One rag at a time

I read in an article years ago that it's the perfectionists in life who often have the messiest houses. As a perfectionist with an often messy house, this intrigued me. The article went on to explain that the problem is that if you're a perfectionist, you have no sense of "halfway" or "good enough."

If you don't have the time or energy to make your house spotless, then you just get frustrated and don't bother or you honestly don't think there is a solution.

It reminds me of a famous story from my childhood - I was a tiny redhead sitting in my highchair eating my bowl of cheerios. One errant O fell out of my bowl and instead of ignoring it, I accidentally spilled the entire bowl of milk and cereal in my awkward, 1 year old attempt to pick up the Cheerio.

Anyway. So I've told myself for about a year now that I just need to do "one thing a day" and the house will at least make progress and won't inspire panic attacks when someone wants to come over. But as I've mentioned many many times before, I just feel so tapped out and tired all the time (2 jobs, 1 car, wedding, etc.) that it really didn't seem possible.

But either we got busy enough or I got fed up enough that I was able to make the change. Starting about two weeks ago I would walk in the house, regardless of how tired I was from pilates and say "what one thing am I going to do before I go to bed?" And it's always been something very small and very simple - one load of laundry, clean the bathroom sink, write 5 more thank you notes, etc. And it's working!

I spent a few minutes getting tips on Fly Lady, but I wasn't obsessive about it and I didn't sign up for emails, just spent a few minutes reading through the website because I had heard that that was her whole cleaning philosophy. And sometimes I've just been doing the one thing and sometimes momentum kicks in and I do more, but at least it's something.

So I've kept it up for two weeks and I am genuinely proud of myself. I'm not often proud of myself, so this is a big deal. And it's not that I feel bad about myself, I just don't often feel like I've accomplished something that's really been a hurdle for me, and this has. This damn inability to straighten up has been my Achilles heel.

I'm still only two weeks in, so it hasn't become second nature yet, but like I said, I'm trying. And if you have any great cleaning tips, feel free to pass them along. The one that's been a big help, which I've done for a while but never implemented until now, is to have an abundance of rags. This way I can just reach below the sink and do a quick bathroom clean without all the fuss of finding rags and cleaning products - once you put in that many steps and that much thought, you've lost me!