What are your thoughts on New Year's Resolutions? Personally, I think they are dumb.
Don't get me wrong, goal setting is very important. It is how we change and grow. But making a resolution just because you're "supposed to," that the majority of people that make them fail at keeping, just makes me not want to make any each year when January 1st comes around.
I like to make goals as new learning, issues, or challenges come up. One of those is keeping my house clean. If you have ever been to my house, you know that 9 out of 10 times when you come, it will be pretty messy, if not a disaster. Why? I mean, there are just three of us, and even when there were only two of us, I still had a hard time keeping it clean. I blamed it on not having enough storage space, shelving, or large containers, or on my house not being finished, or on not having the proper furniture to arrange things on to look nice. It basically looked like we were still in the process of moving in for pretty much the whole two years we have lived here.
When we first moved in, I was 8 months pregnant, and our basement, bathrooms, and kitchen were not finished, so I didn't do a ton of unpacking. I had a hard time settling into motherhood and didn't really do any housework for a long time because of exhaustion and a new-found habit of "sitting around." Finally, nine months later, our kitchen was finished and our bathrooms were mostly finished. Nine months is a long time to create a habit, and then to try to kick it, as anyone knows, is pretty hard. Our basement was then finished about six months later. So add the dust of an unfinished basement, then drywall dust, and then dog hair (our jack russel sheds like CRAZY--I can vacuum every day and it still looks like it has been almost a week). To make things worse, we still had a ton of stuff in storage--only finally getting the last of it out about a month ago--almost two years after we have moved in. So then came the "lack of storage" excuse again. I'm still working on things, but I have managed to go through everything. Now comes trying to sell the stuff that we don't need/want or donate it if no one else wants it (currently it is all on the over-the-stairs ledge in Mason's room--not the most ideal place). And then of course trying to find a new home for all of the "stuff" we are keeping. It really makes me not want so much "stuff" but it is hard to get rid of it when I know that it will be used, if not at this immediate moment in our lives. Throwing it out would just be a waste of money...then of course there are the days that I just do that anyways...
...but the whole point that I am trying to make is that change can be very difficult, but it is ultimately doable. I posted a while back about some "rules" for keeping your house clean. I still try to stick to some of them, but I find others more difficult when I have rooms in my house that are a disaster. The best tip that I have found, is once you finally have a room clean and organized to your liking, go back for 5-15 minutes (every day if it is in a heavy traffic area, or once a week if not), and do the little things that need to be done. The things that if you just ignore them will build up and again create a disaster. I like to actually set a timer so that I have to "race against the clock" to get things done. This works great for me because I tend to get distracted with other bigger tasks when I'm in a room, and then end up not really accomplishing what I came in there to do. I usually set the timer for 5 minutes for my kitchen, then 5 for my hallway and living room, 5 for my front entrance, and then 5 more for my kitchen. If it is mostly tidy to begin with, then this is a piece of cake and I use the "leftover minutes" in a room that needs it most--usually my kitchen. Clutter just seems to find its way there because it is right where we enter the house.
So now I just need to work on getting a few more rooms done before baby comes (20 more weeks to go!) Derrick is building us a storage building from an old grainery, so a lot of stuff will be able to go in there in heavy duty bins. I have a ton of books and "stuff" from when I took Early Childhood Education, so most of that will go in there. It's all for my dayhome, but the majority of it is for 3+ year olds, which means it is not being used at the moment for Mason, and as we are having another baby soon, I don't want to take on a lot more children. Then there are the bins of baby clothes (which I have gone through and downsized 3 times now) and a couple bins of maternity clothes. I don't like storing them outside because of mice and the bad weather we have here, but I'm hoping if I wrap everything in plastic and then we use heavy duty bins that seal well, we will be able to keep the mice out of it all, even if they decide to live in the grainery. I don't know, I'm still undecided about where exactly to store the clothing...but I know it can't stay where it is at right now (also on the ledge in Mason's room--yep, it's a big ledge...big enough to fit a bed up there, which is the plan as soon as I clear it off!)
So basically, if you come to my house, and it's a mess, please know that I AM embarrased by it , and I AM working on it. My biggest goal is to get it all done before baby gets here. Will that happen? If I made it a New Year's Resolution, then nope, probably not. But instead, I am thinking of other reasons to get it done, things to encourage me to move forward: if my delivery and baby are anything like my situation with Mason, then I'm going to be "down" for at least a month; people shouldn't have to see my mess and step over things to lay their coat on a box of stuff; I don't want to be embarrased anymore (although everyone is nice enough to not mention it--which I appreciate immensly); I feel "lighter" when my house is clean, and more able to relax; a clean floor is easier to vacuum and will be vacuumed more often than one where I have to pick up things every time, and a clean floor means less allergens floating around my house; I can invited people over more often and wtih confidence; and last but not least, my husband can be happy to come home to a clean house and not have to "remind me" about cleaning up (which for some reason he can do WAY faster than I can...although I don't always agree with where the "stuff" goes, which is probably why I take longer...haha!)
This post was supposed to be on nutrition and how watching 3 different documentaries has changed my idea and goals but I obviously got a little side tracked--it happens easily...so next time when I post, hopefully within a week, I'll talk about these three documentaries, what I have taken from them and am applying into my life, and how I'm using my new-found knowledge to change the eating habits of my almost 2 year old (easy) and my husband (not so easy). I love researching food, health, and nutrition, and am glad that I am able to be ina situation where I can put into practice the things that I already know with the things I have just recently learned or come to realize, and I hope to be able to influence others with these ideas, because they are really awesome and will change your life!
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