Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Keeping Things Functioning Around Here-Part1

Top 10 Things I've learned from Flylady and More!

10. You can't organize clutter!

9. If it doesn't have a place (or you have 2 or 3 or 4 of them) it doesn't belong in your space.

8. Your laundry is done when it is washed, folded and put away. Not when your baskets are empty (which happens never).

We do about 20 loads of laundry a week here. I have a schedule and it comes out to about 3 loads a day Mon-Fri plus a load of wet towels after dinner each night. The kids and I sit down after nap time each day and fold and put away any clean laundry for the day. This also takes about 15 min. because we work together.

7. Never correct a helper when they are trying to HELP. This one's hard for me because I want to teach them to do it right (my way). I'm learning if I am thankful to them for their help, they will try harder next time. As they grow older they really are help! If I am impossible to please, they will stop trying.

6. Keep things where you use them and put them away as soon as you are done. This one is obvious but people rarely actually do it.

5. Keep my sink shining. I have white ceramic sinks in my house. I clean them with Clorox spray and then I dry them out after each use with a towel. After the dishes are done each meal, there is a wash tub under my sink to put dirty dishes in so my kitchen stays clean in between meals.

4. I clean my shower while I'm in it on the days I don't shave. I keep a magic eraser or I just use a cleaning rag and shampoo. Because I don't let the grime build up it doesn't even take elbow grease.

3. Swish and swipe my bathrooms.

I keep cleaning wipes and microfiber cloths under my bathroom sink. I wipe my counters, mirror, and sink every night in my evening routine. It takes maybe 2 min. I also keep a vase filled with soapy water with a toilet brush in it (those little bubble baths and hotel shampoos that you let clutter up your cabinet space is great for this). I swish it around in my toilet every night (5 seconds) and I haven't had to scrub my toilet since.

2. My daily routines.

The most functioning routine is my evening routine and makes a huge difference in the rest of my life.

Check calender
Lay clothes out for tomorrow
Straighten my bedroom (Even on the worst days this takes less then 5 min. because I've de-cluttered in here and everything has a place)
Swish and swipe my bathroom
Brush and floss my teeth, freshen up
Put towels in the dryer (Someone is assigned to put them in the washer after we clean up from dinner so they don't sit around and get stinky)
Send my hard working husband a goodnight text
Read my bible and pray

Aside from reading my bible this routine takes 15 min. tops and my bedroom and bathroom STAY clean. It seems like a lot of work after a long day but 15 is not that long. I have to remind myself how long it will take me later if I let my bathroom get grimy before I cleaned it and let things collect in my bedroom for days or even weeks before I touched it. It's also a nice place to do my devotions because there's nothing to distract me in this clean environment. My husband also comes home in the middle of the night and doesn't trip on anything! I could go on and on with this one...

1. If it takes less then 5 min. do it now or it will take more time later.




I do a zone each week in the month so the whole house gets a spring cleaning monthly in just 5-15 min. a day.

Week 1-Entryway and Dining room
Week 2-The kitchen
Week 3-Bathrooms
Week 4-Master bedroom
Week 5-The living room and stairs

My children have their daily chores and Wed. we have bible study in our home so we sweep, mop, and vacuum everywhere. We do a quick clean after all the kids are ready for bed (We run around and put everything in it's place). If this gets done quickly then we have time to read and sing while I'm putting them to bed.

The goal for all of these things is to have more time to focus on what's important. Also to have an open door in our home. Having people say they were coming for a visit used to put me in a full blown panic attack which was not very fun for my family because we were living in CHAOS (Can't Have Any One Over Syndrom). My home is not perfect but is functioning in a small amount of space with 9 people and a dog and I am a lot less stressed. (My husband enjoys it too!)

6 comments:

Aly sun said...

Inspired. Thanks Season for the tips. Love your ideas. I had never thought about using regular soaps for cleaning the bathroom. Makes sense though.

Jayne said...

Yes, thanks for the inspiration. I'm working on getting the house clean this week. (I'm only sitting at the computer waiting for a business phone call) :)

Grace said...

Bravo Season!!!! I love flylady! I've been fine tuning our new Fall/school schedule and many of her ideas are worked in there. Thanks for these reminders!

Kelleigh Ratzlaff Designs said...

Great list! I don't really understand your vase with soapy water and a toilet brush thing. Is it literally a vase, filled with soapy water that you take your toilet brush out of? How often do you replace the water?

Stacy said...

Thanks for posting this, Season! The laundry idea, putting away together - inspired! And correcting a helper - I must put this into practice right away!

Peters Family Farms said...

I love zones, so easy to plug into my MOTH sch edual. My biggest housekeeping problem is finding easy accesable homes for the things we need and use all the time like linens, towels & cleaners. To get to them I have to totally unload and load, so in a snap I make a huge mess and can't always get back to it right away. It is very discouraging and hard to keep a good attitude. I have my older two on MOTC which at this stage they just make a bigger mess most of the time, but they are slowly improving.