Bare Minimums

It's Monday.  Back to work, back to school, back to regular life.

If your house is anything like the majority of people I know, you don't have a maid or a cook or a butler or anything remotely resembling Downton Abbey.

What you most likely have is a house full of toys, clothes, pets, clutter, things, stuff...I could go on.  What you want and need is to have all that under some sort of control so that you can enjoy all the people who actually live in the house with you. 

Wondering where to start?  Head over to Rachel Anne's blog, Home Sanctuary, and start following her Small Things.  Today's is such a blessing and a needed reminder that it is doable to have a house under control.  She reminds  and encourages us to "Do the Minimum".   I can do that!  You can, too!!!

Grit: Vacuuming in Flip Flops

In my previous post I mentioned the need to vacuum today.  Being the ever-so-energetic gal that I am, I whisked the kiddos off to school in my yoga pants, t-shirt and flip-flops and scurried home to tackle the grit that perpetually resides in and on my floors.

I opened the windows for some fresh air and noticed more grit on the windowsills.  Ugh.  Tackle that later.

After successfully vacuuming the entire second floor, including those nasty corners in the bathrooms, I started on the stairs.  More grit.  Really?  Whoever cleans this joint needs to be fired.  Oh wait.  That's me. Nevermind.

I was really on a roll now.  The first floor was all that remained.  Switching out the hard floor attachment for the carpet one, I had only three rooms left; albeit the most gritty rooms in the house.  As I lugged the canister from one room to the next it happened.  The carpet attachment collided with my foot.  Yes, that same foot that was shod in flip-flops.  Heavens to Betsy!

My mind cursed my choice of footwear and suddenly FlyLady and her lace-up shoes mantra came to mind.

This was not the first, nor will it be the last, time that I vacuum in flip-flops.  Sometimes I even do it barefoot.  I know; it's not the wisest choice. It got me thinking about how many times I begin a task simply to cross it off my list, yet I don't prepare for it adequately.

Now that's an ugly, gritty truth.  My emotions, good or bad, get the better of me and I'm off and running without much if any thought to a plan of action, much less the best plan.  Getting my toes, and my heart, hurt along the way.