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

[CrochetBlogger]

Love that first photo of the clothesline!

[Made in Suisse]

Well done on your newly found tidying system/rota! If you need help on your way, the Organising Junky's blog (http://orgjunkie.com/52-weeks) runs a great 52 weeks decluttering and organising programme full of good tips and ideas to make your life much easier!

[missjulep]

Wow! You even make housework look colorful and fun! I love what you said about how this makes you feel
peaceful! Can one ask fro anything more? I'm inspired, thanks!

[Kari]

Love, love, love these kinds of posts! However, I'm much better at reveling in other people's domesticity than in my own. If you keep this up, I may have to get off my butt and do some cleaning myself. Yikes!

[Shannon]

I am LOVING your cleaning posts, keep them coming! They motivate me to tackle my own hotspots. (Where DO all of those golf balls come from? They are strewn about every flat surface of my home as well!)

** oh boy, I just had an AHA! moment: would it be possible to crochet a stripy little golf ball jacket and make it into a tree ornament? For you, I mean, not for me - I am still fumbling along attaching rows!

[Mary Polensky]

Lucy - You may well be my lifesaver. No matter how down I am on myself for all my domestic deficiencies and uncompleted needlework projects, your blog always brings a smile. As if that were not enough, today I found FLYLady on your blog. I need this lady in the worst way and again you came to my rescue. A big thank you from one of your biggest fans.

[Susan M.]

We're very proud of you for all your cleaning efforts, (not that I plan on following suit anytime soon) but, we will forgive you if you decide to make a mess with some crafty goodness. You know what they say about all work and no play. Remember- Dust balls are bad...yarn balls are good.

[barb]

Lucy - congrats on sticking with it and for bringing your great sweet energy to world of housecleaning. "Home loving" great term - makes it all seem better immediately. Keep these posts coming they are a huge help.

[Maria Teresa]

Adorei este post muito divertido, suas fotos lindas como sempre, e que venha mais limpezas e já agora você nunca é má companhia.

[louise]

Well done on your decluttering! I am most impressed that all your socks on the line are in pairs...thats a rare event in our house x

[Wendy]

It's great to hear someone else in Britain following the flylady system. Not many people here have heard of mount washmore or super fling boogies!!

[Ellu]

Dear Lucy,
you never ever bore me - in contrary, you manage to motivate even ME to de-clutter my house! :-)
Oh, and how I love all those colours in your photos!

[Wendy]

love all your paired up socks on the line. And the pair you are wearing.

I have old mugs full of bibs and bobs

[Vicky]

I am convinced that Autumn is the new Spring. I tend to do my yearly spruce up in the Autumn. I don't know what it is - maybe it's the lovely sunny days with the blue, blue sky that makes me feel like cleaning everything, ready for the winter!! And let's face it I don't normally 'feel' like cleaning at any other time of the year! Or maybe it's linked to the start of the new school year - I don't know but I think it should be called Autumn cleaning!
Good luck with the rest of your Zones!

[Ariadne]

No, I don't find it boring at all to read about your decluttering. I wish I could do it too. But I am so tired in the afternoon after a full day at school. Weekends work better for me.
By the way I have the two of the books you have there Seaside style and A home for all seasons. Have you seen that crocheted wire chain with sea glass that covers the door window of a house in Seaside style? Isn't it gorgeous?That's one reason why I would love to crochet!
AriadnefromGreece
http://AriadnefromGreece.blogspot.com

[Roobeedoo]

I think you can tell by the number of comments that you are not alone! I had to clear my bedside shelf so the builder could get at the window and it was... scary. An entire family of Borrowers could have been living there and I would never have known.

[Jayne]

I've always thought that your home looks absolutely beautiful in all the pics you have shown us. You have the gift of making it all look so homely, and with all the baking you do I'm sure it smells homely too! But I suppose we can all do a bit better in the cleaning department.
I haven't been on flylady for ages, so I'm inspired now to go back to it again.

[Ali]

Thank you for the big smile. We are kindred bedroom dust spirits, I fear.

[Edith van der Bol]

Dear Lucy,
Please do go on talking about things that occupy your mind!! It has inspired me to clean my kitchen. And I do the one hour too now.
Love your pictures.

[Jean]

Oh Lucy, how can you possibly bore us?! I suspect that many of your followers are lovely domestic goddesses themselves and dote on your reports from everyday life. The thing that keeps me cleaning and tidying is the result: the sheer beauty of it. (Just look at your "after" pictures!). As an artistic person this gives me great pleasure and is something that most people can relate to. Not only the pure visual beauty of order, calm, and cleaniness, but also the deep satisfaction for the soul.

[Alita]

jajajajaja , no puedo creer, yo daría cualquier cosa por escucharte (en español por supuesto ;) )relatar las 225 cosas que había arriba de tu mueble, sos muy, muy graciosa al contar tu vida domética o será que nos parece gracioso porque a varias de nosotras nos pasa lo mismo. un fuerte abrazo! ;) Alita

[Samantha]

Not for me, it's a little Stepford wives but each to their own!

[Christa]

Great to see you working so hard on blessing your house! Just a question: what do you do with the broken beaded jewelry? I am a jewelry designer, and I would be more than happy to restore any loved broken beaded jewelry for you.

[greedy nan]

I LOVE red shoes and these are perfectly perfect. Give me those shoes straight away, immediately and now!
You know that you'll need some of those things you threw out don't you - particularly the rabbit skull - they can sometimes come in very useful.
I may well visit the Fly Lady myself although I probably won't get around to doing anything she suggests even though I know I should.

[Celeste]

I'm now going to join you with Flylady and home loving.
Today is the first day of my maternity leave. I discovered Flylady towards the end of my last maternity leave, when I was stuck in a rut, the house was a mess, even though I was home all day and I was feeling pretty miserable about everything. Following her emails, even just some of them, made a HUGE difference!
I've kept up some things, but a lot has slipped. It's now time to get organised before the bump arrives.

As an added incentive I've told everyone from work they're welcome to pop in for a brew whenever they like, so I need a presentable house. :)

You're posts are always inspiring, so hopefully you'll inspire me to keep up with the cleaning too.