Back in the good old days (2003ish) of newlyweddedness (why is this not a word?) I found the Flylady and I loosely used her system to set up cleaning routines, etc for each of our houses.
It was great, our house was generally presentable, bathrooms were company ready, and I had time to care for my family and do some fun things. The biggest bonus was that listing each of those houses wasn't as big a deal as it could have been.
But when we moved last year, I never set up routines for myself.
As we tell the 4 year old - that was a poor choice. I added two bathrooms and about 1000 sq. feet to my cleaning tasks. Let me rephrase, I didn't add them - I only clean the basement bath before over-night guests arrive (our guest room is in the basement), the rest of the household chores are completed randomly when I decide that the cobwebs are too numerous to ignore or I can't remember the last time I vacuumed the stairs.
Combine that cleaning methodology with a pretty awful bout of morning sickness (did you miss my announcement yesterday?), two little boys, and a husband who was traveling for most of my first trimester.
The house felt like some sort of experiment.
Or one of those terrible air freshener commercials.
(this also explains the blogging hiatus)
And now I feel like I am digging my house out of the mess. It's no fun. I need routines.
Here's what I have been doing the last few weeks, and there's a noticeable difference around here (yay!).
Mon.
*change bed sheets
*clean bathrooms (haven't ventured into the basement yet)
*chuck old fridge items
*laundry - sheets, one load of clothes
Tues.
*errands
*dust (in theory - hasn't happened yet)
*vacuum 2nd floor
*laundry - towels, one load of clothes
Wed.
*clean some widows or mop kitchen floor
*vacuum 1st floor
*laundry - delicates
I didn't list all of the normal stuff - making beds, cleaning the kitchen, etc - and there is a bunch of things I'd like to add to my routine - baking day, closet organizing time. This is good for now, I have a cleaner home and doing super fun stuff with the kids is not guilt-inducing.
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| we like to do fun stuff! and summer buzz cuts - hello cuteness! |
Yay routines!!
Do you have a household routine?
Ever heard of the Flylady?
2 comments:
The only routine I have right now is for working out! That's going well. My house on the other hand is a bit of a disaster...maybe I'll try this for a little while to see if it helps.
I HATE routines. They make me feel trapped.
I LOVE routines. They help me get stuff done and then I can relax.
:)
I'm not much of a cleaner {hate clutter, but dirty mirrors don't bother me}, but I can testify that when you do a little bit everyday, things look better and are less overwhelming. Why I don't IMPLEMENT this into my life during summer when I need something to be in place....I don't know....
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