Day 1

Alright!  You are ready to go.  If you did the list of items in "The day before day 1", then you should have managed to feed your kids some breakfast and get everyone out of the door with a little less fuss.  If you didn't, that's fine, we will just pick things up today!  Now, at first glance, this will seem like an awful lot, but it is written in very detailed steps so all together it really isn't a lot and should only take you about 2 hours tops.   I've included an approximate time limit, but again, adjust according to your unique needs.

Today we are going to do a Quick Clean of the entire house.  I know that sounds daunting, but it's Quick Cleaning, which means it's not thorough and it's not a deep clean.  Those things will come later.  To do this, gather up the following items:

• An empty laundry basket or Rubbermaid storage container
• An empty trash bag, or plastic grocery bag
• Clean sheets for all the beds*

Ready?  Let's head to the bedroom (10 minutes per room)

1. Drop the supplies at the door.
2. Strip the bed and remake with fresh clean sheets.  It may not be scientific, but I know I sleep better on clean sheets and I know you will too.  Just think of it as your reward for a hard day's work :) 
3. Look around the room and gather up any dirty dishes, put them in the laundry basket (empty any liquids down the sink if necessary).
4. Look around the room and gather up any trash or empty the bin in your trash bag.
5. Pick up any dirty laundry on the floor
6. Repeat for all of the bedrooms**
7. Dump the trash in the bin and deposit the sheets in the laundry room or hamper

* If you only have one set of sheets per bed, then launder the sheets and make the beds after the sheets dry.

**We will discuss how to get the kids involved later!

Now, we are going to head to the bathrooms (10 minutes per bathroom).  To do this gather the following items:

• The empty laundry basket
• Glass cleaner and paper towels (or micro fiber cloth)
• A cleaning cloth
• General purpose cleaner of choice

1. Drop the basket of supplies near the door
2. Turn on the shower and let the hot water run for a few minutes.  While that's going:
3. Spray General cleaner around the rim and lid of the toilet.  
4. Fill the sink(s) with hot water and let it sit until it's time to clean.
5. Clean the mirrors with glass cleaner
6. Turn off the shower and spray well with general cleaner.  Let sit for a minute.
7. Straighten the counter tops as much as possible.  Don't worry if you can't clear all the clutter off right now, just categorize what's there, (hair products with hair products, cosmetics, tooth brush and toothpaste, etc.)
8. Wipe down the counter tops with general cleaner or just water.
9. Let the water out of the sink(s) and wipe down with cleaner.
10. Use glass cleaner to polish up the faucet.
11. Rinse the shower (don't scrub, there will be time for that later)
12. Swish the toilet with a brush and wipe down the seat and lid
13. Pick up the dirty laundry and deposit in the hamper or the laundry basket
14. Deposit the laundry in the laundry room

I know you are going to get sick of reading this, but please, please do not get caught up in doing deep cleaning.  I promise we will get everything spotless, but for now we are just going to get it manageable.  This is to keep you from getting overwhelmed and lessen your temptation to give up.

Living Room (15 minutes)

You will need:

• empty laundry basket
• trash bag
• vacuum (or broom if you have hardwoods and sweep)
• swiffer duster/dust rag etc.
• fabric refresher (such as febreeze) if you choose

1. Drop the basket in the center of the room.  Working clockwise, do a quick sweep and pick up anything that belongs in another room and put it in the basket.  Sit the basket by the door (or stairs).
2. Tidy up the couch and fluff the pillows
3. Clear off the coffee table and end tables (again, if there is a lot of clutter, just categorize)
4. Quick dust the furniture, sweep everything onto the floor, you will get it when you vacuum.
5. Vacuum or sweep.  Don't move furniture, just get the parts where you walk.
6. Put the items from the basket in the rooms they belong.  Don't worry about putting it away if there is too much, just get it in the right room for now. 

Kitchen (20 minutes)

1. Dishes: Unload the dishwasher and put away everything!
2. Reload the dishwasher with any dirty dishes you have laying around
3. Hand wash what is left over.
4. Fill the sink with warm soapy water
5. Clear the counters.  Again, if you can't put everything away, try categorizing it.  Put all the paper clutter in one pile (we will go through it later), appliances together etc.
6. Wipe down the counters and stove with soapy water and brush any crumbs etc. onto the floor, you will get to it when you sweep.  No need to move appliances, just get the parts you see.
7. Do a quick sweep of the floor, moving from the walls towards the center of the room.
8. Wipe up any spills with soapy water.  We will get to a thorough mopping later.
9. Clear off the table.  If you have tons of stuff on the table and your family is constantly eating dinner in front of the tv, then it's time to take back the table.  Again, if you can't clear all of the clutter off, find a rubbermaid container, empty laundry basket, cardboard box, anything and just throw everything in and we will sort it out later.  Tonight we dine at the table!
10. If you didn't get to set anything out for dinner last night, do so now.

Now you are done until it's time to make dinner.  After dinner, check out "The Day Before Day 1".  This is the beginning of your evening routine, which we will improve as time goes on.

The Day before Day 1

I guess we could call this a prequel.  Anyway, I wanted you to have a calmer, easier start to your Day 1, so it's all about preparing.  Also, if you are like me, you are not starting anything until tomorrow, so let's get ready to do that.  Do the following routine right after dinner, and you will have plenty of time to relax and get a good nights sleep.

