Hello, everyone,

It's great to read all the messages and see the activity and support that's
going on in this group. I am so thankful to have found the group, and things
are going so much better in my home these days. It's by no means "finished,"
but it is soooo much more comfortable than even just a few weeks ago.

I am now on my second revision of a task list for my refrigerator. I listed
tasks down the left side, and labeled a column for each month of July, August,
and September. Tasks are broken into groups based on frequency: daily, weekly,
bi-weekly, monthly. Each morning or evening I check the sheet to see what I'm
supposed to do that day, and I put checks beside each task as I complete it.
This is working great for me. Plus, on Sundays, I listed in weekly tasks
"Complete one special project." I figure this can serve to move me farther
along in the overall decluttering effort. My first special project for this
Sunday will be to declutter a bureau that we use to store mail and papers in the
kitchen.

I want to say to other new people, just start somewhere. I don't think it
matters, as long as you start. I had to give myself permission to stop if I got
frustrated. I said to myself, I will only work until I'm ready to stop, and
found that as long as it was ok to stop if I got too upset, I actually could
keep going much longer.

I have had housework make an absolute monster of me at times. I would get so
angry and upset, for example, trying to clean a really stained bathtub, that if
anyone spoke to me I would just nearly lose my mind. It's probably a
personality disorder or something, because it surely doesn't make any sense, and
is not reasonable. I know that cleaning the bathtub doesn't make most people
feel that way. So that's why I say, if I start getting upset, I can stop, and
that's ok. I can calm down for 15 minutes, or 30 minutes, or eight hours -
however long it takes - and then go back to the task when I feel that I can
manage it.

I hope this helps someone. This group has been so helpful to me, I really want
to repay the favor. I am so happy that my home is looking better, and that my
husband is pleased, and that I wouldn't have to be so terribly embarrassed if
someone were to come into my living room. All these things are like gifts.

Thank you all,

Janie