Since having R, I have really been struggling to keep my house in tip top shape. I went through a time of post-partum depression which totally took away my motivation, and then she required so many doctor's appointments and her allergies and special needs were very stressful as I was trying to adjust to being a part-time working mom and having two kids under the age of one. This was almost two years ago now and things have just progressively spiraled out of control. My laundry is being thrown on the laundry room floor, my bedroom hasn't been cleaned or swept in almost two years, my hall way is filling up with plastic tubs and my kitchen is in constant disarray. I don't even want to talk about the length of time my dishes were going unwashed.
In December, I really started to evaluate the root of the problem and realized that I have no storage space and too much stuff! The more clutter I have hanging out the less motivated I get to do anything and the longer my dishes and clothes have to wait to get washed. I vowed that in 2013 I would manage this mess!!
It is now the third week into the New Year and I am thankful to say that I am finally in a pattern of managing my dishes and laundry. I am doing this by alternating these chores. One day I do laundry and the next day I do the dishes. It took me a whole weekend to get caught up! I spent a whole Saturday washing, drying and putting away dishes so that my sinks were clean and I could start from square one. Then, I spent my whole Sunday washing, drying and folding all of the clothes that had piled up on the laundry room floor.
Then, that next Monday I did all of the dishes again, but this time it was only a sink full and took me about 20 minutes. I did them first thing in the morning, let them dry all day and then put them away once the girls went to bed. The next day (Tuesday) I did all of the laundry that had accumulated in the past two days, which amounted to one load. I put the load in first thing in the morning, switched to the dryer when the girls napped and then folded it when they went to bed.
Like I said I have been doing this successfully now for the past three weeks, but, I am still having some struggles. I have been putting the girls clothes away every laundry day after folding the clothes, but my husband and I still have about 5 baskets of laundry stacked up in the laundry room. I am also having trouble finding the motivation to fold socks on a regular basis and have all of them in their own laundry basket. My next step is to get these two huge obstacles under control so that I can get into a better routine with them as well.
I have found that once I get a fresh start I am having better luck managing the mess. But, I am having trouble finding that time to organize everything so I can start from scratch!
If you have read all of my other posts up until now you may realize that I am IN LOVE with Microsoft Excel, so that is how I decided to proceed with phase 2 of Operation: Clean House which will kick off the beginning of February. I started by making a column titled "Date" that is numbered 1-31, so there is a row for each possible day of the month.
Then, in the second column, called "DISHES/LAUNDRY" I indicated whether it would be a dishes or laundry day, alternating for all 31 rows.
The third column I titled "CLEAN" and this is where I listed a specific room/appliance to clean. For example, I have a slot for bathtub, sinks, toilet, counters, oven, microwave, refrigerator, etc. and then also for living room, bedroom, stairs, etc. These things alternate all the way down for the 31 days. Some items get cleaned weekly, some are monthly, I personalized it to my families needs. For example, we have two bathrooms so items in the bathroom were listed twice, while things like the oven and microwave are only listed monthly.
Finally, in the fourth column, labeled "SWEEP". I list all of the rooms in my house. I have 9 rooms, so every 9 days the list repeats. I tried to co-inside the "CLEAN" schedule with the "SWEEP" schedule so I am cleaning the rooms the day before it is on the schedule to be swept. This way I can make sure all clutter is picked up and dusting is done before I sweep.
On the side of my spreadsheet I put in special notes, for example I have four bedrooms, so I wash one set of sheets each week on the Monday or Tuesday, whichever is laundry day. I also noted that bills are to be paid the Tuesday of pay week and mailed out on the Wednesday of pay week. Then, we grocery shop on Saturday, update our budget on Sunday and take out all of the trash Sunday night. I am a visual person so it really helps me to spell it all out and have a check list so I can cross off what I have accomplished. I also noticed that I was becoming too overwhelmed with my checklists I was making everyday because it had a never ending amount of things to get done. This new schedule I devised only has 3-4 things I need to do each day which is more manageable and helps me feel motivated and relaxed about getting things done. Also, with this plan I am hoping that everything can be organized and I can be on some sort of cleaning schedule before the baby is born in April. So, look for updates in the upcoming weeks for things that had to be tweaked and how things are progressing with Operation: Clean House.
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