Need Help to Get a Cleaning Schedule

I made up a chore list starting with getting the children up, breakfast, dishes, etc. and make it up for the week. I posted it on the pantry door and reprinted it every week with the normal household chores and weekly cleaning on it. I draw a line through the items as they are completed. It goes so far as to include, reading with my child, playing a game, a walk in the park, or whatever. Once I got into the routine I could do without the list.

Hello
I can't remember where I heard about this website, but so far I love it. It emails you daily missions and then there is a schedule like mondays is to vaccum dust mop.... Here is the link http://www.flylady.net/ The website is all about reducing clutter and sticking to a schedule. I have not been a member too long, but I do remember seeing something about helping to cut the chaos when preparing to move. Good Luck
T.

I function much better on a schedule so I can totally relate to this. I do laundry on Mon/Thurs. Sweep/mop on Wed. Bathrooms on Thurs. Dust as needed (probably not often enough - I don't like to dust). Tues and Fri I do odds and ends that didn't get done on the day before like put away laundry or pick up toys. I do dishes every day. Anyway, it works for me. Hope you find something that helps!

Koodos to you for being able to stay at home. I completely feels overwhelmed with the house chores. Mine is more with my two shedding dogs so I have to vaccumm and sweep every day. Anyway all I did was a daily chores of putting things back wherever they go when they are out of place. Once my baby goes to bed, I take out another hour to dedicate to 1 or 2 detailed chores...usually its Laundry and sanitize all the bathrooms. Next day its the kitchen and closet organizations(which is dry cleaning pick up and shoes..mine get in all weird places). Next day is Living room and office. I leave the bedrooms for the weekends because of the sheets and having to wash the baby sheets and her clothes. I also empowered my hubby to take over 2 rooms. he is ALWAYS in charge of keeping the kitchen and TV room cleaned up (cleaned up as in clean up the kids mess). The only bad thing is that I have to clean EVERYDAY! But at least I have a good feeling that my house is always sanitized.
Try empowering your 7 year old to help with some chores. He would probably LOVE to help if you give him an area for just HIM to take care of....like organizing the tupperware and pots and pans cabinets.
Good luck.

Hi J.!
I can't help much with the cleaning schedule since my house is almost always a mess, but I do make a point to keep laundry in check each week. I'll do all the loads staring on Saturday morning so everything is clean by Sunday night. Then, my toddler helps me push the baskets to the family room where we dump them in front of the couch and have "clothes mountain." We turn on a movie while the kids jump off the couch into the clothes and I get to sit down for 30 minutes (ahhh, the luxury!) folding clothes and sorting them back into the baskets. It's a great little way to end the weekend and we all look forward to it.

Hi J.,

Oh, boy, and yes!yes!yes! I think every mom has the same problem on their hands. Just remember you don't have to be supermom in order to be a really super mom. If things don't get done for a minute because you are with your kids, trust me, they will remember how much you were there for them more than they will remember how clean the kitchen was.

I try to put my kids down for nap (or a quiet time for the older ones) and do what I call "the flight of the bumblebee". I do a quick clean, picking up the toys, gathering up the dirty clothes, sweeping the floor and so on. I also like to use this time to do the things I can't do when they are awake, like mopping or cleaning the bathrooms. I start a load of laundry and then do another one during the day sometime. I wait until it is quiet at night to sit and fold them while I talk to my husband or watch TV. It's all about the fluff and fold here. I try to do crockpot meals, or once a month (or week) cooking where I make things ahead and stick them in the freezer, then thaw them and heat them up before dinner. This doesn't really help with the cleaning but keeps me less overwhelmed because it is one less daily chore.

To get a schedule so that it wasn't everything all of the time, you might consider tackling one big thing a day during naptime (i.e. bathrooms monday, change linens tuesday,clean windows wednesday, etc) so theres never a million things you have to do and then spend the rest of the time doing pick up work like load the dishwasher and pick the toys, make the beds or whatever. At night after dinner load the dishwasher, and mop the kitchen then spend time with the family. When the kids go to bed, fold clothes while you unwind and then put in one more load of clothes before you go to bed. This keeps you from feeling overwhelmed, plus it gives you the evenings and weekends to do a little less and not feel as overwhelmed.

