Ten Day Turnaround

I don't know about the rest of y'all, but my house is a sty. Top to bottom. I'm cleaning everyday, but it's not getting clean. Why? Because it was messy and unorganized to start with.

I blame Christmas. And my kids. And working. And a tiny bit of laziness. But, what it all adds up to is a big, giant mess. And, it's quite overwhelming.

I can't even IMAGINE getting the time, energy or willpower to clean this house from attic to basement. The very thought of it makes me want to huddle in a corner with the dust bunnies and animal hair and cry and cry and cry. It makes me want to move and not take any of this crap with us. But, mostly, it makes me want to just live with it.

The solution to this mess, is to get caught up. But, how? It's SO MUCH CRAP. How can I do this without breaking down in the middle of the Walmart cleaning aisle screaming, "Why?! WHY ME?!! " How can I catch up with only 24 hours in a day, those of which are being shared with all of my other jobs as mom and wife and dollar store worker? How can I organize entire rooms when I am already struggling to keep up with regular cleaning?

Easy peasy, my friends. I have come up with a system. I always have a system. Always. A game plan. I spend far more time organizing my thoughts than I do my drawers. But, this system is working. And, I am sharing it here with y'all.

The trick is, to make it less overwhelming. So, we break the jobs down. Into little, tiny jobs. Stop thinking about cleaning your 'house'. Think smaller. No, not room by room. I don't know about y'all, but some rooms in my house look like they've been through a hurricane AND a tornado. Followed by a flood. It's a little daunting to think about cleaning a whole room. I would need to set aside a few days just to clean my office. No, think smaller. Smaller than a closet. Smaller than a bookshelf. Think one shelf at a time.

Now, make a list. One hundred things that need doing. Yes, one hundred. Walk around. See what hasn't been done in a while. Skip the every day jobs, like emptying the dishwasher or doing a load of regular laundry. A few samples on my list are cleaning the top of the fridge, organizing the bottom shelf in the office, sorting through a box in the basement, dusting the picture frames, organizing under the kitchen sink, sorting out my yarn, etc, etc.

Some items will take a few seconds, some will take a bit longer. That's OK. That's good. Now that you have your one hundred things to be done in the house, get to it. You HAVE TO do ten tasks on the list each day for ten days. And no changing the list. You wrote it, that's what you do. Don't do more than ten. The point is to go slow and steady. Don't have much time one day? Pick ten easy ones. Have a day off? Pick ten harder ones. But, don't go to bed until ten are done. For ten days.

Why ten days? I thought a week would be too cramped. And stressful. If you start your ten days on a Saturday, you will have two weekends to do the bigger things. Why not two weeks? Because, if you need to get organized, it doesn't help to stretch it out any longer thanyou have to.

Will this get your house totally clean? Of course not. There will be lots left to do. There is ALWAYS lots to do. But, you will make a dent. A very large dent. In only ten days. It's like putting your house on a crash diet. And then you can start from there. Even make another list. But, you should be able to keep up on some regular things without feeling like you live in a dump.

Today is day two for me, so far. It's going well. I have cleaned things that haven't been touched in a long time. And I can already see a difference. And, I have told my family that if they mess anything up behind me while I do this system, I will kill them slowly and painfully. Maybe with a feather duster.

If you want to follow along with your own list, let me know.