Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Time to get Organized and Clean House!

I guess I thought that after the summer was over and two of my children were attending school, there would suddenly be more time in my day to clean house uninterrupted. I underestimated the time and needs of my 2 year old when the other children are away. So, now school has been back in session for over four weeks, and I have realized that I need a schedule to follow if this is going to work. I have done some digging on the internet (because surely I am not the first person to come up with this idea, right ?) and found a few pre-made checklists. My big yearly goal is to get this house organized - sound familiar? Using a list seems like a pretty organized way to start. I am not really much of a list person, but I will give this a whirl anyway! Real Simple has some pretty good lists to make sure that you get everything clean. Here's one for the bedroom and living areas. http://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/cleaning/weekend-cleaning-checklist-00000000000235/index.html They have other lists on their site as well, and some really interesting information about cleaning products made from what you already have in your home. Mostly I am not looking for detailed lists; I just need a list to make sure that every room is touched in a two week period of time. I have decided to use catch phrases to help me to remember all week what rooms to focus on. Weeks 1 & 3 is "Floor and Decor" so I remember to dust and sweep and mop the main parts of the house. Weeks 2 & 4 are "Bed, Bath and Beyond." I clean the bedrooms and bathrooms thoroughly on those weeks. Ok, ok, I didn't invent the catch phrases, but I have found a new way to use them! Here's a form that I found that I can incorporate my catch phrase schedule into. http://www.paintedgold.com/Organize/housechecklist.pdf Since it is a pdf file, I cannot change it, but I am glad to use this as a start. Maybe when the house is clean, I will have time to customize my own list!