Jul 4, 2014

This cleaning schedule has saved me...many times!



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There is one thing that helps me stay sane and that is a clean house.  I have told my husband many times that I seriously lose my mind when I do not have a clean house.  I cannot relax and it seems like nothing else goes well if my house is messy.  I like my house to be clean so when I find out an unexpected guest is coming over in 5 minutes then my house is at least somewhat presentable.  I realize that we have to live in our homes so I want it to look lived in, but not a disaster area where it looks like a tornado just hit and everything is in shambles.  

Today I am going to share some of my tips and secrets that have helped me over the years.  I started doing this cleaning routine about 4 years ago.  I LOVE it!  I was recommended the Flylady website by a friend.  Marla Cilley is the FlyLady.  She has tips upon tips upon tips on her site.  You can go as deep as you want with it or take a few tips from her.  I took quite a few of her tips and made a cleaning schedule that worked for me.  When I finish everything on this list every week I feel so much better and I am so much more organized.  With that said there are many times that I get very little of my list done in a week or I only get half of it done.  That is ok if the next week I can get most or all of it done. 

Another big thing I need to mention is…ask for help when you need it.  If you have kids old enough to help then recruit them and make it fun.  Set a timer or come up with a fun activity to do with them once the cleaning is done.  Whatever works for your kids.  Unfortunately, I do not have any kids that are old enough to help.  My little girl is only 2 and she LOVES to help in any way she can, but she is still trying to figure out the coordination thing.  (One day right?  I am good with her being my baby for awhile longer)  So I utilize my husband when I can.  Right now we are going through some pretty big renovations here at the home so….that means he is usually pretty busy.  So the housework has been up to me to handle.  A couple weeks ago I started potty training my little girl and let me tell you.  That threw my whole cleaning schedule out the window.  Instead I was doing damage control.  So needless to say my house turned into tornado zone again.  I cried and cried many nights.  (Yeah I am a crier.)  Then finally I thought, “Why don’t you ask for help?”  So I did.  I reached out to my brother that is looking for extra cash and I asked him if he would help for a small sum of money.  (Realize that we don’t have a lot extra cash because of the renovations we are doing)  He agreed and it worked out for both of us because he got some cash and I got some help.  Now I feel much better and I am caught up.  Now all I need to do is stay on top of it!  Easy, right?! hahaha

Here is an example of my weekly checklist:

Monday:
Swish and swipe
Shine sink
Declutter
Room Rescue-Living Room
Laundry-Whites
Paper clutter
Clothes
Empty Trash
Daily Mission

Tuesday:
Daily Mission
Shine sink
Swish and swipe
Room Rescue-Laundry
Clothes
Laundry-Jeans/sheets
Clean windows

Wednesday: 
Daily Mission 
Shine Sink
Swish and swipe
Room Rescue-Master
Clothes
Dust
Laundry-Delicates

Thursday:
Daily Mission 
Swish and swipe
Shine sink
Clothes
Room Rescue-Hannah's
Laundry-Black
Declutter
Vacuum house

Friday:
Shine sink
Swish and swipe
Room rescue-Office
Clothes
Declutter
Laundry-Colors
Purge Magazines
Daily mission

Saturday:
Shine sink
Swish and swipe
Room Rescue-Kitchen
Clothes
Room Rescue-Bathroom
Sweep/mop kitchen and bathrooms
Declutter
Laundry-Work clothes and rags

Sunday:
Clothes
Shine sink

Here is a copy of my list that you can add in your own details.  If you go to the Flylady website then you can get a lot more details.  However, here is a quick rundown of my weekly cleaning schedule. 

Every day:
-I “swish and swipe” the bathroom- this means quickly cleaning the mirror, sinks, and toilets.  It should take about 5 minutes.  I clean one bathroom every day.  I have 3 bathrooms.  So that means each bathroom gets cleaned twice a week.  When I only had 1 bathroom it got cleaned every day.  I loved that!
- “Shine the kitchen sink”- this means to get the dishes out of the sink every evening by either hand washing or putting them in the dishwasher and then wipe out the sink. 
- I also pick a room to “rescue” once a day.  I just choose something that really needs to be done in that specific room and only spend about 5 minutes doing it. 
-Pick out clothes for the following day.  This has saved me so many times.  It stops that struggle when you have kids on each leg wanting your attention in the morning.
-I do one to two loads of laundry.  Wash, fold, and put away.
-Lastly, every day I do a “mission” I do whatever I get sent from Flylady.  I set myself up to receive their emails for the "missions".  They pick a different zone in the house once a week and the “missions” stay in that zone. I really like it because every week there is something different to do.  That way the whole house gets deeply cleaned in a month. 

Other items that are not done daily:

-      1.  On the days I “declutter” I pick something to declutter and do it for about 15 minutes.  This keeps me on top of my clutter (well I like to think so).

-     2.  Paper clutter-It’s just that.  You know the piles of mail or coupons or really anything that you keep and say you will get to it later.  Then later comes and goes and you have a huge tower of paper of who knows what.  That's why I try and attack this every Monday and spend no more than 15 minutes on it.  At first you might not get to the bottom of your paper clutter in 15 minutes, but that is ok.  Start again the following week and you will get to the bottom soon enough. 

-     3.  When I clean the windows I set my timer for 10 minutes and attack as many windows as I can in this time.  I start where I ended the following week.  That way I get to each window at least once a month. 

-     4.  Dusting. Blah, blah, blah.  This is my least favorite thing to do.  I hate dust, but I hate dusting.  Can’t it just do itself?  I only spend 10 minutes on this chore.  I attack it like the windows.  I start where I ended the week before.  I usually dust each room at least twice a month.  That is good enough for me.

-     5.  Purge magazines.  I set my timer for 10 min and go through magazines.  I love magazines, but honestly do I need 50 of them…probably not.  I look through them, get inspired, and get rid of them.  I usually can get through 1 magazine in 10 minutes.  (I am a "magazine breezer".  I kind of breeze through them.)  However, sometimes it will take me 2 weeks to get rid of one magazine, but it is still better than never getting rid of them.  EVER.

 Tips that have made cleaning easier in general:

-     Evening tidy up: Quickly go through every room and tidy it up.  This seriously saves me every morning because everything is tidier.  Not perfect, but at least not chaotic.  I stole this idea from Gretchen Rubin from “The Happiness Project” Seriously brilliant.  (So is her book by the way, but that book deserves a whole post by itself!)

-     One minute rule: If it will only take one minute or less to do it… then do it NOW.  Do not wait.  All those one minute things can add up if you don’t get them over with right away.  I also stole this from Gretchin.  (I like to think we are on a first name basis)

-     Your timer should be your best friend.  If you did not notice I use it a lot during my cleaning process.  I believe it helps things seem less daunting if you set a timer.  (You can do anything for 5, 10, 15 minutes, right)  That way you don’t get carried away and 2 hours later you have a mess because you decided to clean that closet that hasn’t been touched in 4 years and who knows what is in there.  If this happens then tomorrow you are going to be burnt out and will not want to start up with cleaning again.  So set your timer.  Even if you don’t get done with everything it will start to happen over time.  I promise.  I know from experience. 









2 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh my heavens, I SOO need this in my life right now, thank you!!

Unknown said...

Too bad I just saw it now but better now then never! ;) Thanks Shambray! I'm excited to put this to GOOD use!

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