Thursday, July 09, 2009

Works for Me

I suppose I ought to participate in Works For Me Wednesday or another fun blog Theme day like that but to be honest, I don't have a lot of tips and I don't have a lot that works for me, until now. I think I have finally found a cleaning schedule that is do-able with my current life that keeps my home in a mild state of cleanliness. Here it is:


Daily Chores: Unload Dishwasher, Reload Dishwasher, Wipe Counters, Feed the Dog, Pick Up Toys, Water Plants, Run 1 load Laundry, Fold 1 load Laundry.

Each person has their own designated chores. Ok, so they are all mine (right now) except the Dog Feeding (Andrew) and toy pick up (Abigail - who does a remarkably good job). Andrew did do the dishwasher loading and unloading and it was a huge help! Thanks, honey!!

When Abigail gets a bit older I will start by adding folding clothes and towels to her chore list as well as helping to unload the dishwasher when she can be trusted not to drop and break things! She is currently a very joyful helper when we ask so I really smother on the praise and will hope that this continues! She also is our thrower-awayer. She will throw away anything you want her too! :)

Ok. Weekly Chores:

Monday: Kitchen Clean (Floors, Sink, Declutter - paper trash and bills, Clean out Dish drain).

Tuesday: Dust, Declutter, and Sweep Laundry and Mud Room. Dust and Declutter Living room.

Wednesday: Clean both bathrooms (mirror, sink, counter, floors toilet), take out all trash (our trash night is Wednesday).

Thursday: Mow and Clean out car. (Andrew already mowed some Wednesday, so my Thursday night duties will be quite light. Yeah yeah yeah!).

Friday: Bedroom Clean (Dust, Declutter). Vacuum all carpeted areas.

Saturday: Weed Eat (Andrew only).

There are still some modifications that need to be made. I then go on to have monthly chores, which I won't list all here, unless specifically requested. For example I have clean oven and microwave, clean out fridge (like sanitize and wipe shelves. I throw away food more often), vacuum out cars, etc.

I have some yearly chores too but they are just now taking shape. A few things that need done more often are moping the hardwood floors but that is so time consuming and I'm trying to be very realistic. I'm not going to have time to do that every single week, even though it needs it.

I realize that things probably need cleaned more often than this but I am the kind of person who has a hard time being motivated to do something if I can't get it all done. This is working very well for me since I seem to be able to do most everything in about an hour to and hour 1/2 each evening. That's usually all the free time I have! I also am not including gardening time, although my garden is in a very sorry weedy state right now. Oh well, at least things are growing!

That's all for now. Does anyone else have a cleaning system that is working?

P.S. I used to do Flylady - prebaby - but with baby, work, etc, it was just too much to clean my sink every night, and wipe down cabinets every week - even though they probably need it!

P.P.S. Baby #2 has been very active today and tonight. . . . like all day!

4 comments:

Musings of a Housewife said...

Wow, you are ORGANIZED. I am so not. :-) But that sounds great.

Jennifer said...

You do better than I do!! My only suggestion: buy a Swiffer Wet Jet if you don't already have one. They have special cleaner for wood floors (we have real wood floors that we finished ourselves). It saves so much time and dries quickly. And it does a good job.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the tip, Jen. I've been wanting to get something that will quickly clean my wood floors without taking up so much time to sweep then mop the whole thing. I'll try that.

I usually just fly by the seat of my pants with cleaning but my messy house was getting to me and I'm excited that this seems to be working! I'm excited for my girl(s) to be old enough to have more responsibility too!

Jennifer said...

I still sweep before I mop, but I use a Swiffer Vac (you should buy one of those too!! I oughta be getting paid for all these plugs for Swiffer!). They run off battery, but they plug in to charge so you don't have to worry about replacing batteries. It is so quick and easy to sweep up my kitchen with it. It even picks up Goldfish and Cheerios with no problem. I can easily sweep and mop the kitchen in 15 min (and I have a fairly large kitchen area).