31 days.

Anyone who is my friend on ye ol' Facebook knows that a little while ago I purchased a book called 31 Days to Clean- Having a Martha House the Mary Way. I was so excited to get this book. Seriously. 

I've talked about my issues with cleaning before and I never seem to make any headway. We bought this book (it's an e-book) and I started reading through the first few days. Apparently, the lovely author, Sarah Mae, doesn't consider herself a born cleaner. This made me feel better. Also, I love to clean. That sounds stupid after all the complaining I've done. You see...growing up, my mom was a perfectionist. I mean, that woman can clean ANYTHING. Very well. As a result, I was cleaning almost every single part of the house once a week. I did laundry, I cleaned the kitchen, I dusted and vacuumed. Eventually, my room was the dumping ground of everything. Whatever. I was a teenager (someone remind me of this when I have kids). Anyhow, the cleaning stopped. The only issue was that Mom taught me REALLY thorough ways to clean things. Now? I'm a perfectionist. No, really. You cannot help me clean. I have to clean everything in the *exact* way that it "should" be cleaned, or it's not good enough. One problem. I get SO overwhelmed when things pile up and then think about HOW LONG it's going to take until it's done my way right, that it takes me forever to get started. 

A few weeks ago, I had a potentially genius/potentially awful idea. We have an empty guest room (sigh...we miss our roommate), so we took everything that was around the house and NOT in its "proper" place and shoved it in the guest room in zones...basically telling me where it's supposed to go. I have some school stuff that needs to be taken to work/made/assembled/etc. I have some house stuff. I have somethings to hang...it's like the Decor Store over on YoungHouseLove. (They make me feel better by currently using their playroom for this purpose). So onto the point...

I bought the book. I even made my mission statement (Day 1's Mary Challenge), which is to remind myself of WHY I want this clean house so badly. Here it is...

September 4, 2011 (yes, I originally bought this Labor Day weekend & am just now starting)

I want a CLEAN home because I...
-want to entertain
-want to Relax
-want to maintain, not restart
-want to feel less guilt when we do what we want
-want less to dos!
-want to be a good, clean Mommy someday...

Here's why this matters TODAY (and for the next 31 days). Last night, I printed out the book & the calendars, etc. I wanted to really get a plan for what I was doing. Guess what?! If yesterday (Monday, October 17, 2011) is Day One, I will be finished on November 15th.

Anyone who's anyone knows what that day is?! Anyone?...Anyone? Bueller? *cue crickets chirping*

That's my birthday! What better gift could I possibly give myself than having my crap figured out in time for my birthday. Giving myself (and my sweet, patient husband) the gift of a presentable home in time for my birthday, thus having less "to-dos" and getting to do what we want guilt-free sounds like the most amazing birthday gift ever...besides Mylo Xyloto. Don't get any gift-less ideas, honey. :)

Is anyone else motivated to do better, one small step at a time? Sarah Mae's before-and-after photos on the site really helped me to see that chipping away at her little Martha Challenge could encourage me to get so swept away with cleaning that I get even more done and go above and beyond. Swept away, hah.

Is anyone else just excited that my birthday is in 30 days? Yup, today's Day 2! Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with a sweet update! :)

Off to clean the refrigerator & freezer!

Click here to visit Sarah Mae.