Laundry? What laundry?

I'm being silly, of course. That title doesn't mean I've FINISHED my laundry. Nooooo. It means I'm IGNORING my laundry. Very bad girl.

What with "holidays" this week, my poor laundry pile, which was already big, is actually growing. Not a pretty sight, really, especially when I get those lovely FlyLady e-mails coming in about our New Habit for August. *rolls eyes* Well, my Swish and Swipe is still going OK, so I suppose I must take comfort - and celebrate! - where possible. LOL

Tomorrow my dear hubby will be back to work and hopefully my "normal" around here will return quickly - which means morning time alone for my brain to figure out what I'm doing each day, and then setting down to doing it. I was getting pretty good at that before this week off hit me. LOL

I also have TWO girls now who want to be hired to help me with the rest of the living room decluttering. I'm thinking that by next Thursday, we'll have a lovely living room under our belts!

But today, as I look at the e-mails, "Where are your shoes"? (I'm not really sure...) "What's for Dinner?" (I haven't a clue yet...) and "Where's your laundry?" (all over the house...), I am remembering that people come first, goals come second. My hubby doesn't get much time off, so it's been good to just go with the flow with him this week and run out to the lake or to a restaurant or whatever. We'll snap back into the swing of things soon enough. :D

Filing. Ugh.

I spent several hours in my lovely office today re-filing all those Rubbermaid bins full of file folders that had yet to be touched since I'd moved in here.

At least the office was lovely. *rolls eyes*

I know, I know, I bought that wonderful filing system and so this should have been fun. Well, as far as the filing system goes, I do love it. It's amazing and I feel, personally, that it was worth the price. And it helped, which is important. But you spend three hours bent over filing cabinets and see how great you feel. LOL

I got the majority of the filing done, so I'm very happy about that. I've chucked another 5 pounds of paper that was not worth keeping, threw about 5 pounds into a "burn" pile (we burn rather than shred up here on the hill ;-), and have only a wee stack left for George to look at to confirm whether we really need it or not as it was his stuff to begin with. ;-)

I did take a small break to run downtown for some gasket sealer for George as he's fixing my van's water pump today. I took the opportunity to hop over to Jysk and pick up some curtain panels that were on sale. I got two panels and a curtain rod for $30, which I figure is an awesome deal! I don't have it up yet, so no picture-oonies, sorry. I will take a pic when they're up for sure!

So far, the living room "pile" behind the couches has not improved. I'm getting eager to attack it, but it will have to wait a bit more - I have supper to cook now, and also I think my back will protest if I do any more sorting and bending over bins today. LOL This week with George off has been a bit weird, too - things never run the same when we're both here, it seems. That's OK - it is looking better and better in this house all the time. I'm OK with "process" in this case. :D

What? A Day OFF???

Yes, I'm taking a day off. My hubby is on holidays this week, and he took the older two kids on a day hike up Mount Robson. They'll go halfway up, pretty much, to Kinney Lake. It's gorgeous country, absolutely gorgeous. They'll have a great time. They were up at 4:30am and out of here to get there early enough to enjoy the day. Gack!

So anyway, the other two kids are here with me, and we had decided that we'd do some fun-day kind of stuff together. :D So no decluttering for me today, which is actually killing me, but hey, the kids have been ignored enough lately! I'm pretty sure they deserve some attention, too. ;-)

We have a new pet store in town called PetLand, so they want to go there and look around. I figure looking is fine, but we are NOT coming home with a fish or a hamster. One dog in the house (oh, and the two gerbils tucked away downstairs) is enough for me. LOL

Then we'll hit our local museum. Haven't been there in awhile, and they have lots of stuff for the kids to do and see there, very youth-friendly.

We're going to hit Moxies for dinner, but we'll make it early, because a friend of mine just called and asked me if I wanted a freebie massage tonight! So I'm booked in at 7 o'clock-ish. Which is kinda neat - a day of running around with the kids followed by a relaxation massage. Yeah, I'm into that. ;D

And the beat goes on

Well, I think I'm moved in. It took awhile to get all the "stuff" from one set of drawers to a different set-up of drawers, but I do believe I've managed it.

I spent quite a few hours in here getting files decluttered, books moved in, papers and file folders in, mucking about with drawers and cubbies, etc. My kids are going to think Mom has moved out if they see so little of me again! LOL I'm still waiting on that Freedom Filer to come in the mail. I was so disappointed when I checked again on my way downtown today. Nothing. I'm really hoping it will be here tomorrow.

