Cleaning schedule revisited

I mentioned last week that I needed to revisit my cleaning schedule. I posted my original cleaning schedule a couple of years ago and as time went on, more chores needed to be done and then I forgot about my list and then I had another baby. Life is crazy hectic now so I need to get back on track with a schedule. I know it sounds crazy to have to have a schedule to clean. It's not that I need a reminder to clean, our house stays picked up but some things get overlooked. I will glance at this list daily and do what I can, when I can, throughout the day.  I did get asked what our schedule was, so here ya go! An updated version. Interested in starting your own schedule? Just list all of your chores and sort them by days. What you think you can handle per day. Granted I am a SAHM and have all day to get mine done so I cram as much into each day as I think I can handle. Working parents or non-parents may have to set some things to do on the weekend. I want my weekends free, other than the daily chores, so I kept them free.

Monday- Dust entire house. Clean all windows/mirrors. Wash jeans. Water plants.

Tuesday- Mop living room/dining room/hall. Wash colors. Vacuum all carpet.

Wednesday- Bathrooms. Toilet, counters, tubs, shower, sweep and mop. Wash towels. Dust entire house. Wash dog/cat bowls and bath toys.

Thursday- Wash Madison's clothes/bedding, Riley's clothes/bedding and our bedding. Clean both girls' rooms, including dusting and windows.

Friday- Kitchen. Wipe all surfaces including cabinet doors and microwave. Wash colors and whites. Vacuum all carpet. Pick up play room.

*Daily- scoop litterbox(change litter as needed), sweep, load/empty dishwasher.

Organized chaos

People always say they think I'm pretty organized and I have to admit, I get a tad OCD with things. When it comes to our house, everything has a place. I'm not overly picky about it but I don't like clutter. Madison's playroom is another thing. I will let her play and throw things around and maybe once a week I will straighten it all up but I'm not picky at all about that room. Here are a few pictures of how our house is organized:

This is Madison's bathroom closet. I moved all of these bins from the hall closet when I racked up at the candle outlet sale here in town.

I need more matching bins but this does for now. The small box is a diaper box wrapped in wrapping paper and holds extra sheets. The beige bin holds garden flags and gift bags.

I like to recycle good food containers so I keep a box of them. Madison also likes putting things in them and taking the lid on and off.

Our candle closet. The white box on top holds light bulbs. The blue bin holds work towels/rags. 3rd shelf is all jar candles and envelope sachets. 4th shelf is diffuser oil and on the floor is more jar candles and an orange container that holds votives, votive holders and more jar candles. This closet smells good to say the least :)

Our 'junk' drawer. Our island has these dividers.  It holds our bills, stamps, address stickers/book, notepads/scrap paper, note cards, menus, etc. All kinds of things but they are sort of organized.

Our pantry. This space really needs help. To be worked on soon

Madison's goods in her bathroom.

Our very small stockpile in our bathroom.

I bought these little dividers from The Container Store when we first moved here and love them.

and here are some ideas I want to do over the next few months/year.

Love this for the attic. How annoying is it to have to move totes around to get the tote underneath.

Love these shelves for the sides of the pantry!

I want all my dry goods in glass containers with labels. I drool over these pictures.

Tension rod to hang bottles and clear up shelf space

Upgraded cleaning tools!

We finally bit the bullet and bought a Dyson this weekend. After much consideration and talking to people who have them and swear by them. Along with that we also bought a Shark Steam mop. I'd been wanting one for a while and Target was running a great deal. You get a gift card when you purchase a Dyson. So we figured we would buy a steam mop with the gift card. We decided to get the Animal Complete. With 3 dark haired animals living inside, we need all the help we can get!

Our old vacuum had really stopped working. It was pushing hair and litter around from room to room instead of vacuuming it up. The suction on the hose was barely there. I am very pleased with the amount of hair and litter and overall dirt it's getting up. It came with a pack of powder for the floors that you leave on for 30 minutes and then vacuum up. I used that and the house smells so good! I feel like the floors look cleaner after using it too. It's easy to push around and empty the container. The one thing I've found that I would change is the hose. You have to take out the really long part that goes down into the hose before you can use it on something closeup like furniture. I guess it keeps from having another hose on the side of the vacuum and it's not a big deal. Just the only thing I've seen that I'd likely change but it's not like you use the hose every time you vacuum. I have been using it because I feel the old vacuum didn't do a good job and I've been trying to deep clean.

