5 & 1/2 Months Later

Yep, it's been over 5 months since I've posted which I just happened to notice because of Amanda's new post, so I'm posting an update and a few goals for the month of September.

I ended up slacking on the decluttering process back in April because I'd started college classes. Last week I'd finally decided that I was going to just have the garage sale with what I'd already decluttered and attempt to go through the garage as well (which I did). I'm pretty sure I sold well over 500 items, leaving me with 2 totes, a box and a rack of coats.

During the month of September, I plan to:

• Sort through the garage sale items and sort to donate or sell online.
• Drop off donation items
• Post items online for sale
• Scrub the shower & tub (I hate hard water...my tub is a "goldenrod" color (5 points if you know that color) and I'd like to see it white again
• Attempt to remove the paint from carpet in bedroom with goof off (pointless but going to try anyways)
• Begin job
• Start new college classes
• Clean out filing cabinet

I *intend* to post before/after pics now that I have a memory card reader again.

Clean up, aisle 7

Homeless produce + binless toy shelf + dollar store bins = personal produce department.  Special thanks to Kim, Jamie, and Teresa for the brainstorming and outright idea.

Day 4 - a plan of action

Today is/was E's birthday. I'm not exactly sure how that meant that I didn't get anything done, but that's what happened in the end. I did, however, create an ingeeeeeenious (insert maniacal laughter here) diagram of my house, sectioned off into 30 colored blocks indicating what areas should be cleanable in a single stretch of hard work. For instance, the living room is all one color as it doesn't require much beyond your average mop and polish. The kitchen has 8 sections because it's that awful. And so on. I think if I can pick a block and focus on it and just it within these boundaries I might be less overwhelmed than thinking I have to mop the *whole* kitchen perfectly in one go. So, it's a plan, and it might not have been worth the time and effort but who knows? Maybe it'll be that last magic piece of the puzzle.

It's that time of year again. Time for another pccx. The last one didn't go so well. I didn't do nearly as much as I wanted to. This one has got to be better. I'm moving in 6 months.....holy crap. I've got to get my house organized and ready for packers to come in and get it all packed up. I'm so not ready.

I've got a plan, and hopefully I can stick to it.

I've mapped out my days, I'll spend 3-4 hrs a day on general upkeep of the house, 2-3 hrs a day on school work, 2-3 hrs a day on pccx and getting the house organized, at least one hour a day doing something I enjoy that is relaxing, at least one hour with my kids playing with them, work up to 1 hour of exercise everyday. I'm starting the Atkins diet this month....that will take a little time to get into the swing of things. I've figured that's 15 hrs of work stuff a day. That leaves 9 hours for sleep and extra stuff. HOLY CRAP I don't know if I can do it.

Yes I can.....Just stick to the plan it's not that bad. That's all for now, will check in soon.

Excuses, Excuses~!!!

For me it is one excuse after the other so that I do not have to clean this house. I don't know if it is because I don't get to leave the house very much or if its just laziness. But nonetheless, I hate to move off the couch most days. It seems like the morning is horrible for me in the energy area. But yet in the evening when I "Feel" like cleaning, I can't because the kids are home and we are doing homework, dinner, baths...etc. to keep me from working. I also feel guilty when I do not clean because I AM here all day and I shouldn't have an excuse for not cleaning. Yet, when my wonderful, hard working husband comes home to this nasty house, I have to make up a reason why I didn't move off my lazy tail all day long. It seems like the more I try the worse I get.

My house is not in shambles by any means...but I DO need to clean daily and I can't seem to ever get there. I may do the same stuff almost daily, but not everything I need to do. I know it is possible because I used to do it 2 yrs ago. I got up and drilled with you all and my house stayed clean, and that was with kids home. So not doing it now with no kids home, makes no sense to me. It is like I have gotten selfish of my alone time. I am not a selfish person normally. But yet it seems I cannot get past this. Does anyone else experience this?

If it wasn't for you ladies and our drilling, I would never do anything...EVER!

For some reason when we make lists, play "games" or something of the kind...I am able to actually move. I guess it just motivates me somehow.

I am hoping to get into a better routine. I plan on making a list at night...I have never understood the points keeping and POA and PODA thing. But I am thinking it might help me get motivated and help me move at least some daily.

I am asking if anyone would be willing to invest time in showing me how to use it and help me understand it? If so, let me know. If not, then I will figure another way out. Thanks!!

This blogging thing could become addicting...:)

PCCX Goals

I haven't gotten much done with PCCX, I've painted a couple walls to clean them up a bit, I've dusted my bedroom completely.....That's really not much. I'm ashamed at the state of my house right now.

