Accomplishment...what a weird feeling.
I think I may have found a housekeeping routine that actually works for me. I'm less than a week into it, but I think it might help me get on top of things around here.
I just know that right now I've finished everything I set out to do, my house isn't trashed (isn't immaculate, but sanitary and presentable) and I have an hour to kill before it's time to start dinner...which is planned, complete with a scratch Jamaican Jerk rub already mixed and the chicken defrosting.
It's a bit surreal. I even took a minute to go outside and plant another square of swiss chard, since July heat has nuked my lettuce, but the chard bounced right back after the 100 degree spell. But like I said, it's only 3 days...but with this plan, things will get easier. Well, as long as I stick with it.
So my plan goes like this... as you can see, there's two charts. The green one is weekly and the pink one is daily. Simply put, when I finish a task I scoot over a (cute) little flower (a post-it with a bit of magnet glued to the back). I do the morning chores first, which is pretty much just getting the house in order - tidying the bathroom and the living room, catching up the dishes, running laundry, paying bills if we have to, watering my plants if they need it, emptying the garbage if it's full, sweeping the kitchen floor, and wiping down the counters. (I'm going to add a flower for "planning dinner," too...I have been horrible about cooking for my family lately!)
If I don't have a disaster to start with, I can do all that in less than an hour - not counting the laundry, but if I don't let it pile up then I don't even have that every day. (Diapers are outside the chart, since I just wash when the pail gets full)
Then I move on to the weekly chart. I sat down and divided the stuff that should be done regularly to keep the health department from condemning my home - and honestly, most of it's stuff that I don't do near as much as I should, and then put it off once it gets to where it NEEDS to be done. (If you ever visit my home, don't look behind the shower curtain!) But to my surprise, once I sat down and divided out to where I just do a few things a day, it didn't look that bad at all. Especially since, (major DUH realization here) if I do these things every week, then they won't get so bad to the point where it's a huge chore! Like today I cleaned my fridge. It needed it. But if I look over and wipe down the fridge each Tuesday, then I won't have the scary dishes to clean or spills to scrape up.
I think the first week will be the hardest. Like yesterday "scrub bathroom" was an ordeal because of the tragic state of my shower. And today "decluttering and filing" meant two hours sorting stuff that piled up on the desk in the kitchen. And tomorrow I have - yikes - windows... but again, the theory is that next week these things will only take a matter of minutes, and if I keep the flowers moving then eventually my house will be clean AND I can have a life! Woot!
I just know that right now I've finished everything I set out to do, my house isn't trashed (isn't immaculate, but sanitary and presentable) and I have an hour to kill before it's time to start dinner...which is planned, complete with a scratch Jamaican Jerk rub already mixed and the chicken defrosting.
It's a bit surreal. I even took a minute to go outside and plant another square of swiss chard, since July heat has nuked my lettuce, but the chard bounced right back after the 100 degree spell. But like I said, it's only 3 days...but with this plan, things will get easier. Well, as long as I stick with it.
So my plan goes like this... as you can see, there's two charts. The green one is weekly and the pink one is daily. Simply put, when I finish a task I scoot over a (cute) little flower (a post-it with a bit of magnet glued to the back). I do the morning chores first, which is pretty much just getting the house in order - tidying the bathroom and the living room, catching up the dishes, running laundry, paying bills if we have to, watering my plants if they need it, emptying the garbage if it's full, sweeping the kitchen floor, and wiping down the counters. (I'm going to add a flower for "planning dinner," too...I have been horrible about cooking for my family lately!)
If I don't have a disaster to start with, I can do all that in less than an hour - not counting the laundry, but if I don't let it pile up then I don't even have that every day. (Diapers are outside the chart, since I just wash when the pail gets full)
Then I move on to the weekly chart. I sat down and divided the stuff that should be done regularly to keep the health department from condemning my home - and honestly, most of it's stuff that I don't do near as much as I should, and then put it off once it gets to where it NEEDS to be done. (If you ever visit my home, don't look behind the shower curtain!) But to my surprise, once I sat down and divided out to where I just do a few things a day, it didn't look that bad at all. Especially since, (major DUH realization here) if I do these things every week, then they won't get so bad to the point where it's a huge chore! Like today I cleaned my fridge. It needed it. But if I look over and wipe down the fridge each Tuesday, then I won't have the scary dishes to clean or spills to scrape up.
I think the first week will be the hardest. Like yesterday "scrub bathroom" was an ordeal because of the tragic state of my shower. And today "decluttering and filing" meant two hours sorting stuff that piled up on the desk in the kitchen. And tomorrow I have - yikes - windows... but again, the theory is that next week these things will only take a matter of minutes, and if I keep the flowers moving then eventually my house will be clean AND I can have a life! Woot!