Why Does It Matter?

I was doing the dishes yesterday and since all of the kids were upstairs playing quietly (or napping) I turned on the T.V. for background noise. The program that came on was interesting so I thought I'd share.

'The Doctors' were talking about the question: "Does having a cluttered house lead to obesity?" The surprising answer is that having a cluttered house and being overweight is linked. They reported that people with a cluttered house are at an increased risk of obesity and depression. Who wants to be overweight and depressed??? Not ME!

They talked a little about before trying to lose weight or diet or anything like that it is important to put your house on a diet. AKA - De clutter. My favorite part of what they said was that if you de-clutter then you will spend less time cleaning because you have less stuff. Tada!!! This was a major moment for me. Seriously magical. I want to spend less time cleaning!

So here is the deal, get rid of stuff you don't need and then you will never have to clean it up again. I am so excited about this. It is simple and honestly - it should be a no-brainer but I just loved the way they linked weight, clutter and sanity all in the same discussion.

I am going to start with my recipe stack. I have miscellaneous papers with recipes, all sorts of cards that are different sizes, pages riped from magazines and recipes printed from emails and from websites all mishmashed in my cupboard. I hate it whenever I see that stack on my counter. I seriously lose 5 minutes of my life every time I need to find a recipe. If I clean it up and organize it then I will save time and I'll never have to see that nasty stack again. What will you do?

Ideas? Comments? Goals? Please share.

Hubby is Home!

My best friend and I get to play all week long. He took this whole week off from work to stay home and project around the house, spend some good quality time playing with the kids, watch world cup soccer and just hang out as a family (something you can never do too much). So far it has been great and I'm looking forward to the rest of the week!

Who wants to clean when they have their best friend around and can just play instead? Not me!! I will be taking the whole week off as well.

Duh!

What I'm about to say may sound really dumb but just forgive me in advance.

It's amazing what you can get done in the morning when you wake up early. It is also amazing how quickly you crash when you wake up super early in the morning and forgot to go to bed until almost 1 o'clock am the night before.

I've been getting up at 6 to go running. FYI, I am not a morning person in the least. So last night just before 1 o'clock, I headed to bed. Hubby thought there would be no way that I would still wake up at 6 to go running so I think just to prove him wrong I did it. I should have proved him right!

When I got home from my run I did some yoga, took a shower and got completely ready fixed hair makeup on and real clothes (all before 8 am) which is kind of a miracle for me. I fed the kids when they woke up and started doing stuff around the house. That is the point at which I crashed. I had absolutely no energy. After lunch we went to the Library and I've done nothing since we returned home. Apparently sleep is more important than I thought.

I think I'll go to bed early tonight.

Bathroom Day!

I have missed both Monday's since I started my challenge. Today is the first day that I've done all of my weekly's on a Monday. My bathrooms are sparkling clean and I love it!

Another product review: the Swiffer sweeper. Last week on kitchen day I tried the sweeper (which I also purchased with coupons a few weeks ago). I hated it but I didn't want to review it yet because I wanted to give it a chance on bathroom day. The reason that I hated it so much for my kitchen is because I have kids. If you have kids you know what I mean. If you don't have children then let me explain. My kitchen floor usually has enough crumbs to feed a small army. Daily we have large crumbs, small crumbs, wet spills and sticky messes on the floor. I am fairly confident in saying that as much food as enters the mouths of my kids also ends up on the floor. When I tried to use the Swiffer sweeper on it there was no way it could all stick to the magic pad. It was simply too messy.

So what did I think about the sweeper for the bathroom? I LOVE IT!!! Why the difference? The main difference for my bathroom was that my bathroom floor is fairly clean to start with. We don't have food crumbs or other messes on the bathroom floor. The main mess on the floor is either dust or hair. The sweeper did amazing with both of these messes. I also used the wet cleaning pads after sweeping with the dry cloths and it did a great job. I love that you can flip it to the edge and scrub - I used it to clean off shoe marks on the floor. I also used the scrubby edge to clean the base boards without bending over. I really did love using it.

