Laundry Love

I know what you're thinking.  "Did she really just say laundry and love in the same heading???"  Yes, dear reader, I did.  A couple days ago I read this post talking about a family's laundry system and immediately fell in love.  I presented it to the kids, wanting to get them on board, and they responded very positively as well.

And so, today we began.  Baskets in place, we sent a few loads through.  Because of space everyone is sharing a basket with someone else.  Melanie shares with Madeleine, and delightfully volunteered to fold her clothes as well.  (Yippee!)  Only time will tell how well this will really work, but I can think of few hiccups in this system.

While telling a friend about it, she mentioned something a friend of hers does to make sorting easier (that has been one of Adam's complaints with the girls' clothes - that he doesn't know whose is whose).  For instance, the oldest girl gets one dot on the tag of her clothes, the second two, third three...  You get the picture.  So for one, it's an easy tool to glance at the dot(s) and see who the item of clothing belongs to, but as said oldest girl grows out of something, another dot is added, continuing things down the line.  Easy as pie.  (Which isn't actually very easy, at least not easy to make it look lovely, but we can talk about that another day.)

Something else we've been trying to do, and with our new basket system will definitely push harder, is having everyone put their socks into a lingerie bag when they take them off instead of tossing them into the basket.  What does that spell?  No sorting socks!  Some are better at this than others, but it's time to make another push for that.

Bottom line - the coolest moms make jobs easy so there is more time to be the cool mom and less time being the slave driver.

40 Bags, 40 Days

I saw a new cleaning/organizing challenge and I'm all over it.  After all, it's a SMART* goal.

The goal is...

40 bags out of the house in 40 days!

Those bags can be garbage, donations, giveaways, whatever, and you choose the size of the bag.  (When I told my kids about it to rally their participation, they thought a snack bag size of bag would be great, but I'm thinking grocery bag size.)  My day 1 was yesterday, and I took that bag out of my bedroom.  Seeing as how I've been bad enough about starting (lots) of blog post without finishing them lately, I'm not even going to think about updating daily or weekly or anything.  Update at the end will be good enough for me.

It's a whole different type of motivation, though, looking at things with a "what can I kick out to reach the get rid goal?" mentality.

Who's with me???

(Jamie, you're automatically recruited.)

* For those that don't know, a SMART goal means that the goal is:
S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Attainable
R - Relevant
T - Timely

To learn more about SMART goals and a variety of other leadership lessons, join me at Wood Badge this summer!

Tricks, Traps, and Huh?

I've written before about how much I enjoy cleaning my house. I look back at the days when it was just Jamie and I, and wonder how in the world I ever got behind in it back then. Then again, my "getting behind" then is a lot different than my "getting behind" now. Then we would get busy with school and after a week or two decide that things were getting out of hand and needed some touching up. Now, one busy day, even a half a busy day, can leave the entire place shot. It's a conspiracy!

When I really can't work myself up to start cleaning, sometimes a little game will come into my head to play while I clean. Almost like talking to myself, only different.

Today as I was dragging myself to the sink to do dishes I noticed a piece of hard candy on the counter, unwrapped it, and popped it into my mouth. Then the thought came, "Clean as long as it takes to melt that in your mouth." Voila! Like Mary Poppin's spoonful of sugar, it helped the medicine of cleaning go down. "In every job that must be done there is an element of fun. You find the fun, and SNAP! The job's a game!" What a wise woman Mary Poppins is. And since many times I just need to get my motor going, the candy game was enough to do that. I didn't even realize when it was gone! But when I did notice, I was already seeing the good results of my efforts and kept moving (till I stopped to blog about it).

Another starter for the day was writing on facebook, "I am such an amazing person! I can think of at least 684 things to do besides clean the house. Any independently wealthy people out there want to send a maid over for me?" As soon as I clicked the "share" button, I thought, "What if one of my friends and neighbors reads that, thinks, gee, sounds like Marni could really use some help today, and actually comes over to help. How embarrassing would that be?" That thought sent me on another cleaning frenzy.

