Chore chart/meal planning revisited

About 4 months ago, I started a chore chart to help me stay on top of house cleaning. I have also been attempting to do a better job of meal planning.

There were pros and cons to each system, and I've made a revision I hope I will love.

Last week, I was reading a photographer's blog and the post was about being organized in your work space. About half way down the post, it showed a few photos of 'workflow' charts .... which I have several of in my own office. It had the charts behind glass, however, and utilized dry erase markers to show progress. GENIUS!

Here's what I've done ....


I printed a new copy of my cleaning/chore chart. And put it in one of those certificate frames (which perfectly fit a piece of computer paper!). I'll just use a dry erase marker to cross things off when I'm done.

The frames beneath? Remember my meal planning? Well, I left a teensy bit extra room beneath each day/chore for a meal sticker.

I picked up new Post It notes .... they have ones that are sticky on the ENTIRE back. So I wrote some of our favorite meals on them and cut them up into small pieces. I grabbed 2-4x6 frames I previously displayed photos in and grabbed some wrapping paper to spruce it up some. I actually will probably snag a little scrapbooking paper from my sis to use, but this stuff is just filler. It's red b/c while the walls are pretty tan, we will probably bring in some red touches elsewhere in the kitchen. SO, I put the extra meals on these frames when not in use.

The frames before:


So there you have it ... I'm going to give this awhile and see how I like it. I have high hopes. :)

Leap WEEK :)

Happy Leap Day! :)

I'm not doing anything super special today. E tu?

With the way the calendar falls, I actually have an 'extra' week for my cleaning chart. I'm through the 4 weeks of Feb. With the end of one month in the middle of the week and a full 4 weeks in March, I have a 'leap' week.

Extra time.

What will I do with it? Use it wisely? Squander it? Wash the bathroom floors that I've been putting off? We'll see.

The nice (surprising) thing about this whole chart is tasks are SMALL and the goals attainable. For example, on Sunday, we had some extra time ... and I was all "Let's clean out the fridge." As in, let's take all the stuff off of the shelves and wipe them down. The bonus is any items hiding in the back that needed to go ... they WENT.

In all, it took probably 15 minutes (however, I only did the shelves, I didn't clean out the door yet). I'll do the door later this week. it will take me another 15 minutes. But that was all we did in the 'cleaning' realm for that day. And with knowing that is ALL we were going to do, Erik seems more willing to help. I confess, I am ALSO more willing to clean if it's the only task on the agenda.

I'm an organized person (for the most part), but I don't consider myself to be totally OCD (Erik will probably laugh at reading this) ... but this chart, it REALLY has been helpful in keeping me on task. Even though I started it in December, it's been a great addition to 2012.

Cheers!

Chore charts aren't just for kids

I wonder if people sometimes get the wrong idea about me? With this and this blog post about how to do chores the lazy way, I wonder if I come across as lazy?

I hope not.

Yet I am constantly trying to find ways to make things easier. Does that make me lazy? I don't really think so.

Toward the end of 2011, I decided I need to come up with a better system of cleaning. The previous one was to just let things go until company was expected. The problem with this was that then EVERYTHING REALLY needed to be cleaned. All at once.

There had to be a better way.

I consulted with one of my supremely organized clients and started to put ideas together.

This is what I came up with:


Yes, I'm a grown woman, and I have a chore chart.

Is that lame?

Actually, I don't care if you think it's lame. I expect my baby brother to be rolling his eyes at this post. But whaev, Baby Paul.

Previously, I would always put off doing a chore because it'd been XX weeks/months since I last did it, and it was a big/icky job by that point. I started with the hypothesis that if I did things not weekly, but every other week, it wouldn't be so unpleasant of a task. I also figured if I was more on top of a given task, that it would take me a max. of 15 minutes to accomplish. It seems to be working.

For example, I started at the beginning of December. When it came time to "clean" for Christmas because my family was coming over, there really wasn't much to do. Sure, we ran out of time to clean one bathroom, but it was JUST cleaned the week before, calming my guilt over the matter.

I put the super-easy stuff on Monday/Friday, and have one "bigger/deep cleaning" sort of task on Thursday.

