Cleaning has never been my strong suit. Over the years I've gotten better at continually purging stuff to make it easier to clean, but still, cleaning itself is definitley not going to win me any awards.
I was watching Hoarding, Buried Alive, and I panicked. I thought, am I a hoarder? I mean, I step on toys all the time. Then I realized, no, I'm not a hoarder for I actually rejoice in both throwing stuff out and donating items. I am, however, a mom w/ toys and little socks found constantly around the house which I need to be better at getting picked up. Me, I'm simply messy.
Years ago I started to realize, too much unused stuff can overwhelm me, but my issue was I needed to not assign memories to every single item. This realization has made getting rid of stuff much easier for me. This and the fact if I have a perfectly good item I'm simply storing when someone else may actually need it, I ask myself, shouldn't I let it go of it. If I really struggle with items such as with the kids continal abundance of artwork, I take a picture of the piece which is much easier to keep. The amazing part to my great surprise is my kids are actually ok with this. It tells me fortunately I have made sure not to pass on attachment to stuff issues to my kids, so that does my heart good. When I catch myself about to question my kids giving something away, I stop myself now. For I am glad they have giving hearts. Don't get me wrong, I'm not heartless. I don't get rid of everything. Far from it. I simply choose my favorites, often items the kids love, too, and those are the ones I keep and enjoy. My house is in fact a gallery for my kids artwork. It is their artwork I happily frame and place on my walls.
I want to be clear, I'm not making fun of hoarding as I know it is a very real issue for people, but I just wanted you to know this show helped set me into action mostly where cleaning is concerned. Knowing it bothered me so much not to be organized I knew I needed to get better at weekly cleaning and redding up instead of just worrying about it. Yes, I said redding up, I'm a Pennsylvanian through and through. Redding up, the act of picking stuff up and putting it in its place especially before you have company. :)
But back to the main point I want to make today. To hear me talk you'd think perhaps it's completely messy around here, which it is not, still the daily clutter around the house makes me a little this side of crazy. There's also the constant paper trail which follows the mail, school handouts, medical bills and on and on. This is what made me realize, it's time. Like all organized areas of life, I must get a plan. If you do deal w/ some of the having too much stuff areas I mentioned above, you might want to work on those areas of your life first because ultimately this will make the cleaning steps easier to do, but one step at a time. Start where you are. Me, I'm at the cleaning step.
With the help of my friend, April, who suggested she had a daily chore schedule she follows, I got myself organized in this area. For two weeks now I have followed the attached plan. This plan was adapted from April's personal family schedule. I changed it to meet the needs of my own family's schedule.
What does this have to do w/ getting healthier. Well, a lot. For one, there's less dust and dirt around here. That has to be healthier. But that's not all. When I am organized in any area of my life it seems to help the other areas as well. Makes more time for other things I enjoy which are also good for me. When I go out for a nice walk, I don't feel guilty. I'm not letting the house go, for I know what I have to get done and it's do-able. OK, you got me, I never feel guilty about going on a nice walk, but it does make me feel more relaxed as a whole. I feel relaxed knowing my house is in order and not going to overwhelm me when I return.
You see my biggest fear w/ feeling God is finally putting down some roots for our family is if you aren't moving often, things can get messy and fast. Now if only I could get Jesse and Lilly completely on board. Josh, he's amazing in this area and a role model for me. Scott, he's got a lot of books and has a "clirty" pile, clothes that aren't clean, but aren't quite dirty, yet either. Only Scott. He's also the one who came up w/ the term "De-Crap-ifying," getting rid of your crap. But all in all, Scott does ok. With the little ones I just want to try and model better cleaning behavior and teaching good lifelong habits and hope and pray for the best w/ them as they grow.
I will tell you as w/ all things Graubard, this, too, brought humor to our household. Josh loves to tease me about the list which is posted for all to see in the Kitchen. "Um, Julie, did you mop today? Today is mopping day. Ah, I'd take the trash out, but it's not trash day. Oh, I see Lilly cleaned up her toys today. Is that why they are still everywhere?" You get the point. This, however, has served as a motivating factor for me to prove to him that we can and will do it! Jesse is a little harder to motivate, but he likes lists and rules, so this is in my favor. Lilly, likes to clean, but also likes to drop things all over the house wherever she goes. But as I said, time and discipline on my part will help as Lilly does like to copy mommy and Jesse does ultimately like to please and dislikes being given other chores to make up for the ones he forgets to do. So pray for us. We're a work in progress, but all in all, we're doing it!
Yesterday, we had a close call, however. I had my back turned and Lilly picked up a bowl and promptly dropped it on the kitchen floor breaking it in pieces. But it was ok! It was Vacuum & Mop Day! So all is well in our world and nobody had to step on broken dish pieces.
Just in case you want to get better organized, too, and want a starting schedule I've posted mine below:
Weekly Cleaning Goals:
Monday - Laundry, clean bathrooms, Josh take garbage out, Jesse pick up Jesse & Lilly laundry items in living room
Tuesday – Vacuum, Mop floors, Lilly pick up her toys
Wednesday – Dust, Clean kitchen counters and refrigerator door really well, Jesse pick up laundry in living room
Thursday - Laundry, Josh take out Garbage
Friday – Vaccum, Wash towels and bedding, Lilly pick up her toys
Saturday – Sort mail on counters, Sort school flyers
Sunday – Josh & Jesse all laundry in the laundry bin, Lilly pick up her toys
Here's a few other side notes. It may seem I went easy on the kids, but their rooms are still to be cleaned regularly and when I need to I say so or help. I also let Lilly or Jesse help whenever they want no matter how their performance is at a job. It's the only way they'll learn. This one is hard for me. Actually both of those areas I just spoke of are challenges for me.
It's also important to know dishes are a good one to schedule different kids for daily as April did, but this is one of my sanity jobs. I like doing them, so I didn't schedule kids here. Counters and dishes should be done daily, I simply decided I should do a more thorough cleaning once a week to get under the toaster, clean sticky hands off of refrigerator door handles and the like.
Another great tip came from my sister. She told me touch things once, meaning put papers where papers go as you get them as much as you can or hang coats up or whatever. Do not make it so you have to go back and move things due to laziness the first time. Still I felt I needed the paper trail to be on my schedule to make sure it doesn't get out of hand. You get the point.
Lastly, if you do in fact break a bowl on a day that is not Vacuum Day . . . You should still vacuum.
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