Unfortunately, distractions abound around here, and some days it seems that I hardly get going before someone or something stops the progress. Today it was Madeleine getting a big bonk on the head, after which I held and loved her for about an hour. But somewhere I remember hearing that the distractions in life are life, so here's to the distractions.

Something else struck me the other day. I was looking at a picture taken of me in our kitchen the month before I turned 16. I hadn't noticed much about the picture except me before, but this time I noticed a kitchen chair showing in the picture. I stared at it, digging in years of unused memories, and for the life of me, I do not remember those kitchen chairs. (Coincidentally, I mentioned it to my sister today who would have been 9 at the time and she did.) We moved a month later and a new dining set was purchased, so those are what I remember. I've heard it said before that kids don't remember the mess, they remember what you did with them, how they were loved, etc. etc. So by golly, if I can't even remember chairs I probably sat on for the first almost 16 years of my life, yet I do remember a lot of really fun things, I guess that's got to be true and it's most important to enjoy being with your family instead of stressing over the mess. Then again, I don't remember Disneyland. But that's another point for another day.

See Mom Clean

See the mom. See the tired mom. See the tired mom with the big tummy. See the dirty kitchen. Mom is cleaning and cleaning the dirty kitchen.

See the two girls. Little energetic girls. Mom sees the two girls. Mom sees the dirty floor. "Two girls can clean the dirty floor," thinks Mom.

"Here, girls. See the dirty floor. See the sponges. Clean the floor," says Mom.

"Okay Mom!" say the girls. Girls get the sponges. Girls get some water. Girls clean the floor. Mom is clever. Mom is happy! Mom keeps cleaning the kitchen.

Girls see the ultra concentrated dish soap. "Soap will make the floor more clean! Soap and bubbles will make cleaning the floor more fun!" Girls put lots of ultra concentrated dish soap in the water.

"See Mom! Cleaning is fun!"

"Yes, girls, yes. Cleaning is fun!" Mom is so clever. Mom is happy.

Girls keep scrubbing. Cleaning is fun with lots of bubbles!

"Help Mom! Lots of bubbles are hard to clean up!"

"Oh girls! Look! Look! Too much soap! Much too much soap!"

See the mom. See the mom on the floor. See the mom cleaning much too much soap and bubbles off the floor. See the mom rinsing the sponges. See the mom rinsing rags. Over and over and over again. Much too much soap!

See the girls. See the happy girls. We helped! Off to play! See the mom, rinsing and rinsing lots of soap off the floor. Silly Mommy! Mommy LOVES to clean! The same spots over and over. Lots more floor to clean. Another day.

Will mom ever learn?

Get It Out of Here!

We took a lovely vacation camping this past week, first just our family, then meeting up with our local church singles branch that Jamie is involved with. It was a wonderful few days, but something struck me on the way home. There was never any complaining from my kids about being bored, yet there were no toys there, no television, no video games. They spent their time playing games together, heading outside to look for interesting things, going on hikes, etc.

More inspiration to get tossing!

I ravaged the girls' room for the most part of yesterday. Since they don't want to take care of the things in their room, I decided that anything I wasn't willing to take care of could go. That ended up being one kitchen garbage bag full for the trash, and a big black garbage sack mostly full for the DI. As many times as I've done this you would think they would have nothing left in their room, but they still do. A LOT less, though. And I'm not even done yet. I still need to hit their clothes hard, because that seems to end up being a big portion of their mess. I've also told them that I'm liable to get sick of more stuff if I have to keep taking care of their things for them.

Before I started tossing Carolyn told me I couldn't get rid of any of her friends like her hippo and her pig and I told her of course I wouldn't. After I took the bags out she checked again about those, then asked me if I had taken her monkeys or her purse. I told her those were safe too. See, she really doesn't need much.

I'm not as extreme as Lara yet (a worthwhile read, I would love to hear your opinion), but I'm far closer to that than how I used to be.

The Shakespearean "rub" in this case is that it's far easier to do this with the kids' stuff than it is mine. I'm leaps and bounds better in that too, and I still blame time as a huge factor, but I NEVER get in my bedroom to do some real tossing. I also blame the fact that any time I go in there little people follow and I don't like everyone following me in there, and by the time they are in bed I don't want to think about cleaning in there.

