Putting Things Together

Wow, I got so many sweet comments and encouraging notes from you awesome blogfollowers in the wake of my last post. It was a needed boost and I appreciate every single one of you (except the one person who decided it was a good time to jump ship... #doomonyou).

After spending a few days feeling sorry for myself, I knew something needed to change in order to make some forward progress. I'd neverevernever call myself an organized person, and if you saw my purse, car, or one of 3 junk drawers, you'd totally agree... BUT! I realized quickly that in order to save myself a little sanity in the long run, I'd need to brush off the uncoordinated and embrace some structure. As a side note: at work, I'm OCD to a fault. I think most nurses tend to be. We're superstitious creatures, always believing that the pregnant-lady-bus will only make a stop at our hospital when we're the least ready. Murphy's law is real and alive, which means preparedness is next to godliness in Labor & Delivery. As it just so happens, cleanliness is also pretty high up there too... you know... the same hand I use to eat my lunch with I also use to check a cervix.

Side note over.

Back to changes: One of the things that can really manifest unneeded stress in my life is the condition of my house. In 3 words: it's never clean. Which bugs me. And the guilt & frustration become cyclical: I feel guilty that my house isn't clean, so I work on the things that scream at me the loudest. After completing said tasks or running out of time, I don't even allow myself to feel gratified by the work that was accomplished because there's still so much to do. That's where the frustration creeps in. It feels like the work is never done and I feel guilty all over again that my house isn't clean. And around and around in circles we go, where we'll stop, nobody knows. Hint Hint: A monthly maid service would be the greatest Christmas/Birthday/anydayoftheweek present ever. Just throwing that out there.

Despite feeling a little like a 7 year old trying to earn an allowance, I made myself (and my husband... he's not exempt from this) a chore chart. It seemed like the easiest solution. For years, I've done the "clean-the-entire-house-in-one-day" thing, but it was an all day event that I just don't have the time for anymore. So I broke it down and listed out the daily, weekly, and monthly things that needed to be done around the house to keep it orderly. In the words of Professor Umbridge:

Source

Not only did it include cleaning, but it also allowed a day for meal planning and a day for grocery shopping. That way, hopefully we don't spend unnecessary time fretting over what to make for dinner. Also, I shouldn't find myself staring into the pantry like a deer in headlights wondering how I'm going to turn pinto beans, ramen noodles, and marinara sauce into "dinner." In the end, I wanted something that would take some weight OFF of my shoulders. I'm hoping that by the end of week #1, the house will be looking pretty close to great. Ideally, once we're really in the swing of things, it shouldn't take long at all to complete each day's task (because of course, it's only been a week or less since it was last cleaned). Not like how it took For-Ev-Er to clean my bathroom the other day because it had been entirely too long since it was last cleaned. And entirely too long = I can't even remember the last time it was properly cleaned. Also, I won't have to feel guilty about leaving something out or not getting to everything, because there's a designated day for each task. Here's what it ended up looking like:

Household Chores

• Sunday: Laundry & Meal Planning
• Monday: Grocery shopping & 1 "Monthly Chore"
• Tuesday: Vacuum & Mop
• Wednesday: Laundry & Change the sheets
• Thursday: Bathrooms & Empty all trash cans
• Friday: Vacuum & Dust
• Saturday: Rest!

Daily: Make the Bed, Put the dishes away, Pick up around the house x15 minutes

Monthly: Week 1: Dust the blinds and ceiling fans. Week 2: Pull weeds Week 3: Clean out the refrigerator. Week 4: Clean out the cars. 

Jordan and I have decided we're going to make a valiant effort to fulfill each day for a solid month and then reevaluate from there. At the end of our trial run, we may move days around, increase or decrease the amount based on how the month went. Of course, things aren't totally limited to their respective days, i.e. if Mauve tracks mud through the house on a thursday, the floor will be mopped. If Isaac spits up in our bed on a monday, the sheets will be changed then. I may come to realize that I've totally forgotten something important or that pulling weeds really is the bane of my existence and should be removed at once from the list of monthly chores. Fingers crossed for a successful and less stressful month.

What works in your house? Do you have designated cleaning days? Fly by the seat of your pants? Have a housekeeper?