Spring Cleaning Challenge {With Big Prizes!}

March 24, 2012 By Leave a Comment
spring cleaning challenge

Need some motivation to get Spring cleaning done? I know I do and I have found the perfect challenge with awesome prizes to motivate me to get our home back in order after being cooped up inside for months.

The areas that need the most attention in my house are the master bedroom {aka the catch all room}, the master bath {overflowing with beauty supplies, lotions, and a plethora of other toiletries}, and our kitchen cabinets/drawers. If I have extra time I also hope to tackle the boys closet, the laundry room, and the black hole under our couches where all the little toys disappear. At the end I hope to get rid of a bunch of items by selling things online and donating them to Goodwill.

Want to join me in the Spring Cleaning Challenge? Head on over to ‘I Dream Of Clean’ and find out how you can participate and have a chance at winning 2 washer and dryer sets from GE Appliances, a Shark steam mop, and a closet organizer from the Stow Company!

(Disclosure: I was not compensated for this post but I am writing it in hopes of having a better chance of winning one of the great prizes mentioned above- like the Shark Steam Mop which I desperately need around here!)

Filed Under: Categories, Cleaning Tagged With: , ,

Friday Fails- My Den

February 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment
Friday fail

Through Twitter I came upon Myra and her wonderful blog called My Blessed Life. She has started a weekly meme called “Friday Fails” and I love that moms are linking up their “fails” or imperfections. It’s so refreshing to see moms who are willing to admit that they aren’t perfect and it makes me feel great knowing that I am not the only person who struggles to balance everything. This week Myra gave us a glimpse of her house after a week of being sick. That post gave me the courage to share my disaster zone a.k.a. my den.

What a mess! The room was clean around Christmas but after that it was just a downward spiral. I unpacked boxes and brought contents from the garage into the room and stacked things where I could. I also have the bags piled from when the boys went to stay at their grandma’s that haven’t been unpacked. My goal is to clean and organize this room by the end of this week so hopefully next Friday I can have a different “fail” for the week :)

Filed Under: Friday Fails Tagged With: ,

I am not a homemaker…

February 23, 2009 By 4 Comments

I am not a homemaker. I have been fine with this, even joking about it, until recently. After reading other “stay-at-home mom” blogs in the past weeks I’ve begun to feel guilty and I’ve realized that I really could be doing more than I do. Before a couple weeks ago I rarely cleaned and I almost never cooked. One of my goals for 2009 that I shared with my mom’s group was to “cook once a week”. It’s not that we eat out all the time (though we probably do that more often than we should), it’s that I eat a tv dinner or something else easy to make or Sinisa cooks when he comes home from work. I really am going to try to make an effort to cook more this year. This is my next step in becoming more “domesticated” (is that even a word?)

Right now though, my focus is on keeping my house “company ready”. Before I could never just invite people over when I felt like it because I always had to “prepare” my home for visitors. For the first time this past weekend I was on the phone with someone and said “why don’t you come on over?”. Let me tell you how great it felt to be able to say that. Granted it was only family (my sister in law) but before I had never felt comfortable enough to say that and the thought of someone coming over unannounced gave me anxiety. Even though my house has stayed clean, I am not following my “daily” and “weekly” lists that I made for myself so that is one area I would like to improve on.

I’m off to get some things accomplished now. My to-do list for tonight includes:

-Putting laundry away that’s in the dryer

-Update “goals”

-Going through my email inbox and deleting some old emails (my inbox has over 3500 emails in it!) My goal is to delete 500 tonight…

-Write up a monthly budget (or at least start it)

-Post some pictures of Jacob on facebook

Of course I also am going to watch tv, including the Bachelor. Should be interesting tonight because it’s the “women tell all” episode…

