If you missed today’s assignment you can see it here.
Well, my morning wasn’t exactly how I’d envisioned it and mapped it out the night before. I woke up later than I’d planned to, forgot I had a radio interview at 7:30 a.m. until a few minutes before it was scheduled, and then we spent some time before our homeschooling started for the morning signing all the paperwork to put an offer on our first piece of rental property (we’re excited and hopeful that our offer will be accepted!).
So, to be completely honest here, I never made it out of my PJ pants and haven’t exercised yet, but we did have a great homeschool day, my house is clean, and dinner is just about done. So I’ll consider that a success even if I feel a bit grungy. 🙂
You can see my 10 goals for this week here.
Our living room always seems to get pretty messy while we’re in the midst of homeschooling. By the time we’ve finished all our books and lessons for the day, there are books, papers, crayons, pencils, glue, maps, and lots of other items strewn about. I try to remind myself that the mess means there is a lot of hands-on learning going on around here — and that’s a good thing. 🙂
But I always breathe a sigh of relief when our homeschooling is finished for the afternoon and our living room can get back to normal. Here was our post-15-minute clean-up photo.
And my purse wasn’t all that bad. I switched to a small, cheap purse after the strap on my larger purse irreparably broke a few months ago. The thing I’ve noticed about a smaller purse is that it’s harder for it to get really messy — since there’s plain just not room for a lot of trash or extras.
So other than a cracker wrapper and a few slips of paper, some loose change, and a few extra pens, my purse didn’t take a whole lot of work. But I’m sure I’ll have plenty of other much worse areas in my home to show in the days to come to make up for my purse being in pretty good shape. 🙂
How you do on Day 1? I’d love to have you share your progress and success with us so we can be inspired. Either post a link to your blog post below or leave a comment with your update.
Janet Bradley says
Oh my goodness Crystal! I noticed when you were cleaning out your purse you did not have a “pursefection”! It has totally changed my purse changing habits! It is an organizer that goes down in your purse and when you want to change purses you just move the organizer! It is great!
Check them out. They have them on QVC, HSN and I am sure Amazon and other places.
Crystal says
I had one of those when I used to switch between diaper bag and purse. But now that I don’t carry a diaper bag and only have one purse, I don’t use it anymore.
Jean says
I prefer to carry a smaller purse for that very reason! It makes it hard to fill it with junk and keeps it from getting too heavy.
Marie A says
I cleaned out my purse and put everything back where it’s supposed to be in the house (clean and dirty bibs, snack containers, pipe cleaners(!), old cheerios, 8 pens, etc). I also cleaned out two purses in my closet which I haven’t used in ages and added them to a Goodwill donation pile. I have a feeling that pile might be increasing throughout this series 🙂
Jessica says
Would you consider doing a post on your rental property adventure? This is something I’ve been thinking about for about a year, but since I don’t know other people doing it, I’m worried about all the unknown problems that may pop up, including whether it’s successful or not. Hearing your experience would be helpful. Plus, I think it’s a GREAT idea to expand on your recent money making theme. Thanks!
Crystal says
At this point, it’s an all-new adventures and we’re learning as we go, so I don’t have any experience or advice to share… but in the not-too-distant future, once we have some experience under our belt, I hope to be able to share more! If anything, I may be able to tell you what NOT to do, since I’m guessing we’ll make plenty of mistakes along the way! 🙂
Rachelle says
Got my purse and living room organized! Still need to work on my goals. Thanks for this challenge!
Emma K says
I’m so excited for this series! I had company over this morning so my living room was in good shape and most of the house is still in decent shape for the moment.
Carey says
Writing my goals down this morning really helped me. Seeing them on paper helped me prioritze, which is huge for me. I usually begin with what I want to do first, then at the end of the day I get stressed that so many ” must do’s” are not done. So I took your advice Crystal ( from your new book which I love!) and started with what was most important in order of what I enjoyed least. Revolutionary, I actually got more done and had time to do my 15 min pick up and diaper bag cleanout 🙂
Chelsea says
I managed to get dressed and get my diaper bag cleaned out! I didn’t get everything done, but it was a good start.
I’m rather nervous about the new tasks that are coming up – I have a feeling they will be more challenging than cleaning my bag! Eek! Looking forward to it 🙂
Mackenzie says
Wore something nice today and did my hair differently. Cleaned out the purse (boy, did I have a lot of receipts!).
Working on my to-do list still, because the day kind of got away from me. But I did get the living room and kitchen cleaned, so there’s that 🙂
Sherry Lochner says
So thankful for this challenge! Need to get my tail in gear! Thank you for the encouragement! I was already dressed by the time I read the post, so that was a bonus. 🙂 I made up a list for the week and got to work on picking up. It is so easy to leave the schoolwork out since we homeschool, but I did put it away. Thankfully the purse wasn’t too big an issue as I had cleaned it out last week except for a few gum wrappers.
