Thursday I posted some goals to motivate and track the progress on our house cleaning efforts. Here’s the results at the end of day 4:

1. Feed on God’s Word – Proverbs 31:17, 27 spoke to my heart about the diligence God wants to see in my life. Ecclesiastes 2:17-23 reminds me to keep importance on the eternal while I work on the temporal.

2. Schoolwork – On the applicable days, yes, we got it done.

3. Throw away 16 things a day – Exceeded the “limit” every day….boy we gotta lotta junk!

4. Give away minimum 16 things a day too – Over the top on this one as well so far, with 4 more bags of clothes, and some boxes of toys to take to co-op next week and/or Freecycle.

5. Do something to reorganize/repair the home – Thursday, finished sorting and labeling the “attic clothes”; Friday, pared down some toys, cleaned computer desk; Saturday, got boxes into attic, found more clothes to sort/donate, enjoyed dinner guests that evening; Sunday afternoon, sorted & consolidated 7 boxes (with Chris) from our downstairs hallway, kept 2 1/2 boxes worth

6. Post Progress – Check.

I like elephant stew.

We met with a realtor this morning regarding our plans to try and move into a house that has an in-law apartment sometime this year. She had several practical suggestions, and a few extreme ones, for things we can do to make our house more attractive in this difficult housing market.

I already knew what the biggest issue would be, but that doesn’t make it any less formidable.

We need to seriously declutter and reduce the amount of stuff in here. Gulp.

Ideally we’d like to put our house on the market the beginning of April. Double Gulp.

Precisely five weeks from today, my parents are coming to visit for a week, and we’ll be looking at various houses in the area. Our realtor recommended we not place actual bids on them until my parents’ house in Washington sells, but we will pray and work toward  what needs to happen as that comes. I would like to have our house, if not completely ready to show, very close to it by then.

So here’s my daily plan, to begin to “eat” the house prep elephant:

1. Read my Bible and pray in the morning – Today’s passage, Proverbs 26-27, favorite verse, 27:1 “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.” I commit my plans to You, O God, only You can bring them to completion!

2. Do some school work with the children.

3. Find a minimum of 16 things to throw away.

4. Find a minimum of 16 things to give away or sell (unsold items must be given away within a week.) I have five bags of clothes in the car to go to the donate bin.

5. Do one task to repair or reorganize the home. Today’s: Finish sorting and putting away the children’s clothes in the attic.

6. Post my progress here.