Oh well.

The Joyful Housewife is about my journey not theirs – and my personal struggle is with clutter, disorganization, and procrastination – especially when it comes to cleaning.

Following are my cleaning and clutter- busting goals for the next month (Febuary)  These are easy things I can start doing regularly that will make me feel better. They are also things that I’ve long had huge aversions to doing.

Blech

1. Wipe my kitchen counters every night. 
I can’t explain why, but I hate wiping counters. When I mention this to people they say things like,

• “I love wiping my kitchen counter!”
• “I ALWAYS have to wipe my counters. I’m like obsessive about it.”
• “It gets so gross if you don’t wipe it.”

Well they’ve already discovered what I’m learning. You really feel better when it’s done – and it’s not that bad to do it. The mental benefit definitely outweighs the physical cost – if only it weren’t so hard to remember that.

2. Clear off and wipe down dining table every night. It really improves my morning when I walk into the room and the table is all cleaned off and wiped down. I think we let things pile up on the table because we don’t have storage space, or know where to put things.

3. Wipe bathroom counters weekly. It is so much easier do to when it hasn’t gotten overly dusty

4. Empty bathroom garbage cans every couple of days. It just looks gross when the wastebasket is full – and then I stress-out when I want to invite someone over or someone stops by.

5. Abide by the “one-minute rule”* to avoid procrastination. I stumbled upon this idea at Gretchen Rubin’s website about her best-selling book The Happiness Project. She explains it in a few different posts and videos. Basically, if it will take less than a minute, like rinsing a dish, putting it in the dishwasher, filing a piece of paper, etc, then just do it right now. A lot of little things can really add up if you don’t just do them immediately, before they can even have an effect on your psyche.

How does this schedule sound to all you naturally clean people. Does it sound about right?

I love this mug!

Below is a fun picture mug that my sister sent me after she had her first child – the niece that made me an aunt! And it’s been sitting at the back of my cupboard for a couple of years now because I broke it. Snapped of the handle and put a huge crack down the side.

My oldest niece.

I’ve already pointed out my propensity to break dishes before. I don’t discriminate. I break wedding china, wine glasses, and sentimental mugs. This is not the only sentimental mug I’ve broken either. I also broke a couple of the ones that I took from my godfather’s farm after he died.

Hey you...Hands off my Aunt Jessie's Mug!

But what do you do with a broken mug you can’t bear to throw away? This was one-of-a-kind mug. There is no other like it. Every time I drank coffee out of it while studying in college and graduate school, hundreds of miles from my family, I felt closer to them. Then one day I smashed that connection.

I suppose this should be a reminder to pick up the phone or write a letter, huh?

Anyway, I don’t think I want to set it on my desk and put pens in it, or to try to grow a plant in it, so is there really anything else to do with it besides put it back up in the back of my cupboard?

You don’t want me to *gasp* throw it away, do you?!!!

What would you do with it?

Please vote and leave your comments below.

Check out last week’s Keep or Purge :: Purple Gift Bag and Tissue Paper

I go through this one a lot – gift bags and tissue paper.

I got this little baggy at the farmer’s market when I bought a locally made lavender hydrosol. When I got home I almost dropped it in the trash after I took out my purchase, then hesitated as I imagined re-gifting it, with a little goody, to someone else.

FYI – it’s not very big, just 7″ x 5″ x 3″. Good for small items like essential oils and jewelry.

I tend to fold up pretty tissue papers and bags and keep them on a closet shelf. I do reuse them when I’m wrapping gifts and mailing packages to people. Then every time I move (which has been far too often), I purge a few of the extras.

At the same time, I’m not sure I’d miss it if I got rid of it up front. What would it have hurt if I had just thrown it away immediately? What would I have gained?

What would you do?

Please vote and leave your comments below.

Check out last week’s Keep or Purge :: Greeting cards.

Greeting cards. Cards for birthdays, holidays, wedding showers, baby showers….

I have a hard time throwing away something that someone else gave to me. Often these are bought and given without much thought, sometimes they have heartfelt, handwritten messages inside. Occasionally they will be handmade, like the one on top of the stack.

What do you do with them?

Kevin James has a bit about greeting cards:

I have to say my opinion of them is mostly like his “man’s” view of greeting cards as opposed to the “woman’s” view. I dunno. But I still find it hard to throw them away. I mean what is the proper length of time to keep one before you throw it away?

Do you keep them in a bin like this? Do you recycle them into various craft projects?

Once I saw a beautiful silver card rack on a blog. It was from Pottery Barn or something, but I couldn’t find any when I Googled it. There are specialty ones for Christmas, such as wire trees, wreaths, and curly wall displays. This blog has a post about displaying, recycling, and keeping a select few. Do you display them and then toss them?

What do you do?!!

Please vote and leave your comments below.

Check out the last Keep or Purge :: The Rocking Elephant.

And now, the counterpart to last weeks vintage rocking horse.

This was my rocking elephant. My mother can’t remember who made it, but somebody did. It’s missing one of it’s rocking legs. I’ve been moving it from house to house with the leg, but I don’t know what happened to it in the last move.

It turns out that our neighbors like to refinish furniture and have a store, so I might ask them to fix it up for me. What do you think? Should I keep it? Should I get rid of it? Is it garbage? Should it go to Goodwill?

Please give your opinion and comments below.

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Check out last week’s Keep or Purge :: The Vintage Rocking Horse