Anyway, last night when I was take a nice, relaxing bath in my oh-so-tiny bathtub in my freshly painted bathroom that still does not have a door on it (and no, I did not let those things stop me from enjoying my warm bath), I read a couple of good suggestions about cleaning and organizing that I thought you my avid blog readers would like (let's be honest, if you are still reading this stuff, you really like me, you know you do!) (and yes, that was one sentence, and no, it probably is not grammatically correct).
The suggestions come from a book titled, "Emilie's Creative Home Organizer" by Emilie Barnes (20 points for the first person who can tell me the difference between titled and entitled). I found it in a box of old books given to us by a friend, and I put it on the shelf for such a time as this. It's pretty good, but quite dated. I had a good laugh at all the references to cassette tapes, VCRs, phone books (the paper kind) and pocket-sized electronic data banks. Come on, the book was written in the '90s! That said, she had some good advice.
1. Ten minutes a day spent looking for misplaced items adds up to over 60 hours a year. Don't put things down; put them away.
2. As much as possible handle every piece of paper only once.
I'm pretty sure if I followed these suggestions, it would change me life. You see, have two small problems called procrastinating and laziness. I am the one who brings the junk mail in, looks through it, and then stacks it up on the table instead of just throwing it away. If I adopted the "handle every paper only once" rule, I would have a much cleaner kitchen table. Secondly, I don't put things away. It's just not what I do. I get these out. I leave them laying around. I just don't put them away. I don't know why, but despite my mother's best efforts, I never seemed to learn the useful skill of keeping things picked up. This is why everyone calls my husband's cell phone to talk to me (mine is almost always lost) and why my keys have been missing since Thanksgiving (if you have seen an extra set of keys with a Woody doll key chain, those are mine!).
Really, things aren't all that bad (maybe I'm just in denial). I like to think that I've gotten much better at keeping things picked up in the past few years. I value a clean and well-organized home. I just don't want to be the one to clean and organize it. That said, I realized this week that I need to start thinking like a mom, and start putting things away the first time rather than trying to pick up a weeks worth of junk on Saturday.
Then again, maybe thinking like a mom isn't all it's cracked up to be...oh well. Happy Cleaning Day!
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