Cleaning Routine: Friday, Saturday and Sunday (Relax)

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, I relax with one day (mostly Sundays) of doing absolutely nothing whatsoever!  On Saturdays, I like to try to do a little bit of catch-up work like cleaning the microwave, stove, washing comforters and sheets, getting items ready to sell or donate, working on the living room and spare bedroom.  These tasks don’t require a lot of time, but I like the fact that I don’t feel pressured to get anything done if I don’t feel like it.

When Monday rolls around, the kitchen is usually a complete and utter mess and that is fine.  By Monday, I’m ready to find my clean home again within all the dust, pet hair, water spots and cluttered counters!

I am going to be completely honest with you, I am not a perfectionist by any stretch of the imagination.  As I'm sure you can see in the photos I've taken, many of the pictures are dark.  That is because I work with very little light.  That being said, when I clean, "good enough" is good enough for me.  If there is a stray hair in the sink or a smudge on a newly dusted dresser, I don't sweat it.  It will get cleaned next week.  

If you are looking for a better source to walk you through simplifying and cleaning your home each and every day for an entire month, I highly suggest 31 Days to Living Intentionally Simple.  At this point, I am happy with the cleaning routine I have outlined over the past several days.  Because I have the same morning and evening routines, it is easy for me to know what to do and to get to it without dawdling or procrastinating.  Knowing that it only takes 30 minutes to an hour each evening helps me to get motivated to complete each task.  It is also motivating to be able to come home to a clean home on Friday night and not have to worry about anything but enjoying the weekend with the ones I love.

Related Posts:

Cleaning Routine: Monday (Bathroom)

Cleaning Routine: Tuesday (Dusting)

Cleaning Routine: Wednesday (Sweeping)

Cleaning Routine: Thursday (Mopping)

Do you have a cleaning routine?

I’d love to hear about it!

Cleaning Routine: Thursday (Mopping)

This is where I start to get lax and cruise into the weekend.  I will be honest and tell you that I don’t mop every week.  I’m not sure I can even call it mopping: it is Swiffering the floors.  Whether or not I mop, I still follow my morning and evening routines.

Morning Routine

(I have an hour and a half from the time I wake up until the time I have to leave for work in the mornings.)

• Laundry (3-4 days/week)
• Make the Bed (3 days/wk)
• Dishes: If the dishes were done the night before, I unload them in the morning.  Otherwise, I put the dishes from breakfast into the dishwasher.

On this particular morning, I woke up to an 85 lb dog yacking all over the bed.  So...I had 2 loads of laundry to do first thing in the morning, and the bed did not get made.  This is how I left it for the day:

Evening Routine

• Mop
• Kitchen
• Bathroom
• Bedroom
• Family Room

• Kitchen
• Wipe down dining room table
• Dishes either washed or put into dishwasher to wait for a full load
• Put everything on the countertops in its proper place
• Wipe down counters
• Clean the top of the stove
• Empty recycle bin (if needed)
• Take out the trash (if needed)
• Laundry
• Put away clean clothes

When I got home from work, I came home to this:

A wet, muddy dog because of a downpour we had...

...and muddy floors

There was no point in mopping the floors on this day.  It can wait until this weekend when things are supposed to dry up in our area. 

On Thursdays, I take a look around at the hard work I completed throughout the week and really appreciate being able to read a book or watch a movie with my husband and fur-babies.  Everything has been taken care of, and I wouldn’t be too terribly embarrassed if someone where to stop by on a spur of the moment (even though no one ever does).  Also, it seems like on Thursday evenings, I begin to get run down from my week at work, so it is nice to just come home and relax after the evening routine.

Related Posts:

Cleaning Routine: Monday (Bathroom)

Cleaning Routine: Tuesday (Dusting)

Cleaning Routine: Wednesday (Sweeping)

Cleaning Routine: Wednesday (Sweeping)

Ahhhh…it’s so nice to wake up to a house that is not only picked up, but dust-free too!  I start to feel accomplished by this point and relaxed in my surroundings.  Today, we continue the general maintenance of our home by keeping up with the dishes, laundry, and today, we sweep the floors!

