How to get Donna to Shine Her Sink

It's FlyLady Friday! And How does one get Donna to shine her friggin' sink?

Two words...American Idol...Spencer wanted to watch American Idol (his homework was done)...I did not. (Before you say anything about being the parent, putting your foot down and blah blah blah, read on.)

I absolutely, postively hate this show. Especially these first few shows where they are going to different cities and sitting through thousands of awful singers. And they are awful. Like fingernails scraping a chalkboard (are there even any chalkboards left?).

Add to that little equation the fact that our cable company has finally realized their mistake (after 6 years) and cut off the extended cable. I'd been paying for basic cable, did not ask for extended cable, came home one day and POOF! we had extended cable - FREE TRIAL OFFER! When the offer ended, I contacted the cable company and requested to remain at the basic level. It was not changed. I went back and forth with them and with the next company that bought them out and with the next company that bought them out. After about 6 months of this, I gave up. You want to be stupid and give me something for free? That's YOUR problem buddy. I tried, really I did. Oh, and I WILL NOT be upgrading, so don't even start calling me. And Spencer? You can stop with the puppy eyes, I'm not caving.

But now I ramble. Long story short, there was nothing I wanted to watch on TV these past few nights that didn't reside above Channel 36 (the cut-off for basic cable). So I went into the kitchen and started cleaning. And went to the bedroom and started decluttering, and etc etc etc. It still doesn't look like I've done anything, but I guess I'm making progress. There are less things in the apartment now then there were a few days ago.

Things I've noticed (besides the fact that I'm a packrat):

1. I like paper. I must. There are piles of it everywhere.
2. I like boxes. I must. There are stacks of them everywhere.
3. Spencer doesn't like the brown carpet. He must not. You can't see it in his room. The floor is completely covered with clothes and other pre-teen crap.

Things to do this weekend:

1. Fill up the recycle bin in the parking garage with all the paper we'll be throwing out.
2. Get rid of one stack of boxes.
3. Lock Spencer in his room and don't let him out until I can at least see a 4ft X 4ft patch of the ugly brown carpet.

Like FlyLady says: It didn't get cluttered up in a few hours, it will take more than that to de-clutter and organize it.

We'll have plenty of time for this too. All the good TV is on the channels above 36, so we can't get sucked into TV watching.

Good thing the Bears game is on a network channel...

(I will be taking breaks from the cleaning this weekend, so if I win the coin toss and get to use the computer, I will FINALLY post about Cherry and teaching her to knit. Oh yeah, and my 1st FO of the year too!)