Crisis Cleaning Sunday

My house has finally gotten to the point where I can no longer bear to look at it.  I must clean. MUST clean. NOW!!!!

Just a preview of my messes

 Actually, I look at this picture, and it doesn't look so bad ... it FEELS like everything is so much WORSE! At any rate, I need to clean today.

I'm not on here to goof off, but to plan -- what am I going to do today?  Here's a starter list:

• pick up -- in just about every room. (Tom is helping with this. W is helping mess this up.)
• vacuum
• cat litter
• trash
• laundry, so we have clothes to wear this week
• dusting
• sweeping and mopping
• pick up in the basement
• decluttering
• some office work to do today
• dishes and kitchen clean up
• decluttering
• START working on Hotspots

Wow, when I write down my list, it doesn't sound so bad. It feels so overwhelming though!  I'm going to make a plan and start with that.

This morning before lunch I'm going to:

• clean up the kitchen
• spend 5 minutes picking up in each of 3 rooms
• take out all the trash
• dust
• declutter for 15 minutes in the dining room

After that, I'm going to take a little break, plan the next round of tasks, and have lunch.  It's a start ...

Not behind - FLYLady Style

Good morning!  Well, i guess it's hardly morning any more, but I'm finally ready for my day!

I had a really hard time motivating myself the last few days and getting work done.  By the end of the day yesterday, the kitchen was a mess, my office was a mess, I had no idea what to do for dinner (since I hadn't started it in the crock pot as planned), and I felt like a mess.  We had leftovers for dinner (yay leftovers) and took DS to the pool to play, we all had a great time!  But we went to bed that night with a still-messy kitchen, and I ended up "oversleeping" this morning! (At least much later than I wanted.)

So I got DS to daycare in time for breakfast this morning, ate breakfast, and caught myself goofing off again this morning - but I DID something about it!  I decided I need to do my evening routine (since I didn't do it last night), and my morning routine, then I can look at my day!

I did my evening routine in 50 minutes.  Here is what I did:

• cleaned up the kitchen/washed dishes
• started the dishwasher
• shined the sink
• spent 2 minutes picking up the living room
• put away all folded laundry in the bedroom
• brushed & flossed my teeth.

After that, I spent 10 quiet minutes in bed reading and praying.  That's part of my evening/bedtime routine, and I was doing it!

After that, I got up and did a modified morning routine:

• put my shoes on (i was already dressed)
• did my face & hair
• made the bed
• rotated laundry, folded & put away 1 load.
• Checked my calendar (I'm not going to do all I wanted, but had factored in some down time this afternoon that, I guess, I already spent)
• ate another breakfast (I was hungry after all that!)
• started dinner in the crock pot.

So now I am finally ready to "start" my day.  Ready to work now, and I hope the rest of the morning and afternoon will be productive!

Day 3 of Flylady Babysteps

Today is Day 3 of the Babystep Challenge, and the post says:

Easy! So far:

• My sink is shiny after last night
  
• I am dressed to shoes (not lace-up; I'm wearing dress shoes today)
  
• It's not even 9:00 yet and I'm almost ready for the work day! Still need to swap laundry and finish emptying the dishwasher – my IPod is loaded so I can listen to legal podcasts while I work.
  

Have a great day! If you're doing the babystep challenge too, leave a comment with your blog :)

Sarah

Beginner Baby Steps – starting at Day 2

A bunch of Flyladies are going through her Beginner Baby Steps during June. I started doing this a few months ago, have a sticker chart and everything … and I'm on day 8. Sigh.

So, after debating for a day or so, I decided to "jump in where I am" and start on Day 2. We'll see how I'm doing so far.

Day 1: the first step is to shine my sink. My sink is not shiney now, but dishes are mostly done (did them after breakfast and prepping crock-pot dinner) and I can shine it tonight. Yay!

Day 2: Get up and get dressed to lace-up shoes, fix hair and face. I didn't have a lot of time to fix my face this morning (at least not to do makeup), but I did brush my hair and put on some moisturizer after I washed my face. I wore sandals rather than lace-up shoes, but they have been on my feet more or less all day, including when I went out for doctor appointments today.

So, I guess I can start where I am. Not too much work! (and not really any extra. J ) Now I'm off to shine my sink.