Morning Routine

(I have an hour and a half from the time I wake up until the time I have to leave for work in the mornings.)

• Laundry (3-4 days/week)
• Make the Bed (3 days/wk)
• Dishes: If the dishes were done the night before, I unload them in the morning.  Otherwise, I put the dishes from breakfast into the dishwasher.

Day 2 the bed is made!

Dishes Unloaded

Evening Routine

• Sweep all floors
• Vacuum rugs
• Kitchen
• Wipe down dining room table
• Dishes either washed or put into dishwasher to wait for a full load
• Put everything on the countertops in its proper place
• Wipe down counters
• Clean the top of the stove
• Empty recycle bin (if needed)
• Take out the trash (if needed)
• Laundry
• Put away clean clothes

Time to complete sweeping & vacuuming: 35 minutes

Time to complete kitchen: 10 minutes

Time to fold and put away towels: 5 minutes

This is how much was swept up off the bedroom floor.  Ick!

A Clean Floor!

I don’t mind sweeping but I really don’t like to vacuum.  Many weeks, Todd vacuums as I sweep the floors.  Again, we will have more square footage to sweep once the living room and spare bedroom are complete.  It is amazing how much dirt is swept off of the floors each week.  That’s what happens when you have 2 dogs, 4 cats and a productive hubby running in and out of the house pretty much all day long.  Of course, our animals are a kaleidoscope of colors: black, white, gray, red, brown and blonde.  I like to see results and I definitely see results each time I sweep the floors.

This is what happened after having the floor swept and vacuumed for a whole 5 minutes:
sunflower seeds fell all over the floor.  *sigh*  

Related Posts:

Cleaning Routine: Monday (Bathroom)

Cleaning Routine: Tuesday (Dusting)

Cleaning Routine: Tuesday (Dusting)

I like waking up to a clean kitchen and bathroom on Tuesday morning!  It makes my routine so much easier by getting these two tasks done first thing in the week.  Today, I will show you my Tuesday routine.

Morning Routine

(I have an hour and a half from the time I wake up until the time I have to leave for work in the mornings.)

• Laundry (3-4 days/week)
• Make the Bed (3 days/wk)
• Dishes: If the dishes were done the night before, I unload them in the morning.  Otherwise, I put the dishes from breakfast into the dishwasher.

 

The bed was made!!

Evening Routine

• Dusting*
• Bedroom
• Family Room
• Dining Room
• Kitchen
• Wipe down dining room table
• Dishes either washed or put into dishwasher to wait for a full load
• Put everything on the counter-tops in its proper place
• Wipe down counters
• Empty recycle bin (if needed)
• Take out the trash (if needed)
• Clean the top of the stove
• Laundry
• Put away clean clothes 

*We have a living room that is currently under construction.  We also have a spare bedroom that is in complete disarray right now.  When these two rooms get put back together, they will be added to my dusting routine.

Time to complete dusting: 20

Time to complete kitchen: 10

Time to clear miscellaneous surfaces: 20 minutes

Do you see how much dust accumulates in our house after just 1 week?!?
(I dusted the edge of the amoire to show you.)

The first few weeks, I focused on just the flat surfaces to dust.  After getting into a routine, I was able to blow through these rooms in no time.  I then started to dust the tchotchkes, picture frames, lamp-shades and getting cobwebs out of the corners of the ceiling!  I cannot believe how much dust accumulates in our home within a week!  Because dusting does not take that long, I use this time to try to pick up the rooms a little bit and put items in their proper places.

On this particular cleaning day, I dusted the air intake vent which has needed dusted for a long time (as you can see).  I also cleaned up the table next to the couch where I sit and the fireplace.  I have been trying to get our important paperwork filed, but everything just sat there by the fireplace for weeks!  

Related Posts:

Cleaning Routine: Monday (Bathroom)

Cleaning Routine: Monday (Bathroom)

Over the past month and a half, for the first time in my adult life I have been able to keep up with the (basic) cleaning around the house!  This includes keeping up with the dishes, laundry, bathroom, dusting, sweeping and mopping.  I cannot say that I enjoy cleaning but I can say that I really like the results after I’m done!

