First!

Let's hear it for clean air and healthy livin'!

May your grout be as removable as your ripples are positive!

Hi Laurie, great stuff from your posts always help me on my journey. Today is an amazing example. I am working on the "showing" up part myself! One of these days I am going to drive north and attend that SNB some Saturday. I hope I am lucky enough to meet you! Thanks for the laughs and soul "finding" as opposed to "searching"! Barbara

beautifully stated, as always. i'll be painting and cleaning in my house this weekend as part of a larger effort to get more organized and to make my environment more pleasant. i'll be thinkin' about you out there in CA doing the same. good luck!

I bought one of those grout remover tools but it didn't work. What worked? A flat head screw driver.

Good for you for living in the moment, it really is the only time to live.

Happy Friday and have a good weekend fixing up the castle. You are the Queen (or King if you want) of Encino Adjacent!

I ordered my dozen of hard to find air filters size 14x30 from Home Depot. They are the best and my home improvement center!

You are just amazing....Since your original post about waiting for your life to happen, I made major changes in my life to stop that process. I began to brighten up my house, to go forward as if that is my HOME and not a stop-off. Amazing things have happened in the weeks since that change in attitude and action. My life is brighter than it has been in many, many years, icluding a "new" man (but life did become a lot brighter before that happened) who I have known and been attracted to for 15-20 years...HE called me out of the blue, the time is right for us,and we have been joyously seeing each other.
Thank you for the awareness and I wish all the same brightness in your life...good luck with your DIY projects this weekend.

I agree with Drew. Make the effort and at least go through the motions at first if that's all a person can manage. It will get easier with practice and those positive vibes will find their way back!

That's what I've had to do. Some days take more effort than others but it's always worth it. *WE* are always worth it!

Laurie - great post! I know exactly what you're talking about, and I hope all those ripples bring some fabulous things to your shore. Love the Frankie + Bob pic - kitty love is the best!

Laurie, your blog is such an uplifting part of my day! I, too, will be painting this weekend (kitchen and dining room a nice relaxing shade of light green). I even re-wired my grandparent's old marble lamp last night for the living room! Just have to find a shade for it now. I just want to pull my house together and make it look more...homey. You know. It has white walls everywhere...which is boring and cold. I want to warm it up and make it feel like one of those dream homes in the magazines we all drool over! Now if I could just add more hours in the day...

Good for you. Do all your cats groom one another, or is one more interested in taking care of his/her brothers/sisters? One of our three is definitely in charge of grooming siblings. Just seems to be her thing. Sweet kitties.

Awwww, Frankie helping with the cleaning just makes my day!! You, as always, are the Dalai Lama meets Erma Bombeck! Have a great weekend and thank you!

I like the "if you show up for a thing" idea. Of course, last night I showed up for Cirque du Soleil only to find out that my ticket was for the previous night. I guess not showing up on Wednesday was the Universe's first clue that I shouldn't be let in the door (well, tent, technically).

Thank you for the pep talk this morning, Laurie. I'm trying to stay in the moment...it's a struggle not keeping up with all the worrying about "what might happen" future events....in my heart of hearts I do know you're right...you have to make a decision to be content, to face the day with optimism, and get on with the joy of just living...here I go, a bit more secure for having read your post!

Just so you know it is a good idea to change your filter every month when you get your electric bill. That way you always have a clean filter -- dirty filters drive your heating/cooling costs up.

Awww, look at Frankie helping to get the family in Clean House mode. I need Rex to be more helpful like that.

Drew is very wise. And deep too it seems. Good luck with your house this weekend!!!

Oh fine.
Now it's about my awareness that I'm worth having this picture actually on the wall instead of resting on my desk LEANING on the wall.
Yes, I AM worth it. And will try to make myself treat myself better by getting off my duff (where I'm sitting knitting away and watching stuff I DVR'd in July) and actually fetching the picture hangers and the hammer....

Are you a good witch or a bad witch?

