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Post by def6 on Mar 4, 2018 16:52:12 GMT -5
I love to get things done quickly...as in 5 minutes or less. I even got ready for church this morning in maybe 5 minutes because I did the prep work ahead of time such as : no iron clothes that fit me ready to go , slip on dress shoes, showered the night before, wash n go hair, minimal makeup, pedicure done during the week...just grab your purse and go. Returned home , hung clothes up , put things back ready for next time. Dinner is also practically done the meat is marinaded, vegetables prepped. DH is the grill master so that means I'm off kitchen duty today. This quick and easy lifestyle is the only way to go for me and I will go to every length to keep it going. Other things I do fast : make bed, put dishes away (unload dishwasher), swish n swipe bathroom, reboot laundry and anything else that doesn't require a lot to get done. The prep work keeps everything doable. Anything you can do to make things easier to do is so well worth it. Prep work: To make it easy to make my bed, I have to put fresh sheets on and some sort of blanket on top and tuck everything really well ...pull everything up done in just 2 minutes. Bathroom; I've actually been waiting until after my shower...everything gets coated in that fine mist , I wipe it down with toilet paper. Some prep work though like washing the shower curtain, emptying the trash and keeping it as minimal in there as possible. I leave my vinegar and my baking soda shaker out in there. Laundry room: I just got this room cleaned back up (Thanks to papermoon 's Last chance Friday thread) Gathering up all of the dirty clothes, spot treating them, putting them in loads by color makes it easier to put a load on to wash...2 minutes. I wash 1 load everyday to keep up. The kitchen is the other place that could take up as much time as I could give it. I have to try to minimize the time I'm in there so I don't feel like Cinderella. I keep my everyday "go to" pans in my oven: 1 small (tiny) frypan, a pot to boil in, a cookie sheet and a medium frypan. I just wash these with hot water and dry and put them in my oven for quick access. I clean as everything is cooking ...by the time dinner is ready, everything is clean.
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Post by def6 on Mar 4, 2018 18:10:40 GMT -5
Looking forward to the week ahead...I want to track : what I get done and how long it takes. If I start taking water saving showers; Get wet, turn shower off , get washed, turn water back on, rinse....There's not telling how much time I'll save.
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Post by 7sweetbabiesgranny on Mar 4, 2018 20:23:26 GMT -5
These are GREAT posts!!
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Post by def6 on Mar 4, 2018 21:53:39 GMT -5
Thank you 7sweetbabiesgranny I'm glad you are enjoying this thread. I'm also going to track the laundry use (or misuse) The clothes don't look dirty when I wash them and I noticed lots of towel use. I like to reuse my bath towel for 1 week . Recently, I switched my luxurious oversized bath towel to a thin medium sized to make it more minimal ; to save room in the washing machine and faster to dry both between showers and after washing. This is a good way to go on the rest of the laundry as well. We should also be thinking in terms of saving water and electricity also.
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Post by def6 on Mar 4, 2018 22:32:20 GMT -5
Feeling great about the "quick" stuff I do daily but still have some eyesores. If I could seriously pounce on 1 eyesore per day this week...It would be so great. Some eyesores include: Bathroom vanity, home office desk, Parts of kitchen that are not streamlined, an area in the garage and the front porch. That's one for each day.
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Post by def6 on Mar 4, 2018 22:41:23 GMT -5
I'm going to look for a container or a box to help me get this stuff done.
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Post by papermoon on Mar 4, 2018 23:00:49 GMT -5
I'm going to look for a container or a box to help me get this stuff done. Huh? How so? I would love to know. I affectionately call my prep work "MEEP" to go with the "PEEP" afterwards. The French term "mise en place" (put in place) gets an extra E for "everything." Thus "Mise Everything En Place" and "a Place for Everything and Everything in its Place." MEEP > do task > PEEP My Martha Stewart "Quick-Dry" towels are fab... fluffy lux yet they dry in mere minutes.
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Post by def6 on Mar 5, 2018 16:55:07 GMT -5
Hello papermoonThe box I speak of is like "magic." It's a perfect size to work on one of these "collections" that grow, usually on surfaces, but can occasionally spring up from the floor too. You can just put it all in the box ,fold the top up to close it and place the box behind curtains or some other clever place. Meanwhile, you can set up the original space in an athletically pleasing yet functional way. The only catch is you have to go back the next day to deal with the contents of the box. The box method is great to use if: You procrastinate, you hate starting a hard task, have trouble deciding how you will tackle the task, if you start the task but then stop cause it's too hard....anything like that. The empty box can be reused.
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Post by def6 on Mar 5, 2018 17:00:37 GMT -5
So , my vanity got cleared, cleaned and reorganized...all was removed from the cabinet and drawers. I even put together a little makeup kit in a pouch to do my makeup on the fly. Tomorrow: computer desk.
