perfection

Hmmm..... It has been a month since I last updated this. Big apologies, I have many excuses, but I won't bore you with them.

I will however, tell you about some of the wonderful things that have happened in that time, including me dealing with some of my perfectionist tendencies.

I didn't think that I was a perfectionist, but when I came to the end of the flylady 31 days babysteps, I decided to look back at what I hadn't managed to do, and think about why. That way I could build on the good habits I've formed from babysteps and continue to improve. The big things that I don't do are:

5 min room rescue
2 min hotspot clearup (although I am much more aware of my hotspots now!)
Kelly's mission (or any zone work -often I don't know which zone we are in!)
swish and swipe

Most of these things are just a case of getting the other routines in place so that I end up with the time to add a room rescue etc. But one really bugged me, because a year ago I really tried to get it, and just haven't managed to get it. That was swish and swipe.

For those not familiar with Flylady, the swish and swipe is a quick wipe down of the bathroom everyday so that you don't have to do big cleans, and it is always company ready. I used to keep a cloth in the bathroom, wipe it down everyday -but because I wiped the toilet seat I would want to take the cloth down to the laundry and get another, but I would often forget to bring another cloth up. I also found it difficult to do it everyday. I couldn't see any dirt, so what is the point? I'd tried to master swish and swipe a few times, but ended up always giving up. It is such a fab idea, but I couldn't do it.

Anyway, after my month of babysteps I started to think about what is holding me back. The lightbulb came on, it was the cloths! In my ideal world I do all my cleaning with these cloths and wash them. It works for most things. I don't like the idea of wipes because of landfill. BUT I decided that if I am going to make this a habit wipes would be the best idea. I bought some anti-bacterial wipes, I have been using them now for 2 weeks and I have had a clean bathroom for 2 weeks. It really makes me smile everyday to see it shining, and when I had someone to stay I didn't have to clean the bathroom first.

Maybe, once this is a real habit I will be able to switch to cloths, but I'm not going to get hung up on it. I'm saving water, by not having to use it to clean, and wash the cloths. I'm just going to concentrate on establishing the habit.

What is your perfection holding you back from? My next aim is to get hotspot clearing a real habit.