31 Days to Clean – Day 2

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Moving forward in the 31 Days to Clean series… Today is day 2 and Sarah Mae points out the importance of the “Six Most Important Things List.” I’ve heard the idea before but I’m not sure where. I’ve been implementing the list for the past few days and my productivity has sky-rocketed. The only thing I haven’t tried is to write my list out the night before. I’ve been writing it the morning of.

My six most important things list has some of the same tasks from day to day but most are different. I’ve reminded myself of upcoming bills, budget updates, work assignments, some research I’m currently doing, and various chores. Blogging is on my list today as I didn’t want to forget to write about day 2.

Sarah Mae also talks about scheduling issues. I have a very loose schedule, especially since my husband works from home most of the time. I tend to go to bed when my body says it’s time and I wake up naturally every morning. Immediately after waking, I write my morning pages (will blog about this some other time) and then exercise. Shower after exercise and then breakfast. By this time, it’s usually 9 or so already. The rest of the day doesn’t follow any sort of formal schedule. I complete my work assignment if I have one, work on my six most important things list, and attempt to tame our spare bedroom.

Maybe if my husband starts working out of client offices instead of home I will write out a time schedule for myself. But right now, I vacuum in between his calls. A formal schedule would not work with his current work situation.

My biggest productivity blocker is the internet. I try to limit my browsing time but I use the internet to work. It’s literally impossible for me to work without it. I also use the computer to work on the budget, pay bills, do research for my writing, write, etc. I think the easiest way to conquer my biggest time waster is just to limit the amount of time I spend surfing. I’m allowed to use the computer for personal reasons for a set amount of time, usually 15-30 minutes, and then I move on to something else that’s more productive.

In the spirit of productivity, I tackled the kitchen today and took before and after pictures.

Before:

After:

Ahhhhh, much better.

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Preparation day

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Last week, I promised myself that the only laundry I would be washing on Fridays is our sheets and pillowcases. So why is it that I have three loads of laundry to wash, dry, iron, and fold today?

I really should pick up some additional bread pans. Right now, I can only bake two loaves at a time. The first two loaves of banana bread are in the oven. If I can squeeze them all in before 1:00PM (after which is our expensive time of day for electricity), I should have 6 loaves baked. One for today, one for tomorrow, and four for the freezer.

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Clutter

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I can’t believe I slept for two hours this afternoon. I was sleepy after lunch, laid down on the bed, and woke up two hours later! Must have needed it.

Is it considered a good thing when I look around and am not sure if I have any housework that needs to be done? I know there is always housework to be done, but all the major stuff was done today. The kitchen floors have been mopped, all the dishes are washed, the toilet is clean, the carpets are vacuumed… I actually went into our spare bedroom and started cleaning.

Our spare bedroom is terrible. We still have stuff in boxes from when we moved in over three and a half years ago. That really makes me wonder if we need those boxes. If we threw them away, would we know what was missing? Some of the clutter is due to us selling our bookshelves a couple months ago, so there are piles and piles of books all over. We have nowhere else to put them. There is no furniture in that bedroom, so it’s just boxes, stacks of books, and clothes. Our dresser broke a couple months ago and all our clothes ended up in the spare bedroom so that the cats wouldn’t lay on them and share all their fur.

That bedroom is a mess! I’ve been going in there for the last couple days and (each day) finding five things that can be thrown away/recycled/given away. It’s already made a visible difference, though I have a LONG way to go. There are also several boxes of old baseball, basketball, football, and hockey cards. Still not sure what I’m going to do with those… I don’t want to keep them but I’m sure there are cards with value in those albums. Is it worth the time to sort through thousands of cards to find the few that are worth a few dollars? I haven’t yet decided. And so they sit.

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Dishes and menus

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I am happy to say that the dishes have been washed/dried/put away for the last two days! I don’t know why I struggle so much with keeping a clean kitchen, but I’m slowly learning to prioritize.

I also created a menu for the next week. My diet is being overhauled again and I’m trying to eat mostly fruits and veggies with a regular, vegan meal at night. We have fruit for banana/peach smoothies and peach/strawberry smoothies, both of which are very good. I’ve found that the more fruit I consume on a daily basis, the less I crave desserts. I haven’t had dessert in over a month.