I'm torn between my utter disdain of all things motivational-self-helpy and my deep desire to clean my house and make it worthy of me.

I think housecleaning wins.

Hey, great post! I've had a crappy day today (for various reasons, which makes it even worse), but I'll be thinking about this over the weekend. I think it will help :)

Hi there,

Love your blog and words of wisdom. My sister-in-law used a small piece of wood with a nail driven into one end to clean the grout. She said it worked wonderfully (the nail fit inbetween the tiles perfectly) and no worries about ruining a screwdriver.

You also have the cutest cats in the world!

I just spent an hour scrubbing BY HAND the floor of my laundry room. And then I scrubbed the garbage bin. I even scrubbed the insides and outsides of the cat door. That's more exercise than I've done in YEARS (seriously)!!

I have you, Laurie and Kim and Aggie to thank for my new cleaning spurt. (isn't SPURT a funny and sometimes nasty word??) (and yes, I am a pre-teen boy sometimes)

Good luck with you house this weekend....I'll be doing the same thing!! Also, I'm so proud of you!!

PS: check out my blog for pictures of the storm damage in my neighborhood from last night. It skipped right over my house (knocking wood)!

Great post, chicky! You just summed up "the laws of attraction". Keep it up and more wonderful things are certain to follow!!! :)

showing up for happiness in my life...i needed to hear that today! thanks!

Eh. Fagittaboutit. The home improvement stuff, I mean. Go for the Fibre Fair in Santa Monica. They're gonna have llama llama llamas and stuff...

I just did...errr...handed the cleaning lady a check my mom wrote for the twice-a-month housecleaning. ;)

But, I had to clear all the crap out of my bedroom so that she could vaccuum...vacuum? vacuumm (how do you spell that darn word?) my room.

and I got my mommy to wash my sheets for me too. (they were finished and dry just in time for the cleaning lady to put them back on my bed before she left. yay!)

One of these days I'm going to hopefully get my own house and then I'll have to make sure I keep it clean and tidy and hopefully icky critter free. I actually hope this happens soon (I'll have to win Powerball to do it tho) because I've got all sorts of ideas in my head for how I'd decorate my house and what kinds of neat furniture I'd have and I'd definately have pictures on my walls. (my parents have this weird fear of pictures and picture frames)

I want to have a big craft room to keep my yarn and crochet hooks and knitting needles and sewing machine and fabric...and of course it'll have cable tv and at least one computer in the room. I'll have rose bushes in my yard and a covered front porch with a swing to sit on.

The most important thing is to have the craft room...I MUST have a huge room to sit in and crochet/knit in. If I'm lucky enough to have at least a two bedroom house, the master bedroom will probably be the craft room.

That's how I justify my gelato purchases. I deserve it.

you know, if i lived closer to you i would come down and hang some pictures with you! i love doing that kind of stuff. and maybe you could teach me to knit! anyway, thanks for your message today, i totally agree with drew and try to keep my thoughts focused on these things, just do the next right thing, with good intentions in your heart (as I know you do!) it all works out!

hugs!

I've lived in my house for 13 years and still haven't hung many pictures. Do you think it's time? I need to take lessons from you. Please continue to share about living your great life. Thanks! :-)

Thanks, Laurie, for your insight and eloquence...

Well, in honor of you I filled a sink full of bleachy suds and cleaned the gaskets on my fridge, which looked like they were getting moldy and mildewy. They are shiny clean now. :)

My SO will never notice, but I've decided that doesn't matter. I did it for ME.

Time to bust open a new box of fine wine!

Have a great weekend!
.

Ooo you just reminded me that we need air filters for the furnace. Thanks.

I hope that you can accomplish a lot this weekend. Not just the house cleaning, but also the cleansing and organization inside yourself as well.

If I was there right now I would give ya a big inapropriate {{{{{HUG}}}}}.

The handyman I had hired to regrout my kitchen tiles used a really nifty, cheap tool to get the old grout out: a churchkey-type bottle opener, the kind with the pointy end! I just bought me a bunch of them cause THIS time I'm going to regrout the damn stuff myself!

