So I’m still behind in finishing last week’s challenge. (And maybe the one from the week before…but I’m not admitting if that’s true or not!)  My life is total chaos right now and I just can’t get my stuff together.  So this one will be easy!

1. Make a meal and double it.  If you make lasagna, do an extra one.  Double a batch of soup or chili.  Or make 2 meatloaves.  Throw the extra in the freezer.  Then when you have a friend in need due to illness, having a baby, death in the family or other hardship you can run it over to them with a bagged salad and some frozen garlic bread and they’ve got a meal ready to go.  Or if you have a particularly busy day, you know there’s something you can make quickly and easily without falling prey to the fast food drive-thru!

2. Find a way for your household to reduce it’s environmental impact.  Whether that be switching to CFL bulbs, making your own environmentally safe cleaners, starting to recycle or recycling more, using cloth instead of disposable for things like napkins and kitchen towels.  Or my personal favorite, switch to cloth diapers. (If you want to try it, I have a dozen infant size DSQ prefolds, a Snappi, 4 Dappi pull on covers and 2 Bummi wraps I can sell you.  No joke.  She has outgrown them and I need the cash to buy some larger ones.  Email me for details if interested. themama at iamthemama dot com)

3. Take an hour or 2 for yourself.  Take a hot bath, get a pedicure, go for a run, or book a massage.  Or whatever sounds like a blissful way to spend some time alone.

Bonus: If there is something you don’t normally do around your house (like mowing or other yardwork, taking out the trash, changing lightbulbs, maintenance, or whatever) do it.  Surprise the person who normally does it with one less thing to do this week.  If you don’t know how to do it, ask them to teach you.  Then you can surprise them another time!

Um, yeah.  I’m embarrassed to say what got done and what didn’t last week, but let’s just say that it involved tons of laundry and little else.  So here’s this week’s list!

1. Finish what you (um, I) didn’t finish last week.

2. Catch up your laundry.  That means *everything* that needs to be washed…down to that one shirt you hate and never want to wear so it lays buried at the bottom of the hamper 99% of the time.  Even that.

3. Once the laundry is caught up, go through your family’s clothes and pack away/take to consignment/donate anything that is too small, outdated, you never wear, etc.  With the changing of the seasons, it’s time for me to put away children’s clothing for future use or to consign, but I know my closet could use a good purge, too.

Bonus: Find a way to honor your mom this week.  Sunday is Mother’s Day.  Send her a card, take the time to call her, or if she’s not here any more place flowers on her grave or take a few minutes to talk to her.  She’ll hear you.

With many months of morning sickness and exhaustion, then having a new baby, I had stopped doing the weekly challenges.  And my house is a wreck!  So I’m going to start it back up.  I would love to hear suggestions from people as to what you’d like to see included.  For now, I’m going to just do things that need to be done at my house.  I’m a little embarrassed to admit some of these things, but maybe that will help hold me accountable!

1. Clean your glass doors, inside and out.  I have a huge sliding glass door and 2 storm doors that are looking pretty funky.

2. If you have maternity clothes in your closet and are not currently pregnant, pack them up and put them away.

3. Toss all of your uneaten leftovers that are long past being edible.

Bonus: Spend 15 minutes on a room that you would be embarrassed for other people to see.

This is back after a 2 week hiatus while the kids had pneumonia!

1. Set a timer for 15 minutes and spend that time cleaning/straightening in a room that needs a lot of help. If you can, do it several times this week.

2. Wash all of your comforters, blankets, quilts, shams, and similar items. Pillows, too.

3. Clean your window treatments. Dust the blinds and take down curtains and sheers and wash them, etc. While the curtains are off the rods, dust the rods. Shower curtains, too!

Bonus/Alternate: Make the smallest room in your house (probably a closet, bathroom, or utility room) the cleanest. My small master bath is a disaster because nobody ever sees it, so I’m going to take some time and really clean it up!

A day late, but here you go. If there are specific things you need to work on, let me know in the comments and I’ll incorporate it into future challenges.

1. Find 25 things in your house to get rid of. Give them away, donate them, or just throw them in the trash, but get them out of your way. This can be anything from toys, to clothes, to a piece of junk mail.

2. Clean your kitchen. This includes all dirty dishes, even if they have to be hand washed. Clean off the countertops. Clean the appliances. If you’re really ambitious, go through your cabinets and make sure you don’t have anything you don’t use taking up space.

3. Clean your light fixtures. Dust your ceiling fans. Make sure you take the globes off and wash them to get all of the dust and bugs out. Replace any bulbs that are burned out. (If you use CFLs, be careful not to break them as they contain mercury. If you don’t use CFLs, consider the benefits of switching to them.)

Bonus! Find a new recipe to try. If you want, post it in the comments below. I love to try new things!

A message board I post at has recently started having a “weekly challenge” for those of us who live in utter chaos most of the time. Actually, I started it and it’s been a good thing for me. I’m motivated to do some things in the house I wouldn’t otherwise do. I thought I’d carry it over here and post the list each week. So here’s challenge #1!

1. Go through your personal care products (hair care, cleansers, facial products, make up, etc.) and toss anything you don’t use regularly. If you don’t want to toss it, offer it to a women’s shelter, a teenager or someone else who likes to experiment with products.

2. Now that the seasons are changing, pack up any winter clothes you don’t expect to wear until next year and put them away. Alternately, pack up and give away (or store for the next one!) the kid’s winter clothes that have been outgrown. Put away the coats, boots, mittens, scarves, hats, etc.

3. Find a surface in your home that collects junk. Desk, counter, dresser, entertainment center or whatever. Clean it up. Come up with a plan to deal with the junk before it piles up. A basket to hold mail, a folder for the kid’s school papers, a hook to hang the keys or your purse on, etc.

Bonus! Once you’ve done all of this, treat yourself. Have a glass of wine while you relax and watch your favorite TV show. Go get a pedicure. Take a long, hot bath with a good book. Go out to dinner with a friend. Do something you enjoy and don’t feel guilty about it.

Post a comment and let me know how you did and how you rewarded yourself!