3 weeks down; 49 weeks to go.

I love the thought of writing this, but I still cannot understand why it's so easy to think of things to write while I'm walking through the halls at work and why it becomes so difficult when I sit down to write it.

De-Clutter Update: 21 days to make a habit.
- that is so much harder than it sounds. My habit attempts for September were:
* take out the garbage (Thursday night and when full): 3
* enter and exit through the garage (ha ha ha ): 0
* complete the dishes after meals, empty dishwasher when clean, do pots, pans; wash counters: 10
* make a schedule for my kids: 2
* hang up clothes when I take them off: 5
* put folded laundry away immediately: 5
Okay so those are (for me) ambitious tasks. But in reality, they do get easier.

I watched my 6 yr daughter take out a CD and put the one she removed from her CD player back in the case and put the case back on her dresser. And I thought, she has it. She has that instinctive clean gene.

Here's another thing I've noticed about attempting to de-clutter. It really IS overwhelming. I can't even commit to writing in the journal every day, how can I commit to de-clutter. A mystery.

My new goals:
* establishing a bedtime routine for myself. That sounds silly, I mean after all, I'm old (48) I should KNOW how to do this, but I don't. I stay up way too late get up way too late and end up tired and crabby. So my new bedtime has to be midnight, so I can get up at 6:15 and eventually start walking on my treadmill.
* getting rid of the paper clutter.

The Journal Questions; Week 1.
Okay the journal questions. While I have not written them in a journal I have attempted to answer them for myself.

Question 1: Family/ home of origin. Were your parents on time? Never. and getting out the door was always a hssale and we were always always LATE. My dad would wait in the car quietly (sometimes honking the horn).
Enough for now. I was going to write some more, but I've had a headache all day and still feel ill.

1 year to declutter???

I'm sure all you very clean and neat people with your houses that are not at all cluttered cannot understand those of us who have clutter; we exist.

I first tried to Feng Shui my house and that worked in part; at least I put color on the walls where I might have left them light yellow like I usually do. But beyond telling me to move this piece of furniture over there and do X, Y, and Z. I"m not sure the Feng Shui practitioner that came to my house gave me the tools to de -clutter.

Every time I try, I end up with a bigger mess and feel slightly annoyed (well, more than slightly annoyed) by the mess. It's funny, I don't mind living in a little bit of clutter, but now that I've started this process, I can't stand the clutter.

Okay, so every book that I've read about why de-cluttering your house is good for you and your family, not one tells you how to do. Not really. Start small, tackle one project at a time is what they say. I don't know how to organize. That I can handle, but when you've lived in (closet) clutter you don't understand what comes naturally to other people.

I used to joke that my house clean was other (really neat) people's house messy That probably holds true.

I've started to read a different book. Actually, what started this was a lecture I heard in Church about taking back your time. It made me think, how do I lose time? I'm always stating to my kids that if they just do things when asked or put their shoes, boots, coats, back packs, etc where they belong they will have more time. But how do they learn that if I don't know how to do that.???

So this new book; 12 months to de-clutter (or something like that) goes room by room. BUT what it does (that I've not seen in other books) is it makes you think about your family of origin and journal. Thinking about how your family dealt with the things in the house is really actually, well, eye opening. My mom is staying with us and while I"ve not learned a ton about her, I've learned a lot about why I say and do certain things.

So, the first chapter was to start a journal (this is going to be it). It's about the family of origin. I'm not going to answer the questions tonight because this is just the start of it.

But the second thing (that occurs in the first week in addition to the journal) is that you have to start two new habits in the kitchen. Mine are: empty the dishwasher (my least favorite task; it ranks just slightly higher than cleaning out the cat box or the frog cage) when it is done and to wash the dishes as soon as they are used. Okay, for most of you this sounds like an easy task. For me, it's not. It's really not. It's actually quite hard. But I am on a mission. Not as exciting as cooking the entire Julia Childs Mastering the Art of French Cooking but then again, I'm not a writer and I have learned to hate cooking, but it will be oh-so-exciting for me.

For people like me, learning to establish the routine is hard. I can purge my junk with the best (if I had the time), but organize it? Organizing the furniture? I've no idea how to do that.

So armed with the only tools I have available (the book and my determination) I set forth bravely to go where many clutter fools have attempted to go... the dismal abyss of our messiness.

One year to an organized life (Leeds). Here I come. I think it should count when my mom or my son do the dishes; after all they got done didn't they? And it's 21 days until something becomes a habit, so I've added a task count at the bottom of the page. After 21 days, I think it should be second hat to hang my keys, put my dish in the dishwasher.

And I yes, I admit (with shame) I used to make fun of the people who always had a perfect house (while secretly admiring the neatness of their house and feeling envious), who seemed anal about putting away their clothes after taking them off (Me, I hang them on the end of the bed until I can no longer see the dresser or they fall off into a heap before I hang them). I thought how does that work? And that is the piece I've come to realize; it is work, but it's work that takes less time if you do it when it needs to be done instead of trying to do it later.

and that is it for tonight. It's late and I have to work.

So 21 days to habit; 365 to a de-cluttered house.