Do you ever find yourself giving your children advice that you should be following as well? Like this morning, I walked into their beautiful bedroom to put some laundry away. Melanie was all spread out, lying on the floor coloring. Direct quote out of my mouth (after I said it I wrote it down): "Isn't it nice when your room is clean, and you have a nice place where you can go and hang out and just BE?" I need to talk to myself more often.

P.S. I have some really fun pictures from our trip that maybe someday I'll post, but when I'm in a cleaning frenzy I have to run with it seeing as how it doesn't happen all that often.

Dear Visitors,

If you are coming to see me, come over anytime! If you are coming to see my house, please call an hour (or two or five, depending on the day) ahead of time to warn me so I can have it prepared and ready for you. Be sure to specify whether you are going to stick to main areas of the house, or whether you plan on following my children to bedrooms when they beg to show off their toys. I die a little inside every time my children take people on unexpected tours. I promise I try to make them keep their bedrooms clean, but we didn't realize when we moved in that our house included randomly barfing closets. The erupting dressers were purchased before moving here. The under-the-bed areas that reproduce odd toys and papers then slowly ooze out have been around a while too.

If the kitchen table is messy, don't assume that I haven't cleaned it off since breakfast, even if there is still cereal on it. Children seem to think that cereal is good any time of the day, not just morning. Sometimes multiple times during the day, just out for a snack. Then again, it could be from yesterday's breakfast... This also explains why the sink is full of dishes. We will really need to time your visit right to see the sink entirely empty. Please make that reservation at least a week in advance.

If the kitchen floor isn't swept, see above paragraph. Children don't always see it necessary to eat at the table. I'm overjoyed if I can get them to stay in the kitchen! Look closer, it probably needs a good mopping too. I start twitching if I find food particles on the frontroom carpet, which I why I think the kids are always migrating their food there. Anything to jump on mom's last nerve.

If you are wondering why you can keep your house so clean and I can't, it's probably because your children have been over here playing because you didn't want the neighborhood kids messing up your house. I think "fun" is way cooler than "clean." I've also been told that children remember the "fun" more than the "clean." I'll check on that one in about 20 years. If it wasn't true, oh well, at least we had fun.

Above all else, my children live here and they outnumber me.

Sincerely,
Marni

I Want People to Stagger Back in Admiration

Last week I wanted to post more and more about my decluttering, but didn't in case Jamie got into blackberry range and could read about it all. I wanted the big reveal when he got here!

So, the garage that he hasn't been able to park in for 6 months and can? "The garage looks nice." The basement that is two big DI trips and one big drop to grandma's for Saturday's shop-for-free emptier, not to mention two FULL garbage cans and all the remaining box combining and organizing? "I guess I should go away more often." No woooooowwwww. No, Marni, you're the rockinest, coolest, most wonderful wife ever, I am the luckiest man on earth that you would work your bootie off while I was up playing and swatting mosquitoes. It brings this episode of Keeping Up Appearances to mind (a great British comedy). The part I'm referring to starts at 2:17 to 5:06, a hilarious little clip. For the record, I'm not that hard to please. But in the future, I could use a little stagger. :)

My sisters both came over at different times yesterday for a tour. They didn't have much to say, but in their defence, it's not like I used to take people down to the basement just to show off how well our junk was piled around and spilling onto the floor.

Karen, when you make it over, remember you're Elizabeth.

If You Don't Use It, LOSE IT!

This podcast from the Savvy Organizer was just what I needed before sending Jamie and Adam off to scout camp this week. It's only Tuesday, and I took my first DI load this morning. Woo Hoo!!! I am so fired up to get things gone, there will be a healthy level of progress this week for sure.

If you haven't heard of the Savvy Organizer before, Maja is definitely worth listening to. The podcasts are short, to the point, and always have a lot of great ideas. I first learned about her through the Boutique Cafe podcast. Daria features Maja on podcasts 2, 37, and 40.

Talk About Tuesday

Honesty and Growing Up

Decluttering has been such a challenge to me for years, I'm so amazed at all the insight I've been getting the past several months.

