Home-♥-Loving

I am miraculously now into my third week of Home-Loving and although I don't exactly look forward to the 2-3pm hourly slot, the visible results are motivating me to keep going with it. Whoop-whoop, go me, go me, go me!!!!! My Declaration of Intent ie writing it in my Home Diary is surprisingly effective at keeping me on track and I am sticking to my schedule like a very well trained sticky thing. I wear my apron to perform my daily decluttering/tidying/cleaning, and I find that stripy socks also help make me feel spritely and not too serious. Can't be too serious about tidying and cleaning, that would never do.

This week Flylady instructed me to go forthwith into Zone 4, so I'm working my way around The Master Bedroom. I started on Monday with the top of the chest of drawers, a notoriously hot-hot-hot clutter spot. I cleared it with one fell swoop of my arm, whoosh!!! Two hundred and twenty five objects fell off the top of the drawers and onto a tray. 225!!!!!!! It was hilarious, the top of the microwave was nothing compared to the top of the bedroom drawers.

But now as you can see it is all tidy, I even buffed up the surface with a duster and some polish and blessed it with a wee vase of garden flowers.

This afternoon I tackled the bedside tables and under the bed. Oh my. The dust was inCREdible. I am so so so glad that nobody was there to see it excepting for Little B who thankfully cannot yet use words to convey what he saw to anyone. It is our little secret. I decluttered and sorted, vacuumed and polished, stood back and sighed with satisfaction. It's working!! I am slowly but surely feeling a peaceful vibe easing into each room I give my love to.

I stood on the windowsill to shake the dusty duster out of the open window and had a rush of affection for my sweet little back yard down there. It was a bright and blustery afternoon and the washing was flapitty flapping on the line.

I am keeping on top of my laundry, fitting it in to each and every day just as Flylady tells me to do. A load goes on at night, then in the morning it's ready to either peg out or sling in the drier, depending on weather conditions. It's not so hard.

I wonder if you find all this talk of dusting and decluttering a bore??? I really hope not. I'm keeping my real-life friends and neighbours up to date with it all too. I give them a daily run down of what zone I'm in and what I'm doing/intending to do in the zone whether they want it or not. Everybody I've talked to this week knows about the 225 object show down, it raised some incredulous laughs. I do fear that I am not Good Company when I'm this way out, but I find it hard not to talk about things that are occupying my mind.

I'm still finding time to carry out the sort of Home-Loving that really floats my boat though, the pretty stuff. How could I not??? I bake (fruity flapjacks yesterday), light candles, plump up my hooky cushions, stroke my blanket collection and arrange fresh flowers. Market dahlias this week look.

It's totally fantabulous to walk into the room and be greeted by these beauties. Aren't they just......so Beeeeeeeutiful???

And on that pretty note I'm going to love you and leave you and go and partake in a spot of bed appreciation. I'm marvelously good at that.

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Edit to add ::

re the 225 items! For those of you who asked.....most of them went in the bin, including the 27 dirty elastic bands, the 3 cray fish claws, the rabbit skull and the 43 bits of paper. All the other stuff was put back where it belonged (various tools, hairslides, jewellery, money, birthday candles, lego etc etc). What really amazed me was how many of the objects that were on the top of the microwave were also on top of the drawers. For example, golf balls, allen keys, marbles, paper clips, batteries, broken beaded jewellery. In both hotspots. Life is quite bizzarre here at number 24 sometimes!

 


 

 

Comments

[Jackie]

Great post Lucy ~ I didn't think it was possible to beat your microwave record but you have surpassed yourself with 225 cluttery items on the bedside drawers ~ it made me laugh!

Love all the stripy things on your washing line too ~ if you pop over to my blog you can see what you think of my stripy peg bag ~ it really brightens up my wash day blues :O)xx

[Elaine Brown]

Lucy - you are so funny. Imagine making cleaning house sound fun and exciting! You are the best! As always -love the pictures!

[Jane]

Actually I was looking under the bed, and our golden carpet behind the yarn stash has turned grey with all the dust, so rest assured you are not alone.... I have missed the tasks as I'm at work, but am saving them all up for Friday which is my not-out-at-work day and now that Child 3 has started school full time, I should be able to get on with housework. Hmmmmm....
Anyway - I am loving your posts about FLYing - it is quite inspiring. xx

[Emily]

Woah, you're a woman on a mission indeed. You have inspired me to take this approach too (although the urge to bury my head in a big pile of sand is very tempting - tackling my house is a scary prospect!) Some days I think it's a big enough achievement just getting the three kids fed and dressed!
Emily x

[Annie]

Oh I do like a nice bunch of dahlias. I've been craving dahlias lately, how silly is that! Happy cleaning ... you won't know the place soon ;D

[Jennifer sew little]

I don't feel quite as guilty about the growing mountain of stuff that's erupting on top of our chest of drawers now. ( now determined to beat your record, off to dump a few more items on the top!!! Te he!!!!!)

