Well I came up with a process for the filing cabinet. I have been seperating my papers into stuff for this year and papers from other years. I have a filing cabinet in the basement now, which I will use for other years. I bought a $7 filing case for my files for this year- much smaller and with a handle, I can work on my files right on my desk now instead of bending down to the floor to reach files.

Update on Me

Well I was shocked to come back to my blogs after a long time away and see so many wonderful comments from kind readers. It made my day, that's for sure! I am going to start up my posts again, but I need to get on some kind of schedule for doing this otherwise I will slack off....what else is new??

My boyfriend and I have developed a chore list to keep track of the chores around the house. We have been doing pretty good. We listed them all out, flipped a coin and alternated picking them based on what we liked. Then we switch the same ones on the next week so we get to see what it was like for the other person. We even have stars to mark when we do our chores! Only, now the house is so clean I don't feel like cleaning it anymore. I like cleaning dirty things, and having the proper time to do things right. I would rather clean the little spaces between the hard floor than sweep all the stupid dust up off it. In fact I wish I could clean all the little cracks rather than write the paper I have to write by Thursday :( I should just become a cleaning guru. I know I have plenty of fans here to support me, right?

In other news, my latest chore occupying my mind is figuring out what to do with the never-ending pile of papers on my office desk all the time. I have a filing cabinet right now, that isn't working. Its a two drawer system, and I use the top drawer for office supplies like envelopes, post-its, etc.

My problems:
- my filing cabinet is ugly and industrial looking
- I have too many papers in the bottom drawer making it annoying to file anything new
- If I were to take out the older papers, I don't know where I would put them
- I don't know which papers I need to keep and which ones I can discard

Bump on a Log

I have not been cleaning very much lately. With the help of my significant other, we manage to keep the house looking about 75% clean most of the time. The dishes mostly get done, and things aren't laying around, but we could certainly mop much more often and change our bed sheets. We planned so many things, now we just say we we will each clean for two hours on Saturday and that worked really well for one weekend but the next weekend we had an emergency and things fell by the wayside. I know there are many others out there who lead extremely busy lives and still manage to clean regularly, so how do you do it? How do you stay on top of things even when a family member is sick or you are going through a stressful period at work, etc.

At least I am shining my sink still

At least I am shining my sink every day still, because that is all I have been managing to do still! I haven't been able to get my clothes ready the night before or spend a couple minutes cleaning my Hot Spots. I am not going to give up though! I am actually gonna delete all the email from when I last checked and start from where I am, like they say to. One day soon, especially when my room mate leaves in the next couple of weeks, I am going to live all by myself and have total control over my house! Maybe then I will finally be able to keep it clean!

Slacked off but I will get there!

Well I have slacked off on my cleaning over the weekend. There were some highs:
- got my laundry done (actually now that I think of it a load is still sitting in the dryer)
- got my animal cages cleaned
- got this done early!

But I slacked off on cleaning my Fly Lady Hot Spots. It only takes 2-5 minutes twice a day but I usually came home too tired and in the mornings I usually have plans that I am late for. Ugh! But I will keep trying until I get it done!

Hot Spots!

Well, I haven't been posting as many regular tips lately cause I have been attempting to do BabySteps with Flylady.net. Last night I did two new things- I cleaned up a random Hot Spot for 2 minutes (actually 4 cause 2 seems so short!) and laid out my clothes for this morning. Both REALLY helped. My night stands on either side of my bed are completely cleaned off, and before I took a shower I just took out one hanger and put it on my bed and it had on it my undies, bra, socks, pants and shirt for after the shower! Woo hoo! Soooo cool. Oh and by the way, I have been shining my sink ev-er-y night! Go me! At this rate of 2 minutes a day, it should take me, what, oh maybe a year to get my house clean?! Bwahaha but it feels great!

Sorting my Mail, Day 5

Well my task for Flylady.net yesterday was to find all my bills and put them in one place for 2 minutes, which I was successful at! Two minutes goes by SO fast on a kitchen timer, I almost think it was inaccurate. I set it for 2 minutes more cause I didn't mind. I don't know if thats the point of Flylady, to do a little bit more than you started out, or if you are NOT supposed to do that.

I am glad I have been pretty much following along every day. Its sometimes hard to get dressed to the shoes, cause I run in the morning before taking a shower. Hey, I guess putting on sneakers counts, right?

Tonight I have to lay out my clothes for tommorrow morning, which is ironic cause I have a job interview to prepare for anyway!

Incidentally, I have thought about it and I am pretty positive I am going to purchase the FlyLady trapper-keeper thing when I start doing appraisals- what a powerful tool for staying organized on the go! (and no, I swear I do not work for Flylady!)

I am also thinking I am going to join the BODY clutter group as well, that is an off-shoot of Flylady that helps you lose weight.