I have decided to have a weekly schedule, each day I pick a certain part of the home, or chore to focus on as a way to organise my efforts and become more efficient at my work.  In a previous post I shared a quick list of what my weekly schedule was going to look like, and now I would like to go a little more into depth as to what I plan on really doing those days.

Monday: Laundry
Laundry sounds pretty self explanatory.  However when I say laundry I am talking hard core laundry doin’.  I have found that if I am diligent and focused I can get all the laundry washed, folded and ready for the kids to put away by Monday night.  I also know that when I do get my laundry done in one day the week seems more put together.  My laundry room consists of a corner in the kitchen pantry where my washer and dryer are tucked, so when I do laundry it is spread out all over the living room, occupying every surface, including the floor.  So spreading my laundry out over several days is irritating to me, I don’t like to feel as if laundry has taken over my house and life!  In order to do laundry for eight people in one day I have to start early, before any of my other morning chores are started laundry is gathered, sorted and a load is started.  I stay alert and close by and make sure I am switching out loads and folding (as much as I can) as I go.  But laundry is more that just washing, it is also cleaning my laundry area.  It is easy for the laundry area to become cluttered and dysfunctional, especially when the laundry area is small.  So in between loads the washer and dryer are washed down, the shelves dedicated to laundry are straightened and wiped down and the floor is swept.  It takes about 10 minutes when done weekly and it keeps the area from getting so cluttered that cleaning it develops into a big job.

Tuesday: Kitchen
Kitchen day is a mid-week extra special clean day.  Everyday my kitchen is cleaned as needed or after meals, but this day is a little more than that.  The fronts of appliances are cleaned, the floors spot mopped, and the refrigerator is cleaned out and wiped down.  About the refrigerator, sometimes cleaning a refrigerator can seem like a big overwhelming job, and it is when it isn’t done often, I have found that cleaning it once a week, on kitchen day makes for an easy fifteen minute job.  It makes it easy for me to know that every Tuesday I will clean that fridge out, and it stays clean, and doesn’t become overwhelming.  Also on this day I work on one area of the kitchen, say a cupboard or drawer or shelf in the pantry, I clean that one area and slowly over the weeks the whole kitchen gets cleaned, the job stays small, and manageable.  Once the kitchen is in rotation it only takes an hour or so a week, that also leaves some extra time in case the laundry didn’t get all the way done the day before.

Wednesday: Baking and Cooking
I make a lot of my meals from scratch, it is the only way I can really afford to feed my little zoo.  So on Wednesday I set aside the afternoon to work on making some of my food items ahead of time.  My list might include: bread for the week, rolls, yogurt, granola, cookies, cinnamon rolls, english muffins, kefir or tortillas.  I look ahead at my menu and see what needs to be done and do as much as I can, it makes the rest of the week a little bit easier at meal time.  This is a great time to add a little service into the week, it is easy to make some extra cookies or share a loaf of bread.

Thursday: Office
This is the day when I take a couple hours in the afternoon to deal with all the paper that comes my way.  This is when I will work on our budget (which I am terrible at, this is something I plan on improving).  I will clean out my e-mail, write thank you cards (another thing that I would like to do better), prepare lessons, etc.  This is also the day I will clean my desk area, discarding old papers and generally tidying everything up.

Friday: Cleaning
This is the day that I clean the house.  This takes most of the day and my usual morning routines are set aside as I start the day cleaning.  This is the day that bathrooms are scrubbed, wood polished, base boards washed, kitchen cleaned, etc.  The kids help with this, they have certain areas of the house they are in charge of cleaning, along with their bedroom.  This is also the day that I wash bathroom towels, rugs and bed sheets.  The goal is that by Friday evening the house is sparkling clean.

Saturday: Project
This is family project day, in the warm months that is usually some outside chore, such as weeding and mowing, washing and cleaning the cars or working in the garden.  In the winter we do inside jobs, usually home improvement or some big cleaning job.  We do this in the morning and the afternoon we try to do something fun as a family.  One of our favorite family activities this summer involved two, 0ne-dollar bags of water balloons, it was great fun.

Sunday: REST
Sunday is a day of rest and worship.

 Do you have a weekly schedule?

If you have a weekly schedule what are some of the advantages of having that schedule?

Excepting a couple months before the baby was born,  I have only ever had a very loose weekly schedule, I would do laundry on Monday and clean on Friday, but that was it.  I found that when I established a  weekly schedule my days and my week were more purposeful, my home was more orderly, clean and calm.  I was able to get my tasks done and have extra time to do things I wanted to do, I didn’t waste hours trying to figure out what needed to be done or doing several tasks but never quite finishing anything.  Once the baby came, my weekly schedule had to take a back seat, taking care of a small baby consumes so much time, and one never quite knows when baby will be sleeping or eating or otherwise needing attention, along with the other children in the household.  Like I said before we were on full survival mode, which is ok, it is a time and season, one that I am grateful for, there is nothing so sweet as having a new baby in the home.

However,
baby is now 3 months old, she sleeps 12 hours at night and takes at least two long naps durring the day, it is time to get back to keeping this poor neglected house!  So in the spirit of getting my house in order I will order my days like this:

Monday:
Laundry

Tuesday:
Kitchen

Wednesday:
Baking and cooking

Thursday:
Office

Friday:
Cleaning

Saturday:
Projects

Sunday:
REST

What does your week look like?

At the beginning of the summer I read a really good book called “Large Family Logistics“.  It is a treasure trove of tips and hints on how to organise a household so it runs easily and efficiently.  It is geared towards larger families, but I honestly think that it was a mistake to title the book “Large Family” because I think that no matter the size of the family, a single college student, a family of three or thirteen or a retired couple, everyone can benefit from the organizational tips in this book.    Before the baby was born I used a few of the management tool in the book and they helped very much, I felt like I was handling the day to day chores and a few of the extras, so when baby came I was on top of everything.  Well, once baby had come that all fell apart and we were in full survival mode, especially with the onset of my postpartum depression/anxiety.  However, three months later I a feeling strong and ready to do what I love the most: be a mother and homemaker.

I have decided to give myself three goals, or projects for this week.

1. Get up, get dressed, put on make-up and do my hair.  Even if that means I am in a pony tail, with jeans and a t-shirt, I will be dressed for the day.

2. My bed will be made and the master bathroom cleaned.  I would like to clarify that my bathroom is “cleaned” once a week, so it isn’t like I have a hoarders type bathroom issue going on, I am talking about making sure that brushes, combs, hair spray, etc are put away.  My bedroom and bathroom are an area of the house that is easily neglected, they aren’t delegated to one of the children, and it is easy for me to just shut the door and forget, however I have found when that room is clean the whole house seems to come together easier.

3. I am going to get my Household Management binder in order and get a weekly and daily schedule in place.  I have used household binders in the past and they have worked well.  They were mostly used as a place to organize all the papers that would pass my fingers in a day, but this one is going to be different.  I will use it for paper organization, but also as a place for budgets, schedules and menu planning.  I plan on talking about weekly schedules later on this week.

It is now 1:00 in the afternoon, I am dressed, but still need to do my hair and make-up, and while my bed is made the bathroom needs to be picked up, it is laundry day so the binder is going to have to wait until tomorrow.  Can I do these goals this week?  I certinaly plan on it, but I am thinking a daily schedual would be helpful for keep myself on track!