When this housecleaning thing on The Straight Dope started, someone recommended The Well-Ordered Home by Kathleen Kendall-Tackett. I ordered it, I received it, I read it, and I was delighted to discover that I already do everything recommended in it.
Now, as part of de-cluttering, I’ll send it to the first resident of the Lower 48 States who claims it. Takers? Private message me.
Psychology says that anything will become habit after either 40 times doing it, or six weeks of doing it.
So keep it up, after six weeks it’s likely to become automatic!
Good Day! The ratty towels are in a bag in the car waiting to be dropped off at the cat rescue place, the nice towels are in the linen closet, and I got my nails done, my car washed & detailed, and the normal stuff:
scooped litter
vacuumed (damn cats)
watered houseplants
“mow” my teeny yard (I think I hate California. It’s JANUARY! No one should have to cut the grass in January!)
Trash is out, new bags are in the baskets
Clean Towels in the bathroom
kitchen is clean (dishwasher is running)
And we’re going out for supper. Woo-hoo!
Tomorrows goal: Say or type a coherent statement without using the word “and” a bazillion times. And spot clean the cat-hork stains in the guest room. 
Oooh! I found the edit button! Tres shiny!
StarvingButStrong claimed the book first, and promised to pass it along to another Doper afterwards.
Did I mention that I got a new-fangled shower scrubber yesterday along with my mop? I almost want to scrub the shower just to try it out.
I survived the morning. The family room is pretty trashed, though, and I didn’t get the kids to clean it up. I’ll do that tomorrow. I did have them tidy their room, as I do almost every night–I read aloud while they do it.
My computer desk is actually pretty clean! I can see the wood and everything. However, it is kind of dusty inbetween all the cables and stuff behind the monitor, and makes me think about investing in a Dustbuster. I found some neat things while sorting through the giant pile that had accumulated.
I served a bizarre dinner of leftovers and frozen items: chicken salad rolls, curry, and Korean pot stickers. Everyone liked it anyway (my husband was the only one who ate something of everything, because the no one else could tolerate every item). But the dishes are done, the table is clear, and now…I’m ready for bed. I’m tired today.
I haven’t washed all the dishes, but I think I got most of everything else done. I’ll wash them before dropping junk off at Goodwill tomorrow.
The livingroom is strangely tidy, and books are put away.
My mother was over last night watching my kids - its like a housekeeper. She did laundry, dishes, picked up, went through the piles in the kitchen and created new improved piles (she doesn’t toss). And brought me a sweater she got on sale.
Does that count?
(I got homework done).
Yay! I won the book! And, yes, I’ll pass it along to another Doper in this thread when I’ve read it.
It can become the Traveling SDMBSRC Book!
Sattua, if it’s not already wrapped up, why not sign your nom & state inside the front cover? We can create a sort of historical record of its travels. 
As to decluttering…
Well, today I’m going to finish the kitchen drawers. The two biggies are done (junk & gadget) leaving only two narrow ones next to the stove (pot holders and coasters/clips/handcream), one narrow one beside the dishwasher (napkins & meatgrinder), and the main silverware drawer. Probably less than 15 minutes all together.
BTW, I filled up three shoe boxes with discards from my gadget drawer. :o Okay, a few of them were gifts (a special cutter/server just for Angel food cakes??) but most of them were stuff I actually spent money on. Like a ceramic orange peel grater. Like SIX sets of kabob skewers. Like a special dingus for making those swirly fried dough cakes. (Yes, I must have been drunk – I don’t even EAT fried dough!)
And knives. Lord, I must has discarded over a dozen knives. See, I’d get those sets in ‘self sharpening holders’ and then lose one of the knives, so I’d get a new set, but why through out the remaining 2/3/4 perfectly good knives? Plus I inherited sets from my grandmother and hubby’s grandmother…
Anyway, if you are in need of knives, I suggest you hit the Salvation Army outlets in the next week or so. 
Depends. Can you find your things? Every time my mother comes to visit I tremble. I fear. I shudder. I wish I could call the cops and put one on each side of her.
