Baby steps in my house

Before any conclusions are jumped to, I assure all of you that the baby steps I mention have nothing to do with the Rossiters gaining a new addition to our family. Babysteps is a saying from this wonderful woman who goes by the name "Flylady"; she works at helping multitaskers, like me, who wind up getting distracted way too easily and therefore say, "Screw it", to get their homes, lives and families to a place where we can feel content and satisfied. Flylady is not about being perfect, but "good enough", and doing it one step at a time--thus, the baby steps. Her website is here and I highly recommend it for scatterbrains/supermoms/superwomen like myself. It almost seems too simple, but it works. I adapt the system to what works for me, but the basic principles are so obvious that I find myself smacking myself in the head when I read through them. Slowly, but surely, I've been working at getting my act together when it comes to the house. As the sign in my dining room says, "Martha Stewart doesn't live here--adjust!", so I will never reach domestic divadom any time soon. However, in the interest of my sanity, I've been trying to think of ways to make it easier for my family to help me out so I don't feel as though I'm tackling this place all my own. After some serious thought, it dawned on me that I haven't really given my family the right tools to get the job done. I tell the kids, "Pick up your room" without really providing a sense of where things go or even give them a place. I look around the house and say, "Eh", but I really haven't taken the time to add little things to make it more like the home I reallly want and we all can enjoy. Last weekend, Jon and I tackled the kitchen. We got a new kitchen a few years ago and as much as I've loved it, I really never took the time to get it really organized. Therefore, cooking was even more of a hassle than normal. But, while I was putting away a few of my Christmas gifts--which many seemed to be kitchen-oriented--something came over me and I finally have a place for everything, and it's all where it needs to be. This past week has been a joy in my kitchen, to the point where I'm actually looking for new recipes to try because I know I have what I need and right where to find it---scary shit, believe me. This weekend, the whole Rossiter family went to Home Depot to spend a gift card we received from Jon's folks. We actually had fun there!!! Whooda thunk it?? We picked up a bunch of stuff and went home, ready to work. Cailyn's room and the dining room became our projects yesterday. Cailyn's had her own room since spring and has had a really hard time keeping up with it. Keeping in mind about giving her the right tools and teaching her what works, we hauled out the room, put in her new rug and then she and I set to organizing her things--and pitching some of it, too!! A couple of underbed storage totes, some clothes hooks, a new area rug and the organization was all it took to redo her entire room. In about 3 hours, this was the result: The chain with the stuffies hanging on them had been buried in her closet--she had two. We never got around to hanging them up. It took care of most of her stuffed animals: got them off the bed and off the floor. The cool light on the dresser was from Grandma and Papa in Vermont. Cailyn kept saying, "I can't believe this is my room! This is awesome." She wasn't jumping up and down; it was more like she was in awe. She had to have a picture of her "cool, new room". Instead of saying "Cheese" like she usually does, she kept saying, "Thank you!". Made me feel really good. Cailyn's closet was really the key to getting it all together. Believe it or not, we had all of this stuff in there already, but there was no organization. I showed Cailyn that each shelf should be home to a certain type of thing: one for games, one for arts and crafts stuff, etc. She had all of these things, but just threw them randomly into bins and then trashed the room because she couldn't remember where she put stuff. The stuff on the top shelf is storage for Mom and Dad right now--Cailyn didn't mind sharing, though. ;) This isn't the best picture; it's a bit blurry, but you get the idea. The room looked pretty bad while we were sorting/organizing--ok, it looked like her room totally exploded instead of partially--but we had to see what she had and where it had to go. It was worth the effort. Meanwhile, as we worked, Jon put down the new area rug in our dining room. We had moved the furniture around months ago, but something still seemed...off. We had a beautiful rug there from when we moved in, but over the past few years, it had seen better days. The rug we picked out is a different style than our previous one, but we think it will be more functional than the previous one. Once he got it down, even he was amazed at how it pulled everything together. It was hard to get a decent picture, but it's not bad. *Notice the gorgeous paper signs on our chairs: Cailyn made those after she and Erin argued for 15 minutes about where to sit for dinner the other night.* I still have to put Christmas stuff away, and yes, that is a plastic pumpkin on top of my china cabinet. The girls finally polished off their Halloween candy just in time to put their Christmas candy there. Jon and I put it up out of reach so we wouldn't have two sugar overdoses. There are a few more little projects that we'll work on during the week. One for the kitchen, one for the living room. I'll post update pics. If it seems that I'm proud, I admit that I am. I'm not trying to brag, I swear. The house has always been one of my trigger points when it comes to my depression. I think if I can keep control of it, my emotional roller coaster may slow down some. Now, with the whole family getting involved, it will be a bit easier....I hope ;)