Dear FlyLady,
Almost ten years of being in our house had created lots of blemishes in our downstairs walls. We had two large craters due to an old sofa the children would slam against the wall and years of hanging up decorations for children’s birthdays had pulled off patches of old paint. It was obviously long past due for a new paint job. The problem? My husband works 12-15 hour days AND takes college courses on top of it. He would have no time to help so our living room, dining room, and stairwell repaint would be 100% up to me.
Obviously, I became overwhelmed as soon as I bought the paint. Because it’s not just paint. It’s spackle. It’s scrubbing old dirt free from walls. It’s dusting, sanding, washing, taping, AND THEN painting. How was I, someone who had never painted a single wall before, going to get it all done and have this be a never-ending project that would clog up my schedule?
Then Flylady spoke to me. Reading all the emails, watching every day’s live video, reading the books, and flying daily led me to the solution. It was easy: babysteps! I took one wall at a time. One job at a time. Day One: Wash the walls. Day Two: Spackle. Day Three: Sand down spackling. Day Four: Tape the walls. Day Five: Drop kids off for a weekend at their aunt’s and start painting!
Was it still stressful? Definitely. But was it manageable? Yes! I took babysteps and kept up my motivation by not looking at the entire project, but just one step at a time. I took 15 minute breaks between walls to get some water and look over my progress. Four days later and I’m still finishing up taking off the tape and going over the little missed places by the moldings and corners. But the project is mostly done and best of all, I was able to do it all by myself without needing to interrupt my husband’s homework or pleading with my sister-in-law to keep the kids longer.
I know how I would have done this project prior to Flylady – and it would have ended with me sitting in the middle of the room crying from stress, a lack of time management, and being overwhelmed while my husband took over. Instead, this project made me feel good that I could do it with just keeping the FLYing rules in mind!
Thank you Flylady for teaching me so much!
– Flybaby of 4 months
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