That Drew is a wise one!! I love that thought about the universe and sending a positive vibe out, just by showing up.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't mis-read a rather important part of your post. "Positive nipples," indeed. It intrigued me immensely, I must admit.

Still, the sentiment's the same. I imagine lots of people would rather be around a person sending out positive nipples. Negative ones sound...painful.

Laurie:

Oh, how you inspire! Since your "not waiting anymore for your life to begin" piece, I started to make major changes in mine. Afterall, what is the sense of waiting for it to happen someday? Now my place is slowly but decidedly morphing into "Comfy & Nice Home". I cleaned & purged & repaired all last weekend, and even though it later required a visit to the chiropractor, it was well worth it. I actually found out just how much yarn is in my stash. That was scary!

Drew is right - just keep putting yourself out there, Laurie, on the path, step by step, and changes will happen and goals will be acheived. And thanks for reminding us of the truth of it.

By the way, did you have any success finding the grout thingy at Home Depot? That task is next on my list, too, and I need such a thingy - the proper tool for the job, even if it hasn't a proper name.

You know, I was just bemoaning the fact that blog writing encourages drama and the woe-is-me. It's so fabulous to read compelling posts that are positive and make me wish for a life and an outlook like yours! Thank you.

Last night I broke a butter knife cutting butter.

It's been a bad week, and I've been taking control at night by de-cluttering and cleaning. Helps me breathe easier. Thanks for the wonderful example!

Laurie, what Drew said is true and it is like a snowball, the more you treat yourself to life, the more you will get used to it! What the heck are you removing grout from? That sounds like a landlord job to me!. Hope you have a great weekend! Take a popsicle break now and again to keep cool.

Molly

ps. I also wanted you to know that our dear Chester joined Roy at the Rainbow Bridge.

Espresso the cat loves to groom her much larger, very-furry sister. Of course, this means she barfs up the most hairballs. And of course, she is the one cat who doesn't like any of the hairball remedies.

not $5--but well worth owning, is a rotary tool.

it is one of those tools you don't own, and can't think why you should, but once you own one, you find its one of the most useful tools in the world!

its light weight (so easy to use) versital, and powerful.

one attachment is a jig for removing grout (in minutes, not weeks!) it hold the tool at the proper angle, and proper depth, and all you do is drag it..

it great for fine detailed work of all sorts.

I LOVE mine, my Daughter LOVES HER's (a gift from me) and so does my DIL. with attachments (like a grout remover) its about $50 --but its worth every penny!

I love that easily fantasized about future.
I am skinny and oh so estatically happy.
My grout is self cleaning, as are my air filters
and yarn is free! Wahoo!

I agree. We are buying a house in Ventura that needs A LOT of cleaning (basically was abandoned & is in forclosiure) and I'm thinking of that job as "I'm WORTH a lovely clean home" & it's a fresh start.

Thanks, Laurie. I so needed to hear this today.

well I say, skip the grout replacement and go get a pedicure!

Drew is so right.

You go, girl!

HA!!! HEAD START!!!! LMAO!

I'm a sucker for cheesy puns.

Saw a plaque in a magazine with a quote that spoke to me and seems appropriate to todays blog and comments. "It's never too late to live happily ever after." On your mark, get set, go!

Why is everyone trying to remove grout? Isn't grout required to hold the tiles in place or something?

Dremel tool. For the grout. There's an attachment. Very, very satisyfying for us OCD types and the Dremel makes it much, much quicker.

LOVE the kitty grooming picture. At our house, Jigsaw and Seven are in charge of grooming their housemates.

Also motivated to do some majore cleaning and organizing this weekend because we may have some friends and relatives out of New Orleans up here, if Dean keeps veering westward.

God I hate hurricanes.

Laurie, when you're done with the air filter, maybe can you take Faith some chicken soup for me? Or vegetable soup if she's a vegetarian.... Or maybe good, cold gazpacho? Whatever. Anyway, her bruised ribs need friends.... unless she says they don't.... then, forget about it altogether!

