Where does your effort go?

Finishing school has left me with so much extra time and energy - way more than I even expected. And it's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.

One unexpected (or expected if I'm honest with myself) is the amount of self-reflection this new free time has brought to my life, and my family life. Guess I should be honest again - more reflection is being done by me than Zac but he's happy to participate when I ask him to!

We started out with a re-evaluation of our budget. We've been using a budget strictly for almost a year and a half, and it's been such a blessing to us. I say strict because we strictly track our expenses, but it isn't a super strict budget - we have included room for fun things like dinner out, hobbies, and house projects.  Building an emergency fund has meant that car repairs haven't broken us, and when we've needed money unexpectedly, we have it. We sat down last week and realized that we still aren't satisfied with the amount we're saving. Our emergency fund isn't all that full because we seem to keep having "emergencies." Plus, we have some things we'd like to save for - mama needs a new car pretty badly!

One area where we noticed we could cut expenses was to stop having a cleaning lady. When I was in school, we decided that this expense was worth it. Our dirty house drove me crazy but I didn't have any time to clean it, and I just felt like it wasn't fair to ask Zac to pick up yet another thing around our house. It was worth it when I was gone all the time... but now I'm not gone anymore. I have the time to clean our house and I do a better job of it anyway!

This has led me to reflect on where my effort goes. We all have a limited amount of time and effort... where do you choose to put yours?

I'm trying to make where I put my effort a conscious decision. I hate when I get home from work at 5:30 PM, climb into bed at 11:00 PM, and can't figure out where the hours between those went.

Here's what I've learned in the past few weeks of cleaning again, and apologies in advance to those of you who are thinking, "Duh! Tell me something I don't know!"

• It's worth taking 10 minutes each night to clean your kitchen so you never have to really clean your kitchen
• Doing one load of laundry each night seems a lot less oppressing than 5 loads on a Saturday
• It only takes me 30 minutes to vacuum and mop our whole downstairs. That's do able
• Dusting is a chore that should be delegated to husbands
• You can make a lot of your own cleaning products via Pinterest or Martha -- or experiment yourself and add vinegar to things and see what they clean
• When our house is cleaner, we tend to keep it cleaner. Victory
• The cleaning "schedules" I've found online seem backwards to me. Vacuum on Monday and mop on Thursday? Wouldn't you have to re-vacuum on Thursday, too?

I guess I'm realizing that while I'm consciously redirecting my effort, a small portion of it can be redirected to keeping our house clean and tidy. I'm also realizing that our house must have been disgusting when I wasn't doing this?

The past few weeks of focusing on our house has also made me feel a little better about not being able to do a great job of it when I was in school. I just didn't have the time - and it takes quite a bit of time to maintain a house!

Do you have any tricks to share that help you keep your house cleaner without spending a million hours on it?

A Spring Cleaning Guide for Normal People

Hopefully spring has been as lovely where you live as it has been in Cincinnati. February felt like the end of March, and March felt like April. All of this nice weather means our windows have been open a lot, and open windows always make me want to clean things. I don't mean dust (I'd rather do anything in the world besides dust!!). I mean deep cleaning - through things away - make your closet no longer a death trap cleaning. I'm not sure why... maybe it's just the smell of fresh air?

When we first moved into this house, my mom bought me this book:

                                    

Does anyone else have it? I'll give it a so-so review. There is a lot of good information, but I'm also more likely to google than to open this bad boy (in all 744 pages of its glory). My mom, who has a spotless house every day, all the time, didn't find too much use for it, but that's probably just because she could have written it.

There are some pros to it though, and my favorite part is Martha's suggested cleaning schedule. Some of them are a bit "Marth-y" ("Rotate the books in your library to prevent warping and sun damage"), but most if it is legit.

To prevent you from having to read a 744 page book about Martha Stewart, I've created a spring cleaning checklist. You can download it as a printable by going here. Since spring cleaning is about the only cleaning I can get excited about, I like to harness that positive energy into a sparkling, less stuff, oasis. Or a version of my home that is slightly better than what it was a month before. I have realistic expectations.

Here's a preview:

There are some things I include on this list that Martha wants me to do more often (wash pillows), but girl, I'm busy. I do the best I can.

If you are more like Martha than me, you might need to follow some of her other suggestions and clean down your ovenS, replace your heavy drapes and rugs with lightweight ones (WHO DOES THIS??), reseal your stone surfaces, and polish your metal door. Oh Martha. It's so cute that we pretend that you do any of this at any of your homeS. We know you have people.

Do you spring clean? Is there anything I left off of my list?

Click HERE to see the blog parties where I'm linking!

Simplify: Week 2

Last week's simplify challenge was to show up early. I've spent the past week focused on getting places with breathing room to spare. And honestly? It's been great.

Keys to success? Setting my phone so it reminds me 45 minutes before an appointment and then again 30 minutes before. That's my key to start wrapping up whatever I'm working on, and with 30 minutes to go it's usually time to pack up and head out the door.

I will definitely try to make this a habit. It's nice to drive to a meeting and not worry about being late. Plus, I can usually knock out a task or two on my phone if I arrive at my destination early.

