Martha Home the Mary Way Prep Day

So life is super busy. I am eager to start the 31 Days to a Clean Home Challenge. This week focuses Mon-Thur on the Kitchen. I have my work cut out for me. 

Outside of cleaning just every day things, I need to find a way to organize better. 

Cabinets in my home are limited and they were not done very well either. It has been a struggle the entire time we have lived here. I have decided we also need to down size on some stuff, put some lights in, build our own drawer organizers instead of using premade ones etc. 

This silverware organizer I have had since we lived in a rental for a while, that was 10 years ago.. time to part ways for sure.

Asking kids to help with dishes is great, except that I end up with cabinets like this one

Somehow like most homes we end up with a million bottles. I need a better organizing solution for these too.

One thing I was reading in a book was about throwing out old spices. These two cabinets will likely look bare once we go through them. I think it has been a really long time.

This is probably the best organized cabinet, it is just for canning supplies, however its behind the dishwasher when the door to it is open so I think it prevents people from even using it, thus it stays pretty clean.

Always my nightmare, but I saw a cool solution on pinterest that we are going to try.

This I truly need a solution for.

Fridge and freezer~ they are the one thing I never look forward to, with six people living in our house come Mid May we will need to have a good solution to a better organized space.

Also time to make sure we throw out anything that isn't good. So ...
if you are wanting to participate Monday's Challenge is to
Put a load of laundry in your washing machine.
Do the Dishes, scrub pans, clean out your sink
Gather papers from the counters (and if you have a table in your kitchen space there too)
Set them aside.
Then clean your counters.
Let me know how you do this week.
I would love to hear from you.

google.com/+JennWellsandSunshineOfAutumnQuilts

31 Days to Clean Housewive Style

When I think of a housewive I strive to be a Proverbs 31 woman. I think of the television housewives we all grew up with I think of June Cleaver, Harriet Nelson, Carol Brady, Claire Huxtable, Mrs. Cunningham and Lucy Ricardo. I love trying to be June Cleaver but honestly I am more a Lucy Ricardo. If it can go wrong it will. That is probably why it is one of my favorite shows of all time, I Love Lucy.

I have been working through 31 Days to Clean- Having a Martha House the Mary Way for a while now. It got interrupted by the fires we had but I am still trying to get through it. I just might finish a week late.

I had written a great mission statement,

I strive to be a Proverbs 31 wife and mother 

by having a home that is clean, 

organized and simplified. 

This will allow me to provide 

my family and friends 

with a dwelling that will

radiate warmth, love and comfort 

while we fellowship with one another. 

It will also allow us to live simply 

so that we lead less stressful 

and compete lives.

I had one of the kids, Jakob, ask this week as he did homework and saw my mission statement on the board above the computer- did you find this in the Bible. I just had to grin and then said, no, but I prayed about it and that is what came from my heart through the Holy Spirit. It is what I ask of God to help me with.

This week has had its ups and downs. I don't feel like I am as ahead as I would have liked to have been. I do keep pressing forward though. The bathroom has remained clean for two weeks. Every morning and night I touch it up. Mekenzeis room has stayed fairly clean minus laundry from other rooms that pile there as I deep clean the house, it has been that way since Saturday. Jakob's room is still a work in progress. The Kitchen is also a work in progress, we have a few drawers to go through still, and also two corner cabinets.

I am hoping this weekend we can get it completely done. I have been trying to tackle our room since Wednesday. I will admit very little progress has been made. I feel very overwhelmed when I even think about it. So I decided to take a look back at my two weeks and see how far I have come, hence this Blog post, and then work for the next hour and just DO SOMETHING. I am very thankful for the inspiring words in the 31 Days to Clean, and I plan to keep at it.. For more information and a discount: 

Today is the LAST DAY to get the PDF of 31 Days to Clean - Having a Martha House the Mary Way for only $2.50! Use code: homemaker 

Proverbs 31 Wife and Mother

I really desire to be a Proverbs 31 wife and mother. I like being organized, on time and efficient. I try very hard to menu plan and stick to it. I try to keep a tidy house, often times falling short. I do well at helping with homework, keeping the kids on task and being involved in their daily lives. As we continue to get more active I desire a way to cut my time down on the maintaining portion of our daily lives.
I came across a book this summer and decided I would finally get around to starting it. 

It is called Having a Martha House the Mary Way by Sarah Mae. 

I do wish I had it downloaded so I could print it, right now it is just on the PC version of Kindle. 

This required me to have a notebook as I like to have things written down, make notes etc.

There is a lot to be said about a physical book too.
Regardless I am excited as I journey through Day One.

Today was interesting. You write specific reasons of why you want a clean home.
I just jotted words down like 

"warmth, comfort, inviting, fellowship, gathering, organized, simplified and togetherness."

Then you work on a mission statement.
I tried to decorate it, I wanted to put a sunflower picture behind it- that didn't go so well, so for now its just plain and simple and typed.
Here is what I came up with.

I strive to be a Proverbs 31 wife and mother

by having a home that is clean,

organized and simplified.

This will allow me to provide

my family and friends

with a dwelling that will

radiate warmth, love and comfort,

while we fellowship with one another.

It will also allow us to live simply

so that we lead less stressful

and complete lives.

I am very excited to finish day one. I guess I should have started it at the beginning of the month but I am not sure how well weekends will work with this idea anyway so having a few extra days will probably be to my benefit. I am excited to see what the house will look like in 31 Days. I did great on the 40 Bags in 40 Days challenge. It is interesting to have written a mission statement about our home. I can't say I have ever done that before. Happy Cleaning.