In search of adequacy

Just finished my Flylady Weekly House Blessing (WHB) – pick 6 chores and spend 10 minutes each on them. I mopped, vacuumed, swept, changed sheets, dusted, and did trash/recycling. Wow! My house is now *far* from perfect, and in fact, I feel like it's in worse shape than before. When I do this, I'm aware of all the clutter and messes around. On the other hand, I got a lot done, and more than I would if I hadn't done it. I know DH will come home tonight and mention how it looks better. (He makes a point to do this, since he knows his praise helps me stay on track.)

It would be wonderful if I could do a perfect housecleaning in 1 hour. Lots of things – like the bathrooms – I didn't even touch. But I have to admit that's not a possibility and look for adequacy, not perfection. And remind myself to say, yay me!

Procrastination confession

Good morning, is it really 11:00 already? I need to leave for lunch in 15 minutes and have done nothing today. Or it feels like it. How can I do nothing in 5 hours? I have:

• Played solitare on the computer (but did I really do that for more than 10 minutes or so?)
  
• Checked e-mail
  
• Finished a blog post
  
• Played on Twitter
  
• Rotated the laundry and folded what was in the dryer
  
• Taken DS to school, after we napped together
  
• Prepared dinner – it's in the crock pot. (Corned beef, yum)
  
• Went to the post office to check mail
  

I should have been doing client work this morning. And I need to.

(distraction: I really need to close tweetdeck sometimes!!!)

So this afternoon, I will:

• Eat a good lunch (looking forward to it!) and get some caffeine in my system
  
• Draft the minutes from the church meeting last week
  
• Call my business partner
  
• Spend 20 minutes on a blog post
  
• Call 1 clients
  
• Research for 1 client for 20 minutes
  
• Call 2 "other people"
  

Other than lunch, that should take me no more than 2 ½ hours. It feels like a long list, I have to remember it's really not!

Office Hats

I am a completely disorganized (yes, I'll admit it) work-at-home-mom with my own business. How do I keep it together? One step at a time, but I am trying to create systems and routines that make it easier on me (and my family).

Today I sat down and thought about what I would have if I worked in a "real" law firm. You know, all those little things I don't want to do because they take away from my billables. There's quite a lot, actually. First, I would have a set work schedule. OK, I can do that. DS is in daycare, so his daycare days help define my work schedule. I need time without him to do some housework, so I need to set some hours while he's in daycare to do household things as well (cleaning, laundry, that type of thing).

The scheduling has worked pretty well at least today. I considered the time I dropped him off as my time to start work – I did a planning session and hit the ground running. When I got home, I kept reminding myself that I'm not "home" until later today, when I can take care of the dishwasher, etc. I'll get "off work" about 2 hours before I pick up DS from daycare, hopefully enough time to get the house somewhat manageable.

The second thing I would have if I worked in a "real" office is support staff. I would have a janitor, a bookkeeper/accountant, a secretary/paralegal (in an ideal world), and an office manager. So I assigned chores to these people – what would each of these people be doing so I can do my work? I also listed my "lawyer" job description.

Then, I started working – I brought the janitor in for 30 minutes to clean. Wow, my office looks better! Then the janitor left and I worked as a secretary for another 30 minutes. Decided that's not nearly enough time, but at least I made a dent. The office manager then came back in and did more planning. Now I am freed up to be a lawyer for the rest of the afternoon. And, the best part – I actually feel like I've gotten things accomplished today! Recently I've had the feeling that I'm spinning my wheels and spending all day not getting anything done, so I feel much better about what I've done today.

I finally feel like I'm getting some progress toward having systems in place. Yay me!

Preparing my Briefcase

I inevitably get to court or a meeting missing something out of my briefcase. Usually it's something minor, like I forgot to pack business cards. Today I spent a few minutes pre-packing my briefcase and making a list of what needs to be in there.

Always keep in my briefcase:

• Yellow note pad
  
• Pens & pencils
  
• Paper clips
  
• Binder clips labeled "urgent" "to-do" and "file"
  
• Business cards
  
• This list
  
• Post-it notes
  

Add to my briefcase

• Calendar
  
• Blackberry
  
• Wallet (unless I am taking my purse separately)
  
• Lipstick
  
• Client files or documents I will need that day
  

And when I get home:

• Empty my briefcase, re-fill the "always keep", and put it away.
  
• Enter new business cards into address book
  
• Look @ my calendar, update case management software, and put calendar away
  
• Follow-up with new client information and to-dos