Dear Friends,

Happy Friday! This week has seemed long to me as we have anticipated the arrival of hurricane Florence off the coast of North Carolina. As I sit here on Thursday, the sun is shining, and it is beautiful outside. Inside my house, my zone missions for the week are done. How did you do with your missions?

Each day we did a quick mission in the bathroom, and sometimes the missions are so simple that you just skip them. How could it possibly help your home to spend a few minutes decluttering the flat surfaces in your bathroom or doing a Hot Spot Drill in the Living Room?

In your mind, a simple mission is just too easy. You want a long, complicated formula to help you declutter and maintain your home. But you don’t have time for a long, complicated mission. So what do you do?

Today I want you to do the two zone missions that are listed. I don’t want you to beat yourself up for the other things you see that you wish you did this week. I just want you to enjoy the moment of accomplishment for today.

Next week, I will have more simple daily missions for you, and I want to you to strive daily to do them. You only need 10 to 15 minutes a day for your zone missions.

Your Home Blessings are equally as important as your zone missions, and they help you have a clean home with minimal time spent on cleaning. Each Home Blessing should take between 5 minutes and 10 minutes. If you have a two-level home, you will need to budget a little more time to complete them. Or you can include your family when you do them.

Today’s Home Blessings are the big ones for me. The boys are a huge help to me. We divide and conquer! Each of us will take an area and gather trash. They will take all of the bags outside and sort out the trash and recyclable items. My husband will take it off to the local convenience center for disposal and recycling.

Our other big mission is to do the floors. One person will sweep, and a second person will follow with the mop. For our 1,000 square foot lower level, it takes 20 minutes to do this. There are a few things that help us go this quickly. First, we have two people working together, and second, we keep the floors picked up daily.

Send me pictures of your progress this week!

Today’s Zone Mission is to clear off the flat surfaces in your main bathroom and do a quick Hot Spot Drill in the Living Room.

Your Home Blessing for today is to empty the trash, sweep, and mop.

My menu plan for Friday is stir fry.

Have a wonderful weekend!