I will be posting my list along with before and after pictures of what my cleaning routine looks like each day of the week and how long it takes each day to complete.  Your times may vary depending on how many rooms you have to complete.  For me, I focus on the main living areas that we use.

Morning Routine

I have an hour and a half from the time I wake up until the time I have to leave for work in the mornings.  That being said, my morning routine is extremely laid back.

• Laundry: I throw in a load of laundry 3-4 times a week within 15 minutes of waking so that it will be ready to be hung on the line, drying racks or put into the dryer before work (hubby’s clothes only).
• Make the Bed: I would be lying if I told you that the bed is made daily.  I would say a fair number of days the bed is made per week would be 3 days.
• Dishes: If the dishes were done the night before, I unload them in the morning.  Otherwise, I put the dishes from breakfast into the dishwasher.

Because we didn't clean up at all throughout the weekend, this is what Monday morning looked like.  It took 20 minutes to clean up the kitchen a little bit before work and load the dishwasher to run before I left for work.  (There were so many dishes, there were some left in the sink for later in the evening.)

Evening Routine

• Bathroom
• Wipe down mirror, light fixture and pictures
• Clean counter-top
• Wipe down soap dish, q-tip holder, and toothbrush holders
• Wipe down walls
• Clean toilet
• Wipe down baseboards
• Sweep the floor
• Shower (Confession #1: this gets done once every 2-3 weeks! Confession#2: by Todd!)
• Kitchen
• Wipe down dining room table
• Dishes either washed or put into dishwasher to wait for a full load
• Put everything on the counter-tops in its proper place
• My purse and lunchbox goes into the baker’s rack
• Books go into the bedroom
• Sale flyers get put onto the fridge with a magnet
• Hubby’s wallet is put away
• Wipe down counters
• Clean the top of the stove
• Empty recycle bin (if needed)
• Take out the trash (if needed)
• Sweep the floor (it usually needs it after the weekend!)
• Laundry
• Put away clean clothes

Time to complete bathroom: 10 minutes

Time to complete kitchen: 40 minutes
Time to fold clothing and put away: 5 minutes

Oh, you don't have dog bones all over the place in your bathroom?
Hmmm.  That's odd...

The bathroom surfaces didn't need much work this week - just wiped down.

Phew!

For me, Mondays take some time but I also see the biggest difference on this day and it makes the rest of the cleaning schedule easy-peasy for the next 3 days!

I Can Do It Myself

 I am the first to admit that I am selfish.  Always have been - Always will be. 

The problem is that I have used the last 7+ years with my husband to become more selfish and lazy at his expense.  I always thought: “He gets 15 days off a month – he can do this.”

This thought process is not fair.  My poor husband does have 15 days off each month because of his rotating schedule; however, the days he works, he works 12 hour days!  I cannot imagine leaving for work at 4AM and getting home at 6:45 in the evenings.  No wonder he is always so tired.  He needs those “extra” days to re-coop: not for me to create a never-ending honey-do list!

Even though I feel loved most when getting help from my husband (my love language is acts of service), I have been requiring too much from him.  Every week, there was a list on the white-board of things for him to accomplish.  One day, I erased them all.  Clean shower?  I guess I better get to it. (I hate cleaning the shower – I will do toilets, counter-tops and wipe down the walls every day if I have to, just don’t ask me to do the shower!)  Clip puppy nails?  I just started taking over this task about a month ago.  Come to find out, it isn’t as difficult as I thought it would be (Lana’s nails are jet black and there is no telling where the quick is so I cut her nails a little every week to keep them under control.)  Clean upthe house a little every night?  I’m on it!  The dog’s water dish needs refilled?  I’ll take care of it!  Call cell phone company for credit – I got it! (I have more patience with customer service reps than hubby does.) 

It was the menial little tasks I did not feel like doing that I put Todd in charge of.  It never occurred to me he did not enjoy doing them either!