Menu planning is always a challenge for me as I can never think of anything new to eat. We tend to rotate through the same meal options – haystacks, burritos, spaghetti, and orange tofu. All of these meals taste good but we have problems with variety. I decided to try a new recipe this week so I’ll be making vegan soba and mushroom soup this weekend. It’s a bit different than our normal dinner fare! Hopefully it turns out well.

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Hydration

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Hubby picked up a new water filter earlier this week. I highly recommend it. It’s bigger than our old one and filters the water so much faster. We’re not running out of water now, whereas the pitcher was often empty before.

It’s been a pretty laid back day. I’ve been feeling very low energy for the last couple days so I’ve been taking it easy. I’m reading a lot and keeping up on the dishes, but that’s about it. My desk is almost clean! Each day, I sort through 5-10 pieces of paper and either file, recycle, or shred each one. My pile is almost manageable now! Pretty soon I’ll have enough room on my desk for the cats to sleep. According to them, that’s what all the furniture is used for!

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I’m melting

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It is almost nine o’clock at night and I’m melting. It’s still 95 degrees outside!! Why do I live here?

I realized today that the state is requiring emissions testing on our car this year before registration is due at the end of the month. I hope it passes!

Today was pretty laid back. Hubby brought home his first full time paycheck. Hurray! I caught up on the dishes, washed some laundry, vacuumed, worked on cleaning off my desk for a few minutes (the never ending chore), and played with the cats. I also wasted a bit of time today playing a free downloaded game – Blocks Annihilator. It’s very similar to the Yahoo game Collapse. A waste of time, yes. But fun. 😉

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Links

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I want to share some great links I’ve been saving. My open tabs (67 of them!) are spiraling out of control and my browser is crawling. I tried to upload a picture of my crazy tabs but everything runs together in a giant blob.

The Ugly-Beautiful Story – I love this story. “Because, somewhere, underneath the grime of this broken world, everything has the radiant fingerprints of God on it. With Jesus eyes, we have the astonishing opportunity to daily love the unlovely into loveliness.” I want to love like Jesus does. I want to see the fingerprints of God on every human being. If I could learn to love like God does, if everyone could learn to truly love, this world would be beautiful.

Dark Waters – An encouraging post about persevering life’s trials.

Free mini-workouts – These mini workouts with Jillian Michaels are sure to be good. I probably shouldn’t be posting links to workouts I haven’t yet tried, but Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred DVD is fantastic.

66 All-Natural Cleaning Solutions – One of my goals this year is to switch over to natural cleaning. I despise the chemicals in commercial cleaning solutions. As we finish each of our current cleaning products, I’m going to switch over to more natural solutions.

Refried Beans recipe – I tested and discarded four recipes before finding this one. The beans were actually the consistency of refried beans, though they tasted a bit different that store bought (I actually like canned refried beans). Now that I have the consistency down, I need to find the right balance of spices to make them taste good!

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Goings on

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Hubby’s working today so I’m at home by myself. It’s so quiet when it’s just me here! I can tell the cats are hot during the day because they sleep on the tile for hours at a time. I’m hot too but it’s not too bad.

So far today I’ve washed the dishes, cleaned off the kitchen counters, picked up the living room, washed a load of laundry, vacuumed the apartment, and opened yesterday’s mail. I don’t think I’m going to tackle any additional housework today except cleaning out the catbox before hubby comes home.

Yesterday, we visited the Sunflower Farmers Market. They have some great sale prices! We brought home some apricots, nectarines, apples, tomatoes, lettuce, and bell peppers. We also found that Sunflower carries the entire line of Simply Asia products. We used to buy them at Sprouts but they have since stopped carrying them and Walmart only carries two varieties. Sunflower had them on sale plus each box had a coupon for saving a dollar instantly. We bought four boxes! My favorite variety is the Soy Ginger noodles, though that may change once I try the new flavors.

I’m plowing through my library books. Between hubby and I, we currently have 48 books checked out. The library allows 50 books per library card (we have two), so we could bring more home but I would never be able to finish everything. Sometime this week I’m going to post about a couple of the books that I thought were exceptional.

