I want to be organized. It is truly a desire that I have. I LOVE when things are tidy and easy to find. However, I typically don't keep things that way for long. I start off with everything exactly in it's place, and before long I've rushed to grab something, or to put something back, hurricane Karsyn rips through the room, and everything has gone back to one big mess. When I was still working and Karsyn was at daycare all day (before Mack), things were tidy and clean. I had a regular schedule that I used each day for which room to clean, when to do certain tasks, etc. I regularly used the website FlyLady and felt like I had things under control.
Fast forward four months. I now stay home all day with a very rambunctious, messy 2 year old and a four month old that wants to be held each second. If I can manage to get them both down for a nap at the same time, I usually try to work on dinner, couponing, preparing bottles, or washing clothes. I sincerely admire some of the ladies I am friends with who seem to effortlessly keep their homes in order and everything where it should be. It's like I get so hung up on having things be perfectly neat that I give up all together and things become a mess. Like I'm so strongly "type A" that it overtakes me and the need for perfection drives me to complete chaos. Does that make sense to any of you?! I try to do a quick sweep of the house each evening to pick up items that have been left out so it's not too overwhelming each morning. I've tried to keep things in their place as much as possible after Karsyn is done playing with them. I've even tried teaching her the 'clean up' song and having her help. Still...we're struggling here.
I created a schedule back before I had Mack that I was following pretty good. I'll list it for you so that in a bit you can offer me suggestions or tell me how you keep things running in your household.
Monday- Menu planning for the following week, empty all trash cans, take trash and recyclables to the curb, pay any outstanding bills, wash a load of towels.
Tuesday- Kitchen day- mop floors, wash rugs, clean out fridge, organize pantry, prepare shopping list for any coupon items, and wash a load of light clothing
Wednesday- Bathrooms day- clean mirrors, counters, floors, and toilets. Prepare shopping list for non-coupon (i.e. Walmart) items, wash a load of dark clothing
Thursday- Bedrooms day- dust, vacuum, change sheets, wash a load of sheets
Friday- Living Room day- dust, vacuum, de-clutter, dining room- dust, vacuum, de-clutter, upload any photos/videos to computer, wash kids clothes
Saturday- Clean out vehicles, quick clean of laundry room, water plants, wash load of darks and lights, prepare lunch for Sunday
Sunday- clip and organize coupons
Now obviously this list is a little much...I'm not actually going to clean out the fridge every week or even wash the rugs every week unless they really need it. But, it's a starting point.
Here are my questions for you: How do you keep your home in order without it being destroyed as quick as you get it clean? WHEN do you find time to do it? What tips/advice do you have for me?
I have LOVED the emails and comments I've been getting from you. I'm not sure why this blog won't let some of you comment, but please keep sending me texts, emails, or comments as you like.
All I know is that a clean and organized home is not effortless by any stretch of the imagination! I too get completely overwhelmed if things are too crazy and chaotic, so I clean up several times a day. We do the "clean up song" and the kids help. We clean up after morning play time, before lunch, after afternoon playtime and before bed. I try to do a little bit of the housework each night after the kids are asleep and do laundry all day everyday seems like:) Bills and coupons are done during naptime! Hope this helps!
ReplyDeleteI have one of those magnetic weekly planning calendar type things (know what I'm talking about, they are like a $1 from Michael's). This is what I put our meals on and they daily plan for my teaching goal for Zeke. On here I also put what to clean for each day along with a load of laundry. The reason I have it up is because I feel like people could come in and ask me about it and then I would have to answer honestly about using it or not.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I do is to have people over weekly so I have to keep my house in some sort of order :)
Right now I'm not the best for giving advice in this area! My pattern these past few weeks has been: let the house fall into total disarray and then spend one day cleaning like crazy and putting it all back in order again! But that's not how I want it to be. I'm working on a weekly cleaning schedule also! What worked in the past was one "heavy cleaning day" where I did the majority of my household chores. My thought was that I will do that one day when Will is at CMO (if I ever actually enroll him!) Then, I just needed to "tidy" a little throughout the rest of the week...maybe throw in a load of laundry here and there. I think I'm going to try and go back to that. My schedule has been loosely based on Flylady also. It looks something like this:
ReplyDeleteMonday: Heavy Cleaning Day
Tuesday: Desk Day (pay bills, coupons, etc)
Wednesday: Errand day/Grocery shopping
Thursday: Free Day
Friday: Moderate cleaning (tidy up)
We'll see if it works! I'll let you know! :)
By the way, your house looks GREAT!!!!
Kara, I do some type laundry almost everyday. I clean out the fridge and Courtney empties all trash cans on Tuesdays for garbage pick up Wed morning. I usually do all cleaning on Thursdays. I try to get everything that needs to be ironed done on Saturdays. I tidy up all week by putting a laundry basket in the corner. Anything that is out of place goes into the basket. If I have to pick up Courtney's toys, then she loses them for one week. At the end of the next week, she has to help put everything in its proper place. She hates to lose toys so she does an OK job picking up when asked. Good luck! I hope you find a system that works for you. Angela Brittain
ReplyDelete