Handling Clutter, Part Two

The wise woman builds her house,

But the foolish pulls it down with her hands. Proverbs 14:1

Several weeks ago Jake spent the day at our home while Sally substituted. Now, unlike hubby, Jake is a bundle of energy. He worked in our front yard in the morning and then came in and enjoyed the same lunch I made hubby--the coconut oil and tumeric toasted cheese sandwich, yogurt with extra blueberries, and coconut oil fudge--all good nutrition for the Alzheimer's husbands.  Then Jake and hubby got a second wind and finished off the back yard. How grateful I am for Jake and his energy. What did I do that day? De-clutter? No. I prepared food for a wedding and observed the husbands. One day this may be "babysitting" the husbands while either Sally or I substitute teach.

Friday morning. So much is great right now. I am slowing losing weight and hubby is still in stage one of Alzheimer's, but the house is a mess. I have an excuse--my carpal tunnel on my wrists, but it is slowly getting better. Time to own up to a problem and write part two and expect part three, etc., of reporting to you, gentle blog reader.

Simplicy 101 September Check List gave me ideas for our  home, but too overwhelming.

Flylady's daily e-mail:

You are not behind! I don't want you to try to catch up; I just want you to jump in where we are. O.K.? Perfectionism is Shelved in 2012!

I am behind, though, FlyLady. I can shelve perfectionism. I have been shelving perfection like the encyclopedia that no one reads anymore. Don't worry. I don't have The Worldbook  like my parents did. I took this picture in the library where our Alzheimer's Association support group meets.

 

Speaking of that support group, as is our monthly habit on the second Tuesday, hubby and Jake hung out at our cluttered home while Sally and I went to the support group . Two persons whose spouses have died from Alzheimer's even come to offer their wisdom for our journey in this support group. After this support group we went with our husbands to a bookstore and to dinner.

At that bookstore, I found THE book that I will be blogging about--The House That Cleans Itself by Mindy Stark Clark. This post (but not this new book) has been planned since Part One. (When you call it Part One, you have to have a Part Two.) I began reading it while substituting yesterday, Thursday. Don't we all want a house that cleans itself! Here it is called the HTCI system and I now have my spiral HTCI notebook. Mindy (not my blogging friend) writes:

The first step in your home's transformation is to get a fresh, clean spiral notebook. You'll be using this notebook throughout your house transformation, so choose one with a brightly colored cover so it won't get lost in the mess.(p. 21)

My spiral notebook I bought last night has HO-PE in two lines on the cover and I put a sticker in the middle of it that says "HELLO I'M HTCI". I can't control my husband's disease, but I am controlling my eating and I can control my home.

Step One. You make a floor plan.

Step Two. Decide your "home base zone". Mine is our master bath and the guest bathroom. If those areas (HBZ) are always kept clean, I will be happy. Flylady's is her kitchen sink. What is yours?

Step Three I will do Saturday when all I have to do is Weight Watchers at 7 am in the morning. I will report back to you all here on this step three.

Step Four says the book is to put God at the center. "Prayer walk your home." It is not just that the house needs order so it can be cleaned, my spirit needs order. I need to thank God for my blessings and confess my mess to Him. Mindy writes on her own journey, "I needed to prayer walk my house to put God at the center of my housecleaning mission" (p. 42).

Step Five is gathering tools and documenting the evidence. This is what you need the spiral notebook for. You also take pictures of everything.

Step Six is evaluate the evidence; step six and the rest of the book will be lived out in later posts here.

HBZ report added Saturday, Sept. 15.  While I substitute taught on Friday I made the floor plan above. You will see that I have decided my priorities. I did the prayer walk and am so glad I did. Instead of looking at all the mess and excess in the house, I thanked God for so many things and also confessed my shortcomings and asked for His help. I feel cleansed myself. Thank you, Lord.

In the purging of the bathroom, I discovered humor in the picture. Why does a husband going bald need hair thickening? Why do we have his prescription from 2003 from a pharmacy that no longer exists and a doctor he no longer goes to?  There's the Dulcolax that is needed every three to five years for our horrible colon cancer exam! At least I won't buy another one and now will know where it is. Who needs maxipads in the house?



(By the way I will turn in this prescription for an oxy derivitive to a drug store so it gets disposed of properly and doesn't get into the water supply. You know I could sell it illegally and make money, but I WILL NOT.)