When she and Lilbro came to Philly, she spent their last morning rearranging all my stuff. She changed where everything was in my kitchen, my cupboards, my closets and my chests of drawers (did not realize a couple other pieces of furniture were small chests). She even changed where my panties were, for Og’s sake!
She’s managed to “store too well” my passport twice.
Yesterday ended up being a poor day for me in terms of cleaning – all I managed to do was make the bed and wipe off the sinks. I discovered I’d screwed up and misread a due date, so was a full day late with a job, so had to really focus on it, and so everything else had to be temporarily set aside. So I didn’t get the other bathroom scrubbed, or get to the gym. And I won’t have a chance to get to the gym today, either, probably, since we’ve got workmen coming over some time this afternoon.
But that’s okay, there’s no point in beating myself up for life happening. I’ll just get that other bathroom done and start picking up my office – I have to in any case because they’re installing FIOS TV service and they’ll need access to various corners in here that are currently blocked by Heaps O’ Stuff. Oh, and get one last rush job done, but this one is nice and boring and easy.
The cat is so thrilled with the quilt being put on the bed every day now that she fought Papa T. last night when he tried to take it off so he could go to bed. Silly cat!
Yeah, she’s been picking up after me since I was able to drop Cheerios off my high chair (do you think that might be part of my slob problem)- I’m pretty good at finding it again. Sometimes she drives Brainiac4 a little nuts, though.
::sigh:: Didn’t happen. Any of it. Except for finishing the laundry, and technically, that didn’t get done either, because my clean blouses are still hanging up near the laundry room because I didn’t get my closet clean, and there’s just no room left in the closet!
This weekend, for sure! (I can never really get anything big done on the weekdays because of work/gym/daily chores like cooking.)
Statements like that are what tend to convince people that psychology is crap. (I’ve done plenty of things for over 6 weeks and more than 40 times. If it’s something I don’t like doing, I can drop it like that.)
Last night, I finally got around to creating tasks in the computer. In the meantime, everything is still mostly clean or put away in the sections that were cleaned. This weekend, I need to move on to the two sections that are where things are stacked (but totally unorganized).
See, they forgot to add the last part: Good habits take 40 repetitions to learn, but bad habits only take once!
Ain’t that the truth.
OK, today I’m going to do two loads of laundry (warm and cold) and clean the kitchen properly–scrubbing the counters and sink and cleaning the fridge and so on. Wednesday is kitchen day from now on.
So far I have put away the clean dishes. So I should go make the bed now; it’s been airing. (I am a fanatic bed-airer. I don’t like the rule some people have of making the bed as soon as they get up–but since I’m a SAHM, it’s not hard for me to go make the bed half an hour after I fold it down for airing. I suspect that if I had a job, it would be different!)
Tomorrow I sweep, vacuum, and mop. Today is just a little light cooking and tidying the kitchen. Wait. I should declutter under the bathroom sink. Wish me luck.
The Goodwill stuff is all gone! Yay!
Yay! And much good luck under the bathroom sink. <shudder> The mere thought scares me.
I did not choke my boss, but that was only my success today. Mr Mad did the cats (food, poop & pill), we ate a gazillion calorie fast-food all 3 meal, and the “and” habit is in full flower.
Y’all impress the hell out of me!
I had very little success the last few days myself. I’ve managed to get a healthy (or mostly healthy) meal into us every night since Saturday. Oh, except Sunday. Still, that’s amazing for me. I’ve managed to clean as I go with the cooking, though I do that to a degree anyway, since I have limited counter space. I did it to a greater degree than usual (dishes in the dishwasher rather than just the sink, for example), and I think that’s a success.
I wrote my quiz. Half my students failed it, and it was my first quiz of the semester. That sucked.
I’m working on my crafts. I just have to figure out how to get the last of the creases out of my cross-stitch. I’ve tried a couple of things, and now I’m just going nutty.
Tea. I think the answer is tea.
The answer is almost always tea. Tea, or alcohol. Or chocolate.
I tried to go for tea AND chocolate, but my chocolate turned out to be a chocolate covered caramel, and I hate caramel.
It was massively disappointing, because it was from a new chocolatier in the area, and my husband and I had each only purchased one piece.
But I do have tea.