Now I do all of the housework, meals and shopping. He takes care of the yard and maintaining our vehicles. He's also great at fixing most anything. Generally, I keep things picked up as I go if you read any kind of home organization books you'll see the same things over and over. "A place for everything and everything in its place." Another words if you have a great system you'll just need to maintain it. I try to multi task and clean up messes as I go. For example after getting up I make my bed, when I do my makeup, I do a quick wipedown of the sink and then the toilet as needed.
I have a Daily List, here is just a few examples from my daily list:
Empty dishwasher while kids eat breakfast
Start a load of laundry, (I don't like it to pile up and I have found that if I wait until day 7, I have 7 loads which is just daunting for me.) This is one trick I picked up from flylady.
Pick up house generally twice a day once before bedtime, once having the kids help with toys, homework etc.
I put all dirty dishes immediately into the dishwasher
Weekly List
Monday
Weekly house blessing (flylady.net) I dust all horizontal surfaces on my main level, purge and recycle of throw out magazines and newspapers from the week, vacuum entire main floor, and stairs, vaccuum downstairs media room * (I find we usually have some popcorn from our movie night on Fridays.) I wipe down any smudges around doors and use windex on the most used doors. Take out trash, trash day is Tuesday.
Tuesday
Clean bathrooms, scour sinks, scrub toilets, clean mirrors, spot clean showers and tubs. (they get a good scrub down once a month for zone cleaning) The kids do their own bathrooms. We have 4.
Change sheets and wash towels and put out all fresh linens, sweep and mop floors in bathrooms, zone cleaning
Wednesday:
Kitchen
Sweep and mop, spot clean appliances, clean microwave weekly, clean coffee pot, wipe down counters and scour sink, zone cleaning
Thursday:
Dust and sweep bedrooms, and kids do their rooms and playroom. *I also clean library and guest room. I try to do errands on this day.
Friday
I vacuum and dust family room again, sweep kitchen as needed, vacuum all entrance rugs, finish zone cleaning
Saturday:
I just keep up with daily chores and do a load of laundry. This allows me to spend time with my family.
Sunday:
A day of rest, not even laundry
* indicates new to my routine because we didn't have these rooms before
Each week I deep clean a zone, parts of my home. So in addition to all my daily chores I spend about 15 minutes cleaning in the zone. Check out more about that here.
Another idea that I have found extremely helpful is to do these things with a candle burning and your favorite music going in the background. I think it just helps to improve your mood and makes it go faster. I learned this from my fellow sugar pie sister, Aunt Ruthie. I really think the key to keeping your house a home is two things keeping it neat and tidy and then the decorating is the icing on the cake. If you have a system you never find yourself fretting when someone drops by or comes to visit. I have had friends or people comment about how neat my house always is when they come over. That always makes me feel good and my husband always tells me what a good job I do taking care of our home and decorating it.
Thank you all for sharing your system. I read each and every comment and you had some very interesting things to say.
Have a great day!
Carey
Sounds to me like you have a great routine!
ReplyDeleteHow neat! I love it ;) Your routine when you were working sounds like what my hubby and I used to do when both of us were working. My issue with my house cleaning routine is trying to get everything done with my two little one's around all the time. It's hard...and sometimes, I hate to admit it, but things just don't get done. LOL...and when they do get done, it just gets all messed up again because they are still under 3. We've been teaching them though that they are able to at least help us pick up their toys. I'm sure once they are in school full time, the house will be able to stay clean all day until they come home....how I dream of that...lol.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great system! I do laundry every day too and I'm constantly wiping, tidying, or cleaning something. Very similar to what you do.
ReplyDeleteAnd we start the kids young. They know how to clear their plates, load them into the DW, etc. They pick up their own toys and they make their beds (not great, but that's OK for now. They help with a lot of the little things and as they grow, so will their responsibilities.
I totally agree about the music and candle :) And multi-tasking whenever possible.
When we had kids living at home, I followed a very similar system too. (now I have abit more flexibility but still multi task and keep things picked up. When freinds complained it took them hours to clean, I would try to explain that could be avoided if you had a system or schedule and they just didn't want to hear it. But it worked well for me and I especially agree with a Place for everything . That is so important to keep clutter down.
ReplyDeleteSince I stared sharing pics of my home onlien about 4 years ago, I have had at least a hundred questions about how I keep it so neat. I should refer them back to you! Great post!
Hi Carey!
ReplyDeleteI discovered flylady last month and my house is looking ever so nice. :) Thanks for sharing your schedule, I'm still trying to fine tune mine.