The dog really helps with the whole putting on clothes thing. Well, not literally.

I'm definitely not at the point where I'm following FlyLady's schedule for newbies (I don't think I am, at least; I read through it once and then just thought about what my goals are and what I can handle).

I just started with the dang washing the dishes every night thing (although I still don't do them *every* night -- probably 5 or 6 nights a week, though), and I stuck with that for a couple weeks. Then I started adding a quick wipedown of the bathroom mirror/sink/toilet every 2-3 days, depending on how it looks. I've been doing that for about 10 days.

And just this week I started making the bed before I leave for work. Maybe next week I'll add something else in.

I don't do the daily zone chore dealies yet, although I read the e-mails and think about it.

I already was doing some stuff, like getting my clothes ready the night before, so I don't really "count" that as part of a routine, although I guess I could. But it's not something new that I started as a result of FlyLady.

Deena, it's nice to see you posting again.

Thanks, P-Cow! I hope to continue, barring nap days. I'm tired, but not sleepy, and in surprisingly little pain tonight, so I'm kinda liking this saying hello, thingy. Of course, 5 minutes from now I'll get up to do something, forget, and go to bed, but for now I'm all woohoo for clarity!

I've determined what keeps my place neatest and me happily doing things like cooking is having Jilli (or my mom) visit. Which I don't think Pete will let me have full-time. And I don't even know if that trick works for more than a week.

Any low-maintenance house guest who Kittenish likes and will be at her beck and call, basically.

She was loving all the destruction (man's abuse of animal habitats is the theme, if that wasn't obvious).

Oh, Kara. She breaks my heart (well, man's abuse of animal habitats does, really) and makes it grow three sizes at the same time.

Yeah, I'm a rules follower, so I did all the days of the babysteps and congratulated myself heartily when I finished. I do ignore what's not helpful, like the shoes. But it has honestly helped to get dressed every day, and laying out clothes has helped to do that.

The biggest things I'd do if I were to just skip through Flylady, are: setting routines, decluttering, the weekly slipshod cleaning, and then a few of the daily zone missions. It really has helped to have a base level of clean to work from, and the missions give me a chance to go, huh, the fridge door really is dirty, isn't it?

I mean, my mom taught me *how* to clean stuff, but not *when* to. So nothing ever triggers me to say, hey, I should clean that. You know, until I explode and yell that no one should have to live in squalor like this! And then I tried to do it all and failed and made disparaging remarks about myself. So the house thing helps me just say, okay, I should clean X. And then I do, and it turns out to only take, like, seven minutes, and then the house is nicer.

Deena! I love seeing you post! I hope it's not causing you too much discomfort to do so.

Aidan, do not scare your mother that way.

She made a raccoon with a six pack ring thingy around its neck sitting by a polluted stream with dead fish on the banks, accompanied by a fallen birds' nest (with dead parent bird and smushed eggs) and a black squirrel with its head stuck in a can.

Ha! Kara, don't ever change.

I just looked into FlyLady, since buffistas have been talking about it so much lately. It kind of scares me, but I need something for weeks like this when I become so overwhelmed that nothing gets done at all.

My mom cleaned house every day from between nine and noon when I was a little kid, including changing all the sheets, doing the laundry, ironing!, dishes, vacuuming, etc. When I was older, it was all saved until Saturday, and my sister and I did it all, except that I remember having to vacuum and rake the shag carpet every evening before I set the table for dinner when I was about 9. I hated raking the carpet.

My mother and stepdad used to spend every Saturday morning doing major housework, which always seemed like such a waste of a good Saturday morning to me. Unfortunately, TCG is of a similar mindset so things can go from neat to disaster hear in what feels like a blink of an eye. Until there is something like dinner guest coming over or (like this week) movers coming with furniture that gets us to do a major clean up. We both could use something that just gets us to do a little bit every day so it doesn't become such an overwhelming task.

I had to vacuum every day growing up. Which made me loathe it so much that now I let it go far too long.