OMG I thought that was "positive nipples" too when I first read it! Glad I wasn't the only one! ROFL!
.

Best of luck this weekend in making your life the way you want it *now*, instead of waiting for it. Just by realizing that, you are way ahead of so many of us. I hope it's a great, productive weekend.

HOW? How do you keep coming up with so many good ideas to keep on keeping on?? I just can't--but you make me want to.....

A razor blade works wonderfully for removing old caulking (if that's really what you want to remove instead of the grout between the actual tiles). Start with that and then move on to the screwdriver for getting out the chunks.

But I only suggest this if you're not too clumsy. Cutting off a finger would really ruin your motivation to hang pictures!

I just did this a while back (removed caulk, not a finger) and kept making myself laugh when I tried very hard to pronounce the L in caulk, so I didn't accidentally say cock (but, apparently, I've got no problem typing it).

Love your blog, been reading it a while. I think your take on life recently has been great and motivating for the rest of us! I too have been a 'holder on' to stuff so I know where you're coming from. Of course while you're talking about fixing your issues I'm talking about strutting down the runway of life with your skirt tucked into your pantyhose. Not quite as inspiring. :)

Keep up the good work.

Thank you thank you thank you. It's time I let you know how much you are inspiring me and helping me. I, too, just remind myself that I deserve the best. In my case, it's been health issues, one after another it seems, and I recently chose to feel discouraged. But no more. My down feelings came from not wanting to upset/aggravate my family. At the same time, I deserve the best health care and I'm going out there and getting it . . . for me AND for my family.

Again, thank you.

Hey Laurie,
since your last "I do deserve a nice and clean and cozy home, and I do deserve the effort"-post I joined flylady.com and am amazed at the changes going on in my appartment...
After about two weeks of consistent, but not back-wracking work, every room is clean and tidy, and there´s no clutter left. And no big cleaning adventures left for the weekends. Today´s post now reminds me of all the niceties out there (not only tools- but flowers, pictures, colors, all the love I can do to my home and me).
It´s definitely Dalai Lama meeting said Erma.

And I read "positive nipples" too. Perhaps all due to uranus, who knows? In several odd angles...
Love from Germany,
Gina

Hey Laurie,

It's Saturday night now here in Australia, and I, like you, started cleaning today. Feels sooooooo good. I've applied for a new job, that if I get it will be moving to the States for a month for training. I suddenly realised....crap....my mother will be visiting while I'm away to water my plants....and I really don't want her to see it in the bad way it was. The kitchen is now in a reasonable state (except for the floor) and the rest of the flat is on it's way. Here's to cleanliness and new starts.

Now...what's in my stash that I can clear out so when I'm in the USA I can buy some more!!!

Tina

Too damned hot to clean this week. 106 degrees (real temp, not heat index) in the mid-south this week. I'm SO not used to it. Add to the humidity and all I want to be is a slug. Maybe this week will be better. If not, I'll just have to refer back to your cleaning inspirationals for a booster shot of motivation.

As always, you rock !

Cheers,
margaritavillian

It's kind of hard to remove grout over a large area. The grout removing tools are pretty much designed for removing grout around one or two tiles to replace them. They sell attachments for Rotozips, Dremels and such, but that whole setup is kinda pricey. And you can chip the tile.

Or did you want to clean the grout? Post more details please! If I lived closer, I'd come and help you.

Thank you for that. Really, thank you.

Best of luck with the grout. I hear it's pretty easy, but messy.

Here's to positive changes. May they be plentiful.

Laurie, congratulations! You are now an official SOB. No, seriously.

My blog buddy Liz Strauss was looking for recommendations for her weekly SOB designation, which she awards to Successful, Outstanding Bloggers. I suggested she make Crazy Aunt Purl an SOB ... and now you are one.

