Organize 2014: February

I was raised by a Home Ec teacher. I learned to like sewing, cooking, needlework, grocery shopping, and, you know, other home economics things.

But not cleaning. My mom is the domestic goddess of all things home economical, but I think she secretly longs for a maid to do all the dirt removal.

So how does one clean? I asked my lovely MOPs mentors this question, and they came back with great advice - divide the work and it won't be so overwhelming.

So for my February organization goal, I created a cleaning schedule that I follow faithfully as best as I can throughout the week. It goes like this:

Monday - Dust and clean the windows/mirrors day
Tuesday - Floor day
Wednesday - Random cleaning day
Thursday - Bathroom day
Friday - Grocery shopping/I'm off the hook for cleaning day

Every day I have mini goals, which are as follows:

-Make the bed
-10 minute pick-up
-Laundry
-Have sink empty and counters wiped by the end of the day

Floor day is tedious and extremely necessary. I get so many puke-splotches on my tile during the week that you would think we live on carnival grounds. (Did you know that baby spit up is called positing and not vomiting? Ah, the education of motherhood).

I actually look forward to random cleaning day - that's the day I clean something that doesn't normally get cleaned, and could be just something that I noticed looked disgusting lately. If I'm tired I'll just clean Scrunchy's toys and feel satisfied with that.

If I had bigger problems with laundry, I would make a day of that too, but I don't usually have a problem remembering to transfer and fold it. It's a gift...

On the laundry note though, I'm going to have to do a lot of it now because I realized I was ruining my son with laundry detergent. He's had dry skin since he was born, and I thought I tried everything to get rid of it. I had oiled him with coconut, olives, organic nonsense, and changed the detergent three times. This week I noticed that his diaper area was the only place that didn't have the rash, so I washed his clothes in the diaper detergent to see if that would help (he is cloth diapered). It did. Now to wash every article he owns...

Organize 2014: January

I have been wanting to write a post for a while, but rather than bore you with my Shelley-like turmoils, I thought I would tell you about my 2014 Resolution.

(Why do I feel the need to blog? I'm not sure, but I decided to stop fighting it)


I used to be a document controller, which meant that I got to fight with engineers about organization systems. It was riveting work. Since I quit to become the full time mom to Scrunchy, I realized my own home is, well, not quite in chaos...probably not close to chaos, even, but still it bothered me.

No, I'm not obsessive compulsive.

No, you aren't either.

Obsessive compulsion is a disorder, and while some of you may like to be organized and are bothered by mess, that doesn't mean you have OCD. Obsessive compulsives tend to have dried-out hands from being washed too much, and can't sleep at night because the bedroom door frame is slightly crooked.

For another thing, you cannot be OCD. You can have OCD, but unless you are the disorder yourself, stop claiming to "be so OCD, lol." It's annoying.

Back to my resolution.

For January, I decided to organize my important documents in a filing container that I can grab on my way out the door when my house bursts into flames. After my child. Scrunchy comes first, then the important documents. I went out and bought a container from the thrift store, only to realize we already owned one. Sigh... $2 for naught... Anyway, it only took me a couple of hours, and made me feel better about life:

See the beautifully organized files? Me neither. They aren't alphabetized, but they work. Yay for one resolution down!