28 Day Reboot

In February of 2024 I hosted a Poem a Day in February (PaDiF), complete with contests and prizes that went in the mail each week. While being caught up in that I had the idea to join a 28-day reboot, because I was getting behind on my housework and that is not only because of PaDiF.

I love it! I get messages like, Julie said, “You are never behind, and you are never in competition!” Or, in Organize Like a Boss, (OLAB) I started giving away three pairs of shoes for every pair of shoes I buy! I had way too many shoes! I am now 70 years old, and I still have about 25 pairs of shoes.

My husband called me Imelda Marcos, the First Lady of the Philippines, who had a room full of shoes. I have more shoes to get rid of. I think it helped to figure out why I had a shoe thing. My mother would get one pair of shoes a year as a kid and said how she used to sleep with her shoes.

I thought I may run out of shoes, but no. I decided to stop when I got to the “necessary pairs”. Winter, spring, summer and fall shoes. Slip-on dressier shoes, bedroom slippers, crocks, tennis shoes, western boots, motorcycle boots/shoes, water shoes/socks, snow boots.

No heels! All my heels are gone!

I turn my hangers with clothes on around once a year. Then in a year, I give them to the salvation army. It has worked really well. I am pleased with several other things too.

So back to the 28-day reboot! I recommend it! Week one is the kitchen. So, it has been extra but not huge projects. Very helpful, not just a temporary fix but long term as others have been!

The program is great! The support and cheerleading are all helpful. Things I would have never come up with on my own, that really do make a huge difference.

Buddies are important and I have only started with a buddy. The encouragement and trading progress is helpful. I have had buddies on OLAB and for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and it made so much difference in the process of writing 50,000 words in a month.

Before children, I had a house you could eat off the floor as it was kept so clean. People smoked in my house and most others when I was in my late teens, early 20s and I was washing ashtrays constantly as even though I smoked too I hated the smell of ashtrays.

Thankfully, no more ashtrays.

Once children came along, my habits changed. I think I can say I went to the other extreme. I couldn’t stay there, and I couldn’t afford to pay someone to clean, so I did get better, but never so obsessive or compulsive about cleaning again.

When you get to be my age, and have lived in the same place since 1997, there is a whole lot of things stored here. The other thing is, who is going to clean it out when I’m no longer here?

The hubby and I have talked about traveling in a travel trailer, or at least trying it out. Then he says we have too much stuff! He doesn’t want to leave our house in the winter. He is concerned we would come back to a big mess. Frozen pipes. That is the time to do the travel trailer thing though.

So, for my part I am starting the decluttering process with the help of the 28-day reboot and OLAB. So far, so good. It feels a bit like a boot camp. If I understand what that is. Google says something like this: a short, intense, rigorous training in a few weeks.

Not quite that, but it has some things that can be that way if we want them to be! It really is up to us. Less on some things and more on others is okay! Spending time getting things done each day is a good thing. Developing habits during this process is so valuable. And will last a lifetime!

And I think it is a good idea for me to make this as much of a bootcamp as I can! I will remember the sign in the picture above and tell myself to get shit done!

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First published in Badform in medium.com