The Clean Routine

As someone who prefers order over chaos, I've found it to be so helpful to have a routine and schedule not only for my children, but also for myself.

This is something I put into practice long before I became a stay-at-home/work-from-home mom. I found that if I tackled household chores in sections, I didn't despise having to clean as much, and I had more time for fun on the weekends. Besides, the weekends for me always seem to have more traffic in and out of the house, creating more messes, so cleaning on the weekends just feels counterproductive. At least that's what I tell myself.

Here's how I break up the household chores, and again, this doesn't differ too much from when I worked outside of the home:

Mondays - Ah. Mondays. We all love them, right? Just like the 100 or so emails that await you at work, Mondays seem ripe for chores. At work, I would usually try to clear out the worst of what faced me on Mondays so the rest of the week wasn't so scary.  At home, I do the same.

• Scrub the kitchen - It's gross from all of the extra cooking I did over the weekend, so this is a must. I scour the stove top, de-crumb the toaster oven, and clean the stainless steel sinks with a combination of Kosher salt, baking soda and lemon juice. It's a chemical-free way to make them clean and shiny, and my kids get a kick out of the fizzy action these three ingredients make together as a cleaning agent.
• Clothes laundry - I have separate hampers for towels and clothes, so Monday is just for clothes laundry. With the extra clothes from the weekend (my husband likes to don multiple outfits throughout the course of each day) and my toddlers, the mountain of clothes laundry is like Kilimanjaro. Best to get this out of the way early on.
  
  
  
  
• Dust - I hate dusting. Seriously. It's just... it never... ugh! It just never stays un-dusty long enough! But I do either Swiffer dust or use a Pledge-type cleaner, and try to remember to do this before I do the floors. Sometimes? I forget to dust. Whoops!

“...I have to go home and get a few things done. If I don’t get out the Pledge soon, the dust bunnies are going to be leaving tracks on my furniture...” ― Carla Foft, Addressing Spirits

• Clean the floors - This is a task I used to do on Wednesdays, but inevitably, my children will spill something and I figure, what the heck? And, again, all the extra traffic from the weekend makes sweeping, vacuuming, Swiffering and steam mopping a high priority. (Yes, I do all four, and no, I have not sought help for my cleaning addiction.) I usually leave out the bathroom floors, because they have their own special day.

Tuesdays

• Garbage Day! Oh what fun - sometimes I put it out the night before, but we live on top of a hill so most days I wait until morning. Then it's a game of, when will the garbage people actually come? Oh, sometimes it's 9 a.m. on the dot, but most days it's late afternoon. One day, it was 9 p.m. Such fun, this game we play.
• Laundry: Towels, Bath Rugs & Sheets - I keep a hamper in our bathroom, which makes it super easy to do a load of towels only. I also, about every other week or so, do the bedsheets as well. 
• Bathrooms - Since the towels and bath rugs are out of the way, I give the bathroom a once over and clean the floors. Easy peasy. 

Wednesdays - Nada. Just the usual straightening and tidying up.

Thursdays - I usually have enough of the boys clothes laundry to justify doing a load, so I play that by ear. I also may whip out the vacuum cleaner and give the area rug a quick sweep.

Fridays/Saturdays/Sundays - Again, just the normal everyday straightening and tidying up. 

So what is the everyday stuff? Well, I usually sweep underneath and around the dining room table daily since my children seem to think that getting their food to reach their mouths is not the highest priority when it comes to eating. I also take the time to reset the house nightly - in other words, all the toys they dragged out during the day? They get put away. Every. Day. I feel this is important and it was something that kept me sane when I worked outside the home, so I didn't feel so overwhelmed in the morning when I left, like the house was getting swallowed up by toys or something.

Having this cleaning routine and schedule makes my life so much easier. Obviously, when I worked outside the home I didn't tackle so many chores on Monday, but I did take these tasks and divide them up Monday through Thursday, again leaving the weekends for other activities. 

Next time I'll talk about the daily routine I have for myself, and my boys.