As of late, I have been trying to take over as much of these silly little tasks as possible in an effort to keep Todd’s stress down so he can focus on chores that really need completed (and I prefer not to do) such as: mow the lawn, clean up the garage, install new flooring in the living room and cut wood for winter.

I always told myself that I didn’t need a man – I could do everything I wanted to do by myself.  That is not necessarily true.  It’s nice to have a husband who can do home improvements, cook and even clean! However, it is liberating knowing that I can do many tasks myself without his help.  The problem was that I was just too lazy and selfish to do them myself!

The Great Purge 2013

Over the past few weeks, I have really been inclined to stop talking about how much I dislike cleaning and actually do something about it.  While putting in the time to clean up our home little by little every day came the desire to de-clutter.  The first three days of my new-found cleaning routine, I realized how much clutter I did not want to continue dusting each and every week.  I started purging items from my bedside table and ended up with one whole box of items to donate as well as one plastic bag of trash. 

After being able to see the wood surface of my bedside table and having next to nothing in the drawers, I was motivated to continue de-cluttering throughout the house.  After three days of my husband watching me clean, purge and enjoy my hard work, something in him changed.  His mentality of “more” was morphing into the realization that we have too much!  He realized that he did not enjoy living with the stuff that littered nearly every flat surface of our home.  The best part of this change is that I did not have to say a single word about it: he discovered this himself (which in my mind, leads to long-term change).

The purging process is going to take (a lot of) time and I’m sure it will never really be complete but I love that we are finally moving in the right direction.  After just a couple of weeks, we have been watching our possessions leave our home and it does not bother us one bit.  I am very nostalgic which is one reason we have so much, and that will probably never change, but it is getting better.

My husband brought up a good point: I have my hand in too many pots.  It is time to focus on just one or two activities.  I have always wanted to be able to maintain our home, spend quality time with family, have a huge (productive) garden, love on our (6) fur-babies, raise chickens, grow fruit, compost and keep up with my new-found love of getting lost in books.  Oh, and lets not forget about having to work 42.5 hours a week with a 10 hour commute..  The issue is that I am trying to do too much and I am not doing any of it well!  Case in point: this year’sgarden.

My focus right now is going to be on:

1. Quality time with family
2. Taking care of the fur-babies
3. Maintaining a clean home

That’s it.  Nothing more. These are the three areas of my life that I am focusing on.  The garden is done this year, so I don’t have to worry about that. I have some things to do with the fruit trees, bushes and vines but it is not very time consuming (not to mention I have 2 months to do it in).  Everything else is being put aside for now.  I am even contemplating selling the flock to someone who wants to raise their own chickens.  There are several people in our area selling free-range brown eggs for $2/dozen.  It is much easier to pick up eggs twice a month versus the time to clean the chicken coop, feed them and count heads twice a day to make sure none were taken by a predator!

I am learning that purging leads to simplicity, and that is what we are aiming for in life.

Less stress, more time together and with family, and contentment with our possessions.

Have you been de-cluttering lately?

What tips or suggestions do you have for this newbie?

Hire a Housekeeper or Do It Myself

I enjoy having a clean home, really I do, but the truth of the matter is: it is rarely ever  never completely clean.  Yes, counter-tops are wiped own, the dishes are clean and put away, the floor may be swept (twice a month if I’m lucky), and the bed may be made (twice a week), but that is about the extent of our “clean” home. 

I was sitting at home thinking about all I had to get done on Memorial Day weekend to make the house half-way clean.  Sweep the floors, clean the bathroom, put away clean laundry, etc.  And then it dawned on me, I don’t think we have cleaned the baseboards since we moved in February 2007!  This may be because we (by “we,” I mean Todd) have redone the main living areas of our home which included new flooring, painting, new baseboards and trim, new doors and closets, and the like over the years, but still, we have yet to do a deep cleaning of our home.

I found a company with a coupon online that would come in and do a deep cleaning of our home (6-8 hour service) at a discounted rate for Mother’s Day.  I talked to Todd about it and told him I wanted to hire someone to come and clean our house thoroughly twice a year and then maintain it every 2-3 weeks.  I was ready to give the woman a call and set up an appointment…until I saw what was on her list of services.