One recently, honesty. I've learned I have to be honest with myself. Am I REALLY going to use this? Do the kids really like this? Has it been that beneficial to me and my family sitting here in this box or cluttering our home? Could someone else put it to better use than we have, and really love and enjoy it? It used to be so much harder to get rid of things, rationalizing that there would come a time that the whatever would be important to us, maybe a NEED even, and knotting up inside over it all. It's wonderful feeling so much more free and have so much more faith in the future.

Speaking of the future, I am GROWING UP. This is actually very shocking to me. Yes I've got 5 children, but as a neighbor told me the other day, I'm just a kid at heart. No wonder I'm so stinkin' fun! But I'm passing on things that tie me to my past, recent or not-so-recent, and the future feels so much closer and more promising. As the scriptures tell us, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things" (1 Corinthians 13:11). To me "childish things" could be things that hold me back from my potential, or things I've already gotten my fill of. I've got plenty of things that were really meaningful to me at some point, we'll say CDs for example, but I've soaked everything I can out of them and they are just here hanging out. If I'm honest with myself I know they'll never be that important to me again, and I need to pass them on so they can be meaningful to someone else.

So there are two great decluttering mantras for today: Be honest with yourself, and put away childish things.

More Decluttering Benefits

My decluttering efforts have slowed down during the past month (Jamie hasn't been out of town so I guess I haven't had to keep myself busy after the kids go to bed). I wrote about some side benefits before, but I was surprised by yet another benefit I just realized the other day.

I sent an e-mail to my bracelet mailing list two days ago that started with, "StylinBaby.com has really taken off in 2008! I don't know why suddenly I'm getting so much more business there, that I've decided to slow down listing on eBay and focus more on the website." I've been entirely surprised by the website business I've been getting this year. Usually January is TERRIBLE and I stress all month about sales because I'm trying to restock beads and other bracelet makings I've run out of from Christmas with not much coming in to do that, but this January was so busy I hardly had a break from the big Christmas rush. And it still really hasn't slowed down much. I haven't done any extra advertising to explain the extra business. It has just come.

A short while later after sending my e-mail I was catching up on a few blogs and came across a recent Lazy Organizer post that linked to this post from last year.

I guess it really is true, what goes around comes around.

Telling Myself No

I read something a few weeks ago about telling your children "No" sometimes for things that are good for them, but the no is to make sure they are really ready for it. They were talking about kids wanting to really dive into studying, and that telling them no helps you to find out if they are really ready for it. If they forget about it after you say no, then they weren't. If they keep at you and beg and beg, then they are. This could easily be applied to something like piano lessons. Most people think it's a great thing if their children want to take piano lessons and jump at the interest. If you tell them no and they keep pestering, you know that the desire is really there and not just a whim.

In my decluttering journey I'm learning the value of telling myself no. Decluttering my bedroom really scares me. I don't entirely know why. Maybe partially because I know that to really do that, a lot of things will need to move elsewhere, but where? So then I think I need to finish the basement first. I think I'm also assuming that because they are in my bedroom I NEEEEEED them. I've had a hard time even thinking about it too much, and feel myself getting stressed when I start to consider different ideas. It stresses me even more because I know it stresses Jamie as well. So I've just tried not to think about it, figuring when I'm ready, I'll know.

Jamie left town again this morning dark and early (the sun was far from up), so I started thinking what I could work on while he's gone. I immediately thought of our bedroom, and started thinking, maybe now is the time. "No," I told myself, "it's not. I'm not ready." Immediately this feeling welled up, reminding me of my own childrens' "But Mooooooommmmmmm! I waaaannnnnttt toooo!!!!!" This is good, I thought.

I might do some minor here's and there's, but I'll keep saying no for a while if that's what happens.

Book Review - Country Bunny and the Little Golden Shoes

I learned about this wonderful story while reading this book (thanks Lara for posting about it). I'm so happy our library had a copy!

"The Country Bunny and the Little Golden Shoes" (written in 1939) is about a little country bunny who wants to be one of the five Easter Bunnies someday. Low and behold, she ends up with 21 children, which means a lot to take care of. She realizes that she can't do it all alone and be the Easter Bunny, so she teaches her children how to help around the home so she could fulfill her dream. When her chance comes, originally she is told she can't because of all her responsibilities at home, but she explains all the things her children can take care of on their own, and she is given a chance. Of course she is wonderful at it, and she returns home to find the house entirely in order.

