I'm Having a Party Tonight

Does the thought of having people over to your house freak you out? Flylady calls that CHAOS - Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome. Before I came up with my cleaning and decluttering system, I used to do that too. Having guests over was a virtual guarantee of several days of panicky activity as I would run around doing crisis cleaning and yelling at my family the whole time. But now it's no big deal and I have company over all the time. It's fabulous!

We're having about 12 to 15 people over for New Year's and getting ready for it was pretty easy. Even with it being on a weekday after a whole day of work. All I really had to do was stick to my daily routines. That took care of the basics like dishes, laundry, and making beds. Then I used my 15 minute clean-up time to clean one room each morning and delegated another one to my husband when he got home. His TV room was in pretty bad shape, so I'm sure it took more than 15 minutes, but he did a great job on it and it will be all set for a week or two. It took the boys a bit longer than that to do the downstairs family room, but that's Matt's fault. I swear that boy simply explodes when he hits a room! His keys are in one place, his wallet is in another and his shoes, CD's and magazines are everywhere. I guess that's a teenager for you!

Matt is in charge of floors, so I've had him doing a bit of sweeping and mopping in different areas every night and Blake has been keeping up on the trash and the cat boxes. All I had to do was do a bit of dusting, clear some everyday stuff off the kitchen counters and give the bathrooms a quick scrub. Then I can spend a couple of hours this evening setting up tables and chairs and preparing the food and still be nice and fresh to enjoy my evening with my guests.

This is exactly what I try to teach in my classes. I've spent too many Saturdays frantically scrubbing and cleaning to want anyone else to have to go through that hassle again. With the daily routines I teach, along with proper decluttering and learning how to get your family on board, having friends and family over can be fun and virtually stress-free. Click HERE to get more info on my new round of classes starting in January.