Who's driving this thing?

September 2011

     I turned around and suddenly summer is almost over! I love Autumn; so October,  pumpkins and cool weather can't come fast enough this year! We need a little sweater cuddlin’ around here; this year has been a tough one for us.

     So I’m back in front of the computer making my lists this morning, attempting to put a little order back into our lives. Autumn is the beginning of the new  year at our house; with a teacher in the family it’s easier to reset both our calendars at the same time. With the last rays of the summer sun just around the corner, I like to spend these last few days setting up a new schedule of things to do, places to go, chores to do during the week, projects I want to finish off, and what to get started on. Since it’s all on down on paper anyway, I thought I’d outline them here, so you could all see what my days are like this time of year.

     My workweek is Monday thru Friday. I like to get the bulk of my chores and work done by Friday afternoon, so that the mister and I can play all weekend long! He also spends quite a bit of time in the evenings doing paperwork, and likes to help out when he can on the weekends, so I leave some of the bigger chores for Sunday afternoon. Here’s a little glimpse of my weekly schedule:

•    Monday is laundry and cooking day: this way I have clean clothes for the week, and most of the work for the meals of the week is taken care of, too.
•    Tuesday is my day off. I mainly play computer games on this day, or try out ideas for my “day job”. It’s nice to have one whole day set aside for playing with ideas, without chores eating up what little time I have for crafting.
•  Wednesday is washing day. I’ll wash the floors, windows, mirrors, any dishes that have built up (nope- hubby does the dishes. It’s in my contract! I cook, he cleans ) and finish off any special request laundry that turns up. I also wash down light switches, phone mouthpieces, doorknobs, etc. it helps keep the germs away, and keeps me aware of the general state of the house. It’s all in the details! And it only takes a few minutes.
• Thursday is for meal planning. I learned this just a few years ago, and it is amazing how much every other part of my routine has become easier once I started doing this. I should do a longer post just on this topic later on to save some space here since this is getting long. It’s easy, fun (for me- I like to read cookbooks) and saves me a ton of money. Ahem. If I can get it done, which is one reason why summer vacation worked so smoothly last year, but not this one. . .
• Friday is catch-up day. I do one last load of laundry on Friday, mostly towels for the weekend, finish any sewing projects, make sure my chores are finished for the week, that sort of thing.

     Oh, and now for my secret- I only work on housework 15 minutes at a time. Yup. And most things don’t even take that long- set a timer and see for yourself. I play music when I clean, too. Make your chores a workout, and get twice the benefit!

     And you know what? It works for my husband and me- so much so, that when I got off the weekly rotation when we moved this summer, it took us both three months to get our schedules back on track!

     I have found that there are not that many people who like the idea of a strict schedule when it comes to housework and most would rather just hire a maid and ignore the whole thing. But that’s just not me- I actually like running this ship! And I’ve found that having a written schedule, lists, and a plan to follow makes it easier for me to run my household with efficiency and grace. Now granted, it’s taken me 16 years of marriage to get to this point, so I’m not saying it’s easy; and it takes a little elbow grease to get this train rolling at the start, but in the end we think it’s been really worth the effort.  I’ve cobbled my system together from several different sources, and I certainly couldn’t do it if my husband weren’t on board with me on this crazy ride.