This is the actual list of services from the company.

When I read through each item on the list, I put a time on how long it would take to complete these tasks on my own.

• Wipe down the outside of the microwave: 1 minute
• Clean inside of microwave: 5 minutes
• Wipe ceiling fan in master bedroom: 5 minutes

After I went through the entire list…I realized that I can do this!  The list didn’t seem as overwhelming when I put a time to complete each item on the list.  It will not be completed in one day, but if I do one section a day, I can easily deep clean our home within a week to two weeks at the most.  I spend too much time online as it is, if I just cut my time online and replace it with cleaning 30 minutes an evening or in the mornings before work, we will have the clean house I always wish we had. 

I am taking this list, printing it up, and will go through each and every line item on the list of services on my own and see how long everything takes to complete.  Hopefully, within the next month, I can report to my fellow readers that I have completed the list in its entirety as well as kept up with maintaining the cleanliness of our home.  Who knows, maybe we can even invite some people over and not have to clean like mad-men the entire morning before they arrive!  How nice and relaxing would it be to already have a clean home and not have to worry about anything but enjoying time with company! 

Correlation: Limiting Clutter and Lower Spending

I finally have my husband on board with de-cluttering our home and acknowledging that we have too much stuff.  It took me organizing my closet and commenting on how much I love how clean and organized everything was to get my husband to join the club.  He started with his closet, purging the majority of his clothes: many of them I had never even seen him wear.  Next, he turned all of his clothes one way.  If he wears an item, he will hang it up the other way so he can see what he does and does not wear.  In other words, hubby is taking this de-cluttering idea further than me! J 

After we purged and organized the contents of our bedroom closets, armoires, storage under the bed, bedside tables and dressers, we moved onto the kitchen.  I woke up one morning, and Todd had all of the contents of our kitchen cupboards on the countertops and dining room table.  We went through every single item, getting rid of those that were expired or items that we would not use.  This took us less than 45 minutes to complete: we took on this task one morning before I left for work!

Confession:  The oldest item we found in the cupboard was a box of cornbread muffin mix in a box.  I have been making my own homemade cornbread for the past several years, so I never had a need to use the boxed product.  The expiration date:  April 2009! 

Now, we are going through our home room by room, little by little, getting rid of the contents we do not use as we go.  I still have a date with the Tupperware/storage container cupboard one of these weekends, but things are coming along.

I have noticed that since we have been working on our home, the natural spender in our family (my husband) has been making fewer trips to Walmart before work in the mornings.  We went out for a date at the end of February and I was astonished that we went to 4 stores and spent only $9.12.  That $9.12 was on items that we needed only.

I am noticing a direct correlation between de-cluttering our home, the amount of stuff we bring into our home, and the amount of money we are spending.  Being the natural saver and the one who is looking to simplify our lives, I am enjoying watching this process unfold.  

Too Much Stuff

"Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions." ~Peace Pilgrim (source)

Over the past several months, I have noticed that we have too much. It is not something I just noticed, it is something that has been nagging at me. Really, how much is enough?

I am tired of always trying to find items around the house and our home feeling cluttered. It is impossible to keep the house clean because we have to tear everything apart to find that one do-dad hubby knows he has but cannot find.

Hubby and I have decided to start purging some of our belongings. Do I really need 6 vases when I don’t believe in purchasing fresh flowers? Yes, I can clip flowers from our flower bed and put in the vase for decoration (I rarely ever do this), but I need just one small and one large vase for that. And please don’t ask me why I have 3 sets of hot rollers and use none of them.

We have 3 baker’s racks…in our living room. One is his from his old house, one is mine from my old house, and one is ours that was given to us by my mom when she moved (it’s gorgeous!). They are situated in our living room because we don’t have enough room in our dining room. I think you can tell which one we will be keeping: the one that we both think is gorgeous. I feel like when we have surfaces without clutter, it gives us permission to purchase and fill said surfaces with possessions.

