A Clean Home Is a Happy Home

With the changes our little family has experienced over the last two months (Dave got a permanent, full time job. I have one week left at my job.) I have found it VERY difficult to keep my house clean.

I have those blessed days when I feel like doing nothing but tripping over the toys and clothes to make my way to the couch for a day full of nothing-ness.

Then on the other extreme I have days when I am like a nesting mother-to-be with the urge to clean everything all at once before the little peanut inside of me bursts from my underside. (I am not currently pregnant... if you were wondering)

The two extremes don't mesh well because on the days that I do feel like cleaning I seem to have more to clean and then I get overwhelmed with 'everything that has to be done RIGHT NOW'.

These cleaning bursts of energy always seem to follow my lackadaisical days... no bueno.

I have tried involving my sweet husband in the 'cleaning cause', but the poor guy is so busy with working two jobs and going to school that he didn't have time to help me out with the long tasks.  (Thankfully the task he faithfully did for me was the laundry-- I HATE DOING LAUNDRY)

I tried thinking of different ways people get their homes clean with little kids and I spent the time and money to make a little magnet board of chores that I needed to do each day, week and month. This did NOT work out.  The process of moving the magnets around the magnet board was a nonsensical task and I wasn't motivated to do anything because I saw all the chore magnets and got overwhelmed.

After taking some time to think about what I wanted for my clean house I realized that I was making it too difficult.  I didn't need to do everything in one day (especially the laundry).

Here is what I did:

1- I typed up a weekly calendar (Mon, Tue, Wed, etc) and thought of the tasks that need to be completed each day. For us it is making the bed and doing the dishes. 

2- Then I split all of the chores up by day. Our chores include cleaning the bathroom, kitchen, bedrooms, living room and office and vacuuming the house.  I assigned one day a week with one of these chores

3- Due to my dislike of doing the laundry I split each load up... so each day of the week I have a different load to focus on.  For us we have our whites, colors, darks, towels and rugs, sheets and blankets and Dave's uniforms.

4- I thought of everything we are supposed to do during the week that we sometimes forget. For us it is watering my beautiful orchid Dave bought me for Valentines this year and taking the garbage's out to the street for the garbage man.  I added these tasks into my calendar on the days they are supposed to be done.

*** Something to keep in mind: Even though you are focusing on certain tasks each day don't make this an excuse for letting things pile up. Put things away and tidy up each day***

This is what my chore list for Tuesday's look like:

Make Bed

Dishes

Bathroom

Darks

Water Orchid.

I have been using this process for a month now and I LOVE IT!!!  I have fine tuned my process a little bit and actually changed some things around. Instead of using a weekly calendar now I use a monthly calendar and I now know when I need to deep clean all of the rooms and do other tasks like dusting the ceiling fans, mopping our entry way and bathroom etc.

This is what my calendar looks like now:

Cleaning Calendar
Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
Make Bed Dishes	Make Bed Dishes Whites Garbage to Street Dust Ceiling Fans	Make Bed Dishes D. CLEAN Bathroom Vacuum K&LR Darks Water Orchid	Make Bed Dishes Kitchen Sheets & Blankets	Make Bed Dishes Living Room Colors	Make Bed Dishes Office Towels & Rugs	Make Bed Dishes Bedrooms Vacuum house Dave’s Uniforms
Make Bed Dishes	Make Bed Dishes Whites Garbage to Street	Make Bed Dishes Bathroom Vacuum K&LR Darks Water Orchid	Make Bed Dishes Kitchen Sheets & Blankets	Make Bed Dishes D. CLEAN Living Room Colors	Make Bed Dishes Office Towels & Rugs	Make Bed Dishes D. CLEAN Bedrooms Vacuum House Dave’s Uniforms
Make Bed Dishes	Make Bed Dishes Whites Garbage to Street Mop Floors	Make Bed Dishes Bathroom Vacuum K&LR Darks Water Orchid	Make Bed Dishes D. CLEAN Kitchen Sheets & Blankets	Make Bed Dishes Living Room Colors	Make Bed Dishes Office Towels & Rugs	Make Bed Dishes Bedrooms Vacuum House Dave’s Uniforms
Make Bed Dishes	Make Bed Dishes Whites Garbage to Street Clean Baseboards	Make Bed Dishes Bathroom Vacuum K&LR Darks Water Orchid	Make Bed Dishes Kitchen Sheets & Blankets	Make Bed Dishes Living Room Colors	Make Bed Dishes D. CLEAN Office Towels & Rugs	Make Bed Dishes Bedrooms Vacuum House Dave’s Uniforms Sweep Porch