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Post by papermoon on Mar 7, 2018 4:55:02 GMT -5
def6 wrote: That's where I often get stuck, which is how I ended up with all those bags and boxes and piles in the hallway. So I guess my next question is, how do you get yourself to go back to it the next day? Or does that just come naturally to you? From what I've seen on the LCF thread, you seem to have more forward momentum than most folks (more than me, anyway).
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Post by def6 on Mar 7, 2018 8:16:45 GMT -5
Hello papermoon Confession time : sometimes I don't go back and deal with the contents. That is when you eventually end up with an actual punch bowl full of unused make up products being stored underneath your bedside table...It's a cautionary tale but a true one. All kidding aside, no doubt the best time to go through the "overage" is right after you've cleared out... because that is what it is it's just extra stuff. From now on I want to deal with the extra stuff and get on with living. I wish you good luck with this too!
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Post by def6 on Mar 7, 2018 10:53:50 GMT -5
I'm in my garage today to clean up an area that needs attention...it's an eyesore! Hopefully while I am out there I will find some things to discard of to make a space for the items that have been left on the porch. Shuffling.
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Post by def6 on Mar 8, 2018 22:29:33 GMT -5
I was able to declutter/dejunk an area in the garage and sweep it up. I've saved the hardest job, the front porch, for Last chance Friday. I hope the sheer magic of that thread inspires me ...I can do it.
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Post by mynicehome on Mar 23, 2018 10:45:50 GMT -5
Feeling great about the "quick" stuff I do daily but still have some eyesores. If I could seriously pounce on 1 eyesore per day this week...It would be so great. Some eyesores include: Bathroom vanity, home office desk, Parts of kitchen that are not streamlined, an area in the garage and the front porch. That's one for each day. Hugs def6. Another interesting thread; you have the spirit of the forum cheerleader about you, hon. You add zest and a "let's do this thang!" feeling to the board.
To be honest my normal cleaning default position is to clean up only when things are suddenly an eyesore to me. There didn't seem to be any other good reason to attend to something until it came onto my radar, as an eyesore.
And yet there is real clutter blindness too. A real experience. We've simply pulled a blind down over our perceptions because there is a degree of overwhelm in the situation. I've noticed an interesting, and accurate, way for me to "see" my own clutterblindness. The best place to see your own clutter blinded area is to take note of what you do note in other people's homes. For example, seeing flies in someone else's kitchen will create a feeling of aversion in me. Yet, I don't notice the flies in my own kitchen, or if I do I see them in some opaquely kind of way as quite understandable and liveable with. So I know that I've actually revealed an area of blindness to myself, when I can objectively see my aversion anywhere other than in my own life. This has really helped me to take off the blinders and spot the eyesores I've previously prevented myself from seeing.
We do cocoon ourselves somewhat against the overwhelm with clutter blindness and this can be the best and kindest thing to do at times of genuine overwhelm. But when things have settled down somewhat we can use the natural body experience of aversion to our own advantage. (We can do the same thing with the natural body experience of attraction as well.)
It's easy to slip into a negative self-judgement at that point, such as "I am incompetent" or "I am stupid". But just skip that step altogether. Attune yourself instead to natural, spontaneous first-contact reactions of attraction or aversion, or neutrality. And use the feedback to learn more about your own natural gifts and skills.
You go girl!
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Post by def6 on Mar 23, 2018 15:15:18 GMT -5
Hello mynicehomeNatural attraction, aversion and neutrality , a subject that is fascinating to me. I'm always in a search to find my true self... so that I can know better why I like some things and are put off by other things or why some things don't effect me in the slightest. New Invention: a machine that tells us definitively how we like on object, color or idea (and many other categories) that exist. My behavior becomes the sticky point right here...It's how I behave towards the antagonist that sends me down that slippery slope or not . In cleaning, if a pile of stuff is unwelcoming, I can either fight or flight. I usually flight. Honing the ability to detect first contact(off the cuff) personal responses to good ,bad ,indifferent stimuli is the first step in dealing with life in a new, better or just different, more accurate way. At the beginning of this thread, I was telling about my successes...towards the middle of the thread I felt compelled to tell the rest of the story. Coming clean proved to be very helpful in jumpstarting me on areas that I had let slip. The only area left to do on that list of eyesores is "Clean and clear the front porch." I am making room in the garage today for those items that took up residence on the porch. A call out to hollyhock about our annual porch/ private balcony challenge. (I actually already reminded her but she needs time to sew her outdoor seat cushions.) After-which mynicehome I'll be ready to do some barn work, string up some lights, put on my boots (first the muck out ones then the cowgirl ones) and then I want to cut a rug with our annual barn challenge.
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