The system is influenced by the FlyLady along with my education, experience and limitations. I live with fibromyalgia and am ADD – Attention Deficit Disorder. It is quite the combination when you are trying to take care of your home. Either you are hurting from the fibromyalgia or can’t focus because your ADD mind won’t let you. Those are two pretty big strikes one is up against. Besides housework is repetitive and doesn’t get much ‘atta girl’ compliments from the rest of the family. I will be writing more about these subjects in the coming months. Today, I invite you to sign up to follow me and you will be notified when I post something new.
You see I have a lot of things I want to talk about and am bursting at the seams to share what I have learned living with this. I am hoping I will say something that you understand and can help you get your ‘aha’ moments. If I can make your life easier by sharing how I do things, maybe it could work for you then that makes me happy.
Do It In A Way That Makes Sense To You!
Said that, it is time in the Great Declutter Your Kitchen And Organize Your Pantry series this month to do a ‘Refrigerator Cha Cha!!’ What is it exactly? It is going deep into your fridge and getting all those science projects out of there, wipe down shelves and doors. Then you organize it so that it makes sense to you. Notice the last sentence. If I could give you one piece of advice when it comes to taking care of yourself and your home, organize and do it in a way that makes sense to you. This is how the habits stay with you. You now own them. They are yours.
There are many ways to declutter and organize your refrigerator and I am not saying you should do it my way. Instead I am asking you to find your way of doing it that makes sense to you so that when the time comes around to do another ‘Refrigerator Cha Cha’, it will come effortless and won’t give you time to think of all the reasons you don’t want to do it.
You see, the majority of us are not saying we don’t want to take care of ourselves and our home. Many of us were not taught the skills, given the tools, or even the permission to find ‘our way’ of doing it. One thing that I did learn and is in my ‘toolbox’ is when I start anything it is always ‘top to bottom, left to right and clockwise. When cleaning a counter, lift the item with your left hand, wipe it off, where it sits and put it back down. For years I was doing it completely backwards getting in my way. No wonder I have hated dusting. Is this the right way to do this? Who knows? I just know since I started doing it this way things have become easier for me.
Marilyn’s Way is about making things easier for you by finding your way of doing things. I may suggest but more so I will just share how I do things and if it can help you, I am happy, you are happy, and that is all that matters. We don’t have to take on the entire world in one day. We learn to do parts of things in a day and be content with what we get done. If we can make it fun by dancing as we do things, why not? I am hearing my fridge calling me. “Let’s Cha Cha!” says the refrigerator!
Flash forward a couple of hours. ( I forgot to track the time.) I wish I could say it was all done. For some reason the focus just hasn’t been there. Plans have changed. I am going to finish up the rest of the fridge only. I don’t plan to buy anything frozen tomorrow and the priority was the fridge because I know I will be bringing home fresh fruit and vegetables. I will also be buying my stash of greek yogurt.
What have I been doing then? Facebook and the internet of course! For some reason I felt I had to search for the right cleaning solution to clean the inside of the fridge. I already knew it! Why did I not think I didn’t? Because we are always searching for a better way. I just got sucked into it.
That is why I keep a notebook and this experience will go in there. It is the tab called ‘Key Information’. It is the same place I noted which way the ceiling fan is supposed to go in the summer. Through this journey I intend to find my way of doing things and I urge you to do the same. I saw many say vinegar solution. That doesn’t work for me because part of having fibromyalgia I tend to be on the acidic side. The only way I can use vinegar is using non latex gloves.
What did I end up doing? I made a solution of baking soda with a touch of dishsoap in room temp water so I didn’t crack the glass on the shelves. I will be noting this by the ceiling fan direction in my Franklin Planner.
Here is what I have gotten done so far. I would say I got 2 – 15ers in it. I found out it was dirtier than I thought. My OCD started to kick in and so I had to take a break. When that kicks in high speed, I would be up all night cleaning. That again defeats the purpose of taking care of myself and my home. Tomorrow I would be worthless. It threatens my habits I have established.
And that is part of how I got fibromyalgia. I wouldn’t listen to my body. Today I have to whether I want to or not. The old adage is true: If you don’t have your health…it makes it hard to do anything.
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| Front of my refrigerator. Logan’s coloring have been up over a month. Time to take it down and put in his box. |
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| The side of my refrigerator. Some of the magnets are from my 102 year old great aunt. I will be cleaning the outside at a later time. I have to recover from the inside! Welcome to my world. It can get frustrating and that doesn’t make it any better. |
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| It doesn’t look too bad. I know there are some things that need to be taken out of there. |
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| I am seeing some things that can go. I am so guilty of trying to squeeze the last drop. |
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| Top shelf clean. |
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| Top and second shelf and meat drawer clean and then… |
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| I saw this and then… |
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| I saw more. The bottom glass shelf and mechanics are being washed along with the drawers |
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| All the parts nice and clean |
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| Now this is ready for tomorrow when I bring home some groceries. The door will have to be another time. This took another 3 – 15ers. I began to run out of energy and is getting late. I know I will be writing this down on my list of tasks how much time it took so I can plan accordingly. |
And NOW it is time to rinse the things I took out that have been soaking. They are going in the dishwasher because I have to take out the trash and then do habits 7 shine my sink, 8 lay out my clothes, and 9 have my launch pad ready. I am going to town tomorrow!
Dance Till You FLY! mw
Marilyn
(NOTE: All of this was done in real time. Nothing was staged. When I set out on this journey I was searching for something I could do my way. That is how I best learn with keeping consistency in the front of my mind. I found Flylady in 2005 and have learned so much. What I learned was the importance of habits. From there I created Dance Till You FLY! mw featuring nine habits each day every day. It is a simple plan that also has weekly habits and monthly events. I am sharing it with you all and to not give up. Practicing the nines will get you far. Dance Till You FLY! mw was also created for me living with fibromyalgia and being ADD. It wasn’t until I found Flylady and took her March Habit of Getting Dressed to Shoes and posting a photo with a mini blog daily for 436 consecutive days did I learn the importance of habit. If you want to see the video that Flylady made of me getting dressed to shoes for one year to her song, click on Flybaby Marilyn and that will take you there. While you are there check out Flylady’s videos. She has great ones. )