So... my second week's challenge.

Ramsland defines two minute pickups as tasks that are too short to write on a to-do list, but that slow the pace of your life if you ignore them too long.

Examples? Unloading the dishwasher. Adding a frequently called number to your phone. RSVPing to an event. Filing a paper on your desk. Labeling a binder. Hanging up your coat. And so on.

I can easily see the benefit in this if I just look at my house. If I take the time to put things where they go, my house is clean. Small tasks done multiple times quickly are much easier than the time it takes to dig out from under them.

For the next week, I'll focus on doing things now that can be done quickly. I won't walk past something that needs to be taken upstairs when I'm going that way. I will hang my clothes up when I take them off. And dang it, my life will be better.

Or something like that!! Does this task fit your life? Are you super good at two minute pickups already (hey Mom!) or could you use some work in this area too? Any tips for success?

2011 Resolutions -- How I did!

I made a list of resolutions last January that I shared here. I remembered that I made this list today, and checked it for the first time. Oops. I might have done a better job if I'd checked it more often.

Oh well - water under the bridge now. Here's the list I made last year and what I managed to unconsciously accomplish:

• Get married! Check! We are super duper married. Read about that here, here, here, here, here, and here!
  
  
  
  
• Organize all of my craft ideas into a binder, so I can actually create! Uncheck. Though ironically, I had written this down on my I'm-not-working-next-week-and-want-to-be-productive list a few days before reading this!
  
• Donate a quilt to a local fundraiser Done!
  
  
  
• Start an exercise routine (about 3x/week)  About halfway done (get it?). I did a lot more exercising this year than I've done in the past, but didn't get on a permanent 3x/week schedule. I have big plans for this year, though! Oh, don't we all...
  
• Re-connect with old friends with whom I've lost touch This is an ongoing goal, but I'm happy to report reconnecting with a few old friends and also purposely staying in better touch with current friends. I think this will re-make it onto my 2012 list.
  
• Visit my grandma in New York for a sewing weekend Done!! And so much fun!
  
• Make an album of all of our pictures from 2010. Not even close. But I added it to my list for this week!
  
• Pack my lunch / eat lunch at home as much as possible.  We did a great job with this one. We did a better job creating menus, and I've eaten a lot of leftovers for lunch (yum!). Packing my lunch the night before was the biggest helper here.
  
• Make time to read. Sort of! I've read more than I was able to last year, but there were still a few book club months that got away from me. Re-adding this to the 2012 list.
  
• Make smarter food choices like wheat bread over white. This has become pretty standard for us now. Whole wheat bread, cutting calories where possible. Always room for improvement, of course, but definitely a step in the right direction!
  
• Stick to a cleaning schedule The biggest help here was that we gave in earlier this year and hired a cleaning lady. She is such a blessing to us, and worth every penny. We just had to accept that we aren't good at keeping our house clean, and with my crazy schedule this year, it wasn't worth using our little bit of time together to clean. Add to that how cranky I get when the house is messy and yeah, worth the money! Our end of the bargain is keeping our house picked up between cleaning sessions. We've made leaps and bounds in this area - hoping it's become a habit at this point!
  
• Stop worrying about what other people think and whether I'm doing things the "right way." I can't imagine I'll ever be able to really check this one off, but I've definitely made substantial progress here. Maybe it's just part of growing older, but I've spent a lot less time this year worrying about what I should be doing or stressing about what other people will think. That doesn't mean I haven't done it at all, of course, but less often counts as progress!
  
• Make the most of my wardrobe. I tend to be a lazy dresser - I have great clothes, but I usually can't be bothered to put an actual outfit together. Another halfer. I haven't bought a single new piece of clothing since April, and I've still gotten dressed every day. This is another one I want to continue to focus on in the new year, but I think I've done a better job with it this year.

So there you have it - a sort of productive 2011! Of course, I did a lot of other things this year as well, but it's fun to check back and see what I accomplished. Have you re-visited your resolutions from this year? Were you more successful than I was?

Craft Room Overhaul

After Christmas, my sewing/craft room literally looked like a tornado had gone through it. Wrapping paper pieces were everywhere, fabric remnants from last-minute gifts, and stuff that belonged somewhere else but needed to be put somewhere so company wouldn't see it filled the corners.

In short, it was a mess. I can't believe I'm sharing these photos with you... but we're friends. And this was my real life. And shame can be a good motivator.

Uh yeah. Not a whole lot of creativity going on in there when it looks like this!

This room is our smallest bedroom and will (someday) become a nursery.  So...I didn't want to do anything too permanent because this isn't a forever room, but it seemed crazy to keep things temporary since babies are year(s) away.

We have other house projects that are ahead of this one on the gets-money-list, so this is what we could do for free. I'm pretty proud of it!

The second shelf of the bookcase will eventually store fabric like this, but I don't have the materials to do so yet. I usually hate mirrored closet doors, but in this small room, they really add a lot of light and make the room feel larger (though it's doubtful I'll want to look at myself in the mirror during midnight feedings in a few years, so they probably aren't staying long-term!).