The link is here: http://www.successful-blog.com/1/thanks-to-week-95-sobs/

Of course, Liz responded by announcing publicly on Twitter than I have a Crazy Aunt who is an SOB. Actually, I have several crazy aunts, but none of them are bloggers. :)

Looking forward to your book!

What Drew said reminds me of the smartest thing Woody Allen ever said....98% of life is showing up.

Have a great weekend :)

Damn right! I'm so happy for you getting on. I'm moving forward along with you. I'm painting this weekend. I'm getting cramps in my legs just taping off the damn ceiling, but I'm worth an awesome room and the experience of painting it myself. And so are you.

yes, Yes, YES!!!! A friend of mine has just begun an intense doctor-regimented diet- 900 calories (in their packaged food) a day! Her family, not super supportive "you'll just fail at this too." I' have been wracking my brain for the right thing to tell her when she calls at the end of the day to say it's been tough, and she wants real food, but she hasn't had any. I wrote down the "if you show up....pebble in a pond." thing to share with her!! Yay! CAP my self-help/friend-help GURU!!!!

You inspired me -- we cleaned out the garage today.
Took a pickup truck load of stuff to the dump.
Ya-hoo!!

Great post Laurie. I went through a decluttering phase a while back, and saw great improvements in my life. Too bad I let it reclutter again! I truly despise organized cleaning. You are inspiring.

And have you LOOKED around Home Depot?! Mostly men, roaming the isle. I would say THAT is putting yourself "in the path" as well. You never know. You might need to talk to several people about grout, and "thingamogings" to find exactly what you are looking for. : )

no kidding, i really don't know...why is everyone removing grout?

here's the thing...i know i'm a very poor housekeeper, but to suddenly learn that there's an entire task i wasn't even aware i *should* be doing, is kind of scary :(

Can't clean this weekend, I'm doing my homework. (Also, I'm not reading your post, I'm doing my homework.) But next weekend - look out, cobwebs!

Hi Laurie! Long time reader, but also a long time lurker.

I don't know if you've ever heard of Questionable Content, but it is a web comic that I love. One of the characters is very much OCD and they currently have a t-shirt for sale, based on the character, that I thought you would love.

http://www.questionablecontent.net/merch.php#hannershirt - that's the url for the t-shirt.

You might not be able to purchase it til you can worry again, but no one said anything about not shopping, right?

Laurie -
I'm joining the other post-ers here in saying that you've inspired us to pursue our own worthiness.

No big leaps here - just a box, or a corner, drawer, project at a time. I only focus on one little thing, yet I can see the accomplishments adding up, and it feels great!

It reminds me of the old, corny joke: Q: How do you eat an elephant? A: One bite at a time.
So that's my life right now. Just one big, slow elephant-feast. (errr - not that I would really eat an elephant....)

And - I love.LOVE. Lurve! your post of Frankie and Bob - and especially the corny caption on it! "Head start" hee hee!

I hope you had a great, self-helpy kind of weekend
~julianne

I was inspired. For the past month or so I've been cleaning up our tiny ass 800 square foot house. The basement that has held boxes since we moved and we routinely "threw stuff down to" has been cleaned. The house now still looks lived in, but a clean lived in. I also decided to stop waiting until I had a bigger house to throw a party and just do it. Saturday we had about 17 people over (including ourselves). I set up mis-matched tables and whatever chairs I could find in the back yard, kept the pre-prepared food in the kitchen on the table (we don't have a dining room), and made sure there was plenty of home made sangria. The mosquitos were a pain but other than that things went much better than I thought they would. I'm not afraid to entertain anymore!!

MandyU

Gosh, Laurie, your timing is awesome! Wanna be my guru?

It just totally sucks that we don't ALL have Drew for a friend!!!! Sounds like he knows of what he speaks.

Hey Laurie,

Thanks for the postitive thinking stuff, even if I am a week late to get it. :)

You're right, you ARE worth a clean house ... you've given me a lot of incentive and motivation to take better care of, and be more interested in, my own.

Hear hear!