Paying the Price for Squirreling My Stuff Away

That's me, the squirrel

It's a long, rainy weekend and we have no firm plans. So naturally I am hoping to catch up on some things around the homestead. Like pre-spring cleaning, ya know, get a jump on things.

HA!

I used to pride myself on being a pretty clean person, and I used to have house cleaners come every two weeks. That was before the recession. Now, I am the house cleaner. And you know how my main focus after my kids is fitting in exercise, so you know where cleaning ranks on my list. Fortunately when my mother and mother-in-law watch my kids during the week they do small things from time to time like vacuuming, and occasional dusting on my bottom floor. But that barely scratches the surface for what needs to be done. If I wasn't away from the home 40 hrs a week, I might be able to do a little bit every day and stay on top of things but there is just no way. So on the weekends I try to clean my whole house. I say try, because my whole house is never clean all at once unless we are having company.

Well, sort of.

When we have company, I do clean everything, this much is true. But my kids and husband are pretty messy and even though I can get the kids to help a little, we must remember they are 4 and 2. "Clean up your toys please" lasts about 3 -5 minutes if I'm lucky. So, when we have company, I do my best to put all the "stuff" away, but there are some things that require more attention, like paper work and what not (not bills though) that I will take and put all in a pile and put in a small shopping bag and put it in a closet. The problem is, once its cleaned up and out of sight, its also out of mind. I am staring at 3 bags of such "stuff" that has been bagged when we've had company coming and never dealt with. I skimmed through it and tossed out the obvious things that are no longer relevant, such as a flyer for an event that has passed or a coupon for something I thought I'd use but never did and now its expired. I did not want to spend much time on this, as there are other things I can make a lot more headway on in less time, so I abandoned that project.

I went to put something away in my guest room closet and was reminded of something awful. Awful like how I used to work from home, and had a home office which is now my guest room. When I was expecting with Buddha (in 2008), I was laid off from my job, so we got rid of the furniture and got a bed for any guests that may stay over to help with the baby. It looks really cute in there, with a Hawaiian theme. Except the closet. It seems that all my office supplies, desk accessories, papers, and who-knows-what, was just stacked in there and left for dead. Something else I need to do. But not on my holiday weekend, because its a really big project.

Even thought its a holiday weekend, I do have good intentions to clean. I know it doesn't sound like it. I was actually very productive with my cleaning today, just not on those projects.  I keep putting them off for when I have more time, or when I'm more motivated.  I think honestly, the motivation is the key factor. I know that when I finally deal with the closet for example, it will be because I really have to for some reason. Like if we move. Ok not really. But maybe.

What household project has you procrastinating? I know I can't be the only one! Hope you are enjoying your President's Weekend!