Day One

Good morning!!

Today is the first day of the rest of my organized life.  I have never been an organized individual which is somewhat surprising when you consider what I've been doing with myself for the past few years. I have a husband and four children: Ocean, 11, Ethan, 10, Aaron, 7 and Hunter, 3. In April I graduated from the University of Calgary with a BA in sociology (the math is correct, I had Hunter during my first year back at school).  I've also been working part to full time, marketing a post-secondary planning program and delivering presentations on the same to students, parents, agencies and interested adults.  Obviously I had to have some organizational skills.

However, I was only organized in some parts of my life.  Sure I had the kids doing their things and I kept up with school and work, but my house was a disaster area (let's be honest, something had to give with that kind of schedule).  It wasn't unclean, just disorganized to the point of utter frustration.  We had too much stuff and nowhere to put it.  So even after a cleaning day, I ended up stuffing things anywhere to get them out of the way. 

Now that I've graduated and lost my amazing care-giver (she decided to go back to school as well) I've had to think of plan B.  I figured, since I have four children anyway, I would be off for the summer and I knew I needed to get organized.  Last year we moved and took possession of our house at the end of August - not enough time to get things ready before school started up.  So that's essentially where I'm starting.

In my desperate need, I turned to FlyLady.net.  I'd been there before and they helped out immensely with the daily reminders and scheduled tasks (I stopped using it for some reason - probably thought I could keep up on my own, but I was nowhere near ready to fly alone).  So I am back with FlyLady and I decided to share this expected miracle with others who may be in a similarly disorganized state.

Lets get to it.  Yesterday was day one back with FlyLady.  Rule number one is to shine your sink everyday.  I got to this around noon.  There's no time limit, do everything when you can.  But OMG, once you start... well there's a reason this is the first step.  Once you see that beautiful shiny sink, you can't help but want other areas to shine as well.  Although shining my sink was the only task of the day, I will tell you what else I did. 

I cleared the clutter that had gathered around the sink.  The loose screws, the little pieces of paper from a "collect and win" thing from Co-op that ended like months ago.  Hey, while I'm at it, pull out the toaster and make sure the counter underneath is clean.  Heck, let's move the canisters away from the wall and check that too.  My fridge needs wiping, I'm there anyway.  The cupboards haven't had a wipe down recently - I'm there anyway.  That was first.

FlyLady has added a few things since I was there last.  My new favourite??? "Five minute fire drill".  Gather the kids and set the timer.  Hunter had apparently taken some Rice Krispies into the living room and they were all over the floor (stuff like this happens all the time if I'm occupied in another room - I just deal).  I showed Hunter how to use the vacuum and told the other three about the five minute fire drill.  They ran around and tidied, shocked that the time went by so fast - it was AWESOME!!!

The timer went off and I told them they were done - in the middle of something or not, you're done.  And they were thrilled.  So was I.  Since I had help from three helping - wait Hunter cleaning Hunter's mess obviously counts so four helping for five minutes, that saved me twenty minutes at least.  WOO HOO!  I did other things too.  I completed three loads of laundry, folded and put away (because the kids had tidied the living room, I didn't want to leave the clothes either in a basket or folded and sitting).  I wiped down the counters in the bathrooms and cleaned the mirrors because I was in there too. 

During the second five minute fire drill (I decided this could be done more than once a day) I directed the kids to the front entry way.  They tidied it, but later I ended up organizing the closet.  Because it was started.  Now it's done.  Of course, I ended up having the time to do all of this extra stuff in one day and because I had the time, I did it.  Today is Saturday so there are no tasks scheduled.  My sink is still shiny (or it was before I started writing, I will check on that momentarily). And I am dressed to the shoes (day two every day rule).  I'm happy to be back with FlyLady.  And looking forward to the organization of my home and life. 

I will post every day and I would love to hear your stories as well so feel free to comment!