Over the next several months, I will try to post before and after photos of our purging efforts. We could have one major garage sale (or several) this year with all the “stuff” we want to get rid of.

When you look around, are you happy with the amount of possessions you own? Or do you feel like I do, that it’s all too much

Book Review: It’s All Too Much by Peter Walsh

Let me just say that I could have re-written this book in its entirety because of the invaluable knowledge it provided.  The author, Peter Walsh, had me pegged from Page 1 in the book titled It’s All Too Much. I believe this book is for anybody who wants to find a way to look at their belongings a little differently and start to get rid of some of their clutter.

I will be the first to admit that we have a lot of stuff in our home.  We go to garage sales and flea markets as well as obtain a lot of stuff from our parents.  Over the past year, I have had the feeling that its just too much.  We really don’t need most of what we have and it is just taking up space (and in turn, our time, energy and resources) in our home. 

I believe that this book is a must-read to anyone who is looking to dig their way out of clutter. 

I will leave you with several quotes that resonated with me most throughout the book:  

• "Clutter prevents you from enjoying the most precious, intimate moments in life.  Clutter robs you of far more than the space it occupies – it steals your life!”
• "Does the stuff you own contribute to the lives they were hoping to achieve or is it getting in the way of that vision?"
• "Go through every room. First, identify what you want from the space.  Then, determine if the contents of the space serves that purpose."
• "Does this item enhance the life you want to live?"
• “When you succeed in decluttering it will be because you’ve made good life choices.  And when you’re living by those choices, you’ll experience the joy, the lightness, and the freedom that come with natural order.”
• "Your home is within your control.  It should be the place where you escape all negative forces in the world.  Your home should be the antidote to stress, not the cause."
• "Clearing the clutter in your physical space will go a long way toward clearing the clutter in your mind and your relationships."
• "Clutter stops us from living in the present."
• "Those things we hoard for an imaginary future do little other than limit our possibilities and stunt our growth."

If any of these quotes resonate with you, I suggest picking up the book from the library and reading through it.  It has me motivated to get rid of the clutter in our life! 

Learning to Live Without a Dryer and Dishwasher

As a part of trying to conserve energy, I decided to try to live without the clothes dryer as well as the dishwasher.  The first day I tried to live without these two appliances, I realized how easy they made my life.  They were truly a convenience I had come to rely on.  This is what I’ve learned over the past month by going without these two appliances.

Small Loads Are Best

The very first day I washed laundry, we had 3 large loads to do.  I put in the first large load into the washing machine to realize all of the clothes would not fit on our 3 drying racks.  So…I hung some up on the fireplace mantel and dried them extremely quick in front of the fire.

With the dishes, if I wash them as I go, it is not as overwhelming.  I have been washing the dishes after breakfast, which takes about 5 minutes.  I unload those dry dishes from breakfast while making dinner in the evening. When my husband cooks, he uses all  a lot of pots and pans, and the days he cooks, I am completely overwhelmed with a stack of dishes and want to throw up my hands in defeat by loading them into the dishwasher and hit the “start” button.

Frequency Rules

With laundry, I have learned to do several (smaller) loads throughout the week instead of 2 or 3 large ones on the weekends.  By doing this, we have enough room on the drying racks to allow the clothes to dry properly within 24-48 hours. 

As I mentioned above with the dishes, I wash the dishes after every single meal to ensure I don’t get overwhelmed.

It Ain’t Pretty

In the beginning, we kept the drying racks in the family room and they were not very pretty to look at

every time we walked into the room.  It then dawned on me that we could keep the drying racks in our spare bedroom to keep them away from cute little kitten claws (we have 3 – 5 month old kittens right now) and they are out of the way.  This has been working well for us.

 

Patience is Key

I have to laugh at this because I have no patience whatsoever.  It is so easy to hit a button and 34 minutes later you have dry clothes.  Hit the “start” button on the dishwasher and 2 hours later you have clean and dry dishes.

