You know what they say about the road to hell right? It's paved with good intentions. When we first moved here I was Susie Homemaker. I stuck with my routines, went to bed at a decent hour, Baby Bear was in a great mood... life was good. We even got some painting done and even a little decorating. I'll do a post on the kitchen and dining room soon, we just need to finish up in that area.
But then came things that got in the way. Started chatting on Facebook messenger with friends until Jim came home from work. After dinner chores got pushed aside. We had to run here or there for myriad reasons from helping out a relative to just plain boredom. It rained a lot so that painting wasn't advisable (from what I've read if you paint on rainy days it doesn't dry properly). Seizures and meltdowns reared their ugly heads a few times. In short, while I have been continuing to try and keep the place neat and orderly while making the house more into home, it's been more like swimming upstream while the other fish are busily heading downstream: you're putting out a lot of effort but you're really not getting anywhere.
One thing I've kept up with though, is (mostly) managing to keep Mondays free of distraction so I can get the house back in order. The weekends are now the true weekends so unless I'm babysitting on Sunday, not a lot of housework is being done on Saturday. And somewhere along the lines of Friday, the brains in this house tend to forget where shoes go, and things tend to fall by the wayside.
That's where Mondays come in. That's my time to restore order to the living room, bathroom, kitchen and dining room. The rooms get picked up, the dishes are caught up, the bathroom gets a good scrub down, and the carpets get a good vacuuming. All that fun stuff. Most of it, anyway.
Slowly though, I'm figuring out the spring time slump and getting back into a more feasible routine. A load or two of laundry gets done most days, and today I wrote up some rules for a happy kitchen:
- dishes are done by the end of the night and at the very least are put in the drainer to dry if not put away.
- litter boxes are patrolled daily with regular scrubbing
- Floor to be swept nightly
- Trash taken out nightly.
If I can get back in the habit of making sure those are done regularly, as well as mastering the art of menu planning (and sticking with said plans) I think I can keep a handle on the housework so I can better spend my time with Baby Bear and the Hubs, as well as work in time for writing and art work. Home Sweet House is relatively small, which I am thankful for when it comes to keeping the housework manageable.
So there you have it, folks, my confession for the day. Now, if you'll excuse me, the laundry needs rebooting and dishes are calling. Have a great Monday.
That's the best thing, I understand - routines. They are the magic button for keeping things in order. The only thing is, you have to press that button. Flylady says that they become such a habit that you don't even realize you're doing them after a while.
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What I've learned on those organizing shows - you know, those shows that show people how to clean up their messy houses - is in every case they run into this, the Organize Patrol people say to put the kitty litter pan anywhere except the kitchen. We had one cat - our favorite and best of all - that didn't use a pan. She just would let us know when she wanted to go outside! Nice! I wonder if you put it on the back porch? Since they already know to use it, maybe you could show them, then gradually take it to under a tree in a distance from the house. I'd like to train our dog to go in one place. Haven't done that yet, but I know it can be done.
The porch is where we want the cats to be eventually, but the screens have to be fixed first. We have one who is an expert escapee and unfortunately we live too close to a major highway for them to be allowed outside. (My comfort level, not theirs). I suppose I should clarify about the placement of the litter box though. It's away from the main part of the kitchen and closer to my laundry area. Still not ideal as it's in the kitchen, but Baby Bear insists on shutting my bedroom door constantly and the bathroom is too small. Before the month is out though, I want a cat door leading to the enclosed porch and the litter out there.. About the only good thing I can say for placement now is its away from eating areas and food prep.
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