Yesterday was the halfway mark, I did get the main areas of my house picked up finally. Today is the day I hit up the kids' bedrooms. I need to go through toys and get rid of about half of them. I'd also like to get in the closets and clean them up a bit. We'll see how today goes. I've been up since 3:30. Will hopefully update later with pics.

PCCX gone wrong

The past two weeks have been a bust for me. I've been lucky to keep up with dishes and laundry and cleaning up after the monsters. Between surgery 2 weeks ago, kids and hubby getting sick then I got sick I haven't done ANYTHING. Monday is a new day. I'll hopefully get my info so I can start my school work. I'd like to spend a few hours a day on that, and a few hours a day on PCCX. We'll see how it goes.

What was I thinking?????

I am such a glutton for punishment and I really have the desire to have a clean and organized home, I really do.....BUT, I can't seem to get it all together AT THE SAME TIME *snort* I am a 1 step forward, 9 steps back kinda girl apparently, lol. I did manage to get all my coupons clipped, organized, sorted and shared last night....this used to be part of my Sunday routine and beleive it or not helped me get on track for the week, when I did it regularly.

On the other hand...........I have a 60th surprise birthday party for my dad that is only 1/2 planned, homeschool with dd every day, hair cuts for both myself and dd, eyebrow waxing, family holiday portraits, sign language class for dd, pe for dd, art for dd, a community yard sale that I am in charge of, weekly client work, a field trip to the pumpkin patch, shopping for birthday decorations, meal planning and preparing, quarterly payroll returns, personal tax prep, unpacking, cleaning for said surprise birthday party this weekend. Ummmmmm, where oh where do I put in pccx and going potty????????????????????????????

One tada and then I am outie....Dd and I sat in her room for 5+ hours on Saturday and cleaned out her closet, under her bed, all her nooks and crannies. She has bins for all her toys, but enjoys irritating me by putting stuff where it doesn't belong....the only thing left to do in there is hang her wall art, hang her window treatments and go thru her closet to purge smallish clothes and summer wear. I also managed to scrub down, clean and polish our stainless steel gas grill. I took all the grill grates....8 peices in all and then I used stainless steel cleaner on the outside. Saturday was wrapped up with trimming and watering all hedges out front and cleaning up the scraps. OOH, OOH, OOH....I guesss that cleaning the grill and trimming the hedges could be on PCCX under "winterizing".....hmmmm, I definately need to check that out, lol.

Tomorrow will be spent on client work, clearing off my desk, credenza and filing cabinets and hanging clothes back in my closet. After losing 3 dress sizes, I was forced *gasp* lol to buy new clothes and they are ALL on my bed....my closet is completely empty, so that MUST be taken care of tomorrow.

Part 1 of my dungeon

Before & After Photos of the Coupons - Part of my dungeon

The first photo is of all the MONTHS, yes months of inserts that I had accumulated as well as coupons I picked up along the way or received in trains or from other group members. There was NOT semblance of organization, they were scattered everywhere and I had no idea where in the heck the ones were that I actually needed to use. My daughter went to her dad's this weekend and I spent a total of 13 hours on organizing the heaps of the mess. (4 hours on Thursday night, 6 hours on Friday and 3 hours on Sunday)

First, I had to go thru all the uncut inserts and determine which were expired (sadly, that was alot). This was approximately 9 1/2 " of inserts to go thru and does not include the enormous stack that was already clipped. Then I clipped all the good dated coupons. After getting them all clipped, I sorted them into stacks of coupons I need/use and ones that I will send to friends and members of my coupon groups that can use them. I tackled the "other" coupons for the groups first and grouped all like coupons together. I keep these in a bin with cards labeled by month. I chose to do this by month because when we send out coupon trains in the group, we must make sure that the coupons aren't short dated to go around to 4 people. I keep the current month first and then in month order work back. The coupons photo'd in the very back of the bin are either NON expiring or expire 12/2010 or LATER. Yes, I grabbed an entire stack of organic coupons. I don't see them often, use them when I can and I experience NO SHAME in helping myself and my friends :D

Once that was accomplished, I did the happy dance, not only for completing 1/2 of that task, but also because I got to take fling points for all those wasted coupons :) I "auctioned" off several stacks of the unwanted coupons to the girls (the collaborators of this blog) and I think we all thoroughly enjoyed it...we kinda felt like we were at an auction, lol. Next began the task of organizing all my personal coupons. I do the organizing for those a little differently. I organize my personal coupons by "type" of coupon. For example....beverages, breakfast items, bread, ice cream, frozen, frozen veggies, medicine, deoderant, paper products...you get the idea I hope. I shop the sales and I stockpile, so I often times have multiples of coupons and actually welcome them from friends, neighbors, family and fellow couponers. :) If I can get items for free or close to free that we won't personally use, I donate them to women's shelters, pet shelters, churches and even victims of wild fires, tornadoes and hurricanes. I paperclip all like coupons together, with the earliest expiration date first. I also like to have each variety of coupon clipped together, meaning.....I have a section for soups, but I have all the chunky campbell's coupons together, all healthy choice campbell's coupons together, all cream soup campbell's coupons together, etc. That's probably a bit anal, but if I see a sale, I can grab the coupons quickly and take them with me.

