All Geared Up

Sweetheart leaves for work at 7 am tomorrow (Monday) morning. I am all ready to start my week. I loved my old routines. My house was always in order and I had more free time! In preparation, I got all my cleaning supplies cleaned out and organized. I store them in the laundry room, so I went ahead and cleaned and organized the whole room. (The milk jugs have homemade laundry soap in them, in case you were wondering)Lots of old empty bottles and containers, plus items that found their way in there that did not belong.

Another job I got a jump start on was cleaning my plants. I keep fake plants above my kitchen soffets. Zachary threw a cat toy, which landed up there. When I looked up I could not believe the dust on those plants!
It is so easy...I usually do these in the summer so I can take them outside with the hose, but they could not wait that long! I used the kitchen sink and the sprayer. They came clean with no real effort. So much better. I should be embarrassed....but I'm not. ;) Without my schedules in place I NEVER even look up there! I have my daily sheet filled out for tomorrow. Some call it a PODA (Parade Of Daily Activity). I just call it a Daily Sheet. I take my daily schedules from my binder and fill out the next days list of chores. Some days, everything on the schedule for that specific day does not need to be done. For example, if the dining room wasn't used, it may only get dusted and vacuumed once a week instead of the 3 times a week it is on the schedule. If it does, it goes on the daily sheet.Any phone calls, appointments, or errands also go on there. I list at least one job per child for the day too.
My monthly cleaning schedule is much more detailed. The first week of the month focuses on the front of the mail level of the house. This includes the dining room, entryway and studio. I go through that list and divide up several of those jobs throughout the week.

Such jobs as wiping down switch plates, vacuuming behind and under furniture, and washing windows, find their way onto the daily sheet. It is spread over the week, with some days not getting any deep cleaning added to them, and everything gets done. For example, I added some of those jobs onto tomorrows list since I will be working in those rooms anyway. On Tuesday and Thursday, other than general pick up, those rooms are not on my list, so I will not add any focus cleaning to those days. If I do things right, I should easily be done with my cleaning in 1-4 hours per day, depending on the day. It averages out to be 2-3 total, and that includes the deep cleaning jobs and the regular routines, like making beds, swiping down bathrooms, etc. You can see my complete Home Management Binder by clicking on the link on my sidebar.

Another cleaning job I took care of was my blog list. I subscribed to 198 blogs and had over 1000 unread posts. I really only read about 75 blogs, so I pushed the unsubscribe button on those I never visit anyway. Most of those unread posts went away. I caught up on the others and can now enjoy my daily blog reading again. I always had my morning coffee while I read blogs. Well over the last 2 years, I have coffee with Sweetheart and read blogs as I can, leaving NO time to comment. I feel guilty about that...like I visited your home and said nothing. I should be able to do much more commenting now that I am getting my schedules back in place!

Say a prayer if you think of us....Sweetheart has a long drive to work and we are getting some snow overnight....3 inches or more. It will be a long day here without him and he will be missed so very much, but we are SO thankful for this blessing!

I leave you with a pic of Sassy. She lost her toy under the stove, the poor thing!

No worries...we got it out for her. Life is good for Sassy as long as her food bowl is full and her milk rings are available!

I'll be back soon to share how it all went!