My Sink is Shiny!

I agree, this is a strange way to begin my first post, but I just wanted to share this picture with you. Can you tell how clean and shiny it is?!?! It is awesome!

Okay, so this is what happened. About 2 years ago my best friend, Amanda, mentioned FLYlady to me. I checked out the cleaning/organizational site, but I was not ready to dive into what the regimen entailed.

Now fast forward to last Thursday. I was hanging out with my awesome friend, Melissa, and her cutie-pie girls talking about ways to decorate her youngest daughter's room. We settled in for sandwiches when I began to flood her kitchen with tears. I'm serious...the flood gates flew open! I confessed to her that I had been crying most of the morning before making it to her house. I felt completely out of control and overwhelmed with life and my house. I attempted to explain to her how the state of my home mirrored the current state of my brain...dirty, cluttered, etc. I felt so overwhelmed to the point of being paralyzed. I was unable to begin anything simply because I didn't even know where to start!!

Later that night, I was on the phone with my spunky friend, Shannon. She intently listened as the flood gates flew open again. She and I became fast friends at church and have been blowin' and goin' ever since! (I miss you!!) You see, Shannon and I have some personality traits in common...we are both perfectionists. Not just perfectionists, but the WORST kind: we are procrastinating perfectionists! Here is a tiny glimpse into how our minds work. We see a task ahead. We want to do it correctly and perfectly the first time. We make whatever task it is at least 100 times harder than it needs to be. We realize that the task cannot be accomplished to "our standards" so it doesn't get done...EVER! And so the cycle goes on and on and on until we are completely surrounded and overwhelmed. All that may sound a bit extreme and silly, but believe me...it's TRUE!! Anyway, Shannon mentioned FLYlady again and actually read parts of the website to me over the phone. I was finally ready!!

The next day I spent some time perusing the site and began to see a light at the end of my tunnel of clutter. It was awesome! I began reading through the list of Baby Steps and realized I COULD do this. Baby Step #1 is Go Shine Your Sink. It sounds ridiculous, but trust me...it works. It seemed silly to start here when the rest of my house was a complete disaster! Let me say this: I've been shining my sink for only 4 days and my outlook has completely changed. It is absolutely refreshing to begin each morning with a "clean slate" with no nasty residue from the day before.

If there is anyone out there that feels the same way I do, let me encourage you: YOU CAN DO IT!! Pretty soon these simple habits I am forming will pave the way to a cleaner home and a more peaceful me!