With school in full swing, leaves starting to turn and fall beginning to show it's signs of arrival, I am in full blown cleaning mode here at home. I don't know what it is about fall, but this is, by far, my favorite time of year. Unfortunately, here in Colorado, it only lasts about 5.2 seconds. But those brief bits are spectacular. The aspens turn all goldeny yellow, the evenings become crisp and cool and yes, Starbucks starts selling it's infamous Pumpkin Spice Lattes. You all are gonna have to enjoy that last one without me. I love fall, but I am not a huge fan of pumpkin lattes. Coffee is my best friend, but its going to have to come in caramel or vanilla variety.
Sorry, what was I talking about? Oh, yeah. Cleaning. This time of year also always has me thinking I need to start doing some major home maintenance before the really cold weather starts. Ugh! I love sharing the things I've learned about home making with others and I love learning from others what works for them. But, I'll be real honest, cleaning and everything about cleaning is the least desirable thing about this stay at home Mom gig. I have the best of intentions, I make glorious plans and lists and...well, here's the thing I've learned about myself: I am an idea-tor ( hows that for a fancy way of saying I have ideas), but I am not an implementer. I love coming up with new ways of doing things, but when it comes to the actual doing...not so much. This is where I envy those of you who are privileged enough to get to hire professional cleaning help. I am all about supporting others gifts and so if there is anyone out there that is aching to use their gift of cleaning... I can't afford to pay you, but hey, come practice and hone your skills at my place any time. I am baffled that there are real live human beings out there that truly enjoy cleaning. It's a skill they have developed and crafted and are experts at it and, get this, they are passionate about it. (What?! Yeah. I know). For those of you that this is you, just know, whereas I admire and respect you, I also see you as an alien life form that I'm not sure I will ever truly understand. Same is true for those of you that enjoy doing laundry, ironing and doing yard work.
I know now that cleaning is a necessary evil in my household. It is something I have to choose to do every day and it does not come naturally. My mom can attest that I have never been much of a neat freak. My best friend and roomie, Chelle and I in our freshman year in college won the prize for the messiest dorm room. Girls we had never met before would bring their parents to our room so they could show them that maybe their own rooms weren't so bad after all. I'm not proud of it. (Well, maybe back then, I was a little proud.) But, what I'm learning, as I get older, is to know thyself. In other words figure out what works best for you and then do it. Since, the birth of my first born 8 1/2 years ago, I took on the role of Queen of our household, Ruler to the masses (our two little boys) and Overseer of all things Home (When you read this, make sure you use the big booming voice that Galadriel the Elf Queen uses in Lord of the Rings when she's being tempted by the ring),
I determined that I did not want to spend all my time cleaning and doing chores. I wanted, and still want, my focus to be on the people in this home, not on busying myself with things that take up all my time and attention. That being said, I found out real quick that you have to find a balance. There are some well meaning souls out there that advise you when you become a Mom to just "let the housework go and enjoy your time with your children... it goes by so fast" True, it's going by lightning fast. But, I don't think it's realistic to stop doing all dishes, laundry and vacuuming so that we can gaze into our little poonims inky black infant eyes and sing lullaby's and laugh and play all day. That sounds real nice, but at some point, unless your a bajillionare and can afford to just throw out everything that has been thrown up on, squirted with diarrhea, and slobbered on by teething toddlers, I think we might have to look at the real possibility that cleaning has to be a major part of what we do here at home.
Since, as I've mentioned, It's not something I enjoy:
(ah ya have lad, ffffrrrequently),
I have developed systems over the years that have worked. In my early Momma years, I kept things pretty simple and did just the basics once a week (including vacuuming). For some of you, that might seem..."Ew, gross, I need to vacuum and clean toilets every day" And that's fine. This was my first attempt at a To Do list
About 5 years ago we moved to a bit larger home and it became apparent to me real quick that this list wasn't going to cut it. As my boys have grown, not only are they getting messier, but they are also able to take on some of the responsibility of helping keep our home clean. ( I'll get into kids chores on another day) Plus, the waiting to do deep cleaning twice a year was overwhelming me two months out of every year. I came across a nifty lil blog a few months ago called www.simplykierste.com.
She's got charts and lists for everything, but I really liked this cleaning chart she has:
Another thing I put in my schedule is to have a fun day (or morning). I go for hikes, bike rides, shop garage sales and thrift stores, drink coffee at a coffee shop and just enjoy myself. I'm not saying this way works for everyone. but, for me, just having a system in place is half the battle. It has taken me a while to find what works and I highly encourage you to put something in place. I am not a "fly by the seat of your pants person"--that kind of living leaves me stressed, but I'm also not a stringent "follow the list and only the list" nazi either. Like I said, you have to find the balance and leave wiggle room for the surprises (chaos, "good grief what fresh hell is this") that inevitably occur. One last thing I have on there is Big Projects and Small Projects. This is a list I keep that me helps to keep me on track with the things that sometimes pile up. For Big Projects it's things like getting ready for a garage sale, doing home repair stuff,etc and for Small Projects it can be things like calling to make doctor appointments, filling out permission slips, etc.
I hope this at least gives you some ideas on where to start if you don't already have a working system in place. Some of you, I'm sure, have much more tech savvy ways of doing things and I have to admit I wish I was not so technology challenged or apprehensive. I am definitely an old school print it out so I can cross it off the list gal. I would love to hear from you on the what things you have found that work.
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