Gosh, I love her. SO much. She's 3 months old today and oh, how she has monopolized my schedule. And thrown a huge wrench in my ability to be efficient.
I've never really been great at resting. (I come from a long line of women who struggle with it.) I can always think of something that needs to be done. I can't sit down on the couch if I know the laundry is slowly spreading itself through the house like a renegade ivy plant. It's hard for me to just crawl into bed when our dressers are stacked with stuff that doesn't belong and a basket of clean clothes is collecting dust and wrinkles at the foot of the bed. (Neglected laundry is especially bad because I'm averse to ironing. So on top of a messy room, I will also have a husband who looks like he slept in all his clothes for a week.) And the kitchen? Ugh. Forget it. Our counter space is minimal, so if you don't clean up after one meal, it looks like hurricane aftermath in there.
For these reasons, I am often guilty of being found with a pile of laundry in the middle of our bed at 11:00PM. Or wiping down counters and mirrors in the bathroom when I should be brushing my teeth. Todd and I have argued about this more than once. But what do you do when the house is too overwhelming to clean in one day and there's ALWAYS something to be done?
Allow me to introduce, our new weekly chore list:
MONDAY- Grocery Shopping & Floors
With a small child in tow, going to the grocery store is no small task. So I've made it my only Monday responsibility and it's worked quite well the past three weeks. I usually hit two grocery stores-- sometimes it's Target and Trader Joe's, sometimes it's Schnucks and Aldi. Either way-- we knock this out on Monday and avoid the store for the rest of the week if at all possible.
Todd does the floors (sweeping and vacuuming, we have hardwood with a few rugs). I will if I must, but it's not my fave. We mop once a month. (The first week of the month.) Twice if we're feeling really zealous. That may increase when Violet starts crawling.
TUESDAY- Bathrooms
One upstairs, one downstairs. I've slacked at cleaning the tub lately, but between the two of us, they both get the attention they need, once a week.
WEDNESDAY- Wipe all surfaces and clear away superfluous items downstairs
Wednesday night is when we host Gospel Community (which means roughly 20 people in our house from 7-10:30PM) so we straighten the couch up, take all shoes and bags, etc. upstairs, wipe the dusty surfaces and clear/clean the dining table and stereo console. We also usually sweep again.
THURSDAY- Bedrooms
This means our room and the nursery. Everything that found its way up to the bedrooms on Wednesday before GC gets put away on Thursday. I also wipe down the surfaces in the bedroom and every two weeks, change the sheets.
FRIDAY- Laundry
All of it. All day. Washed, folded and put away. (That's the hard part.) But it MUST be done.
SATURDAY- Kitchen (deep clean)
This means pulling out the toaster oven and cleaning the top of the stove and moving everything on the counters and wiping under it. It also means taking stock of the fridge and freezer, throwing out anything that's been neglected (hopefully not much anymore, thanks to the meal planning) and making note of what needs to be bought on grocery day.
All week, we keep the kitchen in check together; Todd handles the trash and recycling and also helps with meal prep and dishwasher loading/unloading. I do the majority of the cooking and intermittent dishwashing.
SUNDAY- Rest
For real. I need practice, and since our Sundays are usually packed from 8-1, we need a day to chill.
*Since we've recently begun cloth diapering, I actually wash a load of diapers nearly every other day. But it's just one load, so not a huge deal. The kitchen, the trash/recycling and the diapers are three things that require daily maintenance-- there's no avoiding it.
This simple system has made a huge difference in our house and stress levels the past 3 weeks. No more arguments because of a laundry pile monopolizing our sleeping space. No more scrambling to vacuum before everyone arrives on Wednesday. And no more wearing myself out worrying about all the things that need to be done at any given time. Everything has its day-- rest included.
What schedules (big or small) have made your life easier?
4 comments:
I think I need a weekly plan like this for big stuff. Right now I have 4 things that I try to do every day: Make the bed, wash and put away a load of dishes, wash and put away a load of laundry, and make dinner. Then every day Andrew does one of 5 things: wash and put away a load of laundry, wash and put away a load of dishes (some days are two load days), clean a bathroom, clean a floor, or take out all the trash. This has helped us a lot, but now that I'm working again we'll probably need to rework things at some point.
Jules, this is impressive! I just found your blog from facebook, and I'm enjoying it. :) You sound so happy and domestic. I need to build up my domesticity skills a bit, so this post is particularly inspiring. Cooking I have a handle on, but cleaning...let's just say there's room for improvement. Thanks for the pictures. Violet is super cute!
I too have had to create a sort of rhythm to my domestic adventures. Honestly, I do very little through the week days. Being a full time working mom leaves few hours in the evening to split between housework and family time when J goes to bed between 7:30 and 8. That only gives me about an hour or two with him after dinner is made and before bathtime. Not nearly enough if I'm trying to also squeeze in laundry and dusting and meal planning. Yeesh.
One thing I do daily is vacuum. I may also throw a load of laundry in, but mostly I just power through on Saturday mornings and clean the whole house top to bottom and do most of my laundry that day or Sunday. I typically go grocery shopping Saturday afternoons after Judah's nap. That Saturday afternoon nap is ALL mine though. It's my only 2 hour period all week that I get to relax and be a little bit alone. I live for that Saturday afternoon nap time. Ahhh, I get all relaxed now just thinking about it.
But back to housework. I tried a daily chore list and it just wasn't for me. It left me with the guilts if I just needed a night of yoga pants and nothing. I'm trying to loosen up on the mommy guilt trips, and I love Saturday morning cleaning, so it works for me.
Great post :) Love to read about this adventure with you!
P.S.
that post that says "unknown" is your friend Laura Woods. Silly blog. Everyone knows me.
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