I try to teach good habits to my kids, things that will help them have a better and easier life, like the Morning 5, and things that will grow them spiritually, like taking an active part in our morning family devotional.  Even a daily walkabout to clean up their things around the house is a good habit, though I admit it’s not targeting the core issue: they still leave things out when they are finished with them.

Since our kids were out of the high chair we taught them to carry their dishes to the sink… immediately cleaning after themselves.  But the general concept of putting away toys/crafts/the tiny-pieces-of-paper-they-just-shredded (why do they do this?) IMMEDIATELY when they are done… it’s just not a habit.  In fact, I’m pretty sure that despite my urgings, it’s not even a passing thought in my kids’ minds.

So yesterday I decided to start “Make-a-Habit”.  Supposedly it takes 21 days of repeating an action to make it stick, so I figure 30 days oughta do the trick.  And if we focus on a new habit every month, we’ll have aquired 12 new habits at the end of a year!

Yesterday I deemed November’s habit “clean up after yourself.”  Actually, I tried to make it a little fun: Put Everything In It’s Place, or PEIIP.  We’re pronouncing it “peep” for the sake of having an image as a reminder to keep up the habit; yes, I made little Easter peeps with construction paper and taped them around the house.

Amazingly, the kids are completely on board.  I think it helped that we started with a clean house, and I made two promises:

1. If everyone keeps up with this habit, we will never have to clean the house again.  Having our house on the market forever (and having to clean for showings and open house) this was a big sell.  I added the disclaimer that we’d all have to still do chores, but it didn’t seem to damper the effect of this promise.
2. At the end of the month we’d have some sort of victory celebration.  I’m hoping to make some homemade marshmallows in the shape of peeps, and since sugar and a movie equal a celebration according to the kids, it should be pretty easy.

I’m not laying this all on my kids, by the way.  The primary factor in teaching your children is by example, so I’m making sure that I “peep” every single thing.  Believe me, they’re watching.

I don’t know about you, but my bedroom is often the messiest room in the house.  I try to keep my things put away, but if I’m in a hurry I just shut the bedroom door.  And if someone is coming over and I need to do a quick clean-up, it’s just too easy to toss things onto my dresser and the chair and… shut the bedroom door.  In fact, I shut the bedroom door after getting dressed for the day and I don’t go back in unless I need something (because if I do, the bed looks too inviting to my sleepy body.) 

So out of sight, out of mind.  I don’t think about picking up any mess in my bedroom until I’m getting ready for bed, tired and done for the day.

Today’s mission is to spend just 15 minutes in your bedroom.  I spent my entire 15 minutes putting away clothes and hauling my kids’ things back to their bedrooms, but if you’ve kept up on your room pretty well, then do something extra in the room that’s supposed to be your sanctuary.  Like one of these:

*dust the dressers and nightstands

*put candles out and light them tonight!

*look at what’s on your dresser-top.  Anything that you haven’t touched in the past month needs to go!

*switch to flannel sheets or add an extra blanket for these colder nights

*vacuum!  I seriously vacuum our bedroom only about 4 times a year because there’s not much (noticeable) need, but if you think about dust and dead skin cells… ew, I’m getting my vacuum out right now.

*If you’ve actually got all of these things done before or during your 15 minutes, then please come to my house and give me a hand with my room!!!

I have a whole routine to keeping up with our laundry, and it really has become something I don’t dread.  In fact, it’s something that gives me satisfaction, knowing I’ve kept up with it or have it done for the day.

One of the things that makes it easier for me is a tip my sister shared with me several years ago, and it’s made a big difference in the time it takes me to do laundry.  It may sound harsh, opposite of what the matronly, ever-patient and self-sacrificing image of a mother would do… but in a way it’s a twisted modified version of the Golden Rule, and it also teaches your kids about taking care of their clothes.  The tip is simple:  *Give the clothes back the way you recieved them.*

Not exactly like you received them, granted; you return the clothes clean and folded, but if your 8-year-old always puts her dirty clothes in the laundry inside-out, then that’s how she gets them back: inside-out.  My 5-year-old gives me his pajama bottoms with one leg inside-out, every. single. time.  I could straighten out that leg each load, and it would only take me a split second.  But why?  I’m trying to teach him to take care of his things, and eventually to do his own laundry from start-to-finish.  If he can fix his pants leg before he puts it on, then he can fix it when he takes it off.