The final step in completing the coupon organizing is to organize my bin by ailes in the store. I have not done that yet and am waiting when I can leave my daughter at home to walk the aisle at kroger. I do shop at other stores, but mainly kroger, and I could actually probably just do this at home since I am smart enough to figure out that all cheeses, milk, yogurt, butter, cookie dough, etc are all in the same section, same with all the frozens, canned goods, etc. :)

I think I mentioned I have several BIG issues with my dungeons in trying to get unpacked, but I am happy that I was able to get this large task completed although it was only a VERY VERY small, minute dent in the big picture. I went shopping Saturday afternoon and it was so nice to look at the ads, make my list and pull my coupons....took me 30 minutes tops for this weeks shopping at 5 stores. YAY me!

I've been slacking big time on pccx. I decided that I am not going to wash walls, I'm going to repaint them instead. I can get the paint free and it'll take less time than washing to just touch up some dirty spots. So I can cross that off the list.

I had surgery yesterday for a cyst removal. I should be taking it easy but I feel good and need to get stuff done around the house. I'm not doing any heavy duty cleaning but I can at least do the little things on th pccx list. I've decided my next area to work on is my "office." Meaning my desk area. It's a mess around this area and I need it clean for a clear work space.

How is everyone else doing??

I LOVE Fall!

I never realized that I loved fall until I spent time in Tennessee the past two years. I lived in Florida the past 14 years and our fall's consisted of 80 degree days instead of 95. ;) I always did my "major" clean every January. I had renewed energy after the holidays and hope to continue that, but I really want to be prepared and organized for the holidays this year. The air is dryer and cooler and days of windows open are just around the corner. With the start of PCCX each time, I am optimistic I'll get EVERYTHING done, and it never happens. I will take what I can however; because I do get MORE done when PCCX is in the midst. I make my daily points and stay active, but just can't get quite to PCCX, lol. For now, I am ok with that. Maybe if I can get all this other "stuff" done, I will be successful at PCCX the next time.

I have made goal each day this week; however I haven't completed all I wanted on my list. Things come up like middle of the night upset stomach's and laying wide awake when I am supposed to be sleeping...not condusive to a 5:30 alarm sounding off. This morning I got to add two extra loads of laundry to my list as my daughter didn't quite make it to the bathroom early this morning....fun, fun. I have had emergency client deadlines come up and dishwashers go out....but I am plugging along.Today, we managed to get two days of math done and I reorganized the stockpile of food in our stairwell closet. We have more we are gathering to put in there, but for now it's organized should we need it. :) The photos are above....

The remainder of the day will be spent whittling away my 48 item list, errands and client work....another day with no PCCX items completed, but I'm ok with that. :)

Tackling My Tuesday

Do you know how when you don't manage to get done the things you wanted to get done during a day that the day feels like a complete bust? Yeah, I had one of those days...

Initially, my plan for the day was to take Dad to radiation and get some Psych reading done; Take husband to hospital for surgery and get some more reading done; Come home and clean for 3 hours.

I took Dad but had another patient arrive in a chatty mood so I only got 4 pages read.

I took my husband to the hospital (for an outpatient surgery) but 2 chatty women in the waiting room and were tired of their discussion with each other and then had to ask "what's your husband here for? ohhh my husband had that done and this is what happened and this is why we're here now." One benefit of living in an urban area is that nobody talks to each other. Move to a rural area - everybody knows everybody and if they don't know you, they will talk long enough until they do.....So I wasn't able to get any reading done until those women left, which means a whopping 2 additional pages.

Sigh.

I was hoping to get the entire chapter read. 6 lousy pages. Unbelievable.

So I came home and had every intention to start cleaning. But at that point, I was wiped out. 3 hours of driving and 3 hours of sitting in hospitals just took everything out of me. I sucked down a pot of coffee and did manage to get dinner done and cleaned the entertainment center in the living room.

