Neat freak

While I was visiting Katy we were talking about cleaning our houses. It seems that my house is "picked up" and we don't have a lot of clutter, but I seem to spend so much time picking up that I usually run out of time to bleach, mop, vacuum, etc. I told her how I never seem to get the house clean all at once because it's tough to get it all done with a baby since I try and only clean when he is sleeping. That way when he is awake he gets my undivided attention. She showed me this box that she put together from an enrichment night and it has been great so far.

You take index cards and write down jobs that need to get done around the house on a daily basis (ie: laundry, dishwasher, dusting). Then you take 30 different colored cards (I used purple) and write down jobs that need to get done monthly and only take about 15-20 minutes to do (ie: organizing cabinets, scrubbing baseboards, wiping down air vents). You then distribute the cards over the course of a week with several white cards and one purple card everyday. One of the great things about it is you can really figure out what you have time for in a day, you have a schedule, but if something doesn't get done you just move the card to another day. Over the course of a week the whole house gets cleaned and over the course of a month you get to all the little things that don't need to be done weekly, but make the home that much more clean and organized.



I am a total list person. I make lists for everything. If I do something extra that was not on the list I add it to the list anyway just to feel like I got extra stuff done. Using the cards allows me to add or delete things throughout the day depending on how much time I have without feeling like I didn't get it all done, but I am still able to get the whole house clean in a weeks time. It feels great to get the whole house so clean .... you can totally feel the difference. Great idea Katy!