And though it would only take me a split second to fix one leg of a pair of pajamas, there’s more than one thing that needs to be ‘fixed’ per load.  I must say though, that since I began implementing this tip, there’s been a much smaller amount of clothes that are inside-out.  It seems that when they had to do it for themselves anyway, they decided to do it right away.  Hm… I like that.

To-Do List on Tuesday: Clean out bathroom cupboard.  To-Do List Wednesday: Clean out bathroom cupboard.  To-Do List on Thursday: Clean out bathroom cupboard.  To-Do List Friday: Forget the cupboard, there’s too much going on with Easter.

No, it wasn’t the only thing on my to-do list, but it was one of the things that kept NOT being crossed off, NOT getting done… didn’t I just have this same situation with a drawer in the bathroom?!  But look at this mess; can you blame me for just shutting the door and trying to forget about it?

Today I determined to clean it out, and it took me ALL OF FIVE MINUTES.  For real!  Most of it didn’t even belong in that cupboard, and a lot of it was trash. 

Now look how nice.  In the back are new towels that are always clean, to hang prettily when we have a house showing.  In front are my travel bags, filled with plastic baggies and product lids for quick packing.  And yes, that’s my basket-o-pads-n-tampons.  Even the mundane can look nice, set on the back of the toilet.  It’s also a more gracious way of telling my hubby: no sex this week.  :)

What job has been on your to-do list lately?  Set the timer and spend 15 minutes on it TODAY!

I'm so proud *sniff*

I get very excited over little things, I admit.  When I received an email about a video showing how to fold fitted sheets, my computer just couldn’t work fast enough!

I subscribe to an enewsletter, ”Living on a Dime.”  There’s tidbits that help with living frugally, and always lots of recipes.  Today they sent me to YouTube to show how to fold those annoying fitted sheets, and hers looked so even and flat…

I gave it a try immediately (I know, I’m a little pathetic) and even used a thick flannel sheet…  It turned out totally flat and square and so easy to fit into the linen cupboard!  If you are remotely as excited by this as me, check it out:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Z5k9nWcuFc

Do you have a spot in your house that is bugging you?  A spot that is messy and seems too overwhelming to deal with?  Or maybe like me, you’ve got several spots in your house like that? 

Today I want you to tackle at least one of them, but only for 15 minutes.  If you’ve never tried this trick, today is the day!  Determine which spot is irritating you the most right now; if they’re all equal, then pick one that is in the highest traffic area. 

Then set a timer for 15 minutes and put things from that spot back where they belong (or in the trash!) working as fast as you can.  When the timer beeps, stop working.  If the area is not clean at that time, you can set a timer again tomorrow and give it another 15 minutes. 

I did this today on my dresser.  I’ve got several places throughout the house that are piled up and bugging me, but I chose to clear my dresser-top because I couldn’t use the mirror with the piles of clothes and junk stacked a foot deep.  I worked as quick as I could and, lo and behold, I actually beat the timer with 4 minutes to spare! 

That annoying mess on top of my dresser has bothered me for several weeks.  Every time I went into my bedroom I’d feel overwhelmed and tired… and all it really took was 11 minutes to change it!

Find a spot right now, whether it be a drawer, counter, table-top, or shelf… and spend 15 minutes cleaning it off.  Go!  Now!

Okay, I just spent 3 minutes digging around my ‘hair’ drawer in the bathroom, looking for Tea Tree Oil… it  doesn’t belong in there, but neither do a lot of things I found.  Rummaging around in that nasty drawer prompted me to do a cleaning mission TODAY.  Among the necessary tools (hairbands, clips, brush, combs, mousse, gel, hairspray) was a ton of junk that should be either in a separate space or just thrown out! 