Now, it takes anywhere from 24-48 hours for our clothes to be completely dry (I am looking forward to the warmer weather when I can hang clothes outside on the line!).  I am learning to plan ahead instead of live in survival mode when it comes to dishes and laundry.  To me, it feels better to have laundry done and put away every few days instead of 3 heaping baskets of clean laundry waiting to be put away once a week.  It takes a little more time throughout the week, but it’s done and I don’t have to worry about it.

I joke that I would like to live the “simple life” like the Amish…without all the work.  I am learning that by getting rid of just two appliances, it creates a noticeable change in work load; however, I am (surprisingly) keeping up. 

I grew up with dishwashers and clothes dryers.  This is what I am accustomed to.  It is definitely a change in mindset to willingly go without, but I am enjoying it.  Right now, I am doing this to see if we can lower our electric bill and put the savings toward our mortgage payoff; however, I would love to be able to one-day create enough electricity to power our home.  Trying to reduce our energy consumption is one step closer to being independent of energy.

Do you live without a dryer or dishwasher?

What are your tips and tricks or advice for those of us just starting out in our journey of less “convenience” appliances?

This post is linked up to:

 

 

Book Review: Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy

I am a master procrastinator.  There is no denying it.  I have struggled with this trait for as long as I can remember.

Todd always jokes, “If you were a nation, you’d be procrasti-nation!”  I found this book on the library computer system from another branch and I knew I had to read it!

 

Photo Credit

 

When the book was available at my library to pick up, I immediately noticed how compact it was and I thought, “This is the perfect book for me!”  Why was it the perfect book?  Because for those of us who procrastinate (with some ADD tendencies), we get overwhelmed by large books and procrastinate on reading them!  Can you imagine?  Procrastinating on reading a book on how to train your mind to stop procratinating!

That being said, I dove right in.

I was interested from the very first page.

"If you are like most people today, you are overwhelmed with too much to do and too little time.  As you struggle to get caught up, new tasks and responsibilities just keep rolling in, like the waves of the ocean.  Because of this, you will never be able to do everything you have to do.  You will never be caught up.  You will always be behind in some of your tasks and responsibilities, and probably in many of them."

You may be wondering what frogs have to do with procrastination, but everything in the book revolves around these simple thought processes:

"Mark Twain once said taht if the first thingn you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worst thing that is going to happen to you all day long. 

Your "frog" is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don't do something about it.  It is also the one task that can have the greatest positive impact ony our life and results at the moment."
 

 Rule 1:
If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.

Rule 2:
If you have to eat a live frog at all, it doesnt pay to sit and look at it for very long.

I will be honest that the first 40 pages of this book were the most motivating to me.  The rest o the book was more about what to do in business-type settings to get past the procrastination.  Though it is good to know, the quote about the frog and the rules above are what have been motivating me the most to "eat my frog" every day.

The book goes on the the following 21 steps about how one goes about accomplishing the thought processes above.

 

1. Set the Table
2. Plan Every Day in Advance
3. Apply the 80/20 Rule to Everything
4. Consider the Consequences
5. Practice Creative Procrastination
6. Use the ABCDE Method Continually
7. Focus on Key Result Areas
8. Apply the Law of Three
9. Prepare Thoroughly Before You Begin
10. Take It One Oil Barrel at a Time
11. Upgrade Your Key Skills
12. Leverage Your Special talents
13. Identify Your Key Constraints
14. Put the PRessure on Yourself
15. Maximize Your Pesronal Powers
16. Motivate Yourself into Action
17. Get Out of the Technological Time Sinks
18. Slice and Dice the Task
19. Create Large Chunks of Time
20. Develop a Sense of Urgency
21. Single Handle Every Task

This book is a must-read for anyone who is looking for motivation on ridding of their procrastination.  At less than 130 pages and a 3 hour read, I know it has changed my life and my tendency to procrastinate!  When I start my day, I know what “frog” I need to eat and try to get accomplished first thing because after that, the rest of the day should be smooth sailing. 

So, my question to you is, what is your frog?
I know for me, it is housework and getting organized. That is the main reason I got this book: to get motivated and take care of the tasks (or the frogs) that have been piling up on me for years. 

