Help Desk

My desk seriously, seriously needed help! Here's where I am about 8 hours a day:

Just keeping it real people. That was with no effort to tidy up so I didn't look so messy. You can see I have a whole lot going on there...the "ack!!" pile is coupons, mail...and maybe a headband and some foam letters.

Now, in my defense, I spend 8 hours a day here. So it isn't hard to see how it could get like this. Earlier this week I saw an office that pushed me over the edge and I had to do something about mine. Her before picture was wayyyy better than mine, so I wasn't expecting her results. After being embarrassed about this picture going public, I started cleaning up.

I may or may not have found coupons dating back to July 2010, scraps of fabric, and a charger to a mystery item (really, I have no idea what it goes to but I kept it just in case...which is probably how this mess started in the first place. Oh well). So I'll cut to the chase:

(you may not be able to tell, but it really is more organized not just 'cleaned off')

Ta-da! Ah, that feels so much better. Maybe I'll work twice as fast tomorrow since I have such a tidy workspace...maybe. And I didn't just shove everything in the extra closet or onto Hubs' desk either! Although some things did make it back to his desk...did I mention his desk is a door? A whole entire door on legs. Oh for a desk with some extra real estate. At least I have shelves basically to the ceiling. And I even cleaned out the drawer.

This isn't totally "fixed" (half of the top shelf probably needs to meet the recycling bin), but it's definitely a step in the right direction. I'd love to keep going and make this room a place that I look forward to spending time in. Hopefully something will jump out to me in the next few weeks, but for now I'll be satisfied with a clean desk.

Playing Catch-Up

Number of blog posts started in the last week but not posted (or even halfway complete): 3

Number of hours I spent on the phone for work yesterday: 2 and 1/2 (with only about a 15 minute break in the middle). Did I feel like I was melting into a pile of blahness in my chair after being on the phone for so long? Yes.

State of our house: eh, not terrible but definitely not ideal (see birthday cooking mess below)

Birthdays: Bro-in-law's bday was last week...and his card is still on my desk...hopefully he knows we didn't forget about his birthday all together, it took us over a week to decide what to get him.

Hubs' bday was yesterday and a success, I think :) Although one present won't be here until Thursday. I'm telling myself that just means he gets to stretch the celebration out for the whole week! And here's the aftermath of cooking three meals plus a cake yesterday:

Whittled it down to just a few dishes last night, yay! 

 

PS - Do you see the lack of counter space I'm dealing with? I knew it wasn't much, but seeing this picture made it stand out even more. There's not really much available space on the other side of the kitchen either unless there are no clean or dirty dishes (no dishwasher, sigh). Also, now I feel compelled to do a post about how much we love our house because we really do. But when you live in a house that's almost 102 years old you have to put up with some annoyances of the things that give it character.

On a happier note - some other birthday highlights from yesterday:

Happy Birthday Hubs! You're awesome and I wish I could've

given you the day off of work yesterday for your bday! I'm especially thankful you 

were born because I got the best husband anyone could hope for out of the deal!

No icing on the cake due to icing failure

FYI almond extract is not always a good substitute for vanilla extract. 

Rather than mush together bits and pieces of three unfinished posts into one (you're welcome) I'll try to just wrap up with my new cleaning strategy. I say try because I'm finding that I have a terribly hard time staying on topic when I write! Guess Hubs is right about my train of thought being all over the place when we're talking :/

I don't like doing dishes, therefore the kitchen is rarely spotless. I don't really have a good excuse for the rest of the house. So I have a new game plan. I'm hoping that by putting it on the internet I'll stick to it because if it's on the internet, it must be true. Hah.

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday

Spend 20 minutes each evening picking up clutter and just generally tidying up the place.

Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday

Dishes. Do them. 

Sunday

Alternate between vacuuming and moping/cleaning tub and toilet.

So I'll let you know if this pans out. I'm hoping to have a sparkling house from now on and live happily ever after :) I think I can still get the happily ever after either way and we'll just have to see what happens with the sparkling house.