Much better, right?? My favorite part is the thread holder!

Sorry the pictures aren't great - mastering this new camera is taking a lot of time!!

I've got a system started for organizing my craft ideas, and now that I have a beautiful, organized craft room, hope to start sewing something soon!

What did you organize this weekend??

Linking up to Kojodesigns I Heart New Years Challenge!

Is Christmas over yet?

I love Christmas. I put my decorations up just after Thanksgiving with the best of 'em. They seem so magical on Christmas Eve. And the day after Christmas, they start to drive me crazy.

My mom usually takes her stuff down on New Year's Day. Zac's mom takes her down as soon as she can. And I usually try to do the same thing. I'm not trying to be Scrooge here, it's just that somehow, between December 24 and December 26, it turns from magic to clutter.

My co-worker leaves her tree up longer... as in, until Easter. No, I'm not kidding. I'll let you digest that one for a minute.

As beautiful as our tree and other decorations were, I can't wait to take them down. Now I just need Zac to get home so I can have some help doing it!!

Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning...

I know we've talked about this before, but my relationship with cleaning is tenuous to say the least. As in, I hate to do it, but I absolutely love having a clean house. Both Zac and I grew up in really clean houses, but unfortunately, neither of us got bitten by the obsessive cleaning bug.

I've been reflecting lately on how much coming home to a messy house adds to my stress level. When I come home to a clean house, I can feel the stresses of my day evaporate. Needless to say, this is not the same experience I have when it isn't clean!

When it comes to keeping this house clean, we needed to set ourselves up for success. First criteria for success was that we needed a plan.  Second, we needed that plan to be simple and easy to achieve. Finally, it needed to be presented to me in a way that I could check it off. I just love to check things off!

So we needed... a cleaning chart! We've tried to do this before, but we didn't keep it simple. We each had a few chores each day and it was overwhelming. So we never did it. Not even for one day.

I was reading this post from Clean Mama the other day and loved her idea of only having one real chore to do each day. Seriously? I mean, I can do one chore each day, no problem.

Here's our cleaning chart.

Do you love it?? Whoever is home more that day has to do the chore. No ifs, ands or buts - we'll both be contributing to keeping the house tidy, and doing so without it being it a huge inconvenience.

Right now, we're almost one week in, and successful!! If you want a copy of my cleaning chart, just let me know and I'm happy to send it to you. I made one that just has lines and boxes if you want to fill in your own chores.

Wish us luck on our quest for a clean house!!

I'm linking to:
* The Girl Creative * Tea Rose Home * Creations by Kara * Seven Thirty Three * Someday Crafts * Today's Creative Blog * House of Hepworths * Skip to my Lou * 504 Main * Kuzak's Closet * Fun to Craft * My Repurposed Life *

Does your dishwasher smell like mine?

Today I opened my dishwasher and I was totally taken aback by some nasty oder that shot out and tried to kill me. After verifying that, in fact, no small animals had met their death and were decomposing inside it, I moved on to the few dishes inside it. Nope, all rinsed. Not the culprits.

I'm not the first person in the world with a foul smelling dishwasher (right? right?). So I did a Google search. No, I'm not (phew!).

The solution (no pun intended) - vinegar. I took all the dishes out of the dishwasher and filled the detergent dispenser with vinegar. The site I found said you can use up to a cup; I probably used about 1/4 c. because that's all that fit in there. Run the dishwasher on your hottest setting, hold your breath as you open it and... breathe again, because it doesn't smell anymore!

Happy holiday weekend... may your next few days be filled with fun, friends and a clean smelling dishwasher.

And if you're in Cincinnati, fireworks! More on that to come later this weekend....

A Cleaning Confession

I'm going to come clean (no pun intended) about my cleaning. Basically, about how I'm not very good at it.

Back up a few weeks, and my mom came to visit before we moved and kindly pointed out that I'm not very good at cleaning. It's not that I didn't want things to be clean, I just didn't really know what I was doing. And didn't really have the proper tools. Why vacuum, I thought, if your vacuum literally spits dust out the other side when you run it?

So... I got a very thorough cleaning lesson courtesy of my mama, and The Divine Ashley jumped in to give her advice too.

Which leads me to... my new obsession.With things being clean. Why? I have no idea. Things that have never bothered me before all of a sudden drive me crazy. Maybe it's the new house, maybe it's just being aware; I don't know, but things just need to be clean(er). Even my messy car looks better than it ever has.

This love affair was probably inevitable, but it is far beyond what I ever imagined. Ashley told me I needed it, and man was she right.

The Bissell Healthy Home Vacuum. Swoon.

For a mere $200ish, one can be the proud owner of a fantastic cleaning machine. It does wonders on bare floors, switches easily to high pile area rugs, and the "turbo" brush attachment is what dreams are made of. If vacuuming a couch or the stairs is easy, you know something is up.

If you need a new vacuum, I highly recommend this one. You can get it at Bed Bath and Beyond which means you can use a 20% off coupon. It is absolutely FABULOUS.

More coming soon about my new steam mop. Which is also fabulous!