Ribbit! Ribbit!

 

Photo Credit

 

 

*Disclosure:  I was in no way compensated or influenced to write this review.  All opinions expressed are my own.

2012 Goals

With every New Year, I feel like I have a fresh start, and this year is no different.  This year, I am posting my goals for everyone to hold me accountable!  I will be posting updates every month as to how the goals are coming along.  This is what my personal goals look like for 2012:


Spiritual

• Daily Devotional: Read The One Year Bible (I enjoyed reading the Bible in 90 Days, but I would like to slow it down this year!)
• Find a church that is a fit for our family

Marriage

• Read one marriage book a month and put it’s teachings into practice

Health / Personal

• Eat healthfully (more fruits and vegetables, less meat, carbs and sugars)
• Create and maintain a cleaning routine
• Lose 50 lbs (that’s only a pound a week – achievable!)
• Decrease the amount of “stuff” in our home (Purge-A-Palooza 2012! - will talk about that next week)
• Volunteer at the Happy Trails Animal Sanctuary (a monthly commitment) 

Financial

• Sponsor a child in need
• When I started making my list of goals in October, as soon as I had this goal listed, a fellow blogger wrote about how she and her family sponsor a child through Compassion.  After a lot of research about the ministry, we sponsored a child 11/11/11!  It is amazing how God put everything into place!!
• It is our goal to sponsor another child, but this time, through another organization called Amazima.
• Save $5,000 toward a replacement vehicle/maintenance
• Invest 5% of our take-home income into a Roth IRA
• Sponsor a pot bellied pig at Happy Trails Animal Sanctuary

Environmental 

• Less pre-packaged food / more cooking from scratch
• Reduce use of paper towels and paper napkins replacing them with cloth
• Lower resource consumption (electric / propane / water)
• Electric use of primary residence over past 12 months=15,298 kWh
• Electric use of the house we own next door over past 12 months=6,876 kWh
• We expect this number to be drastically lower due to the fact that we are no longer heating the shed, which was our pot bellied pig and puppy’s abode last winter
• Install energy-saving power strips throughout home

Gardening & Preserving

• Grow enough tomatoes, green beans, snow peas, squash and green peppers to be used through the fall and winter 2012 and spring 2013
• Can at least 24 quarts of tomatoes (sauces, stewed tomatoes, etc)
• Freeze at least 50 pint-sized bags of vegetables
• Plant at least 3 concord grape vines

 What are your goals / aspirations / resolutions for 2012?

Saving Money: Dry Cleaning

I work in a business casual office setting, so I own several cardigan sweaters and even a pair of pants that require dry clean only.  Instead of shying away from these items at the thrift store (where I purchase the majority of my clothing,) I have no problems snatching them up because I know I can wash them without having to go to the cleaners every time I wear them!

The simple trick:  Wash in cold water and line dry!

I drape my washed sweaters over a quilt rack that we have in front of the fireplace, and this works nicely.  My sweaters are generally dry within 24 hours.

I have not had a single issue with my sweaters or pants shrinking or the fibers changing texture by doing this.  The only inconvenience is that my sweaters sometimes get those little fuzz balls on them after a few washes, but we have this nifty little device that was less than $5 to get rid of them.

It has been my observation that many of the sweaters I’ve purchased from the thrift store are dry clean only.  I wonder if people were tired of paying the dry cleaning bill every month to get their clothes clean. 

Washing Clothes by Hand

While on vacation last week, I didnt take enough undergarments to last the full week - on purpose!  I didnt have much room to take alot of clothing in my carry-on bag.

I was really dragging my feet when it came time to wash my undergarments in the hotel room sink, but this is what I learned:

1. It doesnt take much time at all!  (just a few minutes)
2. They air dry overnight - no dryer needed
3. You use alot less soap

I was surprised at all of this.  It really didnt take much time at all, and I am contemplating starting to wash more of my clothes by hand in the sink. 

What are your thoughts on washing clothes by hand?  Have you ever done it?