It is one of the most beautiful and enchanting stories I've read, and it is definitely one that will be joining our home bookshelf before long. I thoroughly enjoyed it as a lesson to me, that I need to allow my children more opportunities to grow and learn by teaching them how to help take care of our home. The kids loved the story as well, and after reading it together it was an easy sell to get them to sign up for things they would like to be assigned to do here at home.

I thought it was quite interesting that a review on the book cover calls it a feminist book, and another says she "managed to realize her ambition in spite of her twenty-one children." I don't see it that way at all! She embraced her role as a mother, teaching and training her children to be self-sufficient while she fulfilled her dream one night a year. She became the Easter Bunny because of her children, not in spite of them.

Run out and find this one. It's a keeper!

* Here is more from Lara and Talk about Tuesday. *

Lazy on Decluttering and Working

I have been reading Lara's blog for quite a while, and was pleased to meet her at a homeschool roller skating day we went to last month (Carolyn is on the right in the cute cute picture, she chose the layering look). But I just found a post she wrote on decluttering the kids' rooms that goes along with mine two posts ago.

Here's another great post with links to different points on teaching your kids to work. And her most recent on the same topic, talking about the responsibilities her kids have.

Lara also posted on this great book that I really really want to read.

This is all fabulous information to share, but so you all know, my main reason in posting it here is so that I can easily find it all. :)

Now THAT'S Decluttering!

Late last night I was reading some information by Rachel DeMille about Thomas Jefferson Education, a homeschooling philosophy, and how she applies it in their home. I found this quote that totally sums up why I'm tossing.

"One of the biggest drains on my time and energy that otherwise would go to educating myself and mentoring my children is caring for the family's possessions."

YES! How many times have I been cleaning up after the mob, wishing I could be reading a book or playing a game with them instead?

She goes on, talking about how once a month they have a "systematic purge" to clear non-essentials - unused clothing, toys, and anything that doesn't have a "good place" or is hard for the children to take care of.

The once a month would definitely be an upgrade from the once every ... years it now happens (we're drastically improving!), but what REALLY amazed me is how she continues.

"I have a friend who simply made a list of "keepers" off the top of her head and left it for her husband's reference. She asked him to carry everything else away while she and the children were gone, so that neither she nor they could change their minds about anything. The kids now have a large shoebox full of toys. They have little difficulty caring for their things. Their imaginative play has not suffered with the lack of the things they used to have. And lap-time has improved in quality now that she doesn't feel guilty about the pickup she's not doing. The house doesn't need it anymore."

WOW. Don't know how happy the kids would be for that, but their rooms would feel a lot nicer. And to go further, applying that, even if not quite so drastically to every other area in the home.... This one is going to have me thinking for a while. I already recognize that it's harder to toss when you are looking at the items, so to stand outside a closet for example, write down what's important in there and let someone (or yourself if you've got the willpower) toss the rest? Hmmmm... It is an entirely different way to look at the job if you're thinking about what you should keep rather than what should go.

BTW, I saw this great post last week about tossing DVD cases. I bought a case for the DVDs but haven't entirely talked myself into it yet. Jamie? :)

This Week's DI and Giveaways

I've decided to start keeping track of all that leaves the house. Well, most. I'm not taking pictures of the trash. :) I wish I had thought of this sooner!

Anyway, this is what went to DI:



And this is what is being given away:

Prime Real Estate and Odd Side Effects

I can't believe how much my attitude has changed about getting rid of things! What used to be really stressful has become so refreshing and fun. I've jumped in with both feet and it gets easier and easier.

I can't believe how much prime real estate I've wasted. One example, in our bedroom we've got a dresser with 5 drawers. Jamie takes to top two, I've got the bottom three. Jamie opens both of his daily. My top drawer gets opened daily, the next once a week, the bottom hardly never. My jeans hang out on the floor next to my bed. Is whatever living in that bottom drawer important enough to get that prime real estate, or do I move it out so I can put something I do use there? I've been noticing this all around me, where I'm using the prime real estate as storage rather than prime space that could be put to good use. Think about it!

