I know it’s late to be posting about New Year Resolutions, but….

I found this picture by searching "feather duster" on Photobucket. Is anyone else disturbed that people are taking pictures of their feather duster?

I was thinking about my NYR this weekend as  I was getting ready for company.   This year I revised a NYR from last year.   Last year I resolved to organize one room in my home every month.  The idea was that before the year was over, my home would be organized.  It was a good theory.   I just didn’t take into account that while I was reorganizing kitchen cabinets and scrubbing them down in March, the bedroom closet I organized in January was gradually reverting back to it’s old ways, and the DVD shelf in the living room was back to hiding the movies I meant to see.   Yep.   I’d focus so hard on the “room of the month”, that I let progress I made previously be threatened, and even violated.

This year, about a week before Christmas, I found a website by a woman calling herself Flylady.   I like her.  One of the things she suggests is focusing on decluttering (the eventually deep cleaning) one room per week.  She advises 15 minutes each day of work in “the room of the week”, gives suggestions for what to accomplish each day, sends reminder emails, etc.  While I don’t necessarily always limit my time to 15 minutes, I do like the idea of focusing on one room per week.   (She also encourages 15 minutes of clearing a “hot spot” in another room each day, and has a host of other suggestions, but I am still working on “baby steps”).     Hopefully by the end of the year, the bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen, and bathrooms will all be organized at the same time.   That leaves the garage, laundry room, and basement for next year.  (And the world won’t stop turning if the garage takes the year after that…).   The important thing is to not neglect one or more rooms in favor of the room I’m working on.

I have already seen an improvement.  Getting ready for company was not nearly as stressful as it usually is.   It also helped that our guest is so ultraly laid back, that I had to ask myself why I am even bothering.  Alex is not a fussy (and by that I mean nitpicky clean….  ) sort of bachelor,  his girlfriend is nice, and, let’s be honest, she isn’t going to criticize her boyfriend’s best friend’s wife’s housekeeping.

So why fuss with pillows, decorations, etc and be in such a hurry to make the house “presentable” when I wasn’t going to be judged anyway?  Because this is how I make people welcome.  Once that dawned on me, I felt less stressed, and even enjoyed the preparation.

I need to look at organizing my home the same way.  No one is judging me.   My husband loves me, and accepts my limitations.  Our friends and family visit  to and enjoy our company (snort), not evaluate my housekeeping skills.   I am CHOOSING to do this to make our home more relaxing for my hard working husband and myself, and to be able to welcome people I care about easily at any time.

Yes.  I think this is the year I succeed in organizing my home.  (At least the “living” areas.)