Progress at Home

I am so proud of myself! Even after all the cooking I've done in the past two weeks, I have kept the kitchen clean pretty much all the time. I say "pretty much" because I fell off the wagon last night. After I cooked my turkey tetrazini, which used a lot of dishes, I fell asleep on the couch. Seth has promised to work on that this morning. Based on my experience, I have discovered the key to a tidy kitchen: emptying clean dishes from the dishwasher right away. When we are unable to put dirty dishes directly into the dishwasher, the dish gnomes come out and spread bowls and plates and glasses all over the kitchen counters. I made another discovery, too. When the kitchen is clean, the rest of the house stays clean. When it is dirty, the gnomes move into the other rooms and wreak havoc.

I have spent a few minutes each day decluttering, and that has certainly helped the whole situation, which leads me to yet another discovery: I have noticed that the more clutter there is, the dirtier the floors get. How is that possible? I don't know, but it's true! I am just now noticing the need to mop even though it has been a couple weeks since I did it last. Even the most high traffic areas just don't look that dirty.

I was home sick two days this past week. By the afternoon and evening of the 2nd day, I was feeling bored from lying on the couch and decided to sort through some paperwork. It was like that story When You Give a Mouse a Cookie, because one thing led to another and pretty soon I had gone through two big grocery bags of papers that have needed filing from two years! Everything is now in the filing cabinet in its appropriate folder. That has really been bothering me, and I feel so relieved now that it's done.

Something I need to tweak is my system of doing laundry. I have been putting in a load in the morning, drying it (or attempting, considering my dryer's technology issues) in the evening, and then falling asleep or forgetting about it as it sits in the dryer. It then gets taken from the dryer to the living room floor and sits in an ever-growing pile of clean laundry that needs to be folded. As I look at the pile now, I feel overwhelmed. Seth does a good job folding laundry and does help me, and for that I am thankful. I just have to ask him OFTEN :)

Whatever the case may be, I am sure excited to be making progress in my homemaking duties! How do you maintain your home?