How is everyone else doing? I miss having other bloggers add feedback. Let me hear what you have been up to. What is working in your home?

Product Review

I was clipping coupons a few weeks ago and came across a $5 off coupon for the "Rug Stick" and a free $5 gift certificate to Target for purchasing it. So with the $10 incentive I decided to give it a try. Our carpets are horrible and I would love to rip it all out but that is not in the picture at the moment. Anyway, because the carpet is terrible it is hard for me to want to spend money to maintain it. But for such a good deal, I figured the rug stick might be nice for those unexpected accidents to keep the carpet from getting worse.
Last night I had my first chance to try it out. My hubby was polishing his shoes and managed to get polish all over the carpet. I thought it was a lost cause - dark brown polish all smudged into the carpet.
I busted out the rug stick asap and was pleasantly surprised. It actually cleaned up the polish pretty nicely. I don't know if I would have purchased this product at full price but I'm glad that I bought it and now I have it for future cleanup. We have lots of accidents around here so I'm sure it will get a lot of use.

Day Off

Monday's report:
Chores: Nope
Shopping with sister: Yep
Yesterday besides a load of laundry and a load of dishes I did absolutely nothing around the house. I did, however, have a super fun day with my sister and got some cute new clothes. Like Danielle, getting ready in the morning always feels like an accomplishment. Since having my baby I hate getting ready because I feel like I have nothing worth putting on that fits me right. I think a few new things to wear will boost me in the right direction so that I want to get ready and feel like it is worth it when I do.
Today: I'm ready to catch up on my house after a great day off.

He Noticed

I know that I am very old fashioned when it comes to being a wife and mother. I know a lot of people don't want this life but I'm happy this way. Over the weekend I got to go out with a friend and visit - it's been way too long!! She was laughing at me because I love to grind my wheat by hand to make bread for my family. "Why don't you just get an electric grinder?" she asked. My answer, "Because I like to pretend like I live on a farm." Plus my kids get to help me grind it by hand, it wouldn't be so fun to have the machine do it all. Maybe someday I'll get an electric grinder but for now I really enjoy doing it slowly, by hand.

I share this story to illustrate that I actually find joy in doing things the old fashioned way. I LOVE being a stay at home mom and it makes me so happy to take care of my children and my husband the way women did way back when. Sure sometimes I wish I could get out of here and have something else in my life to make me feel more important. But, I know it would not be worth it because I already have what really makes me happy - a family. I am so blessed to be able to stay home with my kids full time and not have to work outside of the home.

Yesterday I did all of my daily and weekly chores from the heavy duty schedule and my house looked better than it has in months. I also spent some really good quality time playing with my kids, teaching them some new skills (planting seeds and grooming flower beds), and having them sit curled up on my lap reading to them (a personal favorite). When hubby arrived home he found a house in order and a very happy family. The best part - he noticed.

I do everything that I do in my life because it really makes me happy and I enjoy it. It is the icing on the cake when I see that he also gets enjoyment out of it, and that he really appreciates what I do being at home. Plus, I really just love making him happy. All in all, it was a great day and today is already shaping up to be just as good.

It's hard to admit

It's hard to admit when you don't follow through with stuff. . . well guess what? I didn't.

Today was supposed to be the day I did everything on my list and felt so proud of myself. Well it's almost 9pm, kids just barely went to bed and hubby isn't home. I have been gone all day, haven't cleaned a thing and I'm done. I want to sit down and chill for a bit.

It was a productive day though, I got together with my mom and sister and made a dress for my baby girl. This project has been on my to do list for literally MONTHS! Now, it is done and the pattern I was borrowing from a friend has been returned. Stress is officially relieved. And the best part - the dress is adorable!!

The plan for tomorrow is better. It is more likely that I will get stuff done around here. I told the kids we will either visit the park or the library (depending on the weather). Other than a short trip out we will be home all day and I WILL clean.

Tonight I will iron (argh) while watching pride and prejudice (yay) until hubby gets home. That's better than nothing.