The tossing has had some interesting side effects. One, the more I do the easier it gets. The time and energy it takes to deal with all the stuff is such a constant burden, becoming more free every day is a great motivation. Two, I feel richer. Like we're so blessed that I can get rid of all this stuff and still have so much left over. For so long I've felt really stingy, hanging on to just about everything for that odd "just in case." Now I pick something up and know that someone else could use it far better than the bottom of my closet does.

So refreshing.

Worth the Mess

My girls love to pull out the watercolors to paint. Carolyn probably the very most, but Melanie really loves to too. Yesterday Carolyn created three wonderful messes, one, a rainbow of paint drips from the kitchen sink to the kitchen table, that I really wish I had taken a picture of. Another was a tipped over cup of paint water, very gray and not nearly as pretty as the rainbow all over the floor. Thank goodness watercolors are super easy to clean up.

Lately Melanie has started painting outdoor scenes, even looking outside to see what she sees and trying to paint it. The other day it was very gray outside and she had a great start on a yucky looking sky when Carolyn decided to help her. Melanie didn't appreciate that and it went in the garbage.

Today Melanie was painting a darkish blue sky. I was on the phone for a minute when I turned and saw her splattering paint onto her paper, and thought it was just beautiful. When I got off the phone I stopped her so I could ask her about what she was doing. She reminded me that we'd been looking at a book that had some paint splatters as part of the pictures, and said she was just trying that. I told her it looked like a stormy day, with rain coming out of the dark sky. She looked at the picture again and just beamed when she saw it too.


I don't care how clean you like your house to be. Things like this are definitely worth the mess.

A Few Creative Moments Out of the Basement

Jamie (my husband) had me listen to a talk recently on being creative. I'll have to get the source from him, but it was a creative writing instructor at BYU if I remember right. It focused on writing, but the principles applied to probably any creative outlet. It mentioned taking time to be creative in your chosen area every day, and I thought, Gosh, I should be writing in my blog every day. I've wanted to be a writer since elementary school, so I guess I should keep that in practice. This blogging thing is fun, but one of my friends put the pressure on me. After reading my first two posts she called and said, "Those are so funny! You really need to keep writing and keep it funny." There you have it, instant writer's block. Thanks Leslie!

As you can probably tell from the cleaning ideas, I have definite issues with that. Between keeping on top of things, staying halfway organized, and (yikes!) tossing tossing tossing, it's been a big weight on me and something I am always trying to be better at an overcome.

I took 2 hours each of the last 2 nights and watched Masterpiece Theather "Anna Karenina." I've been wanting to read the book, saw the video at the library, and thought, what the heck, at least I can get the storyline before I dive into the HUGE book. Very disturbing story actually, now I'm debating whether to read it or not. There was a great quote in the movie that I assume is also in the book, something to the effect of, "Why do women take on extra duties when they can't handle the ones they've already got?" In the movie Anna's husband was slyly referring to her adulterous relationship, but since I'm the kind of person that loves to take on anything extra to avoid household duties it stabbed me to the core.

Still, I've been making some big leaps and bounds this week. Jamie has been at scout camp all week and I've been attacking the box-filled basement, as it has been threatening to kidnap one of the children. I've been doing some major tossing and lots of organizing, and IT FEELS GREAT! With as well as things are going, I'm expecting the basement to look pretty darn good.

I've spent a lot of thought and prayer on my homemaking issues. Maybe it's one of those things that the time has to be right, because over the past several months I've really felt some attitude changes. I was totally shocked when I realized it was my birthday, I was doing the dishes (one of my least favorite things), and actually didn't mind and was (shhhh!) ALMOST enjoying it. I couldn't really admit it if I was, could I? But it IS nice to walk up to an empty sink rather than an overflowing one.

Off to make dinner so I can dive back into the basement.

Time for Confessions...

Isn't the basic purpose of a blog to divulge your deepest and darkest for the world to see, because... because... well, no one really knows why? Seeing as how I am now officially a blogger, I must throw all feelings of self-preservation aside, and confess my shortcomings. So here goes.

