Back to Basics, Day 1

Once upon a time my house was in pretty darn good order. Then I got pregnant with Cole.
The end.

Now my baby is nearly a year old. And my home is, well, decent. But I have been too slack for too long. So, it's time to get back to basics. In late 2003 a friend told me about FlyLady. And I was all jazzed up to find a way that worked for me to keep the house tidy and myself not stressed about it. And it worked super for years. I moved, had a second baby, had playdates, and just kept on keeping on. But then my last pregnancy hit me like a ton of bricks, and I found keeping my family fed and clothed to be very challenging. Nausea made dealing with food hard, and forget about dirty dishes! (I don't even want to talk about dirty diapers....)

Anyway, that was then. My nose is not my mortal enemy, and, while I do not exactly have the sleep schedule I'd choose on my own, I need to make my home less chaotic. Generally, the state of affairs around the house only stresses me -- in theory. However, since it makes me grumpy, that flows through to everything. What's that saying? If Mama ain't happy, ain't no one happy?

So I am getting back to basics and following FlyLady's 'back to basics babysteps boogie.' I simply prefer to omit the boogie part, since, while I appreciate the motivation and direction FlyLady gives me, I find some of the ways she says things a bit too... ummm... 'cat lady' ish. She's a woman pushing 60 by now, I assume, and I simply am not. So, I skip the 'boogie' part.

Day 1:
Shine your sink. I mean, really clean the HECK outta that thing.
For all the steps, see HERE.

It's time consuming to do this full-on, shiny sink 101, but man, do I have one clean, sink shining at me right now. I took a couple of photos along the way to document.

The ugly truth. Dishes piled, weird tomato-based splatter. Gorgeous!


Step one (after removing dishes, which I put in the dishwasher) is to fill one side brimming with hot-hot-hot water and a cup of bleach. Let it sit one hour and drain.


Repeat with the other side if you have a 2-sided sink. I let the strainer from the first side soak in the bleach water since it was kind of slimy.

I was yakking on the phone as I did the next few steps, and forgot to take photos, but I know you're smart and can just *picture* the Ajax all over, the 'old toothbrush' treatment, more scrubbing, some magic eraser action, and some buffing of the faucet with a towel (like how you see a shoe shine person do with a rag on a shoe!).


Voila. I doubt seriously anyone is going to go out of their way to tell me how pretty my sink is, but to me it's a sight to behold. Gone are the stains from water paint 'water' being dumped in over the course of a long winter holiday. No longer does the little part right behind the faucet fixture have that odd brownish residue that, well, you know what I am talking about, or you have a maid that cleans daily. ;)


To me, this sink is just great.

See you tomorrow with Step 2.