For instance: cooking dinner. Let's say I want to make some chicken fajitas tonight. I put the chicken in the fridge last night before bed so it could thaw out. Got home from work, walked Vespa, got the chicken out of the fridge, and then I realize the dishwasher didn't run last night when I thought I turned it on. Then, let's say, I clean a skillet and put the chicken on medium heat along with some lime juice, ground cumin, lime zest, and salt&pepper. Now let's say I grab the veggies out of the fridge, reach to the drawer for a knife, and realize all the knives were also in the dishwasher, dirty as can be! Clean a knife. Out of their plastic baggy the bell peppers and onions come. Um, where's the cutting board? Oh yeah, dirty in the dishwasher.
See what I mean? Totally unorganized, frustrated, re-doing steps that should have been done earlier, and forgetting steps that should be done first! It gets annoying really quickly, and it makes it easier to just come up with an excuse for us to go out and grab Arby's or Zaxby's or Chik-fil-A or something that I don't have to prepare.
And now we are fat. :)
Well, throughout the year of 2009 I discovered a common theme throughout a couple of blogs I follow regularly: a couple of ladies recommended that you Shine Your Sink! (I can't for the life of me find the blogs this theme came from, but I promise that one of them shined her sink in a kitchen that had no windows, and put up either a mirror or a piece of reflective metal on the wall above the sink, and set up a tiny lamp on the left to give the sink a happier, brighter feel. There was teal somewhere in the equation. And a pretty white bowl. Ah! When I find it, I'll let you know.) The website FlyLady.net is the dummy's breakthrough drug for conquering any strongly stupid ideas of perfectionism, OCD-ism, or over-committing-ism as far as housekeeping goes. (Because who really has the time, stamina, and determination to be perfect, OCD, and committed to cleaning house all the time?) It's a "baby steps" approach to getting the house clean and organized one step... one minute... one day at a time. She calls it "Living in CHAOS... Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome" and I think that's hilarious. Now, instead of having to write out my own step-by-step list of specific goals to finish around the house and possibly overwhelm myself, FlyLady has already made the list for me! The first day, I started off with shining my kitchen sink. And every day after that, I shine my sink and add in a new task. Some days, I get a break from all tasks other than shining the sink. :) FlyLady is giving me new habits. Instead of looking around for that knife to chop the bell peppers for fajita night, I will have already put that knife back where it belongs... imagine that, what a revolution! (Der.)
This is hilarious! I did this when Stephen and I first bought our house it's called "Flying". I made a handy dandy notebook with all of her cleaning suggestions and even signed up to have daily e-mails sent to me. That good stuff got old! Quick! But..... I must admit eventhough I don't do her daily regime to the T it did help me develop my own rituals. Believe it or not I do run the dishwasher every night if it is at least half full and shine my sink too! It does make your mornings run so much smoother and Stephen unloads it everyday and puts things away. Ahhhh teamwork! So read the fly lady take it in then make the Trish Lady sched. it will work for you longer. I promise
ReplyDeleteI love the Fly Lady! Like Heather, I couldn't do her plan exactly, but before we had Katie Anne - and especially when we lived in our first house - I did a good job of doing little things throughout the day to keep the house neat. My thing that I still do is spend fifteen minutes per day with no distractions straightening up, putting things away, etc. You'd be surprised how much of a difference a dedicated 15 minutes can make. Unfortunately with a two-year-old that sometimes means setting my alarm 15 minutes early in the morning to find the time! We also run our dishwasher every night (Saunders helps a lot with this) and do one load of laundry every night. Keeps things from piling up!
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