The House That Cleans Itself - Part 1 & 2

So, as my previous post mentioned, I have been reading the book The House That Cleans Itself. It has produced a lot of change in our house, so I decided to blog my progress as it happens.

Step 1 in the book is to draw a floor plan and determine flow pattern of our home.

I happened upon a website that allows you to lay out the floor plan of your home and fell in love with it. I had so much fun drawing up the floor plan of our home, inside and outside. It really gave me a sense of just how much God has entrusted us with. We have been in our home for 7 years now and it hasn't been until this point that I have really started to look at this house as our home, and not just the place where we sleep and wait for our next house. This is big for me! It made a huge difference in how I view my home.

The website for the floor plan is: floorplanner.com   It took me over a week to finish the floor plans due to many interruptions by a very curious 16-month old and a husband that required a lot of computer time over the last few weeks... but I did it! I printed off two copies of them as the book suggested and set about determining our flow plan. Below is the result:

Step 2 - Decide on your base zone

Step 2 asks us to choose a base zone... one zone in our house that when it is completely clean it makes our whole life better and when it's dirty, it makes me feel irritated or stressed. I asked Chris what he thought this room would be for him. We had different answers! For me, it was the kitchen. If my kitchen is clean, I feel like the whole house is clean. For Chris, it was our master bedroom.. if our bedroom is clean, he sleeps better and feels like he is in the most comfortable and relaxing spot in the house.

Once I chose our base zones (I was kind of hoping they would be the same one... so much for that!), she asks us to purge and clean that zone. For me, this is still a work in progress but I have at least managed to complete this task in our bedroom... it took an entire week of sorting through every single thing in our closet, moving clothes out, putting summer clothes in, re-arranging our hanging clothes, cleaning the bathroom from top to bottom, making the bed EVERY morning, vacuuming as often as possible, washing the dog bed, cleaning the walls, changing the light bulbs... I purged and cleaned like a mad woman. I have also started this in the kitchen but it is a much more difficult and tedious process as we have a lot of things stuffed into a very small space.

I forgot to take before pictures of the bedroom and kitchen... I will do this after Step 3 since she asks us to let things go for 2-3 days without cleaning anything ... that should be fun.

The next step is a prayer walk through the house... I am very interested to see what that's all about!  I will say that this has inspired me a LOT to keep things clean ... I am really enjoying this so far and it has really caused me to see just how blessed we are!

Your mission...should you choose to accept it

 One of the areas I really struggled with (you can read my previous post!) is that of my home and maintaining it. That brings us to this book:

That brings us to today. This book is great! I have only just begun it a week ago and it has already made some very good changes in our home. I am excited to see the differences that will take place through this journey. I have a deadline of 2 months before it has to be returned to the library so that will keep me motivated I hope :)  Anyway, we have been having fun with this and it has continued to improve the mood in our home.

Another big change is that for the last 2 months, my best friend and I have challenged each other to each make a list of goals for the month and each day we are required to send an update of how we did the day before. This has made the BIGGEST difference in our home. My husband made the comment last night that he is proud of me because for the last 2 months, I have been a new woman and he has noticed a lot of changes in my heart, in my life and in our home.

I hope that you will continue to join me on this journey of the domestic life as it applies to me. God is certainly doing a work in me and I am greatful because it means that He can still use me. :)

Mission: Organization

Organization in my home is by far the one area that I lack talent in. My husband prefers a very clean house, as do I... however, two years with each of us furnishing our own apartments and eight years of marriage that now include a tiny 20-pound being that requires ten times more stuff, our house is rarely what I would classify as very clean. Cluttered, messy, dis-array.... these are words I would use to describe our house.

Sure, when you come to visit our house, it appears clean. That is because I have just shoved everything I could into every closed door space that was available.

It is not that I do not care, because I care very much. It is not that I don't have the time, because most of the time I have a little bit of extra time to straighten up and make things look nice. It is that I can't arrange things in my mind and then bring it to life outside of my head. I was not gifted with the talent of being able to look at a corner of my house and come up with some brilliant idea to organize an area that will remain fairly organized. Instead, I just browse the stores and find something that looks like it could create some organization, buy it, and try it. Therefore, my house is not themed, or decorated well enough to invite a Better Homes & Garden tour. In fact, it looks like we are still in college in this house. Concert posters mixed with family pictures, mixed with our own artwork, mixed with rugs that don't match each other or the walls, mixed with furniture that doesn't match anything, mixed with the piles of toys and junk mail and everyday papers that are laid around every day.

If I were made of money, which I am not, I would pay someone to come in and decorate my house and organize it all so that it would be what I desire and leave me with the ability to just have to maintain it all. Coming to the realization that I am not an organizer has been difficult for me, and for my husband. In the work place, I was very organized... but a tiny office is an easy task to keep organized. A large house with two adults, a tiny pack rat and a large hairy dog? Not so much.

So, how do you keep it all together? What are your organizing tips? How do you keep your house organized enough to know where the scissors are and where the light bulbs are? How do you ensure that your children do not get lost in a pile of junk in your home?

Why?

Upon looking for a new swimsuit for my 13-month old daughter, I am shocked and very disheartened at what is available. I mean, seriously.... why do our babies need to dress like 20 year old supermodels? There is SO much pressure to be a certain size and have a certain body type as an adult... why do we have to put that strain on our children?

Who puts their child in these?