This is what works for me anyway.

L.

I try to do laundry on Monday and Friday, sheets and towels on Tuesday and Clean whatever else on Wednesday and Thursday. I pack lunches as soon as dinner is over. The boys need to put their toys away before dinner or no TV. It still seems I need to spend two hours a day cleaning just the kitchen. I think my house might be clean in a few years?????

Oh yes, I understand!! I have two active little guys running around all day and I tend to get a little overwhelmed when I think of all the things that need to get done! And the last thing I feel like doing is cleaning when the kids finally get to bed in the evening! My boys are on opposite nap schedules, so I am always with a child and can't get much cleaning done. What tends to work with me is I try to tidy up a few times throughout the day (etc. putting toys away and cleaning up immediately after meals). Each evening after the boys go to bed, I make the lunches, do what dishes need to get done, clean(swiffer) the kitchen floor, and sanitize counters, tables and windows-if full of little fingerprints!). If I am feeling really ambitious, I may throw a load of laundry in. Then on weekends, I usually sanitize bathrooms and catch uo on laundry. My husband will do the deep scrubbing in the tubs and shower walls. Oh, my boys are responsible for putting toys away when necessary. Even having them pick up here and there is a big help and teaches them responsibility.

That's about it!! I hope this helps. When I tend to stress about what needs to get done, I tell myself not to sweat the small stuff!

Go to www.flylady.net for all the help you need!

Absolutely. We all look at cleaning a little differently. WHat things are a must and then what can wait. Write them down and out them into buckets of priority, middle importance, and low importance. See what it looks like. If everything is in the priority bucket you need to take a look at your self. This should never happen. Means your a perfectionist. I do things differently all the time. I get bored too easily. One day I'll clean all the sinks the next day I'll clean all the toilets, one day I'll do the floors. Most importantly is that you make time with your children. When they are grown you want them to remember mom cleaning all the time. IF you are moving what a great opportunity to start new routines. Enjoy yourself. Balance is the key.

J.
Include them in age appropriate chores. I because I work with non-toxic cleaners need to let you know how important it is to get the chemical out of your cleaning products before you let you little ones use them. It can be a fun and teaching experience to let them help you. Please contact me at ____@____.com
Good Luck
S.

Like several others said ...

FLYLADY.NET

It will change your life! :)

Hi J.
You are not alone here. having kids and housework to juggle is a challenge.
Write things down. I used to try and do a room or 2 a day and that way you can make a list of the rooms and just mark them off as you go. Make sure you leave a day for shopping and running errands.
Good luck to you.
Take care, god bless.

We clean on Sundays -- after church, and before small group. My hubby & I do it, the kids pitch in sometimes. (If they don't, then they are playing in their rooms or nicely together somewhere.) It works great for us -- it takes a couple of hours & we actually get to spend time together! :)

I highly recommend www.flylady.com . It is a greaat tool for suggestions to organize and keep your house clean with a simple schedule. They send daily emails with a plan for cleaning for the day and the week. Check it out. I hope it helps.

Putting in my vote for www.flylady.net

LOVE IT!!!!!!!

I have 3 kids at home (4, almost 2 and 3 months) and the house is NEVER clean. That said, I try not to let it get under my skin since this is my season for craziness and things will get back to clean someday. SO, here are a few things I do:

-start a load of laundry every morning. It's usually dry and folded by bedtime. Rarely do we have more than 7 loads of laundry a week so doing one a day keeps that in check.

-the kids do the toys. If we're going somewhere and don't have time to clean it all up, I have the two older kids put away five toys each (or ten or whatever).

-I try to spend 10 minutes each night after the kids are in bed doing something.

-I have a love affair with the hose attachment on my vacuum. I vacuum everything and that cuts down on dust (and hair in the bathroom). I vacuum the bathroom counters periodically and then only have to scrub once a month or so. Mind you our kids are still pretty young so the b-room mess they make is minimal.

