up is done when I'm not wearing mascara....?????

I'm tired.....  I'm worn out and the late night last night did not help things.  I'm hoping to keep the motivation going...  I do love that shiny sink.....  but I am tired, if not purely exhausted.  Now if only I could schedule a nap at work..........

Day Two.....

Ok, so the kitchen sink survived the first night, and the first lot of breakfast dishes.  Namely because, as suggested by flylady.com, the dirty dishes werent put into the sink, but instead of something else, namely a box in the kitchen....  and I will do those when I return home from work.  Needless to say, I'm still a little stupid protective over my currently clean sink.

Anyhow Day Two was meant to start off with me getting dressed, doing my hair & makeup....  and lets just day this...  my hair is tied back (as always for work) and I got dressed in my work clothes....  and yes thankfully it was a work day and not a saturday.  I threw my make up into my handbag as I rushed out the door....  it wasn't until 12pm that I actually finally put it on....  but, you know what....  its ON!!!  :)  and tbh with the self pic that I just took before, I obviously didn't put enough on!!!!  lol  and NO I am not going to be posting a pic of that today.

I'm normally a sans-makeup kinda girl....  it takes time, time that I'd rather spend in bed, cuddling with the kids or my Fiance....  anything but put on makeup.....  its alot like my dislike of housework.....  So I guess I'm learning to put on my 'face' every day too, as well as learning to clean the house and keep it that way.

Tonight, is going to be a hectic night for us.....  My Step-Daughter (9) has baseball from 6:30pm until probably 8:30pm.....  then its get home and get the kids into bed, asap.....  and I always feel worn out after it. But its a Tuesday so it means that this is happening again.  I will learn to adjust.  Its also the last Tuesday game, so its ok I've decided.

I am looking forward to seeing my shiny sink when I get home today.

Day 1 - Shiny Sink

Well the first challenge for day was to have end up with a shiny sink....  with the aim of making sure that at the end of each day its still nice and shiny.  Wish me luck!!!!!

I will readily admit that I am NOT the biggest fan of housework.  Quite frankly if there is something else that I can do to avoid doing housework, I WILL do it.....  lol.  What more can I say.  I really don't like it but I love the result.

My Fiance is helping with this challenge too, even if his part is keeping the kids occupied while I do something...  :)

As I am typing this, I have one side of my sink completed, and Im currently waiting for the hot water & bleach to do their thing on the remainding side of the sink.  So for some veiwing pleasure, here are some photos.......

Before I did the dishes....  so yip, this is as bad as it can look.

Its clean, but is it really clean?????

OMG!!!!  Its a half shiny sink!!!!!  :O

Well its time to go and finish off the other side of the sink....  I will be back to post a final pic of both sides of the sink...  :)  So far I'm feeling quite chuffed with my little achievement for the day, although I do have umpteen loads of laundry to go and fold (thanks to John for washing & drying it all).

Ok, so here it is.........  the final product.

Now this is how my kitchen sink is meant to look each evening before I go to bed.......  EEEK!!!!  the pressure is huge.....  so until tomorrow.....

btw, Laurel I only used the bleach as a once off....  and yes I'm going to be looking into norwex stuff to help me, I figured the first day I had best follow the instructions.

The CHAOS theory..... and reversal

Ok, so my Fiance are setting out on a 31 day challenge that we have set ourselves to change our house from CHAOS (Can't Have People Over Syndrome) into an organised and tidy little place.

Its not such an easy task as you'd like to think.  We both work full time and have 6 kids in total between us, with 4 of them with us most of the time, 1 in hospital and 1 child living in another province.  Not to mention 1 rather large dog.  The age ranges are 16 to 3.

We have a small house, that has been in pure chaos since we moved in, and no matter how hard we have tried it just hasn't gotten any easier or any cleaner.  lol, ok so its gotten cleaner for a short while and then its just destroyed.

Thanks to Flylady.com, we are trying the 31 day get your house in order.....  each day we are going to do what is assigned for the day.

Wish us luck!!!!!!!