Join me in this purge-and-clean; take 15 minutes to clean all the floating hairs, un-used haircolor cartons, hairbows (!?) and bobby pins out of one of your bathroom drawers.  Wipe it out with a damp rag or paper towel, and then arrange only what you need and use back in the drawer; everything else goes!  Put like things together, preferably in containers of some kind: hairbands and clips can all go in tiny baskets so they don’t slide all around the drawer; I used pretty boxes left from Christmas that are too cute to toss.  Brushes, combs (pare down on these– how many do you need?) can go in a small plastic basket that’s made for office supplies, and then place any gels and hair products that you use in a neat little row.   

Your drawer should be orderly and you should be able to see all of your supplies without having to move anything.  Now stand back and smile.  And fix your hair.  :)

I know you’re going to think I’m lying.  You’ll think I put my kids up to it or bribed them or just forced them into manual labor, but I didn’t, honest!   

They saw me with the camera and of course had to pose, but when I walked into the laundry room I caught them red-handed: Kyra and Levi were doing laundry.  Without my knowledge.  Without being asked.  Without even being taught how.  For the fun of it!  It blows my mind and drops me to my knees in gratitude for the things my kids find amusing. 

Can you see the string?  Levi stood on top of the dryer and slid hangers down the string to Kyra; Kyra hung the clothes on a hanger and handed them back up to Levi for him to hang on the clothing rod.  Who knew that a piece of string would make a chore… entertainment?   

After they went outside to play I went back to the laundry room.  There were hangers bent out of shape, socks dropped behind the dryer, and clothes wrinkly from being wadded instead of folded.  I could have brought Kyra and Levi back in and showed them the proper way to fold clothes and ’do laundry’; a teachable moment, right?  There have been times when I have done just that: I’ve redone what my kids did, to show them the ‘right’ way… and in correcting them I curbed their desire to help out or to try a new skill.  It is so easy to squash a child’s enthusiasm with a mother’s perfectionism. 

Today I didn’t chastise Kyra and Levi; I didn’t arrange a training session.  I praised them and thanked them for being such good helpers, not only when I first saw them doing the laundry but later, too, so they’d know I remembered and really thought it was a great thing they did. 

Don’t you think God does that for us, too?  In all my clumsy attempts to be useful to Him, I believe He looks at me with love and whispers encouragement, even when my words come out wrong or my actions are misunderstood.  That’s the kind of parent I *try* to be: giving my kids grace and room to grow.

I buy the off-brand dryer sheets, which are so much cheaper than the name brands.  But I also have found that an entire sheet is unnecessary.  Think about it, you don’t use the ’suggested’ amount of laundry detergent or dishwasher detergent, do you?  Manufacturers recommend a larger amount than needed… so that you use more… so that you buy more… so that they make more money!

I cut up our dryer sheets into thirds– it’s plenty of ’sheet’ for a load of laundry, and we do not have static cling or ‘hard’ clothes.  And as far as the cutting, I actually only did it one time– once my kids saw me do it, they wanted the job!  For some reason they think it’s cool…

Walkabout:  /wok’-uh-bout/ (v.) children looking throughout their home for any of their personal items that have been left out, and then putting the belongings in their appropriate locations.     Ex: Before going outside to play the kids did a walkabout and the house looked great.

There are days when I know something is bugging me but I can’t put my finger on it; my temper seems short(er) and I feel weighed down, but I don’t really know what my problem is… And then it hits me: the house has toys and papers and kid-gadgets scattered everywhere!  Toy-litter can creep up on a home in little bits that grow and grow until every space is overwhelmed with it; I often don’t realize it’s happening until the mess is crazy.

Enter: the walkabout.  This handy little routine has become a daily task that helps things to not get out of control.  I like to send the kids on a walkabout before supper (so the house looks nice and welcoming for Nate) and periodically throughout the day if the kids are dragging out more than their usual ’supplies.’  This helps with the overall tidyness of the house, and it keeps the clutter at a manageable level for the kids.

If you’re game, try it with your own brood: give each kid a grocery bag and walk them through every room of your house to collect their ‘property.’  If you’re teaching little ones (as young as toddlers can learn this) you may need to point out their toys or carry the bag for them, as well as help them put it all away.  A little bit of training with this goes a long way…