1. Straighten up the kitchen after dinner.  Load the dishwasher and run a cycle.  Hand wash any dishes you couldn't fit into the dishwasher.  
2. Wipe down the stove.  Don't worry about getting the drip pans and cleaning the oven.  Just a quick wipe down with a wet cloth will do.
3. If you still pick out your kids clothes, go ahead and pick out tomorrows outfit and hang it on the door knob, or hang it in the bathroom - wherever is easily accessible but out of the way.   
4. Now, go pick out your clothes for tomorrow.
5. After homework is done, have everyone pack their book bags and either put it by the door, or at the foot of their beds.
6. If you pack your kids lunches, do it now - at least as much as you can.
7. If you drink coffee, get the coffee pot set up so that all you have to do is turn it on when you wake up.
8. Think about what you can make for breakfast tomorrow.  Think simple: scrambled eggs, toast, fruit, even cereal and milk.  It doesn't have to be elaborate, just what you can manage in the morning.
9. Think about what you are making for dinner tomorrow.  Do you need to defrost something?  Take it out of the freezer.  Do you need something from the grocery store?  Make a list and put it in your purse.
10. Locate your keys, cell phone, whatever else you need to walk out of the door tomorrow and sit it by the door.
11. Get the kid(s) in bed at a reasonable hour.
12. Get yourself to bed at a reasonable hour.

There, I know that may seem like a lot but it really won't take that much time and you will gain an exponential amount of time and aggravation in the morning!  

I Hate Housework

OK, not exactly the most creative title of a Blog but, there it is.  I've been contemplating this blog for a long time, but couldn't come up with a suitable title so I decided to name it for what inspired it.  First, a little history:

In July of 2012, my husband and I decided I should leave my job to stay at home.  You see, we had a lot going on.  We had a 6 year old in school, and depended on our mothers to trade off pick up duty and childcare during the day.  Unfortunately, earlier that year, both of our fathers began experiencing health problems.  My father had had declining, but manageable health for a while, but was becoming less manageable, and my father-in-law found out he had lung cancer.  Due to their respective health problems, it was becoming harder to manage who would pick our son up from school and care for him until we got home.  Add to it, my husband was in the latter stages of opening a new business and we were nearing completion on a house we were building.  Individually, we could have managed, but with everything together we decided it was better if we had someone to manage the home.  As an added bonus I could help my husband with his new business and start my own if I left my 9 to 5.  

I was pretty excited to get all that extra time back in my day.  Between the 1 1/2 hour round trip commute and an 8 hour work day, I would have all the time in the world to get the new house organized, work on my clothing line, help my mom and mother-in-law, work on my hobby, get back in shape, help my husband with his new business, join the PTA, plant a vegetable garden, cook gourmet meals, come up with a plan for world peace and cure hunger.

Skip ahead 6 months and the new house was only slightly less disorganized than the old house, there was still tons of take out served on my table, no time for hobbies, and I had no progress on my business.  I couldn't understand it.  I had all this time now!  But yet, I still had piles of dirty laundry and dishes greeting me each morning, I was angry at my husband and son for not picking up behind themselves when I did manage to get something done, still overweight and out of shape, and generally felt like I was spinning my wheels in neutral.  I kept telling myself I would get the house cleaned and organized from top to bottom "tomorrow".  Only "tomorrow" never came because I would get so exhausted and stressed from the least little thing I had to do.  There didn't seem to be enough hours in the day.  

Then I had my a-ha moment.  You know that moment where you can see everything you are doing wrong and suddenly, or, not so suddenly as the case is, right it.  Chances are, if you have a kid, you know the feeling.  You know when you first brought the baby home and the house was a mess, the baby wouldn't go to sleep, you couldn't remember the last time you had a shower and you felt like the biggest Mom-failure ever?  Then one day things just seemed better-easier and you couldn't remember when it happened but you knew you were actually pretty good at this mom thing?  Yeah, it was sort of like that.  Only I knew when it happened.

Everything was different now.  I was at home, and I was expecting my home to run on auto pilot just because I didn't work outside of the home anymore.  I had more time and that’s all I really needed to begin with, right?  WRONG!  What I needed, then and now, was a system.  I just had an excuse when I worked as to why the house was a disorganized mess.  Take the excuse out of the equation and what you are left with is the truth.  My laundry wasn't done because I didn't do it.  I didn't do it because I figured I could just do it tomorrow.  The dishes weren't done because I figured I’d just do them while I made the breakfast I didn't cook because the kitchen was still a mess from dinner.  My husband and kid didn't pick up behind themselves because I never taught them how and the house was already a mess they didn't figure it mattered.  So I began to put my system in place and accepted, hard as it was, that it would never happen overnight.  I would just have to start from where I was and get better as I went along, through good old fashioned trial and error.  Then, I decided I was going to write it all down and do what I could to help someone else.

While I will include lists, this blog won't be JUST lists.  You can find lists anywhere on the internet with a simple Google search.  No, I'm going to outline how to take the lists and put it into practice.  Now a quick disclaimer:  Everyone has a different situation.  You may be a work outside of the home mom, or have multiple kids and different ages, a single parent, etc.  I am writing this from the perspective of a stay at home mom with a school aged child because that's my situation.  You may need to alter things a bit to fit your unique situation, but it doesn't mean you need to throw it all away.  I also recommend not doing a whole lot more than what is outlined each day.  It is too easy to get overwhelmed and frustrated.  Yes, these are small steps each day, but you will see results right away, and the other stuff you want to do, you will get around to when things are more manageable.  So don't worry about the baseboards, the cobwebs and the disorganization of your drawers and cabinets...we will get to.  Just be patient, I promise it will get better!