Dear Flylady,

I must tell you I’ve been on and off the Flylady bandwagon for quite a few years. My current mode is “I’m just doing the ‘easy’ daily tasks,” So I just purged my underwear and sock drawer this week, but I have not done any other tasks thinking I would just do them this weekend. Well, THAT defeats the purpose, right? LOL!

I definitely have CHAOS. And at the holidays it is particularly discouraging. I have one cousin who is retired who likes to come up to visit every few months from about five hours away as he is on a trip of some sort and passing through. I have not welcomed him in some time due to CHAOS. Isn’t that sad? I live alone in a 700 square foot 1 bedroom apartment and I know there is NO reason why I can’t keep it clean and organized. My excuses? “I’m not getting up any earlier to do anything before I head out to work………And when I get home from work I’m too tiiiiiiiired.” (When I get home I am doing good to eat, shower, watch TV and go to bed.) And of course I have too much stuff and not enough places to put them. OR there is a place, I just haven’t taken the time to put things away or create the appropriate place.

I’m all over the place with my ‘organizational’ skills. In some areas I’m very organized – I put my clothes out every night for work, for example. I take paper and cardboard to a local church, plastic bags to the grocery, and I take bags of aluminum cans to recycling, my closet is very well organized – even color coordinated. I do laundry once a week at my apt Laundromat and I change and make my bed……….once a week…… You can actually walk through my apartment………..a lot of things need to be cleaned however – have not been cleaned in some time. I’m a swish and swiper, just not necessarily every day……….sometimes I wipe down/clean the shower when I’m in it, but……….not every day……… I’ve been to some homes where I was afraid to even sit on the furniture and/or you can’t walk for the mountain of STUFF. So I tell myself “at least you aren’t THAT bad….”

As you know, CHAOS impacts a lot of things. I keep apartment maintenance requests to a minimum. I have been postponing a DirecTV service call for I am ashamed to tell you how long because they have to walk through my apartment into my bedroom. And actually the bedroom is pretty fine, but the living room is my problem. That is where all the STUFF is.

So I just want to tell you thank you. You do inspire me and even though I know what you are saying is so true……..I just can’t always motivate myself. BUT I stay in touch and keep coming back to your principals.

Fluttering in TX