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.

Time

 

 *pic from here

 

I am concerned about how I spend my time like most women are concerned about losing weight. I think about it A LOT.

I am constantly trying to find a daily schedule that works for me and my family. Or maybe its a daily routine.

I go back and forth between if I am a routine kind of girl or a schedule kind of girl, I think a little of both.

With the kids sleeping and awake times its pretty much on a schedule. They wake up generally at the same time every day and naps are on the dot at 9:00 am for Lucy and 2-5 pm for Ryder AND Lucy.

Even yesterday I was out running some errands and I had one more stop to make at Target. I only needed 6 things, but it was 1:50. I was passing right by Target and it took everything I had to make myself just run in really quick, grab the items and come home. I was freaking out about not being home @ 2:00 for her nap. So, she was about 30 min late going to sleep, and was a MONSTER in Target. 

 I would like to make a schedule out for my day, and how and what I should clean, and what I should be doing at this certain time, but nothing ever sticks.

I guess I just like consistency. I know that things in life happen that throw our whole schedule out the window, and thats ok. But on the boring, day to day times when nothing special is happening I like having something to guide me.

So, do you have a routine or schedule you follow? Ive heard "meat in the morning" like get all your daily chores out of the way early. And I have tried that, and it works......but if I dont get to check my email, read the blogs I like and whatever in the a.m......well, I just HATE IT!! haha! I guess thats something I need to talk to Jesus about.