The Klutterpillar's blog

So things are getting better. By this I mean I am not drowning in clorex or knee high in soiled dishes. Last night i got home early and had a looksee at my cleaning schedule. I saw that in the morning I had Towel laundry and dishes.

Well all I did was grab all the towels in the house - including a fishy one that my roommate used for his dog. And chucked them into the washer. That was it. Done. You know how when you are standing in a house that needs to be cleaned and you wonder where shall I start. Then you run the list through in your head. In no time you are overwhelmed by just how much there is to be done. This little list of mine has gotten rid of the frustration and stress that always precedes cleaning for me. Sighs of relief are all I feel now. AWESOME.

Bathroom antsyness - Last night I had this great idea that I would organize bathroom stuff (shower gels and soaps etc in to ORDER) I am a containerizing fiend. Anyhoo, I picked up a jar and found ants. Loads of them. well I subdued the feeling of fright. And thought what would martha do - after a few minutes it dawned on me that I have only ever watched the episode of martha where a pet trainer brought in exotic birds. Then I thought what would a 'treat others as I would like to be treated person do'. So I let them be. And sure enough this morning I saw that they had cleared up the crumbs that had them in a flurry in the first place and were gone.

That's it for now.

So this morning I got up pretty early- and had some time to kill. My cleaning tasks for the day were:

Floors, my room and Dishes.

I positively hate moping floors - in an effort to avoid them I cleaned the bathroom instead.

But I do like walking on clean tiles. So I'm going to practice saying "I love clean floors" instead of thinking "I hate 'em, hate 'em, hate 'em".

But back to Less.

While cleaning the bathroom, I realized I had to lift up all my cute glass jars full of cotton wool and ear buds etc to clean underneath them. It was taking FOR-EV-EEEEER. So I just moved the jars out and into my room instead. Chucked my roommates whatnots into a drawer and wiping the vanity surface took no time at all. I even cleaned the toothbrush holders. Awesome. All in I spent 10 minutes on everything.

Since that's out the way - maybe I'll do the floors tomorrow. I do love clean floors.

I wish I could clean once a month and be done with it. Just never see dust or grime again till the 1st of next month like writing out the rent check.

But the stuff just accumulates - like interest in the bank only not as helpful.

So I'm going to draw up a daily cleaning schedule. I cant seem to sleep between 2-4am so I may as well clean.

Thursdays: My room, and Towel Laundry.

Friday: Bathroom.Darks Laundry.

Saturday: Shopping- Groceries.

Sunday: Whites Laundry.

Monday: Make Lunch, Kitchen. Bathroom Mats

Tuesday: Floors and my room, Kitchen Dishes

Wednesday: Make Lunch and er... something else useful I suppose.

Uuuuuurgh, I thought as woman this would just be part of my DNA, uuuurgh. 

Another one popped out this morning at 10:30am CONGRATULATIONS MOMMY AND DADDY GOVENDER!!!!!!!!!!

The tale I am about to tell is based on a true life story - names of the people involved have been changed to protect their identity and blatant stupidity.

So last night I ... ahem... Marcia, was wearing a nice pair of manly jama's. She recently discovered them about a month back. Their pro's far outweighed the benefits of  wearing those girly ones she had been using all her life.

1. They are long - perfect for watching tv as they drape over your feet and keep you warm. No more socks.
2. Their length also means that since your feet are covered you can go slip-sliding around the house playing 'catch me if you can' with whichever roommate at the time wants the tv remote you've just stolen badly enough.
3. They are always too big and they are meant to look that way. That great invention - 'elastic waistbands' means you can have an extra candy bar every night and it wont show.

So last night I popped a bag of corn (Marcia popped - ah hell...) anyhooo, so I popped a bag of corn and took it to watch my movie, sat down, crossed my legs and gingerly opened it on my lap.Then I grabbed a handful - and "GOLLY GOSH!" I shouted. You know how when you grab a handful there are always a few that escape. Well, men's pajamas have this gaping non-sensicle hole in them. Several kernals had fallen onto me and I was going up in flames (not literally mind you - but it felt like it).  So I brushed them off my lap, only I just ended up brushing more of them into that stupid hole. Then I stood up and attepted to shake them out the leg. Only the kernals have to make their way down your entire leg to get out. "BUGGER ALIVE" or words very similar to those could be heard at an awfully loud pitch throughout the house.

So Marcia has discovered a few con's to wearing men's pajama's as a result -

1,2 and 3: That big gaping hole in the crotch area.

Ladies no matter how many pro's there are to wearing men's pajama's there will always be this one con which outways them all. Save yourselves from any future disaster and stick to the womens section when shopping.

Last week, my dear friend baked some delicious Amish Friendship Bread.

