I've decided to add something new to my blog... something for other moms (or dads) out there, that find themselves extraordinarily busy. AND possibly for moms and dads who aren't busy. At least once a week until June, I'm going to post a problem and solution that I've come up with. And, ok, the title is a little cocky. I'm not promising that my solution is actually the best solution. But I'm promising that it works for my family, and it's the best that I've found after researching and trying out other solutions.
So, here we go. Problem and Solution #1, finding time to clean:
Problem: I find that during the semester, when I'm in school 20 hours a week, working 10-15 hours a week, taking care of a 2 year old the other hours, AND doing homework 10 hours a week.... that my cooking and cleaning fall by the wayside. The house becomes a MESS, and then I spend 5 hours on a weekend cleaning the whole thing. I never want company to come over, and I feel disorganized the whole week until it's clean. (And let's face it, with a 2 year old and two NAUGHTY dogs, it stays clean for about a half hour after the little one wakes up the next morning).
Solution: The absolute BEST solution I've found, is breaking the cleaning up into small jobs, and assigning a day of the week. I have a cleaning schedule that is posted weekly in my kitchen. I cross things off each day as they get cleaned. And I have to say... my house is actually staying clean! Here's a photo of this week's cleaning schedule:
I add little notes to myself in the margins as you can see, and the duties sometimes change positions depending on the week and the days I'll be more or less busy. Yes, once and a while I don't do the cleaning for a day (such as this week, Killian decided to boycott sleep last night until 10 pm, at which point I was too exhausted to clean, so the cleaning for Tuesday got done today, on Wednesday), but I still always do the jobs the next day. I found that crossing them off helps alot, because I can visually see what still needs to be done. While I'm waiting for pasta to cook, I might quickly take out the garbage or dust. That way, I can do the jobs during spare min. throughout the day, without having to mentally figure out what needs to be cleaned.
Finally, I came up with a nice little rule in our house to keep it PICKED UP (one of the major battles for any parent). The rule is:
*If toys are in the playroom or Killian's bedroom, they can lay out all day. If they are in a room Mommy walks in (aka, any other room), they must be put away RIGHT after they are finished playing with. Both the playroom and Killian's room must be picked up before bed*
I leave an extra 15 min. before bedtime to clean up. Eventually I think Killian will wise up and pick up his toys as he goes, so he doesn't have to get ready for bed so early. The rule's been working out pretty well too. I don't mind toys being all over the floor as long as I don't have to step over them, or look at them. It also helps that all the toys are only in Killian' room and the playroom with the exception of the kitchen set and the train table.
So, that's my solution for cleaning. All the jobs divided up throughout the week, and having them hanging up so I can see them. I've been using this tool for about 4 months now and I have to say that it's working so well that when I'm lazy and don't print off a new one (again like this week, I waited until Monday when I normally print one off on Sunday), I get frazzled not seeing my cleaning schedule up on the kitchen cabinet.
No comments:
Post a Comment