Monday, August 31, 2009

Getting It All Together: Weekly Cleaning Schedule

“Being a homemaker, full-time or part-time, is a gift. Every woman should realize that she has the greatest profession in the whole wide world. ~ Emilie Barnes

So are you seeing the benefits from your routine yet? Experts say habits may take 21-28 days to officially be ingrained in your daily patterns so don’t despair. Just keep up the good work!
Did you take the first important step in getting started? Did you make a list of all of your regular chores, errands, commitments, and activities? It can be overwhelming and even eye opening to do this task.
When my own routine is working to my advantage it allows me to complete my chores daily with little frustration. The house can be clean by 10:00 in the morning leaving the rest of the day to go to the park, run errands, cook or bake, enjoy some scrapbooking, play with the children, and serve others. Please don’t get this wild idea that my days run smoothly, I fall off the proverbial wagon more often these days with busy little ones. I have to keep reminding myself that’s ok, there is always tomorrow.
I believe housework can be accomplished easily if done regularly. For instance, cleaning the kitchen during meal prep or immediately after takes only 15 - 20 minutes. But cleaning the kitchen after 2 or 3 meals when the day is done can take 2 or more hours. That’s no fun!
It seems I am forever tweaking my routine too and one of these days I know I will have nailed it but until then I’ll just keep working on it.
If you do an Internet search you will find several types of cleaning plans available. Here are some examples I know of: The once a week clean-a-thon, the Cleaning one room per day method, dividing the house into zones and cleaning a specified zone for the day or week plan, or doing certain tasks per day so that by the end of the week the whole house is clean (task-by-task cleaning)
In our household I have followed the cleaning one room per day technique which learned when I married my sweetie peachy 13 years ago. The idea is to work in one room at a time each day so by the end of the week you have covered all the rooms in the house. Due to the season of stay at home mommyhood this method hasn’t been working so well for me. Maybe because it is difficult to focus on one thing for more than 5 minutes at a time or maybe the task just seems so overwhelming that I let that “stinkin’ thinkin’” set in and not do anything at all or maybe the house is just “lived” in more now than ever before. I am considering trying out the task by task cleaning method though. I think the cleaning one room at a time method will be great when I get to deep cleaning situations, etc.
This is why my morning and evening routine became so important. In following the routines I am able to make sure the every day needs of the house are taken care of (so the kids won’t have to run commando through the house; although that hasn’t stopped them yet, 3 hot meals are prepared and the house is in a general (term used very loosely) sense of order) while I figure out a better way to manage the home. It’s a never ending cycle. I am considering trying out the task by task cleaning method though.
In an effort to recuperate from last week keep my head above water I am just going to send you to this post I did back in January regarding my weekly schedule.
You can also download my schedule here if you want to print it and put it in your notebook. I would love to know what anyone else is doing for a weekly cleaning schedule. Anyone? Anyone? Tap-tap-tap…this thing on?

2 comments:

Jennifer Morse said...

Hey Jenn;
Love your recent posts. Now that Keith is working up here and coming home at night for dinners, I am trying much harder to have more of a schedule. Just like you, getting up and getting myself ready before I get the kids up makes a huge difference. And doing stuff at night, like making lunches, setting up the coffee maker to go off by itself in the morning, putting out what the kids are going to wear the next day (not too difficult since they wear uniforms!), etc... just really makes life a lot easier. Anyway, love your ideas and want to see your notebook one of these days. Maybe it wiill inspire me!!

Charlie said...

No real cleaning schedule as we are normally in the midst of renovating one room or another; which means that other rooms tend to get the overflow! However, 2 rooms that I have to clean constantly are the kitchen and bathroom..I am a germ phobe of sorts....Especially since I have carpet in the kitchen....(One more year....then it's gone)....Other than that I usually dedicate Saturday mornings to a 'clean sweep' of the house....
Keep your chin up you are doing great!