More Baby Steps

I've had a few baby steps myself. Since moving to this cinder block rectangle of an apt. I've been completely frustrated with my lack of ability to keep a decent looking home. At first I blamed it on shape and style of the apartment; but, with further investigation I've realized it goes much deeper than that. My first problem is the habit of picking up after myself AND baby. The second problem is "seeing" the mess. I can just feel something out of place and uncomfortable. So, for the last 4 months I've been searching for ideas and inspiration. Luckily for me, my church's women's organization (called Relief Society) put an activity together for people like me! We tour a couple of people's apartments whom have a talent for home-making. The ideas I came forward with were to add non-flouresent lighting, a rug, and curtains. Then we made these tiles together. You could pick from many styles and sayings. It was great fun! But that just seemed a bandaid solution for my problem. It seems that any horizontal surface gets covered within a matter of hours with paraphenelia. I think if have a spot everything belongs to, it may help.....I'm still working on that one. Currently I'm trying to instil the habit of picking up after myself 100%. For example, after breakfast, the milk, bowl, and cereal get put away, but somehow that spoon survives. Or the wipes that get left behind. Every week, I'll pick a new object that I will conciously put away. Last week was the remote controls, this week is wiping off Eden's eating tray. We'll see how it turns out in another month or two.