Resolutions

I'm a flylady washout. I really am. I learned some stuff from her, though. I also have the book that originally inspired the Flylady that I inherited from my Mother-in-Law, may her memory be eternal, called Sidetracked Home Executives. Yes, I'll admit it, I'm a S.H.E.

So I've been thinking about what a good routine would look like for ME, according to the structure of MY day, and MY life...not something somone else would impose upon me. We are, after all, each of us unique. This is something I've been working on for years. Getting better year by year. But not perfect. Never will be.

I like a tidy and clean house but tend to have a cluttery "shabby chic" personal style. Can the two go together? Since I"ve been getting slowly better at house keeping over the years, I think the answer is "yes". To hear me talk, my friends might conclude that I live in a total stye. This, naturally, is not the case. I guess I run my housekeeping down because it's not up to some internal standard of mine.

This routine has been brewing in my head for some time now. Here's what I came up with today. The morning and evening routines are pretty much what I already do. Adn I already am in a habit of doing some house chores after lunch. This is just an addition of systematic intentionality to it, so that all areas get hit at least every once in a while. I hope there will be a visible difference. I don't want to do too much at once and make myself sick, either:

Morning Routine:

Get up use bathroom
Make coffee
sandwiches for Wes
Breakfast served
Morning prayers
Clear kitchen table and put out table cloth
kids empty dishwasher
Me load dishwasher and wipe down counter tops and stove
School begins
Me to take shower
make bed
rotate laundry
Reading/computer time

Mid day: Do daily cleaning chores after lunch, one monthly chore
Go for a walk after that
Reading/computer/rest time after that
Rotate Laundry

Evening Routine:

tidy living room (kids to help)
Cook and eat supper
empty dishwasher and reload it (kids to help)
Wipe down counter tops, put stuff away,
clean table cloth on table
Rotate Laundry
Fold laundry as family
evening prayers
kids to bed

Daily Chores:
feed cat -kids as needed
rotate laundry-kids can help as needed
swipe bathroom-me when I take shower
straighten couch cushions-anyone
clear hot spots: table in living room, coffee table, brown table by the door, my basket area
sweep kitchen
sweep dining room
sweep living room
kids make beds
kids bring dirty clothes to laundry room


Weekly Chores:

Monday:
Sweep or sweep and mop bedroom bath and hallways floor (50 cents)
clean sheets on my bed
Read bible story for next week’s Sunday lesson

Tuesday:
shop vac and mop dining room kitchen, laudry room floors (50 cents)
sheets on Eric’s bed
Make a list of characters to draw, do sketches

Wednesday:
tidy books on living room shelves and in basket (me to do)
tidy game shelves (25 cents)
Sheets on Maia and Ariana’s bed
Ink and color for SS.

Thursday:
clear off stairs (25 cents)
Dust cobwebs all over house
Dust and shop vac living room
Sheets on Bethany’s bed
Cut and paste for SS

Friday:
Clean the bathtub
Tidy Bathroom
Make out shopping list

Saturday:
Go grocery shopping
Cook of pot of stew, chilli or soup to have on hand

Sunday:
Cook for Common meal
Church
home/rest/tidy/library trip
cook dinner
Guests in evening (every other week)

Monthly:

1. Dining room walls and cabinets
2. Fridge and freezer wipe down
3. fronts of kitchen cabinets
4. Walls by the stove and dishwasher
5. Front of stove and dishwasher
6. Dust the windowsill by the sink in Kitchen
7. Clean Eric’s room (include shop vac window area)
8. Clean Girls room (include shop vac rug and window area)
9. Shop vac carpet in living room
10. Shop vac stairs
11. Vacuum stairs
12. Clean off top of washer/dryer in Laundry room and wipe down
13. Sweep back porch
14. Sweep front porc h
15. wipe down dining room walls
16. wipe down bathroom door (both sides)
17. wipe down woodwork in hallway
18. wipe down inside front door
19. wipe down walls in stairway
20. Cull/tidy kitchen drawers


3 Months:
Wash couch cover and curtains
Sweep front walkway
wipe down front door

Comments

Mimi said…
My mother has used SHE for years and years, in fact she knows FlyLady because they used to be on an email list together "back in the day".

I think whatever system works, you take it and run with it, don't make yourself into something you aren't, do what works.

And, you've got something that works, go for it.
Anonymous said…
Lord have mercy girl! This is agressive even for me, especially the once a month stuff. I wipe my front and back door maybe once a YEAR not even once a month!

You're an inspiration!
Alana said…
This is really not that much, people. I do morning and evening routine, and the kids do stuff like empty the dishwasher...and these routines center in the kitchen. After lunch is my time to do things in the rest of the house and it's only like three things per day and it only takes me about half an hour or less.