Another Day - er, 4 months - Another Post

Well. Here we are. More than 4 months since my last post. And my apartment is still looking fabulous and pristine.

NOT.

Yeahhhh. Although Stacy was awesome, it didn't last. She was more than willing to come back, but I couldn't stomach the thought of paying her again when I couldn't keep up with her great work. Instead of being happy with what she had done, I was doubly frustrated by not being able to keep up with her progress.

So here we are again. More than half the year gone, and still the same mess.

I try - or at least I feel like I try. But obviously I'm not trying hard enough.


Signed up with Flylady yet again. Mostly it results in a cluttered email inbox (as if my email inbox weren't cluttered enough), but it gives me a little more motivation. As does the idea that we are indeed going to have to move soon, since the little man is growing by leaps and bounds, and the big kids are needing their own personal space. My heart wants a house. My brain knows I barely have the strength to keep up with an apartment. My heart says a house will have lots of room. My brain says it will become just as cluttered as the apartment, so why add the extra expen$es.

I do want to keep up with this blog - but I think the decluttering aspect is just frustrating (ie, if I have no progress, I have nothing to post). So I'm going to use this to post about both my clutter and my "real life" - yes, I do have a life OUTSIDE 409 - and to keep you updated on the clutter as well.

CLUTTER UPDATE:
Last night we cleaned out the refrigerator (DH's idea). We tossed, among other things:

• Farina that expired in 2006
  
• Scary looking old salad dressing and jellies
  
• Very old big cookies from a bakery (in shrink wrap, but still, very old)
  
• Bag of stale shredded coconut (which I used to feed to the hermit crabs, which have been dead for several years now)
  
• Bag of stale marshmallows
  
• Packets of duck sauce, chinese mustard & McD's bbq sauce

I still need to really CLEAN the fridge - which logically should have been done at the same time - but whatever. I did sponge up some of the more obvious yuck, but I need to get in there with the elbow grease, preferably when the baby is not trying to get in there and whack me on the head with a very old bakery cookie he pulled back out of the garbage.

I also cleaned out under the kitchen sink, which I have been dreading. There is water accumulating there and I need to call the super. The leak is coming from behind or under the cabinet, which is now starting to rot (and attract insects). Lovely. We have been in the place 6+ years (we own it) and have never redone the kitchen, but this part will at least have to be repaired before we sell the place. I just pray the leak is from inside the wall, which would make it a building expense, rather than inside our apartment, which would make it OUR expense.

From under the sink, there wasn't really much to toss, but I did organize it a little better, and make it neat for when the super comes to take a look. And I put down some Combat gel. I also got rid of

• Wet grocery bags (which I usually keep around to use for garbage bags, tossing out diapers, etc)
  
• Stencil pattern bought 6+ years ago and never used

More tomorrow. For reals!