What's that?  If you're not familiar with what this little tradition is let me explain. It's pretty much a chain letter - only you get delicious results. A friend will give you a plastic jiffy starter ( a little bit of the batter that she prepared her bread with). You then take this bag along with a set of instructions and begin a ten day ritual of bag massage followed by letting the air out. Once this ten day process is complete you add the rest of the ingredients and bake 2 loaves of bread. One of these should be shared with your friends (the other can be gobbled fresh out the oven while you watch the latest episode of Heroes). Only you remove enough batter to make 4 plastic jiffy starters. You then hand out these jiffies with instructions to 'friends' or greedy co-workers for whom 1 slice was just not enough.

And so the circle of friendship grows - or cycles, or er... well maybe more people just get fat as a result - who knows?

The point of all this blather is I've lost my friendship jiffy while moving apartments last week. I was only joking when I said I was going to bake all 3 loaves of bread and not hand out starter jiffies. But as fate would have it - the friendship really did stop here.

- this is the hungry Klutterpillar - signing off.

I cleaned my desk today. And I found 4 post-its scattered in varying places. All they say is bucket. Some say it twice or thrice. Clearly this was something important I had to remember. But it’s a single word. I scanned my computer there are no bucket articles. No buckets on my desk. Hmmmmmmmmmm what is it about?

Organizing tip for the week:

Write sentences on post-its. The only exception should be shopping lists. Instead of, oh lets say writing bucket alone, write ‘Jeff’s dog kicked the bucket' – remember to send condolences’, or ‘inbox too full, bring bucket for overflow’.

I remembered! Write my bucket list, all the goals I want to achieve in the next 6 months. Yeah just like the movie where Jack Nicholson writes a list of dreams he'd like to achieve before he kicks the bucket.

My favorite file folder is called TO FILE. Simply genius I thought at the time of it's birth. A place to store all the paperwork I need to file. Only the papers never got filed and this folder kept growing. I now have 3 folders labeled TO FILE.

My many TO FILE folders

A little while later and I now have this:
The Super-est most awesome-est organizi-est drawer.  YAY!!!!!!

Tools: All you need is a label printer and plenty of folders and you'll be on your way.

A perfectly filed drawer

Things I loathe

Sight: The film of muck that sits on old coffee.

Taste: Ginger - that comes at my unsuspecting self every time I eat Thai food.

Smell: The smell of mushroom sauce cooking.

Touch: Having to put on cold wet underwear because I forgot to switch on the dryer.

Sound: Scraping metal. Especially when a metal spoon is used to stir a pot. Wooden Utensils only! Yuuurrrgh, get he grills just thinking about it.

My heart just implodes: When I see the way a chicken struggles just before it dies.

Things I love

Sight: Tangerine bedsheets. everything looks proper until you pull back the comforter only to find my loud ridiclous sheets.

Sound: Rapids - the rushing loud sound of life.

Smell: Limes and Mango drying in the hot sun.

Taste:Miracle Chocolate Fudge Self Saucing Cake. I like eating it. I like saying it. I just love it.

Touch: The crunchiness of passion fruit seeds

Smile therapy:My best friend who thinks I'm super awesome which makes me think which one of us is more crazy

Need a reason to get organized?

What got me thinking:

I called my mother this morning, I told her I missed sleep. Glorious Naps. Laying in bed just being. I miss personal time.

How many balls do you have up in the air?

Work, family, personal fulfillment, fitness , health, being skinny... learning a new language.

What about all the dreams you have written down on a scrap of paper that never gets noticed until the day before your birthday when you contemplate another year gone without learning to scuba dive.

(Ok, I know it's nothing fancy like learning Latin. But I figure if I ever get called in for a mission to find buried treasure with Johnny Depp I'm going to need Scuba Skills!).

Another ball dropped. Dag-nag-it!

WORK: I love my computer, online banking, cell phone, instant messengering and calendar that make communication easy, work completed faster and projects run smoother. But those are the very things that stress me most too. Remember snail mail. You had a day to compose a letter. To get it just right before it was mailed away. Email gives you an hour at most to whip something up. There's always some important detail that has to be sent as an addendum later on.

That's just work. What about your social calendar. Often we try to cram excursions, entertaining, voluntary responsibilities, health and fitness quests, housekeeping, duty visits, spending time with friends and on your own. Even my leisure time doesn't feel like my own.

What being organized means:

• More time for myself, my friends and my family.
  
  
• A little less time scheduling emergency meetings and putting out fires and freaking out over deadlines.

• No more stress and feeling drained.
  

• Able to tackle projects with more clarity. If I'm not juggling I bet I could focus more on getting better results.
  

• A sense of accomplishment and a pride in a project pulled of perfectly and on time.

Success is time for everything and a little time even for me

Where I found my keys: On my nightstand. What happened to that great catcher idea for my computer table. Computer table is currently filled with all kinds of junk including lip gloss and Sunday's empty drink cup from Starbucks. So tonight my mission is to clear that table.