Hot Spots...

So I've been really careful for the past 10 days to keep my sink shiny. Ryan has even followed suit by loading his dishes into the dishwasher right away, even if he doesn't feel like it (which is never... for both of us). I have to give major credit to him because when we were headed to bed on Sunday night, I mentioned that I had to unload the dishwasher before going to bed, otherwise we wouldn't have anywhere to put our dirty dishes the next morning. As I went off to fold the freshly dried laundry, my loving husband unloaded the dishwasher for me... because he knows how badly I want to keep up with my new commitment. Now that's love!


So for the next step in this process of establishing new habits... new habits that will hopefully result in much less housework throughout the week because it becomes part of my 'getting ready for the day' or my 'getting ready for bed routine'. This is Day 6 on Fly Lady's Beginner Baby Steps. The task is to identify two Hot Spots in my house (areas where clutter gathers and grows). Then set the timer for 2 minutes to tidy those spots... I've decided on 2 minutes for each Hot Spot.


I've been giving some thought to my 2 Hot Spots. The first that comes to mind is our mail-center. It's a little black, 2-drawer organizer from Pottery Barn upon which many things end up... sunglasses, batteries, coupons, paperclips, mail that I don't know what to do with, etc. So that one was easy! The second Hot Spot has been more difficult to narrow down, but I think I'm going to focus my efforts on Papa Gerry's desk - a small wooden desk in our entry way that we inherited from Ryan's beloved Pseudo-Grandpa. This tends to catch anything that I drop on the way in the door or anything that we need to remember to take downstairs someday.


There were several other runners-up on the Hot Spot list. I figure once I get good at my first two, I will add another to the list. The ironing board in my closet that catches all the clothes I ended up not wanting to wear afterall, the end table in the living room, the shoerack downstairs by the door, or worst of all - Ryan's nightstand. While my darling husband is super supportive and helpful, his nightstand is the quintessential Hot Spot. I won't go into the dirty details here, but should my wonderful partner in life decide to create a little Hot Spot goal for himself, his nightstand might be a good place to start.


So my daily cleaning goals are:

1. Keep the sink shiny.


2. Clean each Hot Spot twice each day.

Wish me luck!