one of my favorite john maxwell quotes is: "if you do the things you need to do when you need to do them, then someday you can do the things you want to do when you want to do them." i would say this is 100% my attitude when tidying up and cleaning around the house. if you're able to do a little each day, then staying on top of house organization/cleaning isn't so overwhelming. doing a little each day also factors in those days when you're not able to get the tasks done because life....but then you can just do those a different day [or "make up" day on saturday]. when you wait for the weekends to do all of the tasks and cleaning, it can make you almost dread the weekend, or if something fun comes up, you may either a) feel guilty for saying yes to the activity because that means saying no to your home duties or b) say yes and just add to the overwhelm at home because you have "no time" to get things done or c) have to say no because it is your only time to do housework.
let's start with an often loathed task--laundry. there are two methods to this madness. if you have a work from home/stay at home job, you may find you like having a laundry day. that means throughout this day, you are doing all of your loads of laundry and ideally folding and putting away. i would not recommend this system for those who work outside of the home [or even those who are at home] because it puts unrealistic expectations on the laundry-doer to get all of the laundry done on one day. if you work outside of the home, i would recommend putting a load in the washer when you leave for work, then flip the laundry and put it in the dryer when you get home. i do not always fold my clothes after each load, but when the dryer beeps, i will pull each item out and lay it flat [in one pile], so it does not wrinkle [the incessant tumbling or rewashing doesn't work for me]. i can elaborate more on my laundry philosophies in another post.
now onto the other tasks. i like to have bigger tasks assigned to days. more often than not, since i stay at home, the housework is my job. i tend to be our organizer/clean(er) one [shocker, i know]...although mark is definitely on board and helps around the house a good bit. i know division of labor questions have come up about how to know who does what. i would suggest a few ways to handle that. first, you can sit down with your spouse/roommate and decide what, if any, specific roles you have. for example, i do not like dishes, so mark does them. if he is out of town, i will do the dishes, but if he's here, odds are not high the spirit moves me to do that task! another method could be to assign tasks to certain days and you both do them together, or a third way could be to assign yourself days [you could do even/odd calendar days or MWF/TTH and switch each week], then that person is assigned for the tasks of that day.
there are tasks that need to be done daily as well as weekly. using the systems mentioned above, i would decide how it's best to divide and conquer the tasks for you and your family. for the daily tasks, you can switch days, or if you find one of you is a morning person then have them do the daily morning tasks and the night owl can do the daily evening tasks.
i think it's important that each person cleans out their own car each day as well as puts their own junk [shoes, car keys, bags, etc.] in their respective places. when everyone takes care of their own specific things, it makes the whole house tasks that much more manageable. here is a system that seems to work for me/my family. hear me when i say that by no means does this get accomplished in this way, on this day, and 100% every week. but it's a great guide for me to see what all needs to be done in a weeks' time, and it helps me stay on top of the housework.
take my table of tasks, and tweak it for what works best for you and your family. if you try it one way, and you don't feel like it will be successful in the long run, adjust it until you find the sweet spot! and don't wait to start trying to figure out a system! today is tuesday--seize the day and start with cleaning your bathrooms and the kitchen! by this time next week, your entire house will have been cleaned, and you'll be on track to stay on top of it!
do you have any other questions or thoughts about making cleaning/organizing systems and schedules? i hope this post was encouraging and helpful--you can stay on top of your tasks and make it manageable [and dare i say, enjoyable?!...okay, i won't go that far]! hope you have a happy day!
No comments:
Post a Comment