I am not a housekeeper.

There are so many amazing talents in the world, but cleaning the house is just not mine. Give me a pack of cub scouts and I'll have them eating out of my hand, ask me to speak in front of a room of people and I'll be fine, but my dirty kitchen? Messy bedrooms? A box-filled basement? YIKES!

It's not that I haven't tried. After all, they say most talents aren't just 'born' they are learned. I've read books, tried routines, made the notecards, yet still, here I am.

I'm actually a wealth of great cleaning information because I HAVE tried so much. As a matter of fact, here are some fabulous tips on making cleaning fun, since for me at least, it just isn't fun.

o Clean in the buff. So you want help cleaning, right? Just kidding, just kidding. But I AM serious about the jaybird thing. How fun is cleaning your shower? NOT. I've ruined a couple favorite shirts thanks to bathtub/shower clean-up. You wait a long time between cleanings and it's a workout and a half to get tidy again. We all like long showers anyway, so take one of those poufy shower things you've got hanging around but never use on yourself, squirt some of your body soap on it (hey, soap is soap), and go to town on the shower. You can do a lot or a little, but it's easy to make a difference. A little every day and it always looks clean!

o Do one thing each day that you won't have to do again for a LONG time. This is a good one when I remember to do it. Why? Because SO MUCH of the blah comes because we are doing the same things over and over and over again. Clean the nasties off your washing machine (how something that cleans things gets so dirty, I will never know), and it will last a good few months before you notice it's looking nasty again. Plus it is so clean it *smiles* at you every time you head for it. I did this a few months back and was shocked for the first week or two every time I went down there, the darn thing was so WHITE. Needs to be done again, I noticed the other day it was frowning at me. But there lies the fun - one thing a day that you won't have to do again tomorrow? Priceless!

o Different methods tell you to reward yourself for the work you do. I, for one, don't have the self-control to wait till I'm done. So I was thinking the other day that I need to hide mommy's special treats in areas that I need to clean. Not the kid trick of actually hiding them through the room to find as they clean, but we all already hide the really good treats from the kids, so let's put more thought into our hiding. Put the Reisen chocolates in your bedroom since you (I) never clean in there, take the Dove Dark Chocolate to the laundry room to 'find' while you're tossing in a load, etc. etc. I have actually not tried this one since I only thought of it a few days ago, but if I had any kind of dark chocolate calling me I would be sure to come, some dirty work behind it or not.

o Point rewards. Another I just thought of, kinda like weight watchers. I am such a competitive person, that regardless of whether or not I was competing again neighbors or online friends and whether there were actual prizes or not, this could definitely be fun. Vacuum the floor, 10 points. Clean behind the toilet, at least 25. You get the picture. Even if you're only competing against yourself to beat your best, I can see this being fun.

o Leave No Trace. I'm a scouter. One of the principles we teach our scouts is that when we're out and about, we Leave No Trace. Leave your area as good as or better than you found it. I used this as a cleaning principle for a while with myself and it was a pretty good game. As soon as breakfast was done I wooshed around the kitchen sweeping and swiping so if someone walked into the house they would wonder to themselves, "Wow, do these people even eat?" And yes, I imagined to myself that they did, and they were always amazed. Therein lies another confession.

O Sometimes the clean house IS the reward. I LOVE sleeping in soft clean wonderful smelling sheets. When I realized this, I wanted to be sure I washed them every Saturday not so they were clean, but to pamper myself. Look around for other ways cleaning your house helps you feel pampered. I would love to hear about them.

Well, I can't share all my super secrets in one message, if for no other reason than my house is calling. But one final thought. I know a few people that can't handle a thing out of place. The kids play with one thing and put it away or it's time out. They pull out the train track, walk back to the bedroom to get their trains, and the track is put away. Is that HOME? Untidy though it may be, my kids can play and bring their friends over, and I'm not going to harp when they have a little too much 'fun.' My wonderful grandmother taught me something I now live by: My house is clean enough to be healthy, dirty enough to be happy. 'Nuff said.

So there's my confession. Don't we all feel better?