First Days on the New Job ⇒
I have just embarked on a new career as a Stay at Home Mom and Homemaker. I am quite excited about this--I certainly don't mind the commute. Sure the financial rewards suck but the perks are great. Just like any other job, I have a lot to learn. Anyone who knows me knows I am a lousy homemaker. I am not a naturally tidy person but I do find that untidiness stresses me out (maybe it's just the nesting thing). If my house is untidy, it does not feel peaceful to me. However, not being a tidy person and living with untidy people makes this an on-going challenge for me and lots of work. So I've done some research on-line about how to manage a household. Well, I am starting out by trying the system laid out on flylady.com. I've known about this site for a few years and this will be attempt number 3 for me. Hopefully it will stick this time.
Project 1 - Declutter
Day One: Create my Safe Haven There is only one room in the house that I can shut a door on and keep the fiends out of. Our bedroom. This is also a room that it will make sense to ensure that it is always peaceful. It actually wasn't too bad once I got the clothes off the floor. We are both going to chuck out clothes we don't wear and I bought a bunch of new coat hangers so we can hang up more stuff and get rid of one of the dressers. We need to do that because Elise's dresser is going to have to live in our room when the kids start sharing the second bedroom. The on-going problem in this room is clothes in a pile beside the bed. Take off clothes at night and put on floor is the habit we need to break. Erin has this thing that he needs a half-way house for his clothes which is a pile BESIDE the laundry hamper (I kid you not...right beside it) where clothes hang out in a state somewhere between fresh out of the wash and actually dirty. That is until laundry day when suddenly they are all completely dirty and are lumped into the hamper. Until then, they may or may not be worn again but he doesn't want them mixing in the general population with his fresh out of the laundry clothes. Any ideas? I'm thinking of getting him a clothes horse as at least then the clothes would be off the floor.
Day Two: Freezer Purge Today I cleaned out the freezers. Got rid of food that was more than six months old to make space for all the cooking Mavis and I are going to do to prepare meals for the family so we don't have to cook so much when the new baby comes.
Day Three: Play Room and Office I was dreading these rooms but I am finding that the two projects go together. We have a bench seat in the play room that has contained some stuff that needed to go in our office so I've been working on these two rooms together. Also, Elise's toys often come with small bits that I've been keeping in a variety of containers but are usually all over the floor so she can't even move around the room because of all the toys on the floor. My dad built us a toy box which eventually we will go pick up if we can borrow a truck or something. But it's a huge box so I don't want all the little pieces floating around in there, impossible to find. Well, I accidentally came across a fantastic shelving system for $20 in London Drugs that I purchased. It comes with 9 brightly coloured canvas baskets that sit on three shelves at an angle. All the bits are now in there and it is tucked neatly away in a corner. She's getting the hang of putting away her toys when asked so I am going to work on this some more. No new toys out until those ones are put away in the basket. Hopefully we will then only have one basket in action at a time. Wishful thinking maybe. The bench seat will now house toys that can be brought out in rotation.