Flylady Dropout.

A looooooooooooong, long time ago, I cleaned my sink.

I thought “finally I am going to be tidy!”. I thought perhaps the days of living in fear that someone might want to, I don’t know, come inside the house at some point, might be over & that I would no longer be such an incredibly messy person…

I thought wrong.

I was bombarded with Flylady emails & when I changed that to just one email I deleted it without looking at it.

The shiny sink lasted maybe a week?

I’m looking into new motivational/domestic tools… because believe me, I need all the help I can get.

Because I am permanently attached to my iPod, the HomeRoutines app looks like a good choice… but do I REALLY want to pay six bucks?!

Chore Wars looks like fun for some, but not at all for me.

Habit Hacker looks cool, maybe even like something I could do… but will I be assed to look at it everyday…?!

How do you manage your domestic duties? Are you practically Martha Stewart or more like me & Louie the Fly? Tips welcome, my excuse that “Creative types are messy” is starting to wear thin… even with me.

I cleaned the sink....

...and I know what you're thinking. Yes I do. You're thinking; "That's just great.", "Go you.", "What do I care?". Don't pretend that's not true. That's what I'd be thinking if I were you.

Anywho... I don't know if you WILL care, but it's sort of a big step for me. Now I'm not saying that this is the first time I've ever cleaned the sink, but it is certainly the first time I've taken a picture of it...! ;)

A thread over on the Crafty Mamas forum today lead me to FlyLady. I have heard of her before, but not paid any attention, after all, I hate cleaning, so why would I want to know how to do more of it? But today, for some reason, I actually had a bit more of a thorough look over there, and, as a result, I cleaned the sink.

I guess there comes a time, as much as I hate to admit it, and hate even more actually doing it, when a mamma just has to get on top of the things she's been letting slide, not only to set a good example to any young Punk that may be hanging around, but to also feel in control of the housework for a change, instead of it looming large eternally like an evil nemesis, and controlling her instead.

Even though I had committed to a bit of a longer look over at FlyLady, I almost clicked away after a brief read-through, thinking "Who am I kidding?". I'm just not that kind of girl. The competent, organised housefrou type of girl. But then I thought about how I spend my days, and what is the thing I dislike the most...? You got it. Cleaning. What do I enjoy the most? Hanging out with Le Punk & Crafting. What stops me from doing those two things...? Again with the cleaning. I just suck at it, and because I suck at it, it always ends up out of control & I spend a whole day cleaning just to end up with a moderately livable house that gets messed up again within a matter of milliseconds.

When I say it gets out of control... I wish I were over-exaggerating. We're talking dishes that don't get done until I am forced to wash them, usually before I can make dinner, or, even more likely, I look at the dirty dishes around 20 past 5 & think "What can I make for dinner that requires none of these dishes?!".

Why can't I be organised? Or, more precisely, why can't I learn to be organised? Why can't I just make the necessary cleaning a regular part of my routine, as opposed to a never-ending chore...?

No real reason, that I could come up with. So. I cleaned the sink. That's all I have to do today. Day 1. And all I have to do tomorrow is get dressed as soon as I get up & 'shine' the sink again. I'm pretty sure I can manage that.....

(Kitchen pretty - something to distract me while I do the dishes... when I do the dishes...)

A Clean Craft Area & Pretty Precious Things....

We've had a pretty good day here, in spite of the horrible night we had last night - Little Miss Punk had a very disturbed night (monster teeth me thinks), which meant I had a very disturbed night, and neither of us were very bright eyed or bushy tailed this morning.

Once I'd had my morning coffee & Punk her Vegemite fix, all was well. Because she had hardly any sleep last night, Punky's nap lasted for a marathon amount of time & I was able to get a tonne done out the back... yes, that's right, I managed to get my craft area cleaned up! This is what it looked like before, and now;

Not a major make over by any means but it is certainly much tidier! I utilised Punk's old change table in the corner there - told The Boy it would be fine as long as we don't have another kid (he's keener than I on #2) any time soon.

I like that it's clean & tidy out there now, but I REALLY love that I was able to make more room for my precious things, so that I can have them around me when I create.

I also got a desk easel today - my very first easel ever!! It's cold & dark out the back right now so I'll take some pics tomorrow... it's so awesome though & I can't wait to play with it, and you know, "accidentally" drip paint on it for the first time... ;)

Tomorrow Is A Good Day For Cleaning....

....but in this house I'm afraid, tomorrow never comes.

This is my craft area. It doesn't look very, uh, inspiring, does it? The bottom benches belong to the Punk, she crawls in & out, drags her toys under there, "reads" books, while I'm sewing or painting or gluing or cutting. When it's a bit tidier out there (on the top, the floor is never very tidy, the toy boxes are out there, their contents permanently strewn), it's a really pleasant place to work & play.

*Sigh* I guess tomorrow has got to come early.