Baby steps, day four

[serene]

(The baby steps are at this FlyLady link.) I'm adding "(and do 15 minutes of decluttering)" to every day's tasks, because until I get rid of the clutter, I'll never get on top of the cleaning.

Day One: Shine the sink
Day Two: Get dressed to lace-up shoes
Day Three: Added reading the FlyLady BigTent emails



Day Four: So far we are:

• Getting Dressed to lace-up shoes


• Keeping our sink shining


• Going to the FlyLady BigTent group and reading messages (forgot to mention that yesterday)

Your next thing is to write these things down on a sticky note and post them on your bathroom mirror and above your kitchen sink. This is the beginning of your Control Journal. The little notes help us to remember the habits we are trying to establish.

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Cleaned the sink. Got dressed to shoes (sandals -- the lace-up shoes are great for walking long distances, but they're too hot and heavy for me to wear around the house, especially in summer). Off to read my messages and put up the stickies, if I have stickies (taped-up paper, if I don't, because hey, adaptability would be my middle name if my mom were weirder).







Now onward to 15 minutes of decluttering. The trick is to find something that needs decluttering that won't take me hours and burn me out. Maybe if I do one bookcase at a time? Okay, yes, one bookcase. "Before" picture coming right up.



I ended up with a couple books in the recycling bin; four held aside for a friend with a kid; a bag to go to freecycle; and a few moved to the brown bin on top, which is my current to-read pile.

Comments

[onyxlynx]

(I was mildly amused by the "lace-up shoes," since with the exception of the shoes I don't wear anyway, my "lace-ups" are sneakers. Oh well.)

I take it the Big Tent group is where the Christian stuff comes in? Because I didn't see it.

[serene]

The big tent group is the new incarnation of her previous yahoo listserv, and yes, most of the Christian stuff is there. LOTS of god stuff, and also lots of heteronormative stuff and dismissal of concerns of people who work outside the home, though she wouldn't see it that way, I don't think.

[ailbhe]

This babystepping of yours is inspiring me to all sorts of things. Very odd.

[serene]

Hey, we'll take what we can get. :-) Love you!

[ailbhe]

I have been cleaning, tidying, and RESTING. And I can't handle the notion of going back to blessing my family or purple fucking puddles, because really, I mean really, I mean... but you were just the prompt I needed to go find Unfuck Your Habitat and I'm glad I did.

Need to get off my arse and go unfuck something now.

[pickledginger]

Very cool! Maybe I can finally get my bookshelf sorted tomorrow ... no, not tomorrow; tomorrow is for getting the car and window a/c working and getting papers together for the lawyer and the doctor I'll be seeing (separately) on Monday ... but soon! very soon!!

[kake]

That's a great before-and-after!

[ailbhe]

OMG you have an empty bookshelf!

[ljgeoff]

But where did the books on the bottom shelf go?

[serene]

Decluttered. That is, given away. Freecycle, mostly. Decluttering really doesn't work if you keep everything. The way the FlyLady says it is "you can't organize clutter; you can only get rid of it," but for me it's more like "if I have so much stuff I can't find it, or find a clean surface, I need less stuff."