Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Implementing a new plan

Of course, when you type "implementing" at 10:30 at night, you actually type "implementating" ... but let's just leave that alone. :)

It's no secret - if you've been here longer than about 10 minutes - that I am not a natural-born housekeeper. I could never understand how people kept their homes immaculate - or at least my version of immaculate. There's "Oh, please come in, I'm sorry it's SUCH a mess [blink, blink - where?]" and then there's, "Um, hi. Come on in....if you can." Haha. :)

But after a lot of thought, some creative spit-balling [as it were] with Christina about schedules for the naturally unscheduled, and some quick scribbles on scrap paper, I've developed my own simple housework schedule.

I know FlyLady's got some great ideas - but I've tried following her schedule before and it only got me overwhelmed. I needed something so simple that it's stupid. Something I can handle on days that I'm losing it, my kids are losing it, and it's raining. :)

I looked first at the things that have to happen every single day.
Dishes/Kitchen clean up; Laundry; Picking up; and Trash/Recycling.

The reason I chose to put laundry on every day is because I don't have a drier and it rains a lot in NZ. If there's a day that it rains the only thing I might do would be cloth diapers. I don't have much extra room in the house for a drying rack, so I'm not going to fill my house with those. Laundry has to get done when the weather is nice. So this may not actually happen every day, but it has to happen on every nice day.

The reason for trash and recycling was just a reminder to myself to empty it when it's needed, not when it's stinking to high heaven.

Picking up and dishes are a no brainer, but they are on my list so I don't try to scoot out on picking up before I go to bed. Now, tonight, I've got a few piles of stuff that need sorted - but I've been whittling down on them slowly. I'm not concerned about them because I've made a difference in them. :)

Then I assigned myself one extra household chore for each weekday. This gives me time on the weekend to either have time off or catch up from a bad day in the week - who knows what happens, kids are sick, extra meetings, and a piece of the puzzle falls through the cracks.

Monday - Vacuum the whole house. That's not hard. We have an open kitchen/dining room/living room, two small bedrooms, laundry room [alcove really] and bathroom.

Tuesday - Clean the shower and the sink. Today is Tuesday. I've sprayed the walls of the shower with disinfectant - about 10 hours ago. Oops. I mean to go back and wipe down/scrub the walls and the floor. I'll hopefully get that done before I go to bed. No use failing on my 2nd day.

Wednesday - Mop the kitchen floor. If I had my WetJet Swiffer I might do it more often - but alas that is back in my mother-in-law's attic. No, I'm kidding, I wouldn't do it more often. Who am I kidding???

Thursday - Clean the toilet, the toilet floor, and the bathroom floor.

Friday - Vacuum the whole house, and grocery shop. I don't see grocery shopping as a chore really because Matt does the shopping a lot, and if I do go on my own it's a chance to get out [Hi, yes, I'm an extrovert].

See, simple. Stupid simple. But it's about all I can handle. This way if I want to tackle some other project - like rearranging the closets and pulling out all the winter linens [like yesterday], I can - but I know I'm not neglecting the basic housework.

I'm hoping that this will stick and work. I have high hopes. :)

6 comments:

  1. Nice! I come from a messy family and learned all my tidying skills from my husband actually. His mom is a neat freak! Totally opposite growing up experiences! I don't clean through the house as thoroughly as you are planning to, but Noah has trained me to pick up after everything we do, or when we cook/eat/shower/do an activity, whatever, we have to leave it tidy and neat. That is the biggest adjustment for me. Eventually I will get into a routine of deep cleaning like you are doing. Way to go.

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  2. If it's any consolation, I am finding that the older I get (I'm 35), the better I am at keeping up with housework. Not that there aren't days when I would NOT want someone to just stop by, but it's definitely better than it used to be. Oceana should be able to be somewhat helpful around the house now, too. Give the girl a dust cloth and let her go. My 4 year old LOVES to dust, and if she could push the vacuum, she'd do that, too. LOL

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  3. I am also not a housekeeper and have recently done a similar plan for myself...to keep it SO EASY that I never feel overwhelmed. I am 16 days (yes I am counting) into this new plan and it is working!!! My house is definitely cleaner and more picked up. AND because I am doing one load of laundry first thing in the morning, it is very manageable...that no dryer thing is a bummer =(. GOOD LUCK and keep us posted!

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  4. What a great plan - I am exactly the same (hi, sorry about the mess...don't worry, that's just chicken mash in the sink...??). I might just have to give it a go! I'm enjoying reading your blog, if you get a chance (in between wrangling your daredevil!) I'd love you to come visit mine!

    http://ourbigadventure-kathleen.blogspot.com/

    Good luck with the plan!!

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  5. I'm thrilled that you posted this Susie! I just posted about the very same thing on my facebook just today after being overrun by unfolded laundry and dishes in my house...and we don't even have kids yet! WHAT!? I'm adopting your schedule.

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  6. I'm totally that type of person too...I'm getting better, but I was just in the process of trying to get something like this together too. Thanks for posting!

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