Decide which household tasks you want to do each morning. For example, make your bed, exercise, shower and get dressed, fix and clean up from breakfast, straighten the front room, get a batch of laundry started, sweep the kitchen floor, and scrub out the bathroom sink.
Daily Jobs
List each job that you feel is essential to your morning routine on a separate 3" x 5" card. If you are in a complete mess and have had little success with daily housecleaning, limit the number of jobs to twelve. This means that you will have twelve separate 3" x 5" cards prepared. As you practice and gain confidence, you will be able to do more and more jobs each morning with greater and greater ease. Pretty soon you will be just like that "super" woman down the street who always seems to have an immaculate house.The goal for the first week is to complete all "twelve" daily jobs each morning. This is how. Get up in the morning and spread the cards out on your kitchen counter. Choose one job to tackle, do it, and then turn the card over. It is sort of a game, but is a wonderful "game" for two reasons: 1) Many times a homemaker will get distracted with the needs of her husband and children. When she wants to return to her chores, it takes alot of effort to overcome the current mood, possible weariness, and frequent mental distraction. Having your chores listed on cards keeps you on track. Off you go again to finish the next job, turn the card over, and on and on.
2) Somehow, when you have previously decided what to do each morning and have listed those jobs on cards, the decision-making has already been done. Just finish those twelve cards and you will be done with all the "daily" housekeeping you wanted to do this morning. You don't have to decide each and every day what needs to be done, you can just get going and get the jobs done.Weekly Jobs
Once you have successfully completed your daily jobs for one week, it is time to set up a weekly housecleaning system. This is a bit more complicated to set up, but you will enjoy the freedom it brings. Each and every week, if you do your weekly housecleaning jobs according to your housecleaning plan, you housework will be kept up.
Here's how! Gather or purchase a 3" x 5" recipe card box. Label blank card dividers with the following: Daily (which is where you will store the "daily" cards which you have already prepared), Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. (When you set up your deep-cleaning job system, you will need another twelve 3" x 5" card dividers which will be labeled January - December.) Then take about 25 lined 3" x 5" cards and go to work listing jobs which need your attention on the various days of the week.Label one card "Laundry" (in the top left-hand corner) and write in the upper right-hand corner how often you plan to do your regular laundry, i.e. "Monday, Wednesday, Friday". Store this card behind the "Monday" divider for now.
Label a second card in the upper left-hand corner "Vacuum" and write in the upper right-hand corner how often you plan to do the vacuuming, i.e. "Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday". Store this card behind the "Tuesday" divider.
Label a third card in the upper left-hand corner "Dust" and write in the upper right-hand corner on which you plan to do the dusting, i.e. "Friday". Store this card behind the "Friday" divider. Continue with all the jobs you desire to do each week. Once you have set up your weekly housekeeping system, you are ready to go again.Each morning, complete your daily housecleaning cards first, flipping each card over as the job is done. Then put these cards away and get out your weekly housecleaning cards for that particular day. Spread your cards and go to work again. The daily cards are always completed first, then the weekly cards second, and finally one of your deep-cleaning cards is pulled out and that job tackled (if there still time).
Deep Cleaning Jobs
Just as you have prepared cards for your daily and weekly jobs, prepare cards for your jobs which will be less frequently, say monthly, quarterly, semi-annually and annually.
Again, we list the job in the upper left-hand corner of the index card and the timing in the upper right-hand corner of the index card. A card for vacuuming the baseboards might be prepared for July and then filed behind the July divider. As time and energy allows (meaning your daily and weekly jobs are done), pull out a Deep Cleaning Job and get to work.
With practice, you will constantly be cleaning your home and it will consistently be neat and orderly. Good luck. Remember, it is a lot of work to be organized, but it is a lot more work to be disorganized!
Find more helpful ideas and housecleaning plan information at www.houseoforder.com.
©2009 Marie Calder Ricks/www.houseoforder.com
4 comments:
I needed to read this today, thanks for sharing! I am wondering if you will post something about cleaning for the wickedly stressful times...or the frazzled mother. Honestly, our company experienced a growth spurt (good), the kids got strep, and we had an unusual ammount of extra meetings all in the same time period. So all routines were lost.
This post is helpful in that it is a reminder to go back to the norm. But now I face a mound of laundry, dirty floors, and neglected bathrooms. (So I am naturally here on this blog by default).
I heart you.
Familee: When stress is upon us and things "fall apart", as soon as we surface, we begin to put together the pieces of our lives. This means focusing for just a bit longer than usual on the basics: laundry, cleaning, meals, bills, and decluttering. Try to reduce or avoid any more external commitments for the time being until you are in "control" again. This might take a week, but usually will take two, three or even four weeks before the cadance returns. Be patient, focus on the basics, and say "no" alot until your wheel is rolling smoothly again. Marie
I implemented this plan almost two weeks ago and I cannot express how much smoother my daily life has become! In my recipe box, I also created files for each of my four children. This has been immensely helpful as well. Now instead of tracking down each child and giving them specific directions, all I have to say is "Have you gone through your chore cards for the day?" This system works great - thank you!
Dear McFarlands: One of the nicest surprises about getting more organized is that the smallest, seemingly insignificant changes and improvements can make a tremendous difference in our daily lives. Thanks for your kinds words, and keep using those chore cards! This concept certainly changed my life!
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