My Favorite Motivator

My all time favorite organizing blog is Wanting What You Have. 

 

I found this blog a few years ago when Ryder was about a year old and I desperately wanted to have a schedule. Don't get me started on my obsession with schedules. As someone who is a total type B personality it might sound odd that I am so strict with them.

 

 So I googled "Stay At Home Mom Schedule" and Heather's blog came up. 

 

At first when I clicked on it I thought I had found just a random post about a schedule amidst a bunch of talk about what brand of diapers is best and other useless crap.

 

Boy was I wrong. This is such a freaking gem of a site. This woman is the organizing and cleaning and list making queen! And she does it all without coming off as pretentious or having it all together. You know how some people that are naturally organized, list making people, will claim that they don't have it all together and that they are "messy too". Most of the time that is BULL CRAP. 

 

This wonderful mother actually does have days like me! And I am one of the messiest people I know. One of my favorite posts from her is A Crap Family Morning. She talks about how when her daughter opened the car door as she was dropping her off at school junk mail and sippy cups fall out onto the ground. 

 

This is my life people.

So last night while George was bathing the kids I stood in the living room and looked at my wrecked area and wanted to cry.

 

For most people, the mess alone is motivator for them to clean. It makes their skin crawl just seeing a spoon with peanut butter on the coffee table, a food covered high chair, and clothes and toys EVERYWHERE. 

 

Not me. While I do LOVE a clean house, (honestly who doesn't) I just HATE HATE HATE cleaning. I told my dad once that it's because I was never taught how to clean or organize. That's partly true I think. Growing up we had a maid. For as long as I can remember someone cleaned up after me. All I had to do was come home and put away my clothes on Thursdays. They were always neatly folded on my parent's bed ready for me to just stick in a drawer. That's it. 

 

So now that I am an adult who has kids and a husband I have to figure out how to move from standing in a living room looking around me wanting to cry to action. 

 

I always, always, always, come back to Heather's blog. Boom, there it is. A post entitled, "11 Tips to help You Get Motivated to Clean". Seriously God, THANK YOU!

 

And this is my favorite one:

 

#1 Silence isn't Golden.

Put on Upbeat Music and it will give you energy and change your mood.

 

So, without even reading the rest of her tips I got up, turned the TV onto Pandora, put it on a John Mayer station and got to work. 

 

And I kept cleaning for a solid 45 min until we had to put the kids to bed. Even after George got done bathing the kids and we dressed them we both kept cleaning while the kids played in their rooms. 

 

It was magical people. Music really did help!

 

As much as I love reading design and wedding blogs none of those can give me ideas about how to get my house in order. I'll say it again, it's one of my favorites.

Do you have trouble in the motivation area of cleaning? Or is the mess alone motivator enough to clean? I wish it was for me, but honestly, I can step around and over toys all day long and it not bother me in the slightest......until it gets WAY out of hand....like to the point of no return.

 

I mean when I was in high school(and lets be honest still to this day) my friends would joke that they were going to ride in the dumpster if they rode in my car. One obsessively organized friend of mine told me I should install a full sized kitchen trash can in my car. I'm seriously considering it.

*pic from here

Here is what is swilring around in my life lately.

• I can't wait for summer to get here. Occasionally in the summer I would go sit in my backyard and read a book and let the sun dry my hair while Lucy was napping. Of course I can't do this everyday, but on the days I did I was so relaxed.
• Our washing machine broke last week. Well, it would go through all the cycles perfectly but it wouldn't agitate. Thank goodness my dad had a super old one from the 80's in storage that works. If it works that is all I care about. Plus, it washes our clothes in half the time the other washer did. Win.
•  We haven't been going to bed until almost midnight lately. I don't know how George and I got on this path, but it is not a good one to be on. Tonight we are going to bed at 10:30, if not sooner!
• Ryder has been having some sleep issues as well. About 6 months ago we let him sleep in our room because Lucy would just scream and scream when it was time to go to sleep. So we thought it was pretty cruel to make Roe stay in the room and listen to her scream. We let him stay in our room until she stopped that nonsense. Well, Lucy is now a champion sleeper.........and Ryder is still in our room. If we even mention that he is going to sleep in his room he breaks down into a panic. What have we done! He used to be so fine with sleeping in his own room. In the dark, alone, with the door closed. Now he is "scared of the dark". I am going to start preparing him today that he and Lucy are both going to sleep in their beds tonight. It will be a rough week, but I have to get my room back! I just wish I could sit in my room and read a book before bed, but I can't when a 4 year old needs to sleep. Im thinking a sleep machine will be a great help in this. I get it, silence & darkness are creepy sometimes. 
• I have recently discovered dry shampoo. IT IS AMAZING. My hair is super oily. I can shower at 10 pm, go to bed, wake up at 7:30 and it looks like I haven't washed my hair in 5 days. It would be so much easier to take shower at night and then all I have to do in the a.m. is get dressed, straighten my hair, wash my face, brush my teeth and put make up on. Dove makes some that is about $5 a can. It has only been 2 weeks and I have already went through 3 cans though. It doesnt last very long thats for sure. Bumble and Bumble makes some that I am sure is way better and lasts longer, but I haven't convinced George that it's worth it to drop $35 on dry shampoo. 
• Grocery shopping is on my list of ToDo's today.....which is always a fun chore with two kids in tow. Saracasm. 

What do you have going on in your life?

 

Laundry day

 

pic from here

Lucy's birthday party is over with, so that means back to real life chores. No more time can be wasted trying to find the perfect cupcake liners. I have been attacking the laundry monster ALL. DAY. LONG. I generally don't mind laundry. The clothes come out all warm and smell amazing. Thank you Bounce dryer bar. If you dont use one of those, you need to go buy one today, they are great. I also really love folding the clothes and putting them away. Sometimes my love for Pinterest overpowers my love of laundry though :)

Tonight I get to tackle the dish monster. Our stupid dishwasher has not been  working for 6 months. We even had someone come out and "fix" it for $80 two months ago. Still isn't working. One of the most frustrating things in the world is to open the dishwasher and see last nights spaghetti sauce still hanging out with all of your dishes. And next to scrubbing the toilet bowl, my 2nd most hated chore is washing dishes by hand. When George and I first got married I washed dishes by hand for about 9 months. VOLUNTARILY. We had a perfectly good dishwasher. But for some crazy reason I thought I was being an awesome wife since I didnt require the dishwasher's help. HAHAHAHA!!! Oh man. 2 kids, and about 50 sippy cups and plastic spoons later I now have a brain and have welcomed the dishwasher on my team. If only it would work.