Dear FlyLady and Flying or Fluttering Friends:

I am calling this Joy—the Joy is what I have been brought by reading and applying some of your simple steps and starting to get a little control over my home.  I have a long way to go, years of clutter, keeping everything, allowing all the boxes and bags to take over my home, and the depression it has brought to me and my family’s life, causing the desire to go out and accumulate more “stuff” that has no place to be placed or enjoyed and has added to the horror and the clutter.  The embarrassment of not allowing “company” in my home because of the shame and then going out to acquire more “stuff” and allowing the progression to continue, and the really struggling to meet bills because I spend money on unnecessary and definitely not needed more clutter!

My Joy caused me to share my small accomplishments and the upkeep of the rooms I have pretty much exactly where I want them to be!  The result is my daughter advised me in no uncertain terms I do the same things all of the time.  I go from place to place and task to task for 15 minutes at a time and then walk away and never complete anything or any room.  That I need to stop this insane notion I am getting anything done and focus on one room and work on it until it is totally completed.  Not for an hour or so a day but for entire days on end and not hop around.  My laundry room doesn’t need a deep clean every week, lick and promise it and move on, my hall doesn’t need for me to dust down the picture frames, linen closet, window ledge, and vacuum it every single week, etc.  I felt horrid for mentioning what I had accomplished on any given day because she was tired of me doing the same things over and over and not accomplishing anything else to really eliminate the mess in my home.  Some of the stuff I have been storing and moving from place is her stuff and she just turned 40 and hasn’t lived with me since she was 21!  So I sat down for several days, then several more days, just thinking about how bad I felt because I do the same things over and over and don’t “accomplish” anything and my home is still a disaster area.  I even stopped doing everything but shining my sink and taking care of the pets, with any regularity and started to see the results of not doing my full daily routines and not spending 10 or 15 minutes a day working in each of my leftover rooms.  It all came home and smacked me when my grandson came in one day after he had been to classes, then worked from 4 to 9, and asked me if I was sick or feeling really badly and might need to go see the doctor.  This was about two weeks of me sitting around moping.  I remember looking up at him from where I was sitting and asking why he thought I was sick.  His response shocked me back into awareness.

“Well, you were happier when I came in and I could see the counter tops getting cleaned off in the kitchen, the floor in the laundry room was always clean and actually shining, the bathroom was always sparkling at us and neat and the towels neatly hung no matter how I had tossed them on the towel bars when I left for the day when I got home up until about two weeks ago.  The dog’s toys weren’t all laying out constantly because he is weird and plays with a different one every day and generally there is only one or two out when I go to bed and now the basket is empty and they are scattered down the hall, in the living room, and several have been the kitchen for a couple of days.  I was coming in and seeing another stack or stuff was no longer in a room or a box or bag was gone and it hadn’t just been moved to another room and piled up unless it was something that needs to go into the spare room where I haven’t gotten the furniture from the shed put in again so it couldn’t be put where you were hoping for it to be.  The trash cans were emptied more than just once a week, and it wasn’t because you reminded me to take the garbage to the street for pick up and you aren’t working on the stuff for the craft shows.  On top of that you had cleaned off most of your desk and now it is all piled up again.  Yesterday when I came home you were still in your pajamas.  When I asked if you were going to come out with me you said, “No, I’m tired and I want to finish reading this book.  This morning when I got up the book was laying on the end table along with a different book you had started to read instead of being put away, there is a book on the hamper in the main bathroom, another one in the master bathroom you were working on because of all the craft stuff and outgrown clothes and stuff that got tossed in there, and another one on your bedside table.  I have to think you’re sick or in pain and just haven’t said anything and I am starting to worry.”

Joy, why was I feeling such Joy before and suddenly so sad and depressed?  Because I had shared my Joy of keeping the laundry and that main bathroom all clean and shiny along with tackling other rooms for 10 or 15 minutes a day and then focusing on one room for several hours on and off during a day.  While they aren’t any of them “completed” and may never be where I really want them to be in the next year, every day something was leaving those rooms and being put in room they should be in, in a box or bag for donating or “selling through a consignment shop” those boxes and bags were leaving the house weekly, and I was making headway in what had not been taken care of properly for several years!  The task of cleaning the laundry room which could be an all day task because it wasn’t maintained on a weekly basis could now be done completely (with the exception of pulling out the washer and dryer or painting the walls) in less than 30 minutes once a week!  The main bathroom can be completely done in less than 45 minutes once a week and that is if I remove everything from the shelving units and wipe down the shelves and each item individually, and is always company ready!  The hall way takes less than 10 minutes a week to completely clean!  The main parts of the living room floor were vacuumed at least two times a week, the dusting is always done and the some of the furniture shines at me, there are no cobwebs in the corners or dust on the fan blades!  My kitchen floor which I am scrubbing down in 15 minutes sections at least once a week have been swept daily and those scrubbed down areas mopped and kept clean.  Those counter tops and cupboards that I had cleaned were maintained daily in less than 15 minutes a day total and my stove top sparkles at me.  For me these were Joyous accomplishments!  When I completely cleaned the hanging light fixture in my kitchen and it is now sparkling at us over a table that is totally ready to sit down and eat a meal off of several times a day it brings me joy!  The glass doors of cupboards in my are sparkling when the sun hits them or the lights reflect off of them and all of those cupboards are neat, and all the stuff in them is clean and organized!  This brought me Joy when I finally got it accomplished and maintaining it for just 3 to 5 minutes a day will keep me from spending hours on it when I tackle it again.

I am back to my 10 minutes or 15 minutes in a room I don’t have close to where I want it a day as of last Thursday.  I am just not going to share my Joy with my daughter until I have a room pretty much done to where it doesn’t look like a garbage heap, and I am certainly not going to share my Joy of weekly “completely or deep cleaning a room” with her daily or weekly.  It upsets her so best left unspoken.  If I feel the Joy and my grandson thinks I am happier and sees the little accomplishments on a weekly basis that is what this is about, isn’t it?

Thank you for bringing Joy back into my life with a timer and a few routines that are easy to put in place and become “habit” or just “automatic”!  I hope I can celebrate someone else’s Joy over the small accomplishments and weekly maintaining of a clean and company ready room and not make them feel badly.  These small things are what bring us out of depression and “collecting stuff” we didn’t need in the first place and make it easier on our budgets which reduces a lot of stress!

Feeling some Joy again today!

Pam from Danville

We have everything you need to keep your home shining! Sometimes we need a little motivation. Our efficient tools give us a jump start! They make a tough job fun. If you make it fun; it will get done!

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