I did some stuff up in MS Publisher today and had to cut it apart into card-sized pieces. So I got my Fiskars rotary cutting board from the living room, where it was still languishing in the dust, wiped it down, and proceeded to - - get this - - place it on my desk.

Yes, I can actually cut things on my desk.

This might not be a whole lot of exciting news for most, but for me, it was a new milestone. It didn't fit on my old desk, and so I was always putting it on the floor and crouching down in front of it to do all my cutting tasks. So doing it at my desk seemed like heaven! LOL

Another thing I'm highly enjoying is closing my door. I can close it and not hear the TV or the talking or anything else. I can just work. It's lovely. Really and truly, it is.

My living room, you ask? Um, still a mess. It was seriously hot here yesterday and I simply didn't feel up to moving everything around in that heat. Mostly because I refuse to sweat. Which is why I hate working out, I think... but that's another story.

So most of the boxes and bins are still there or shoved to one end of a sofa. *rolls eyes* However, I also have a good excuse, one that beats even a hot house.

I had to type an estimate for our company. :D

So you see? I was working. Truly. And so the boxes and bins will be there for me later today when it cools down again. LOL

I'm In!!!!

Oh my goodness. I can't believe the day has come. We've worked as hard as beavers all the long weekend, pulling telephone wire, painting, building a desk... and here it is, Wednesday morning, and I'm pretty much moved in!

I have such a lovely place for my control journal! Right on the end of the table portion of the desk there. And I also have my feather duster handy, stuck into a vase with those decorative "marbles" like a big flower! LOL And - something I promised to myself for when the office was ready - I put a new plant on top of the hutch. It's a lipstick plant. Eventually, it will hang nicely over the hutch and bloom and drop leaves and get in the way of everything... LOL

Here's another shot from the other angle. Hard to get good lighting because I'm shooting against the window. ;-)

I have a matching lateral file cabinet on order from Costco, but that won't be here for another 7-10 days. It will replace the very old (although trustworthy) black metal thing that the printer is sitting on currently. Oooooo - a matching office! My goal is to have an actual bookshelf, too, not this silly $15 pine thingy I'm using, but for now, it will hold my books and paper supplies just fine. ;-) Another small job I have today is to tack up the wall speaker cords with a nice little 3M Command cord holder. I have some waiting for the job. :D

Now, this leaves an amazing mess in the living room, so I must show you that area, because this job is by no means over. But believe it or not, most of the things you see below are "sorted" - there are even boxes behind the couch that contain stuff for the office that couldn't go anywhere until the office came along. LOL So I'll still be a busy beaver today. ;-)

And the old desk is now ready for the kids' computer, which I'll move over today so I can clear the area (to the lower right of this next pic, on the pine table) where it is currently residing for a staging area to sort the rest of the books and boxes into.

So there you have it - my work is cut out for me.

But - - - I have one room where PEACE resides! I'm so thrilled! This will be like the "shiny sink" of my house. LOL

I also have to mention that yesterday I went out and bought a Swiffer Wet Jet. I've divvied up my Home Blessing Hour into one job each workday of the week. And yesterday's job was to wash the kitchen/dining floor. Luckily, I'd just vacuumed it, so it was ready for a wash. But after washing the floor of the office this weekend with my deck mop and a bucket of hot, soapy water, I knew I hated the job, and if I hated it, it wouldn't get done.

Mostly what I hate, though, is the prep time, and also that particular mop was not suiting me. I find it's just not as good as a real, cotton deck mop. (Sorry, Vileda....) And my regular push mop is not really any more fun, plus you still need that pail of water.... yadda yadda. Yes. I'm lazy.

So for a mere $20, I bought myself a Swiffer and gave it a try.

I. Am. In. Love.

Seriously, it's a great investment! I know I can get cleaning solution and mop pads for a freaking good deal at Costco, so I am soooo keeping this thing. My 6yo DS actually wants to do the job, because squirting and wiping seems like a heck of a lot of fun.

I might let him. LOL

So now my Tuesday and Wednesday Blessings of washing down the kitchen and bathroom floors will be fun, easy, and do-able!

And my old mop is in the give-away pile outside the door of my new office. ;-)

Woooo! Progress!

Well, here it is, a half a month later, and I have made a lot of progress! I forgot to take more in-between shots, but hey, this will show you where I'm at:


And empty room! The freezer is cleaned and listed in the local freebie bargain finder papers. Just a couple of things for my hubby to move out left.