My brother and I are making plans for my mother’s 50th birthday. That’s all I can say, just in case my mom happens to read my blog between now and this weekend. 50 years old! I can’t believe my mother is going to be 50 next week…

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Oh, to eat burgers again!

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The Lord reminded me this morning to spend some time in prayer and Bible study before starting my day. It was hard for me to sit still and read when I wanted to be up “doing” something but I’m happy I listened. I read three chapters in Mark about Jesus healing numerous people. It amazes me that the Jews had Jesus in their midst, heard Him preach, saw Him healing people, and still wanted to kill Him. I wonder if we would do the same today.

I pushed myself again to complete all of my “active” housework early in the day. I completed everything on my list, especially those jobs that require me to be moving around the apartment exerting energy. By 10:45 I ran the dishwasher, washed some pots by hand, baked cornbread, vacuumed, cleaned the two litter boxes, swept the kitchen and bathroom floors, took out the trash, swept the patio, and wiped down the toilet and bathroom sink.

Hubby was off work by 11 today. We ate lunch together and then hubby took a nap while I created a menu plan and shopping list for this week. In the heat of the day (100+ degrees), we decided to go grocery shopping. I didn’t really want to leave the house while it was so hot out, but we desperately needed to buy food. Our fridge was completely empty except condiments and our cupboards held half a box of Cheerios, a couple cans of tomato soup, and some oatmeal. That’s it.

What joy it was to walk around the grocery store and buy more than just pasta. Oh, what joy! I used to take it for granted that I could buy whatever groceries I wanted. For the first time in 5 months, I spent more than $25 shopping for a week’s worth of food. Haystacks, potato salad, baked potatoes, stir fry, spaghetti, Boca burgers, homemade pizza, and macaroni and cheese are on the menu this week. Oh happy day! I spent $45 total by shopping the sales and printing out some great internet coupons, among them two free bottles of BBQ sauce!

I will never again allow myself to spend $100/week on groceries. That was our old food budget. Now that we’ve been broke, completely out of money, I’ve learned how to shop inexpensively. I know I still have a lot to learn compared to some of the expert shoppers, but I’ve made a huge dent in our grocery bill these past few months. We were even able to buy hubby some new socks!

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Habit Sunday

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I know I’ve posted about it before, but I have trouble getting everything done – cleaning, reading, cooking, spending time with hubby, taking care of the cats, etc. Our life has no formal schedule right now as hubby isn’t working except for the occasional contract job. Last week was kind of crazy since he was out of town for a couple days and worked a contract job Wednesday through Friday. This is the first week in months that I’ve been home by myself during the day.

I love my hubby very very much. When he’s home, I tend to just do things with him, whatever activity we decide we want to pursue. As a result, most of my housekeeping falls by the wayside. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with spending so much time with my husband. I just think that I’m letting him down in a way because our house isn’t clean, I’m not organized, and I’m really bad about making a nice supper. When hubby was working, right after I got laid off, I was making nice dinners. I was happy to be the wife who would greet her hubby with a hot dinner after he arrived home from a long day of work. Because we’re home all the time (excepting those days when hubby finds contract work), all our meals are kind of thrown together at the last minute.

We live in Arizona. It’s May. It’s hot. We’re broke. We’re also challenging ourselves to at least hold out until June before turning on the air conditioning and driving up the electric bill. Towards the end of last week, I discovered a very loose schedule that works wonders with this weather. If I plan my day so that the housework is done in the morning, it requires less sweat and effort. Then I can spend the afternoon job searching, writing, organizing, etc. All of these are things that require little movement.

Simple, right? I really wonder why I didn’t think of it before. This schedule also tied in well with my attempts at creating new habits this week. My morning cleaning schedule involves dishes, vacuuming, making the bed, sweeping, and cleaning out the litter boxes. As I’m trying to complete all the housework in the mornings, I challenge myself to finish by 11 and end up creating a smooth flow as I move from room to room.

The only thing I’m falling behind on is my personal Bible reading. Hubby and I read together every night so I am reading the Bible daily. However, I’m only reading it on my own about half the week. I’ll keep working on this.

My challenge this week is to fine tune my morning schedule and decide what tasks need completed daily versus weekly. I also need to spend more time in the afternoon looking for work.

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