Filed Under: Cleaning, Home Tagged With: , ,

February 17, 2009

February 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I was thinking a lot today about how I always get my house clean and then, not even a week later, am looking at a messy home again. I tend to “clean” only once a week or every other week when Jacob goes to his grandma’s. The reason I do this is because I like to interact with Jacob as much as possible while he is home and then at night when he is sleeping I just want to relax because I’m exhausted. This clearly isn’t working for me so I’ve decided to try something new. I’m going to make a “daily” list, “weekly” list, and “monthly” list of things that need to get done around the house for myself to follow. I will also start each week with a to-do list and then each morning pick 3-5 things off that list to complete each day. I will try this for a month and see if this works better than the method I am currently using. First, I need to make the lists. This is what I have so far for the “daily”, “weekly”, and “monthly” lists…

Daily- Sweep/swiffer kitchen floor, one load of dishes (start to finish), pick up kitchen nightly, one load of laundry (wash/dry/AND put away), Bible reading/devotions, clean up toy room

Weekly- Dust, vac., menu plan/grocery store, clean bathrooms, clean up Jacob’s room, update blog/goal list, check voicemail, pay bills, change bed linens, clean up desk area, upload pictures on computer

Monthly- Budget, one project from goal list

Those are the things I can think of right now. I know there are more things that need to get done on a regular basis but I feel pretty good knowing that I started the lists. As soon as I get some color ink for the printer (it needs color ink even to print only black and white) I will make a check list in wordpad and then print it out so I can physically cross each item off the list. I do better having things written down because there is more of a chance I will complete them.

As for the daily goals I will give myself each morning I gave myself a few tonight. I am going to do my homework for small group tomorrow morning, post pictures on facebook, and research who can qualify as head of household so that I can file my taxes. I am also going to watch some tv, including American Idol :)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

September 3, 2008

September 3, 2008 By Leave a Comment

It’s been almost a week since I’ve updated. With fall tv season starting, becoming more involved in my social groups, and cleaning and organizing my house I’ve been really busy. I cleaned out Jacob’s closet and have a huge gathering of items by my door that I either need to sell or give away. I also rearranged things around my house to better use the space. I think once my house gets organized I will be able to spend more time on things that I’d like to do like blogging, scrapbooking, and reading. And working out, too. It’s been a while since I’ve gone to the gym.

Today was a great day. Sinisa had a day off so I got a chance to spend some time with him and also work on things that I normally wouldn’t be able to do while watching Jacob. He also had some time to build a bookshelf for all my parenting books so I could keep them all in one place. I’m looking forward to just relaxing for a couple of hours with him before going to bed at a decently early hour (yes, 11/11:30 is early for me).

Tomorrow is my first MOPS meeting. I’m excited to see what it’s all about. In the afternoon I have a dentist appointment. I’m hoping I can just get a normal cleaning which is $50 and don’t need a deep cleaning which is over $600. My insurance doesn’t pay for either of them so I’d rather pay as little as possible out of pocket. I hate going to the dentist…

Today’s Challenge: When was the last time you saw the dentist? If it’s been a while, schedule yourself an appointment.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , ,

August 26, 2008

August 26, 2008 By Leave a Comment

I decided today that I have entirely too much junk. I am a “pack-rat” and always keep things because I might need them some day. Jacob’s closet has been being used as a storage closet for various toys and items that I want to keep but don’t know what to do with. I finally took most of the items out today and created a big pile by my desk of items to give away or sell. Jacob will finally have a closet for all his clothes and I won’t have to have stacks of bins in his room which is nice because it kind of looked tacky. Plus I figured that I should pull the large toys out because he will be playing with them soon enough and I want to clean them before he does. Poor Sinisa, when he comes home he is going to have to navigate his way around our apartment. I seriously have considered getting a storage space or renting a garage to have a place for all my stuff. Next Friday I am babysitting two children here at my apartment so I have until then to clean everything up and organize it. Giving myself a deadline will hopefully ensure that it gets done but may just mean I find a hiding spot for it.

Today’s challenge: Join your local Freecycle if you haven’t already.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,