We decided to go with the Shark Plus Steam mop

 I feel like the floors are much more clean. The steam mop is so much easier than worrying about a mop and water/cleaner. The Swiffer Wet-Jet didn't work for me because it streaks too much. The other cloth pad mop I got was too much trouble.. Too much taking the pad off, rinsing and dipping in cleaning solution(water and vinegar in my case) and repeating.. It took too long to dry on the floor and I just didn't feel like the floor was clean enough. With a 15 month old walking around, most of the time bare foot, I need the floors as clean as possible. 

After using the steam mop twice, I think a mop with automatic constant steam or an easy to push button on the handle would be a lot better. This one has a pump motion on the handle. So when you push and pull(the motion of mopping), the steam comes out that way. It's not hard to do but when you flip the mop over(the pad has a scrub side and a shaggy side) it seems a tad harder for the steam to come out. I am very happy with it and feel so much better already that the floors are cleaner.

Alan said "You know you've been together a long time when you get excited about getting things that clean the house". Yep! And who says women don't want appliances for Christmas? I do! 

What's your review on your vacuum and steam mop?

Clean up, clean up

I had some recent feedback about my cleaning schedule. I posted earlier this year our schedule since it was part of my New Year goals. I fell off the bandwagon when Madison became more mobile. I was running around so much that when she went down for a nap, I needed a break and the last thing I wanted to do while she was napping was clean the house. I kept it picked up and presentable but things got neglected.

I've been trying to let M walk around more independently and not be a Hover-mom. I want her to know that she doesn't need me to watch her play or wander around. I keep my eyes on her and listen out for her. When she's is quiet, she's likely into something, but if she's jibbering, she's just wandering around.

All that said, I'm trying to get my cleaning done(as much as I can) while she plays and wanders around and trying to take a break while she's napping. I also keep weekends free of cleaning. The schedule does not include dishwashing since we wash about 2 loads a day. How is that possible? Here is the schedule that has worked for me so far.

Monday -Dust entire house. Clean all windows and mirrors. Clean litterbox. Wash jeans. Vacuum. Water plants.


Tuesday - Sweep and mop living room, dining room, laundry room and hall. (Sounds like a lot but most of our living room is a rug)  Wash Alan's shirts and colors.


Wednesday -Clean both bathrooms. Toilet, counters, tubs, shower and sweep and mop. Clean litterbox. Wash towels. Dust entire house. Vacuum. Wash dog/cat bowls and Madison's toys.


Thursday - Wash Madison's clothes/crib sheet and our bed sheets. Sweep living room, kitchen, dining room, laundry room and hall.


Friday - Sweep and mop kitchen. Wipe all surfaces including cabinet doors and microwave. Wash colors and whites. Vacuum.

I also found a deep cleaning schedule where you do one thing per month of the year. 

source

Share your cleaning tips with me!

Another goal done..

Along with this goal comes a cleaning schedule. I hate cleaning the entire house in one day and with me not working, the last thing Alan needs to do is help clean on the weekend. I have made a daily cleaning schedule so its something I can do daily and by the weekend, all cleaning and laundry is done.


I got my cleaning schedule printed out and have been following it for a few weeks now. It really helps break up the chores and Alan doesn't have to do anything when he gets home or on the weekends-the way it should be if one person stays home, in my opinion. I got mad at him Saturday when I came home to clothes in the washer. I told him that I do that and he's messing up my routine! :) I have tried to not wash clothes on the weekends so we both can kind of chill out but sometimes we need to, and he took it upon his self to wash 2 loads while I was out to lunch with Amanda. I don't kill myself trying to stick to this schedule because some days Madison will sleep 3-4 hours and some days I am lucky if she sleeps 30 minutes all day. So on the days that she naps, I may do the next days chores or if I don't get today's chores done today, they will get done tomorrow. I thought I would blog my schedule since I have seen some of my friends pinning cleaning schedules on Pinterest. Here it is:


Monday -Dust entire house. Clean all windows and mirrors. Clean litterbox. Wash jeans. Vacuum


Tuesday - Sweep and mop living room, dining room, laundry room and hall. (Sounds like a lot but most of our living room is a rug)  Wash Alan's shirts and colors.


Wednesday -Clean both bathrooms. Toilet, counters, tubs, shower and sweep and mop. Clean litterbox. Wash towels. Dust entire house. Vacuum.


Thursday - Wash Madison's clothes and our bed sheets. Sweep living room, kitchen, dining room, laundry room and hall.


