I hear it a lot; people ask me how I get it all done each day. And I answer them honestly, I don't. Very little in my house is done on a daily basis. Sure there is the obvious like dressing, brushing teeth and eating (lots of eating) but as for the household chores, very few make the cut as a daily chore.
That being said, I should explain that I have sacrificed the glory of the "Everything's Done" moment to fight off the horrors of the "Nothing's Done" moment. I run the house on a weekly basis. But let's start with the daily items.
1. Dishes - and I mean all of them! Whether it means running the dishwasher half-full (ha, yeah right!) or running it twice, at one point during the day I wash every single dirty dish. A little confession here, I leave my supper dishes overnight. Yep, they see the sunrise. But it means that post-dinner I get family time. We play and read books. I share in their giggles instead of overhearing them from my post in the kitchen. But the following morning by 9 there is not a dirty dish to be found not even from that morning's breakfast.
2. Laundry - the most feared word in the mommy language. It is like gremlins, don't feed it after midnight and whatever you do don't get it wet (except in the machine, of course). As a family of five I can offer some pretty scary numbers. At a minimum our weekly laundry includes: 35-40 shirts, 35-40 pairs of pants/shorts, 20 pairs of pjs, 70-90 socks (35-45 pairs, needing matched), 21 pairs of underpants (a rare moment to be thankful two are still in diapers), 5-7 sets of sheets, 35 bath towels, 14-21 hand towels, 14 washcloths and 21-28 dish towels. Now think of the extras that may happen in a week: ballet clothes, hubby's workout gear, a finger-painting mishap, failed diaper, bibs, burpies, swimwear or sweatshirts and sweaters, the list goes on.
So what do you do about hundreds of articles needing washed? A load a day. Every single day I run a load of laundry. Just one. I choose which one (darks, lights, reds) based on what is needed. Does The Munchkin have a basketball game? Then reds for her team shirt. Is tomorrow blue day at The Cowboy's preschool? Okay, darks. You get it.
But laundry also falls into the weekly category, more on this shortly.
3. AM and PM whirlwind - late morning and again late afternoon, I set the kitchen timer for 15 minutes and I move around the house putting things in their spot. There is no expectation to get it all done. It is just an effort to manage the chaos and it truly helps. The really crazy part, without me asking, the kiddos have started joining in. It must look fun speed-walking around the house with armloads of babies or trains or plastic golf sets.
That's it. Each day I do my dishes, one load of laundry and two 15-minute whirlwinds. Now for the weekly.
I have assigned cleaning chores by day. The day for the chore is based off of what works best in our house, it may vary at yours.
Mondays, bathrooms. Tuesdays, dusting and glass. Wednesdays, floors. Thursdays, projects and catch-up laundry (this usually means two or three loads instead of the standard one). Fridays, wash everyone's sheets.
Notice I don't schedule routine chores on the weekend. I work my hardest to have the house at least stable for the weekend so we can enjoy some time as a family instead of toiling those precious hours away. And also note, that if something really, really, really needs done I will do it again even if it's not the 'right day'. If a playdate ended with mud tracked through the house on a Thursday, the floors don't wait until the following Wednesday. I go ahead and clean it up, but I just clean what is needed. But it also means doing the scheduled job even if it's only been a day or two since an emergency touch-up.
So why don't I dread Mondays? Because I know that all I have to accomplish is the dishes, one load of laundry, a total of 30 minutes of picking up and clean the bathrooms. Sure it's no pool-side mimosa but in the world of a SAHM, it's not too bad.
There are pros and cons to a system like this. The pros: I know the cleaning gets done. It has never been more than six days since I dusted. My plate is always full but never so full that I consider throwing it at the wall. The cons: My house always has something that hasn't been cleaned in six days. Perhaps the windows are spotless but the bathrooms are crusted with toothpaste. To that I say, eh, sorry come back tomorrow.
So there you have it. I don't get it all done each day, but I do get it all done each week. Sanity!
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