And a day later, we had this - a window!!!

Wow, does that make a difference in the room. I wasn't going to have an office without a window, that's for sure.

As of the day I'm writing this (August 3), we are ready for paint. I've picked a green colour, bolder than this baby-blue shade, that's for sure. I'm hoping it goes well with the new desk. :D

Speaking of desks, I have been making progress on my desk area, too. (Scroll down for a before look.) Here is my cleared living room desk:

Well, I call that "cleared", and it's a huge improvement, but I'm hoping to remove even more clutter with the new desk. For one thing, the tower and the sub-woofer will be on the floor and off the surface of the desk. And the other four speakers will be set up nicer, too.

We'll use this desk for the kids' computer once I move into the office. I have so much stuff to get out from underneath this thing! I'll really have to get tough and get some of it out of the house, I think. Especially since you can see under the new desk better than this one. ;-)

Little hint - don't buy see-through drawers like I have there. They are GREAT for various-sized storage, but they just add to the "look" of clutter because you can see everything in them! If they're going into a closet or cupboard, great. But I'm tired of them being out in the open. No place for your eyes to "rest" when you look at those.

Other things I've been working on:

1) I discovered FreedomFiler, and I have a set on order - should be here in a couple of days. Now, I have seen a lot of posts on forums where people say, "What? $50 for a set of LABELS? That's just nuts, I can make those up myself." Well, folks, I tried. And I ain't half bad with a publishing program, either. But it's not just the labels you're buying - it's the brainchild of the directions/process, as well as the list of tons of categories that my brain is just not coming up with and/or doesn't know which part to put what in (permanent, replace/remove, monthly, etc.). Plus - and this is big - I did print some out on some labels I bought. But you may find with many printers (and I have a pretty decent Lexmark All-In-One) that you will spend a ton of time getting those suckers to line up properly all the way down the sheet. I ended up with some labels that had lines of colour from the other ones above it and part of the words cut off on the bottom.

So the conclusion was - its' so worth the $50, because my time is worth more than that per hour alone. :D

2) I've been working at my FlyLady morning routines. I'm also getting fairly consistent with last month's habit, the Swish and Swipe, and this month I'm making a concerted effort with the new habit, a load of laundry a day. Being as it's day 3 of the month, I'm batting a 2/3 average. LOL

3) Under my direction, my 3 DD's (16, 14, 12) have been doing dishes each night, so my sink and counters are clear most mornings! That is such a nice thing to wake up to! You owe it to yourself to work on the shiny sink habit - or get your kids to work on it for you! LOL

4) I've built myself a new calendar, starting from August and going through June. I figure I have time in the summer months to do a calendar up, whereas in the New Year I'm usually kinda busy. I basically copied the format of a calendar I liked, but put it in a 3-ring binder style. I added my Control Journal stuff, printed out my !ntellect address list to have in the back, and added some "Items Loaned" and "Items Borrowed" pages as I want to start keeping track of all the books I lend out and the stuff I borrow from others. It's sitting on my desk (you can see it in the pic above) in a nice PURPLE binder cover that has a spot on the inside cover for pens and business cards and what-nots. :D I'm very happy with it!

5) I've also discovered David Allen, and I've found some of his ideas and tools to be extremely helpful. I especially like his Workflow Diagram, it's really helping me get my paperwork sorted out. You can register and download that for free, as well as lots of other great articles.

Funny thing is about David Allen, some of his stuff really reminds me of FlyLady! I have begun to say to myself, "DING! Do It Now, Girl!" which was from a couple of years ago on the FlyLady e-mail list. One of Mr. Allen's principals is if a paper needs an action performed that takes less than two minutes, do it now! LOL How's that for cool? One of the first things you do with a paper that come into your life is ask, "What is it? What outcome needs to happen with this paper?" And that reminded me of asking ourselves, "Does this make me smile?" when we're flinging stuff, or things like "Have I worn this in the last 6 months? Do I use this? Can I replace this easily, and if so, do I really need to store it?. You need to define things clearly in your mind and then decide how to proceed. I'm finding both David Allen and FlyLady are really great at helping a person do that, Mr. Allen with paper specifically, FlyLady with the rest of our "stuff".


So there you have it. Lots of my progress is "invisible", but I'm feeling more "put together" in my head than I have in years. Part of that is seeing such great progress in the house, but the other part is knowing I'm getting a system for dealing with papers so that I never again have to deal with this sorting marathon! LOL