-My husband bathes them and while they play in the tub he wipes down that bathroom or cleans the toilet. I rinse the sink every time I brush my teeth. Keeping on top of things a little along the way limits how truly disgusting it gets. :)

I always thought I'd be a schedule mom (Monday do bathrooms, Tuesday do linens, etc) but I've tried that and it hasn't worked for me yet, maybe it will with time.

www.flylady.net

there's nothing more to say. It's the best program out there.

Moving is scary - and a lot of work. Thankfully it doesn't last forever. As my 4 year-old niece once said, "It's an adventure." 1st of all the 7 year old is old enough to have a few chores around the house and learn that helping Mom is a good thing. Make it part of earning his weekly allowance... like a paycheck. You don't do your chores - you don't get paid. Period. That's a good lesson to learn at any age and it will help you out a little. [If he doesn't get a monetary allowance try a "Star Chart." He earns a star for each chore completed sucessfully and without an argument. When he has "x" number of stars (not too many - the goal has to be reachable within a week or 2)he gets to do something special like go get an ice cream cone with just you and him.] As he gets older he gets more responsibility. Even the 2 year-old can start earning stars toward a treat by doing things like putting away toys before bed. My sister has 3 boys, 4 if you count her husband, and keeping-up with the house cleaning was always tough. She has a little plaque, "Cleaning house while your kids are still growing is like shoveling snow while it's still snowing." Do the best you can and go with the flow. It's all you can do...;-)... They're only small a little while - enjoy it. The house can wait.

I totally understand. I agree with Caroly and suggest flylady.net. There is tons of stuff on there, but once you get *decluttered* then it is easy to follow the *cleaning* and there are suggestions for everything. Just relax and realize things are different now with kids at home and your house will never be perfect. Involve them in chores even the young one, be patient and over time it will be very helpful and they will seek self satisfaction. THe one thing that helps me is going to bed with the DW loaded and the kitchen clean, then unload in the morning (or handwash if smaller loads).

Boy, do I know how you feel! Between my husband and I, we have 7 kids. 4 older, from previous marriages, and for the most point out of the house (3 at college, 1 on her own) and 3 of our "pwn" ages 5, 4 & 1. I implemented a schedule for laundry a long time ago. I do mine & my husbands laundry on Monday, our 5 yr olds on Tuesday, our 4 yr olds on Wednesday, the 1 yr olds on Thursday and towels on Friday. I do soak our whites on Sunday nights and wash them first thing Monday morning so I guess I do an extra load on Mondays. I clean bathrooms, mop and dust on Fridays as well. I try to wash dishes, or put them in the dishwasher, as soon as they are used & vaccuum every night after supper. Outside of dishes and vaccuuming I do nothing over the weekend = ) It took a while to set in to this routine but once I did it was WONDERFUL to have my house under control and my weekends free!! GOOD LUCK!!!

Hello, my kids are older now but we've been doing things the same way for years just slowly adding more for them along the way. I have set days that i really really clean each room in the house, you're talking floors baseboards walls ect.
on a daily basis then i do
1 load of wash every morning, switch it over at lunch and it's folded while the kids shower before bed. it's then put away the next morning
i do not make beds, if i have time or company coming then i might and i taught the kids to at least pull the blankets up when they were toddlers.
someone mentioned the vacuum hose, it's a GOD, blinds, baseboards, counters, corners, cobwebs......
i also use swiffers and swiffer dusters, it's fast and easy in between real cleaning.
i load the dishwasher after each meal and run it before bed, then put the clean dishes away at breakfast.
and the kids have ALWAYS been responsible for the toys, after all they made the mess, it's never to early to teach them to put their own things away.

Sorry if this is a repeat, but flylady.net is great!!! I don't do all of the things she says, but it really helped get our house out of CHAOS (can't have anyone over syndrome!). She sends emails or you can also follow her on Facebook. I would check it out.

Meredith
www.thebabybumstore.com