PCCX Work
I didn't require my son to do anything pccx wise, only because he managed to get out of the house before I got home from hospital #2. Previously, the entertainment center looked like this:


I took out all of the DVD's, books, and VHS tapes. Dusted/polished the shelf and then sorted through the items determining what to keep, what to toss, what to put in Jordan's room and then put it all back in alphabetical order. That was the hard part. The rest was pretty easy as I dusted/polished the rest of the center and cleaned all of the electronics. In the end, this is what it looks like:



So I got something done for pccx, just not enough reading to make the day feel like I accomplished enough. Oh well, such is life.

Jamie's Befores

Jamie's Day 1

My computer is EXTREMELY slow and photobucket was extremely uncooperative this evening. :( I made my daily goal and am pleased with my overall day, although I did not get any PCCX done, so to speak. I got somewhat of a gameplan together and will only be able to work on PCCX two full days a week. I am going to have to stay on task and make sure I am following the schedule that I have set up to keep my work, homeschool, dailies and pccx done. I am pleased that I kept up with my POA, I worked steadily, I got my water in, we completed school and I got all my rumbles done.

Off to bed....tomorrow will be full with school activities for dd, so I will have to work after dinner.....toodles.

The 1st Day of PCCX

I feel like a kid on the 1st day of school. I have all my papers together. I have a list prepared for the week. I've already informed Jordan (my son) that he will be helping daily. I am just itching to start but secretly know that the newness of it all will wear off quickly LOL

I know I'm like this with the beginning of every pccx. But I honestly think I can finish this time. Granted Dad has radiation 5 times a week and I have a ton of homework, but if I'm disciplined enough, I can do it!

I'd keep on blogging, but I have a serious amount of work to do today!

Jamie's Introduction….Productivity….Completion

My name is Jamie and I am a 30ish WAHSHM….for those of you still learning all the email/blog lingo (like me), I am a Work At Home Single Homeschool Mom. I stumbled across yahoo groups and PCC all in the same week completely by accident. :) At the time, I was married with a 2 year old and was joining a local Mom’s group that was recommended to me. That opened up an entire underworld of yahoo groups, lol. My mother has always said that I am an organized person, but I wasn’t feeling very organized trying to care for my toddler, be the lover and best friend to my dh, run a perfect household right down to the hot, home cooked meal every night, regular dinner parties and play dates, perfectly ironed sheets and pillowcases…yes, you read that right….all that while being perfectly healthy and fit! Something had to give…..SO, I chose to ditch the dh, put the perfect household on the back burner and opted for getting healthy praying that fit would come along, lol.

All kidding aside, I thought I was coming along in my quest for a tidy and organized home and life. I was on track to complete PCCX last year prior to selling our home and moving out of Florida, so that my husband could take a job that he wanted. It was October and I had our Thanksgiving dinner planned and was well on my way to having Christmas organized. I even had my baking/cooking lists prepared and budgeted to make goodies for our neighbors and friends. I had begun listing on ebay regularly and was looking forward to reclaiming my guest bedroom. The day we got the contract on our home my husband told me he wasn’t happy with his job and wanted to move to Texas where there were more opportunities in his company. In a nutshell, our daughter and I were to come to Texas and stay temporarily with my mom and dad until he could get his transfer to come join us. We got to Texas the week before Thanksgiving and put all of our items in storage. He went on his merry way for several job interviews. He called me the Tuesday before Thanksgiving to tell me that HE wasn’t marriage material (uh, we have been married 7 years) and that he wouldn’t be joining us out in Texas. I no longer had a home that I dearly loved and was enjoying getting in order and I no longer had one of the most cherished “roles” of my life….housewife.

The past year has been a roller coaster of emotions, events and new learning experiences. I am so incredibly blessed to be working from home and homeschooling my daughter as we had planned all along. I have a home that is still in the VERY beginning stages of being unpacked and I am re-learning how important it is to be organized, so when your life is turned upside down, you have a fighting chance. I am learning and tweaking my daily routine which has to include cleaning/maintaining the home, meal planning, my work (to earn a paycheck), schooling my daughter, activities with her, activities with my parents and my brother and some how manage to find “me” time, exercise time, errands, church and all those other things that make you wish there were 40 hours in a work day instead of the work week.

My dungeon: ALL unpacked boxes in the house (did I mention, we have been here 10 months and are still unpacking!) and the storage unit where the rest of our “stuff” is, including all items that we have purged so far for a huge garage sale in November. If I complete the unpacking of the boxes, my “reward” is a new digital camera. I want one of the ones with the detachable zoom lens.

I will be posting photo links of my “before’s” and “after’s” and I hope you enjoy the journey that we are on as well as your own. I have learned in 3 years of attempting pccx, that it comes around more than once a year, so I get multiple tries! :)