Yppej, it sounds like you got a lot done! Good work!

Catherine, I find having a deadline created by imminent houseguests very helpful. I know what you mean about routines - I need to implement them too - but when I find myself cleaning for visitors, I often think, "Well if all else fails, fear of embarrassment sure is effective!"

I did 4.5 hours today and will have to slow down some now because on Thursday, I leave for a two-week vacation and then the day after I return from that, I'm out of town for another 4 days.

Even though I've gotten a lot done, the second floor of my house looks like a tornado hit it because I'm "organizing," creating piles of like items so that I can figure out places for them. Over the next three days, I'm going to have to organize all those piles into labeled boxes and tidy the whole house because our maid will come while we're gone, and I don't want it to be in her way. Also, psychologically, even if there are a lot of boxes, I need to feel like the house is tidy before I go.

When I get back, I'm going to focus the last 25ish hours on the clutter in the house and not worry too much about the stuff I got out of storage, some of which I just don't know what to do with. My priority right now is to have a clutter-free house and to live in an orderly and nurturing space. It's getting obvious that in the 25 hours I have left, I'm not going to be able to both figure out what to do with the stuff in those last four boxes of stuff from storage AND also deal with the piles of clutter around my house, so I'm going to deal with the house stuff first and allow myself to re-store whatever stuff that was in storage that I haven't been able to make decisions about.

It's disappointing - I feel like if I had four weeks at home before I'm working full-time again instead of just two, I could really get through all of it - but I know I should just be grateful I had this time to get so much done. Patience is hard. I feel like I've been working so hard for so many years on decluttering, and while my progress has been consistent, it's always 3 steps forward and two steps back.

In any case, I know I'll feel better about all of this when I get to the end of the 40 hours. I often feel some despair at this stage.

And on the bright side: the recycling bin outside is full of paper and I've gotten rid of 125 other items this month!

New total: 15.5 hours.