Tag: cleaning

Look At This Stuff? Isn’t It Neat? NO! It’s a mess, Ariel, a really big mess!

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

Have you ever had a Really Big Goal on your list of To-Do’s that keeps alluding you? A few weeks ago, I shared my Q1 Goals and way down on the list was: Beautifying The Apartment.    The thing is…it’s really so much bigger than just making the apartment look nice. So. Much. Bigger. 

We live in a decent-sized two-bedroom apartment with our 8-year-old son and all of our crap. Everywhere.  See, to start making it beautiful, we have to see the floor first. UGH! Step 1 of this overall goal is to declutter, organize, throw out, donate, and basically clean up the apartment. And this is where I get stuck, every time. 

Want to know a little secret? This has been on my goals list for a few years.  And last year we made a small dent, but we never finished because looking around at everything starts getting overwhelming! I look at each room and get tired just thinking of the hard work and energy and time that it’s going to take and instead, I make coffee and find some chocolate and flip on Disney+ (because who doesn’t love Baby Yoda?!?!).

I have a fairly strong WHY for this goal – to feel comfortable and more at home in our space. But that doesn’t seem to help motivate us into action.  Yes, I said US because this is not a solitary ME goal, this involves my husband and my son – so it’s not just me trying to motivate myself, it’s me trying to motivate all of us, at the same time, to accomplish a common goal.  Not easy.

So, I would love to hear your thoughts, ideas, and any advice you might have on this goal.  Have you ever had to declutter an entire room or apartment or house before? How did you chunk up the tasks? How did you keep from being overwhelmed and just get started? Seriously – any advice you can offer is appreciated? 

I’ll just be over here, looking at the piles, drinking my coffee, googling Baby Yoda gifs. Thanks!

 

Adulting is Hard…Ugh, Cleaning

Posted on by Jennifer Gregson

In my final installment of the Adulting is Hard series, I would like to talk about cleaning. I love planners and being organized with my time, but when it comes to cleaning and organizing my apartment well…I’m a bit of a hot mess.  Don’t get me wrong, the city won’t be coming by anytime soon to shut me down for being a health hazard (no bugs or other creepy crawlers) but it’s not company drop in ready. And I believe there are a few reasons for this:

Toys, toys and more toys

As most of you know, I have a little kid – to be more specific, a six-year-old boy who loves Legos, trains, empty cardboard boxes, and stuffed animals – our floors are covered in toys constantly.  We have bins and boxes and other storage for these toys, but they always wind up on the floor.  I gave up picking things up to just have them find their way back to the floor every day.  We have a lovely green rug over beautiful hardwood floors, but alas – you can’t see them.

The crap is taking over

We also just have too much crap.  I know it, my husband knows it, I think even my kid knows it but do we actually do anything about it?  No, we don’t.  We are somewhat good about getting rid of some stuff before new stuff comes in, but we still have TOO MUCH CRAP.  Some of our crap I love – CDs and DVDs are treasured items.  Certain books will always have a place on our shelves.  Board games and Xbox games, musical instruments and knick-knacks that are used and adored sit around the apartment.  Some of our crap I don’t love – papers everywhere, old greeting cards, random things picked up from Chuck E Cheese, crafts my kid was totally into one rainy Saturday.  It’s like Where’s Waldo in here some days.

The couch is so comfy

I’m lazy.  I’m always busy – writing sessions, day job, going to my son’s school for meetings, making and eating food, getting in some exercise, and reading – but when it comes to down time well….I just don’t want to spend time cleaning.  I’d rather watch The Handmaid’s Tale, Superstore, or an old episode of Psych than dust, sweep, or organize a bookshelf.   We don’t have a dishwasher so I do those pretty much every day (although I’m pretty lazy about that too and take off at least once a week) but once I’m done with dishes, I just don’t feel like doing anything else – because I’m lazy like that.

The hot mess is just too overwhelming

And the final reason, I don’t know where to start…seriously, when your apartment looks like a tornado went through a toy factory it’s just all too much to take in.  I was organizing one thing and one thing only but we went out of town for a week back in April and I just never picked that habit back up…probably because I got overwhelmed with which ONE thing to pick.  I’m a complete mess people.

How do you manage cleaning?  How do you start organizing when it’s all just too much? Like I said, I love planners and organizing my time for maximum productivity but cleaning is hard for me.  For now, I’ll go drink another cup of coffee, write another chapter in my book, and forget it about….again, that’s how I’ve been handling this problem because Adulting is Hard!

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