Does this mean the task gets done exactly on that day? Not always. Some days, I just have the 15 minutes to get my one chore done. Others, I don't. Another day, I might have an hour to kill. Yet having my chart means I am keeping tabs on things that are getting done (or not, as in the kitchen floor hasn't been washed ... I've been putting that one off for multiple weeks!).

The other way this is working splendidly is that Erik helps. I am usually able to bargain with him. "Honey, I cleaned the entire bathroom, will you scrub the toilet?" (for whatever reason, I loathe scrubbing toilets; but since this is the ONLY cleaning thing Erik has to do, he seems willing to help).

I'm also trying to come up with some other/bigger tasks to be done sometime during the month. For January, it was to put away the Christmas decor. I tend to put this off, but since I got to put a sticker on the chart, it was done before the Epiphany! :) Other examples of this will be cleaning/sweeping out garage and other 'bigger' tasks that need to be done a few times a year.

If you love it/hate it, this is week 7 of my chart, and it seems to be working fairly well. I will admit the first few weeks were rough, because some of the areas needed a BIG clean ... but after the initial clean, it hasn't been so bad!

What do YOU do to stay on top of things? I'm always looking for ways to improve this! :)

Lazy way to clean the microwave

I think I picked this up from a college friend. Ready for an easy way to clean your microwave?

1. Put water in a measuring cup or bowl. Add lemon juice* if you like.

2. Microwave for 3-5 minutes. You'll want the water to boil/steam.

3. Wipe the inside of the microwave down, starting at the top. (the steam loosens the junkity-junk up, and it's really easy to wipe down).

*lemon juice isn't essential. It just makes it smell extra nice if that's important to you.

108 — Vacuuming

So, another bucket list item bites the dust!

Today: 108. Vacuum the main living areas up and downstairs bi-monthly for 6 months (for those of you out there cringing, this is WAY more often than it's done now, hence a big improvement).

If I were being REALLY honest, I didn't always vacuum downstairs, but I DID get upstairs twice a month since the beginning of the year. It's my list, so I'm counting it. :)

Now, I know there are rock star women out there that do this on a vastly more regular basis than I do, so please don't judge. This was a BIG victory for me. And with not 1 but 2 animals, it needed to happen. Once it did, I put a gold star on our big, fat calendar. See, even big girls will work for stickers. :)

That's all. Have a nice day.

Bathroom short cut

It's not really a big secret: I don't like cleaning bathrooms. At all.

I'm pretty lazy/lax about it.

A few months ago, however, I read a tip in a magazine that I find to be handy/helpful in the bathroom arena: Store a container of Clorox wipes under the sink, then spot clean as needed.


This does NOT replace regular bathroom cleaning (but who am I kidding, I don't clean them regularly). But when the counter is all hairy or has a toothpaste smudge, I pull one of those out and it's a quick clean.

It's been a really positive change. And I can neither confirm nor deny that I used several to clean all of the baseboards in the guest bathroom before company arrived. It's great in a pinch. I even feel like I'm doing a little "light" cleaning in between the times I really work up the energy to give the entire bathroom a good scrub. Besides, if I do a little "light" cleaning in between the big ones, the big ones won't be such a daunting task, right?

I was telling my sister about this, and later she cautioned me to not use these to clean the mirrors. They evidently leave the mirror a streaky mess. Just FYI.

Cook Top & Floor Cleaning

I *never* thought I'd be one of those girls who would try a variety of cleaning products to find magic ... but I have become that.

My research was done while watching HGTV. Nothing formal, just watching commercials that looked promising.

I started with the Scotch Brite Cook Top Cleaner.


There was LOTS of promise, but for all of the scrubbing, I went through 2-3 scrubbing pads, but the stains held fast. :-(

Yet another commercial made promises, and after a failed Scotch Brite, I was not convinced.

But boy, did Mr. Clean EVER deliver!!!!!!!!!

I inherited Erik's kitchen ... fairly new appliances, but with about 4 years worth of boiled over chili on the cook top .... and now it's (mostly) gone! THANK YOU MR. CLEAN!!!!!!!

AND last week, Erik attacked the dirty grout on the kitchen floor ... and it looks UH-MAAAAZING! No matter how much scrubbing I'd done on the floor before, it just never looked clean. But now .... it's fantastic!