[Nikki Relffe-Arnold]

Ah Lucy how satisfying that must be...I never seem to be able to get into a routine! Note to self...must try harder!

[Faith]

Very inspiring, and when my hubby moans why do I spend so much time reading about crochet I can tell him I am actually reading about cleaning and tidying!

[Louise]

Reading this post has put a BIG smile on my face! I love hearing of your de-cluttering adventures and I almost fainted in appreciation of your cute RED SHOES!!!!! They're loooovely :)

I also stayed up WAY past my bedtime last night while lingering over your previous post that I spotted just before I was to close my sleepy eyes....Yarn heaven I tell you!!! A feast for the eyes... can't wait to hear how you go about choosing your colours!!

I'll stop waffling on now and let you get back to de-cluttering, plumping hooky items, etc, etc.... have fun!

Louise xx

[Bethany]

I am oddly in love with your red and white stripey socks :)
And I feel that Amelie would most certainly do her housework in stripey socks - have you seen that movie? Delightful!

[Nicky]

There is definately something about Autumn that makes me want to clean & tidy too. Not sure if it's the chilly nights and spending more time inside of an evening or just clearing up what I've let slip over the holidays whilst I've enjoyed time with the kiddos?
I've got a lovely little give-away over at Priddy Priddy blog which would look lovely on your nice clear side ;) {especially with a few garden flowers!}
Nicky
x

[Evi]

Lucy, keep talking........ I need some of that encouraging inspiration that you are providing - everyday!!!! Your house cleaning sounds like fun and as it's accompanied by THE most delicious pics, I'm even getting a little motivated to try some of that style of cleaning myself!!!!!!! Evi x x

[Kay Guest]

Lucy,
Those dahlias are beautiful! And the view out your back window...you should do a painting!
Hmmm...maybe I should clear all my clutter in my house. Nah, too hard to think about..I'll just read your blog!
Kay

[Mikimu]

Oh wow, I surely need to follow suit as I was just surveying my nightstand this morning and it is indeed a MESS!!! Your home is lovely and yes, the Dahlias are amazingly beautiful :o)

[Jude]

I have FlyLady saved to my favourites and one day.............. lol 225! That's amazing - my downfall is the chair which sits next to my dressing table. I don't even want to go there - would colouring pencils in a pot count individually or as one item though?
Those red and white striped socks on your line? I have a pair exactly the same and love them. They are my comfort socks, my warm socks and best of all... my caravan socks! Oh! And they are on the chair. :-D
Keep telling us about your clean up please, I'm hoping you are going to inspire me. Jude.x

[Laura]

Thank you for posting about this. I love your blog posts anyway but I am also trying to jump on the FlyLady bandwagon (have been on & off for over a year), so I can really relate to you. I'm not quite there yet!!!

[michellesmith100@yahoo.co.uk]

glad its all working for you lucy,it makes you feel better when your on top of housy things,doesnt it ?
keep writing ,Ilook forward to this every day,and I`m most disapointed when you havnt had time to write ,ha ha ,
love michelle x

[Dinahsoar]

LOVE your cleaning outfit...I need those socks, shoes and that apron...fun clothes make for fun work. Kudos to you for your success in overcoming your obstacle!! And your concern that we are bored reading about it? NEVER! It is part and parcel of who/what you are and we delight in peeking into your REAL life. Thanks for keeping it real.

[Susanne Tyree]

You seem to be doing remarkably well with your efforts to de-clutter and clean. Some people live in a house and some people live in a home. I have taken on the idea that I have some better things to do than to chase dust around with a dust cloth, but I do like a clean house so once in awhile I have the desire to get busy. You never bore me with your posts. Americans have the infamous "junk drawer" lol, it is the place all clutter lands and disappears until, you happen to be looking for something. My clutter is usually on the kitchen table, and since we do like to eat once in awhile I have to periodically clean it off to find the table. Have fun!

[amelie]

i have really enjoyed this sweet, happy post and the dahlias are lovely! thank you for sharing the joy and beauty xxx

[Iris]

I would love to hear a bit more about your cleaning system.

[michellesmith100@yahoo.co.uk]

me again lucy,i forgot to ask if you ever got to make your patchwork quilt ,with the lovely fabric you bought in harrogate ? michelle x

[a]

It's actually Fly Lady's cleaning system!

[Rainy Day Crafter]

Lol, your post made me laugh with your 225 items ;) I'm glad that your 'home loving' is working out so well! I love the photo of your yard from above btw and the dahlias are gorgeous :)

[Jennifer W]

way to go Attic24. I'm so proud of your Zone work! feel free to head to Kansas & work a few of my zones as well. do you dare to post before/after of your clutter spots?! ha!