Holy Hoarders Batman!

Not my house, thank goodness!

OMG! Ok, so I had never seen an episode of Hoarders on A&E but I stumbled across one last night and boy, was I grossed out.  I could not believe the way those people were living. It was disgusting looking into their fridges, their bathrooms, their beds, you get the idea. I literally had my skin crawling and the saddest thing was, this addicition of hoarding was tearing the families apart. One of the episodes I watched (yes, I watched two of them), the woman's husband was going to leave her. She fought so hard to keep all her stuff and took everything back into her apartment (thank God you don't live next to her), that her husband did leave and her son just managed avoiding going off to Child Protective Services! She was fighting over empty cardboard boxes, broken lamps, you name it. She really needs help but is just not ready to accept it.

Another Hoarders home.

Now, after I turned off the TV, I laid in bed for awhile and just started thinking. I know I am still recovering from surgery and on limited physical duty, but I just can't take my house the way it is. Granted, my mess is not as bad as the rooms above or the ones I saw on TV but I might just be one rat skeleton and a glass full of mold away from Hoarders!!

My storage area needing major love! 

No parking our car in this garage!

Now, I have always said I am a more-is-more person. That is just how I roll but after watching that show, I have vowed to GET RID OF STUFF! I have more than I need so in addition to my Mission Organization, I am also going to rid our house of stuff. I have probably 10 pieces of furniture to move out and countless decorating items I no longer use. I am going to eBay some, give away others and donate the rest. All junk must go! I refuse to become an episode of Hoarders so first thing this morning, I got up and cleaned out the fridge and freezer (baby steps!).

So, I will continue on my journey to organize and will make that job easier by purging at the same time, but that will be for another post!

P.S. I did just receive six boxes of stuff from Pottery Barn (yesterday BEFORE Hoarders) but most of that is utilitarian and will help me in my organizing quest. You'll see!

Seriously???

Ok, so while I am still recovering from surgery (Dr. told me yesterday I was doing too much too soon and had to rest the next couple of days - ugh!) I was able to haul myself to each room in my house. I sat there with my iPad and started a list of everything I want to do in that room this year. Now this doesn't include all the big things we still need to do like - replace all windows and outside doors, retile pool and repave decking, replace boat lift, you get the idea. However, there are some little things, some big things, things I can do, things I need my GTG (Go To Guy) to do, and some things I need someone else to do.

I just counted my list and I have 186 items! Yikes! So they run the gambit, I have everything on my list from reorganizing my pantry (did you know the Container Store is opening up in Tampa the weekend of March 16 near International Mall, organization heaven!!), touching up paint on the baseboards, adding some plants, restaining deck, buy a new mattress (you slide right off the bed if you get too close to the edge!), and obviously, the list goes on, and on, and on.

Well, I am not able to start on my list today, yes, it's driving me nuts, but hoping to start tackling it this weekend. I will share my progress with you as I actually progress - won't that be fun?!?! So what's a girl who has to rest suppose to do, play on Pinterest and come up with dozens of more ideas, on-line shop (did some serious damage at potterybarn.com the other day!!), and brainstorm more ways to get this house together while staring at pine needles still sitting on my floor!! Egads!

So starting this weekend, things WILL BE happening, but that's for another post!

Not a Bad Week . . .

Ok, so here I am, Saturday night, squeezing in my last post for the week. Remember a previous post, I said I would do 3 a week? So here goes -

So, another "issue" I would like to tackle in our house is chores! Cleaning a house, not fun. I have a zillion other things I would rather be doing! However, I forget that I have children that could serve as Mini Molly Maids on any given weekend day (weekdays, between homework, after school activities and just the basic household chores, keep the girls, and me, busy)! These girls need to be trained and they need it right now!!

We seemed to have raised smart, caring, wonderful girls who do not believe chores are for them. TIME TO BREAK THEM!! They have been spoiled a bit on that part. So how do we fix this, what can we do so it is not a full-fledged, all-out-war each time we do chores? Going back to my all time favorite site Pinterest, here are some ideas we are going to implement.

I love this idea. My kids, and hubby, when they do chores, never do a thorough job, bless their cleaning-challenged hearts, so I think this is a great idea. I will (in the immediate future) create these for every room in the house. Whoever draws that room, (we are going to have everyone pick a card, pick any card) will know exactly what the jobs are to do and what the expectations are. They can then mark them off as completed. I saw this on Pinterest but the original idea came from another mommy blog.

I am thinking about making one of the above for each of my girls. If they had their own cleaning kit, might inspire a little more? Not sure about that but might be really good for their own rooms. They can easily clean their mirrors, wipe down their baseboards, and dust their shelves whenever the urge strikes! Here's hoping it strikes at least twice a month!

We have something like the above, but our system is slightly varied. We have done allowances in the past but decided to stop them. Chores weren't being done so we were basically, each week, paying our kids just for existing! WRONG!! My husband and I decided that to live in the Maselli house, have clean clothes, a roof over your head, food on the table, and just be, there are certain chores you have to do. To make money for the mall with friends, movies, etc . . . there are 2 things to do: 1 - your regular-because-you-live-in-this-house chores, 2 - pick extra chores that have been assigned a dollar amount. If said child, does their regular chores, they can pick a chore off the chore chart to earn cash in their pocket. These chores include, wash the cars, weed, wash windows, you get the idea.

So here's to getting our "chore" act together. It's very simple. Set the expectations, let the kids know what they need to do, and hold them to it! I will let you know how it all turns out, but that is for another post!