Friday - Sweep and mop kitchen. Wipe all surfaces including cabinet doors and microwave. Wash colors and whites. Vacuum.

New Year, New Things!

I have been thinking a lot lately of some things I want to get accomplished and/or change this year. Here they are:

1) Be a better wife, mother, family member, friend and all around person. Since having Madison I tend to feel disconnected or even distant from a lot of people in my life. I need to get back to that person I was and I will find her soon! The things exhaustion does to your attitude is amazing. Even though Madison is doing decent at night, I go nonstop during the day and by the time Alan gets home, I am wiped out! This makes me be quiet and then I am ready for bed by 9! With Madison I want to be that mom she loves hanging out with. With everyone else I will try to call, email or text more to keep in touch.

2) I took some pictures of my niece and her fiance Saturday, who are expecting a son in February. I have no idea what I am doing, so I just point and shoot. This was the one of many things that has made me really look into taking classes or at least reading the book on how to use my camera. The local college has Photography classes that start in February. I am really nervous about the possibility of taking classes. I feel like it's my first day of school! This would also involve taking a Photoshop course and getting a new computer and Photoshop.

3) Get our house more organized and decorated. I know some people think I'm already super organized but my goal this year is to get more organized.

I want our pantry to look like this:

via Home Stories A to Z

Our pantry isn't that wide but the main goal is to get all dry ingredients into labeled jars and maybe snacks and/or like items in baskets like the ones shown here. I would also like to redo my spices. I have them all in little jars with what the spice is written on the top, in ABC order but I would like something different.

and my scarves like this(on shower hooks):

via From the Desk

This is an easy one if I can just remember to put shower rings on our grocery list..

Along with this goal comes a cleaning schedule. I hate cleaning the entire house in one day and with me not working, the last thing Alan needs to do is help clean on the weekend. I have made a daily cleaning schedule so its something I can do daily and by the weekend, all cleaning and laundry is done.

Also, the decorating part. I have yet to put up curtains in the bathrooms since we painted last April. We also need new towels and some artwork in there, our bedroom and the kitchen. Our bonus room needs a good cleaning and painting and maybe make the beginning of Madison's play room with this:

via Pinterest

Here's some other things floating on my Pinterest board..

via It's a Crafty Life
love this to hang by door for keys.

via Google
bookshelves flanking a couch.

via Chocolate Moments
such a cute way to remind someone what little things they do make you happy! A dry erase board so you can write different things everyday!

via All Things Homie
A cute way to dress up your thermostat!

via Bryn Alexandra
I really like having hooks in the room next to the door. For purses, coats, etc.

via minimoz
Maps of where you met, married and live. Love this!

If you aren't on Pinterest yet, you should be! Or maybe you shouldn't.. It has made me want to redo my entire house! It has really given me a lot of great ideas for our house(like all of the above!), ideas for things to do with Madison, great blogs to follow and yummy foods to try, which I have already!

4) Start back exercising. We have been talking about getting a treadmill or stair climber in the next couple of months. Since Alan stopped playing tennis regularly and when I got pregnant, neither of us has really done any real exercise. I haven't truly worked out in a gym in roughly 10 years! Before getting pregnant, I would run/walk the neighborhood.

5) Scrapbooking. I haven't scrapbooked in years but it's something I really enjoy doing. The only thing is it takes me a couple of hours to do a page usually and I just don't have that kind of free time anymore, other than when Madison goes to bed and by then I am trying to spend time with Alan, cook supper(this eating at 8pm thing is getting old fast!) and am ready for bed myself! I need to try to do a page a week.

6) Use coupons more. I cancelled my E-mealz suscription a couple of months ago. I talked about it here. It was great up until about 6 months ago. They started putting things like Hot Dogs and frozen pizza on the list. I mean I understand that we all want easy meals but I paid for this site and I can throw in a hot dog meal in the other 2 days it didn't give me recipes for. Plus every week there was a seafood meal and I don't eat seafood. So that was 1 out of 5 meals I wouldn't fix so I was having to come up with another meal to replace the seafood meal. So anyway... I try to cook different things every week. I hardly make the same thing twice and when I do, it's something like tacos or spaghetti or an easy meal. I try to base what I'm cooking on whats on sale which helps but here lately I haven't done a great job with my grocery budget. I would love to keep a stock of things that go on super sale that I have coupons for like shampoo, toothpaste and baby items.

I'm sure I have a ton of other goals spinning around in my head. we'll just leave it at this. Hopefully in the next couple of months I will have all of these marked off my list! We'll keep you updated!