I think I found the secret to a clean house!

[KrisM]

All the kids need to be gone all day!

Oh my. DS2 started kindergarten last week. Since then, I've cleaned all the bedrooms, all the main floor rooms, caught up completely on laundry, kept the kitchen counters clean, cleaned all the bathrooms, organized the laundry room, and more! I feel like I can actually keep things in shape now plus get to projects, like organizing my closet. I've even caught up on returning items to stores. Crazy, huh?

I find it very odd to be home for so long by myself, still. I miss the kids on and off all day. They really enjoy school though. I will volunteer at school, and am helping to coach an academic games team, so I'll be busy with them still. But, I have to say I'm enjoying having a picked up and clean house.

[SnuggleBuggles]

Same boat here. :) I haven't been home Thursday or Friday at all (volunteering, contracting, errands, out with people...) and it shows here. But, I have really stayed on top of things very well. I feel like I could have friends over any time now and not be ashamed of the mess. What I love most is that I am on top of laundry for the first time in forever. I applied for a ful time job but if that doesn't work out then I have so many home projects to tackle that I will actually be ok!

[KrisM]

Same boat here. :) I haven't been home Thursday or Friday at all (volunteering, contracting, errands, out with people...) and it shows here. But, I have really stayed on top of things very well. I feel like I could have friends over any time now and not be ashamed of the mess. What I love most is that I am on top of laundry for the first time in forever. I applied for a ful time job but if that doesn't work out then I have so many home projects to tackle that I will actually be ok!

Oh, yes to the bolded! DS1 has a friend sleeping over tonight. Spur of the moment thing. And, it's all good. Rooms are clean and I'm not embarrassed that he'll tell his parents we are slobs!

I actually have a list of projects in Excel. It's 4 columns, divided by estimated time. Once October hits, I'm going to figure out how many of each I'll do each week/month. some are under 10 minutes and some are more than an hour. I do not want to get to June and wonder why I never organized my crafts or sorted through my dresser!

[WatchingThemGrow]

I actually have a list of projects in Excel. It's 4 columns, divided by estimated time. Once October hits, I'm going to figure out how many of each I'll do each week/month. some are under 10 minutes and some are more than an hour. I do not want to get to June and wonder why I never organized my crafts or sorted through my dresser!
ahem, care to share this list? I just realized the reason our place looks so insane is that I've not made a to-do list or any type of plan for unpacking. Whatever room/situation is being worked on next is the one I rush to shuffle stuff around in. Today a sweet friend came over while DS2 was in preschool and we must have opened up 8 boxes, sorted all the kids' books (from 13 years of teaching) and tried to get some closets in order. It felt great. I can't wait to get to where you are. That must feel awesome!

[KrisM]

ahem, care to share this list? I just realized the reason our place looks so insane is that I've not made a to-do list or any type of plan for unpacking. Whatever room/situation is being worked on next is the one I rush to shuffle stuff around in. Today a sweet friend came over while DS2 was in preschool and we must have opened up 8 boxes, sorted all the kids' books (from 13 years of teaching) and tried to get some closets in order. It felt great. I can't wait to get to where you are. That must feel awesome!

My columns are:
under 10 minutes
10-30 minutes
up to 2 hours
multi day

In the under 10 minutes, I have a lot of phone calls - doctor, dentist, etc. Clean the junk drawer, clean my bathroom drawer, sort through water bottles, clean the dishwasher, etc.

In the under 30 minutes, I have all the dressers listed on their own (go through the drawers, etc), the kitchen cabinets divided by section to wipe out, price insurance for our cars/house, clean the oven, edge the lawn, etc.

Longer projects are updating the baby books (yeah, they are bad!), cleaning the garage, cleaning the basement (our catch all space), learning to use my dslr, put shelves into the laundry room, etc.

I am hoping to get through the really short ones in a couple of weeks. The longer ones will be more spaced out with a 2 hour project each week and a longer one each month.

A long while ago, I read a book called the Side Tracked Home Executive and the method they used to clean the house worked for me, until I had more than just 1 kid. I'm hoping to go back into that and keep up with the house while getting the projects done. then, hopefully I'll be able to keep adding things each year and include more fun things, too.

You aren't too far behind me! Soon!

[WatchingThemGrow]

Thank you!!!! That sounds awesome and perfectly suited for my needs! Time management is my downfall (one of) and I never use my chunks of time productively. Maybe this will help!

[egoldber]

I think it's true. My house was actually much easier to keep clean when I went back to work full time and the kids were in child care all day! When I was a SAHM it was always a wreck.

[hellokitty]

This is true. Our house always looks the worst after wknds. We tend to hang out at hone a lot on the wknds. Since we are so busy during the wkdays. However, the house looks like a disaster area come Monday morning.

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[KrisM]

This is true. Our house always looks the worst after wknds. We tend to hang out at hone a lot on the wknds. Since we are so busy during the wkdays. However, the house looks like a disaster area come Monday morning.

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That's always true here, too. I always spend Monday returning the house to normal. We are home often on the weekends and kids have friends over and in and out and it just piles up a bit.

[azzeps]

I am trying to learn to appreciate the "lived in" look around here! Because it's not getting better anytime soon!