I think it is completely inappropriate for my 13-month old to be in a bikini with only a bandana covering her chest. Why does so much skin need to be showing? Is this cute? Is this how I want my daughter to look out in public? What does it say to her when I choose to put her in a swimsuit like this?

I'm just sickened by the way our world has become so de-sensitized to modesty and appropriate clothing for the appropriate age. These swimsuits were available for sale from 3-6 months all the way up to a 5T. It was just another reminder to me of how difficult my job is as the mother of a girl. How do I impress upon her that beauty comes from within when the world is saying the exact opposite? How do I explain to her that God did create us to be beautiful and to care for ourselves but that our motivation should be a pleasant representation of God, who lives in us?

The journey ahead is a long one, of that I am sure. I only hope that I can show E that even though the world is constantly drumming it into her head that she needs to be sexy and attractive to men, that just the opposite is true. I hope that I can successfully show her that even though she may dress very differently from her friends, that she is a beautiful girl inside and out and that she does not need to display as much of her body as possible in order to feel attractive.

Lord help me in this battle between the world and You. Give me strength and wisdom as I train this child to be different from the world in so many ways. Give her such a strong love and desire for you that her focus will not be set on gaining worldly experiences, but that she will seek to serve you and display herself in such a way that she can proud of who she is in You!

All things natural...

I have found that I am slowly becoming what is affectionately known as a "crunchy" mama. Why this term... I have no idea. What does it mean? It means that I am doing my best to be environmentally friendly and live as naturally as possible.

My discovery has been a multitude of cleaning agents and food items that have become a welcome addition into our household and leave me feeling satisfied with what I am putting into our bodies, especially my 1 year-old daughter's body.

This is my newest addition:

Toothpaste for Emma. Why, you ask? Because last night as we were brushing her teeth, I happened to glance at the toddler toothpaste that I had purchased for Emma, which was the only flouride-free toothpaste in the store at the time, and noticed the ingredient list was in some strange language. It was English, but I could not pronounce the majority of the ingredients. On top of that, I saw that it uses fake sugar agents to sweeten it. I am opposed to fake sugar of all kinds because it tends to make me sick, which makes me think that maybe it's not so good for me if my body can't seem to process it.  Anyway, I digress....

A lot of "natural" items on the market are designed based on the extracts from plants. This toothpaste is included in that. I am excited to try it and I hope that it will be a welcome addition to help us prevent cavities and institute good oral hygiene without pouring a lot of man-made chemicals into her body. :) 

*editors note: This is only my personal journey to living healthier and more "naturally", I am not a pushy salesperson for all things natural and have nothing against anyone that does not use "natural" products!*

Loss of time...

A huge part of the domestic life, is the lack of available time for blogging and maintaining a social (media) life. Most of my domestic duties lately have been shifted outdoors now that the weather is finally warm. I will update again with pictures of what we I have been doing to our yard.

This is my first spring/summer at home full time. Last summer, I had a newborn and no time for anything besides nursing and sleeping. This year, I have a one-year old and it is much easier to spend time getting things done during her nap time. This month, it has been the yard. In previous years (7 to be exact) we have tried to throw some mulch and some plants into the landscaping just to make it appear as if we tried to keep it up. However, it always looked like our house was in foreclosure as the weeds sprouted into weed trees and the grass overgrew the mulched areas. Needless to say, it was quite embarrassing to be known on the cul-de-sac as the house that never did anything about their yard.

Since beginning my outdoor project, I have had two neighbors walk over just to thank me for doing something about it and complimented me on how nice it looked. I am definitely not a gardener, nor a landscape designer, so the fact that they would compliment me on how nice it looks only leads me to believe that it looked pretty desolate and trashy to begin with. I love working outdoors, if I could just find a way to make sure no bugs and creepy crawly's (especially spiders) lived in the dirt.... I would love the outdoors even more.

So, this is my current domestic project, with slight delays here and there in order to deal with the ants in my kitchen.... but that is another post for another day.

Life of talent, lack of skills

This is the most sewing that I do.  A needle and thread to put buttons back on my husbands shirts. Recently, I have been approached with two shirts that require more than just a needle and thread, but I am terrified to break out my sewing machine and give it a try.

As a child, I became involved in 4H and my "talent" was crafts and sewing. I sewed my own clothes and then modeled them. I'll admit, I became pretty savvy with a sewing machine, despite the 83-year old lady who insisted that I was doing it incorrectly before I even sewed a stitch! I still remember the smells of the building and the older ladies that were helping us. I remember the feel of the pedal and the sound of the sewing machine and how excited I became when I could finally sew quickly, efficiently, and correctly.

Fast forward. I head off for college and all of my sewing days are done. In December 2003, my mother-in-law bought me my first ever very own sewing machine. It's an amazing machine and I set to work, assuming I had retained my sewing talents, I set to work on a shower curtain. Not just any shower curtain, but a shower curtain with tabs. I also chose a plaid fabric. Oh, and the fabric was like sackcloth. Needless to say, it did not turn out well, but I hung it up anyway because it was a matter of pride. "It's supposed to look like that!"  As my husband of 4 months laughed every time he walked into the bathroom. Since then, I have not attempted to sew. I put the machine away and have not dug it out.

I think it's time to break free of my sewing fears and get back into the sewing business. I loved the stress-relief, the ability to get lost in my sewing and push the world aside for a while. Until that happens, we will all have excellently appointed buttons on our shirts.