The House-proud Sloven: An end to procrastination!

My New Year's resolution was to stop procrastinating This, I thought, would roll a multitude of possible resolutions into one - losing weight, paying bills on time, shaving my legs regularly - all the usual stuff including 

keeping up with the housework!!

As with every other year, I managed to keep it up for a week or two (well paying the bills at least, lol) then slid back into my normal way of life.

Now that I am beginning my 'cleaning journey' I realise that one of the easiest fixes would be to 

just get on and do it!

I need to stop wasting time reading blogs about other peoples amazing homes and how they maintain them, close my laptop and open my eyes as to what my own home needs!!

The other thing I noticed was the amount of time I wasted while waiting for other things to happen. Here are a couple of examples of this weeks remedies;

• while waiting for potatoes/pasta to boil clean down areas of the kitchen instead of watching bits of Only Fools and Horses (I've seen it a million times anyway!)
• tidy and clean the bathroom windowsill and sink area while dying my hair (I can read my magazine this evening without feeling guilty)

Blackberry ice-cream anyone? 

Something I have done occasionally is to use 'spare' washing up water for kitchen cleaning. You know how it goes, you wash a couple of glasses then, instead of wasting the bowl of hot soapy water, you wipe down surfaces etc. Well now I try never to throw away practically clean water without using it for at least one other job first. This way all those little jobs I previously put off are now getting done automatically :)

Here's the latest;

I cleaned out my glass cupboard and washed all the glasses. This is right next to the sink so there really has been no excuse ( the sloven in me left the top shelf coz it didn't 'look' dirty and we never use those glasses anyway - one step at a time right? lol!)

So far this morning (my day off) I have hung out the washing, changed our bed, re-loaded the washing machine with the bedding, washed the dishes, cleaned the kitchen table and mats with the left over soapy water, emptied the bathroom and bedroom bins and written this blog. Now I'm off to do a small pile of ironing - rather than leaving it to toppling height  - so that I can spend the afternoon crocheting granny squares and feeling pleased with myself!

A little P.S.

Earlier in this post I referred to myself as 'wasting time reading blogs'. Now as you all know, otherwise you wouldn't be here, blog reading is NEVER a waste of time!!!

Here are some great ones relevant to this post (and much more besides :))

• http://andreadekker.com/
• http://www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com/
• http://housekeeping.about.com/cs/cleaning101/a/springclnngguid.htm

Have you any favourite cleaning blogs? Or any useful tips?

I'll be posting my first 'cleaning list' soon. I DO love a list, don't you?