Hot Mess to Home Success Didn’t Work for Me

(And it’s still not working – but I’m not giving up yet!)

Do you ever get excited about starting a new system, but it just doesn’t seem to take off and you start to lose interest? That’s my story so far with Hot Mess to Home Success.

The first time I tried the course, I tried to move quickly through all the tedious parts and the parts that I thought didn’t apply to my particular situation. Honestly, I was trying to take it kind of slow in general (because you’re supposed to go slow) but in a sense I was also trying to GO FAST so I didn’t have to keep paying for the subscription… lol.

It didn’t work.

What I learned from Hot Mess to Home Success was inspirational but didn’t turn into real-life progress (understandably so). I figure I skimmed through things too quickly and didn’t give it an honest shot.

So this time — with lifetime access and no subscription, as I mention in a prior post — I decided to be super thorough and go through each step carefully, making sure I completed every piece and wrapped up any loose ends before moving on to the next step.

Can you guess what happened?

Momentum issues.

I partially did Step 0 (Before Pictures) but I didn’t want to use the prescribed format — which was posting a video — so I just took pictures. I thought to properly complete Step 0 I should make sure the pictures were in a polished format and saved in a useful place so I would know where to find them when it came time for “after” photos.

When I was thinking about what kind of “polished” photos I would feel comfortable posting, I had the bright idea to have ChatGPT cartoonize them, but after a few back-and-forths and a successful rendition of one photo, I lost steam and never circled back. So I’m still stuck in the middle of Step 0. 😬

Did I mention I’m an overthinker?

Despite my best intentions to complete each step before moving on to the next, I had worked on Step 0 long enough that I decided to move on to Step 1 (Create a Stockroom), but then I got stuck making my stockroom list because it was taking forever to decide what brands of items to include and what stores to get them from.

Did I mention I overthink things?

So after spending an inordinate amount of time on Step 0 and Step 1, I had nothing to show for my efforts and my house was not any cleaner. This approach started to seem unsustainable, so I decided to look ahead to see when I would start to see some fruit for my labor.

Scanning through the Hot Mess for Home Success lesson titles, Rosemarie doesn’t even get to laundry or dishes until Steps 9 and 10 — are you kidding me? That’s supposed to be ~5-10 weeks down the road. And Cleaning isn’t until Steps 23-24. I’m sure she has her reasons, but I can’t wait that long for some wins, y’all.

I need some wins RIGHT NOW. I need to be able to check some things off a list that are ACTUALLY HELPING me in the here and now, rather than neglecting things that would actually help (like tidying up the house) so I can try to make progress on Step 0 and Step 1 which aren’t helping me right now.

So you know what? I’m going to bring in some Dana K. White to help me along the way. Dana is another blogger (and author) that I’ve enjoyed following, and she has a daily checklist to help with basics like dishes and laundry and tidying up, which I need for my sanity right now!

I’m going to make a daily checklist a la Dana – hers is here if you’re interested.

Here’s mine for now (subject to change):

• 5 minutes on laundry (any laundry anywhere counts)
• 5 minutes on dishes/kitchen counters
• 5 minute general tidy
• Review calendars and to-dos for upcoming items
• Make bed
• Tomorrow outfit
• 5 minutes on blog
• 5 minutes on Hot Mess to Home Success

This way, I can check off a basic sanity list while plinking my way through the Hot Mess to Home Success steps, because I do believe some of them will be valuable… eventually. Here’s hoping!

Optional challenge for my readers: For anyone who wants to join me in turning plans into progress, feel free to make your own list of sanity-preserving to-dos and post it in the comments (or post a comment saying you did!).

As always, if you want to see more posts like this, subscribe below!

Note: The names of the Steps listed above are publicly available as Lesson titles in the link to the lifetime access version of the Hot Mess to Home Success course in this prior post.

Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash