A sista in need is a friend indeed, or something like that.

Sista Smiff writes:

We all know that your Sista will never be enshrined in the Fly Lady Hall of Fame. It ain’t gonna happen. Things have gotten extra-out-of-hand since we spent a large part of April and May tending to Hazel following her surgery, etc. So, I’m sitting here staring at the various forms of mess…laundry, crap, crapola and crappity-crap knowing I should just quit my whining and just get in there and face the Beast head on.

Why do I have such an issue with this? What mental place does the Neat Gene originate? What is it that makes some people obsessive compulsive (which I do not want to be) and others like me who spiral further and further out of control and perpetually dwell in CHAOS….Can’t Have Anybody Over syndrome? I try to pick this apart (yeah, I know I should get up and actually deal with it instead of talk about it, but, it’s funner to bitch about) and figure out where it all went wrong. How do you get your family pumped about getting with it? For real, I’m a lone ranger in this quest around here.

In all seriousness, it’s a real source of frustration for me and a part of my life I feel like a total failure. What’s the secret to getting excited about housework???

Ivy says:

Man, cleaning sucks. There are people that dig it, I’m not one of them unless I’m playing with some nifty-neato cleaning toy.  So I totally understand your dilemma. I’ve had times in my life where I have had a house so nasty I could hardly even stand to be there, so believe me, I know where you’re coming from.

You look at the mess and you’re just so overwhelmed, don’t know where to start, etc., so you sit down at the computer or the TV and just do something else. Well, you might not, but I have certainly done that a million times, myself.

So, how do you get motivated to clean, and how do you motivate the family to help you keep it clean? Well, Heather and I have many tricks to this. Here are a few:

• Set a timer. Dude, you can bear to clean for 15 minutes. Everyone can.  So, set your oven timer for 15 minutes and clean for just 15 minutes, then stop and do something else. Enough 15 minute intervals and the next thing you know, you’ll have an entire clean room.
• Make a list. Sometimes it’s easier to work from a list and it is more rewarding to scratch things that are finished off the list than with other methods.
• Get an accountability buddy. Heather and I have been doing this for each other for years. I put a boot in her arse about things she needs motivating to get done, and she usually puts her boot in my arse about things like, “What are you cooking for dinner tonight?” (I love cleaning about a million times more than I love cooking. Heh.)
• Just get up off your butt and do it. I have to FORCE myself sometimes to get up and clean. Believe me, I don’t wanna, but I tell myself, “Get this done so you can do something you really want to do, like waste time in IMs and read the LJ drama.”
• Spend a lot of time getting it clean, and then just make sure you keep up with maintenance. It’s a heck of a lot easier to maintain your house than it is to CLEAN it. I spend 30 seconds swishing my toilet bowl every morning. I never have to scrub my toilet.
• Hang out here, and on our message boards. Post your triumphs and tribulations! We are here to help.

Sista, I’ve got your back. Get to cleaning and then you can throw a party and we’ll celebrate your clean house by trashing it.