November Challenge – Cleaning

New month, new 30 day challenge. This month’s challenge is to do 30 minutes of housework everyday. I am putting myself out there, but I am a messy, disorganized person. I just started watching Grey’s Anatomy and when they showed Cristina’s messy apartment, I totally got her. When she said she buys new underwear instead of washing her underwear, I got it. Well I don’t buy new underwear because I am cheap like borscht, but there have been days my swimsuit has been my underwear. When she said she tried to hire a maid but she ran away, I got it. I have thought about moving, but that would mean packing and sorting everything and well…I think I will just stay where I am.

As I type this on my laptop in my living room, there are three weeks of flyers on the coffee table, along with five coffee cups and a Rubbermaid tub of yarn has been used as an end table for the last six months. There are still birthday cards from the beginning of September on top of the TV cabinet. I got a month until Christmas. Speaking of Christmas there is an ornament that didn’t get put away from last Christmas. Christmas is a month away, it might stay.

It’s not that I want to live like this, it’s just that I am so random and when a new idea hits my mind, I am a squirrel and it’s time to explore something new. I once half vacuumed the floor because an idea hit for a summer vacation and I went to research it. The vacuum stayed where it was for a week and a half. Last week I was cleaning the entry way. I was putting away the paint and stir sticks that I bought three weeks prior to where they belonged in my workshop room in the basement. I got distracted by my collection of rag tag furniture that I want to refinish. I lost an hour premeasuring, sketching plans, and thinking about how I want to fix the pieces up. The entry way is still a jumble of purses, shoes, jackets, extension cords, a weed wacker (don’t ask), wiener roast sticks, and recycling and clothes to donate. I must say that it was a great brainstorm session.

I know in thirty days I won’t be a ‘Martha-Stewart’ homemaker but I can improve on where I am. Instead of the marathon cleaning sessions, dragging my butt on Saturday, doing what I can to do to avoid cleaning, I can take it in small 30 minute bouts. And hopefully these small doses of cleaning will lead me not panicking, throwing things in closets, quickly wiping the bathroom sink, and shutting the bedroom doors when someone texts that they are coming over. Perhaps in the future when you text, I can get the coffee on and not wonder which cupboard did I stick it in and look forward to your visit. That’s what these 30 day challenges are all about, small bits of change that can lead to a better life.


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