Around the house

 

 Let's get things done around the house fast and cheap so we can go play!

 Having a clean, organized home makes everything a little easier but it should not take lots of time or money to get it that way. Let's do it a little at a time so there is plenty of time for play and it won't take hours to find matching socks on the way out.

Routines-
Do you spend your days off cleaning and trying to get caught up on laundry? Or do you feel like there is always something to do so you never really relax? Do you have a cleaning routine? If not then it is time to get one. I am a little bit of a neat freak so before I set up a cleaning routine I used to always feel overwhelmed. I would look around and see everything that needed done and not know where to start. So I would take a day or two and clean like a crazy person and feel better temporarily and then it would all creep back up. One day I was searching the internet and came across FlyLady. If you have never heard of her go to www.flylady.net. This is where I learned how to set up my cleaning routines. I have tweaked it over the years to fit how much time I have for cleaning but there is a ton of ideas there on how to get your house organized.

This is how I set up my cleaning routine now-
1st- Figure out how much time you want to devote to your routine each day. I want to spend around 20 minutes a day keeping our house clean.
2nd- Figure out what exactly needs to be done everyday, what needs done weekly and/or monthly. Make a list and be realistic.

My daily list: I live with 4 guys so the bathrooms are a priority. I spend 5 minutes a day on each bathroom wiping down the mirror, sinks. floor, wipe the toilets with disinfecting wipes and a quick toilet brush. Next, the kitchen. I hate a dirty kitchen so that is another 5 minutes each day. I clear off the counters, wipe the sink, counters, stove and fridge front and sweep the floor and clean up any spills or spots on the floor. Last 5 minutes for me each day is to vacuum the high traffic areas. Sometime during each day I also do at least one load of laundry but I just do it between commercials so I don't count it in my 20 minutes.

My weekly list: everything else that needs done I break up and do an additional 20 minutes or so on Saturdays. I take one room each Saturday and do whatever needs done in that room. The bedrooms need vacuumed, dusted and sheets washed , bathrooms need the tubs and shower cleaned, kitchen needs to have the fridge cleaned out and clean out the cabinets, living/dining room needs dusted and vacuumed. So over the 6 weeks rotation each room gets a more thorough cleaning. Yeah, I know only washing the sheets only every few weeks is not the way my mom would have done it but at least it is getting done.

I don't get completely overwhelmed as often anymore because I know at some point everything will get done and I don't spend a whole beautiful Saturday cleaning!