Lori says
I agree on the smaller purse making a more organized purse. I recently switched back to an older purse from my “life before children” and it was about half the size of my old purse. It was a really nice leather purse and I wanted to use it again, so I made it work. I found I really like it because I can’t fit anything extra in there, which means I have to keep it neat and the kids can’t make me toss their stuff in there. It doesn’t make my back hurt, either.
Leah says
Thank you for the encouragement to DO this!! I got dressed with makeup and jewelry, and felt great all day! Tonight I cleaned out my purse and took 15 minutes to tidy my bedroom and office area.
It amazes me how much of a difference that 15 minutes makes! It is so much more peaceful to walk into a clean area free of clutter. Thanks again, Crystal, for the inspiration!!
Susan I says
Wonderful start to the week and the month. I had just cleaned out my purse yesterday so instead of doing that, I found 7 items of clothing and jewelry to get rid of. And another bonus, I got my two girls, 6 and 8, involved in cleaning up the family room since, lets face it, it’s their mess to begin with, and they were so into it that I’m getting my family room and kitchen floors vacuumed and/or mopped. Maybe its just stalling for bedtime, but hey, I’ll put up with it for having clean floors!
Rachael says
Okay, I can still clean out my purse tonight. And it needs it. Things are relatively picked up, and I might be able to find the energy to think about goals… but it was a good day, and several important things got done. I must remember that, even when dinner was 30 minutes late and here I am at 730 pm completely tuckered out — and more to do, still!
All that, it is good to see other’s progress. It is encouraging!
Kayla P @ Practicing Prudence says
I didn’t have much in my purse either, but the diaper bag, that’s another story. 🙂
Victoria says
I started in on our family room today. I put away a few piles of stuff that really belonged in other rooms and managed to clean under both couches. Tomorrow I am hoping to give both end tables a good scrub down and the base boards as well.
Jenny says
I wore something I love to work today (and got lots of compliments on it!).
I cleaned out my bag (and found some used tupperware in there) but mostly its’ ok!
My life hack is a quick cleanup (especially the kitchen counter) before bedtime every night so I’ll be setting the timer for fifteen minutes and enlisting DH’s help to pickup around the house before bed!
Jenny
Katie @ Holidays for Less says
Today wasn’t too bad! Thanks for hosting this!
Tara G. says
My kitchen looks like your living room after schooling ! 🙂
Susan says
I’d love to join this more organized home business but I am remedial. I am still hard at work at the start your day off right exercise where we learned to go to bed at a decent time with a somewhat organized home and kids/myself ready for the next day. But I will enjoy watching your progress. BTW I’d take your after homeschooling picture any day. And as for your after we cleaned up photo? That is a fantasy of mine.
Shelly says
I was happy today was an easier day to get done. This morning was quite busy and by the time I got done helping my daughter with her algebra my 6 year old had made quite a toy mess waiting for his turn for homeschool. But we all worked together and our living room was clean. My purses had not been cleaned in about 6 months so there was quite a bit of stuff I had to throw away out of them. I am glad to have that job done.
Tabitha says
This simpler vision is great. So far I’m able to add it in to my normal cleaning routine! 🙂
Melissa says
I scrubbed my sink and made a huge t0-do list. We clean the living room every night so I needed something else.
Thanks!
Deborah Auen says
I would say you had a successful day….I did not join in last time,however am excited to this time….I set my goals….and spent my 15 minutes on the house after the grandkids left,mainly to pick up toys and washed all couch pillows…My purse just had a few loose papers and a bit of change in it….so that didnt take anytime at all…I do the same routine getting ready every day,hair,makeup and clean but not super nice clothes as I was going to be on the floor with the kids and it was drizzling allday so all covere up on errands.I made taco’s for supper and had a bit of time so started on my list of ten things….I checked off using up all our banana’s(been putting thi off for awhile) however can happily say….we have yummy banana bread for the week……Thank you for the shove off the couch….so easy this time of year when its cold and dark by 5:30 pm to be motivated so I need this…..I am interested in Couch to 10k???? what is this,I need exercise so bad!!!!! Thank you!!!!!
Jaime says
Well ,I made my 10 goals ,two for each role I play: Christian,Wife,Mother,Teacher,and Cook. I was too scared to do the purse and diaper bag today! It is amazing how much better and more awake I felt today just because I felt pretty with my hair all done! Focusing on my goals helped me to have a better day as well. Thank-you for doing this series I really appreciate it very much: )
Stacy @ A Delightful Home says
Sounds like a productive day! If it makes you feel any better I did change out of my PJ pants, but left my PJ top on! Oops. Probably should fix that before I go out to do groceries 🙂
I hadn’t thought about how a smaller purse could be beneficial, but now I’m thinking about downsizing.
Hope all goes well with your rental property offer!
Kristy says
It is really inspiring to see that you sometimes have a mess, too! Today was really doable for me and I’m glad you’re running a simplified version. 🙂
Brandice says
After I got out of a slump I scrubbed my sink, then filled the sink w/dishes to soak, scrub the counter & out table & chairs. Swept, mopped then hand scrubbed out kitchen floor & baseboard & finally wiped cabinets down. Made dinner & started to gather Halloween decorations for storage, I felt productive to say the least!