Creating a Cleaning Routine

For those who have a spic 'n' span clean house and who seem to have no problem keeping their house looking like a photo from House Beautiful, this entry is not for you.

For everyone else, here is one way that I found to keep me on track with cleaning my house.

As part of my quest to get organized by March 15, 2010 just before returning to work full time, I devised this cleaning routine - partially with the help of the Simplify 101 (org 101) class. I am currently trying it out to make sure it works. So far so good.

A friend recently complained that he and his partner often argued about housework, and I can see how this issue comes up again and again whether both are working or not. I think that in my case, cleaning is going to come under MY umbrella of responsibility whether I like it or not - I am the queen of my own home. So, I want to pass this routine idea on to you, fellow readers, and see if it might help others like me.

Step 1: Look around your house and take note of the hot spots.
Hot spots are those areas of your house that seem to collect clutter on a daily basis. Not only do they collect clutter, but they really bother you for whatever reason. For me, it was the kitchen table, the kitchen counter, the bathroom counter & the entry way.

Another hot spot you might consider is "incoming paper", which ideally should be taken care of daily so it doesn't start to overwhelm you. You can call this "unprocessed paper."

In total, I had 5 hot spots, including the unprocessed paper box.

Step 2: Then, look at areas of your house which need to be straightened up weekly - places that don't really bother you but are well-used and could use a little tidying boost regularly.

For me, I chose 5 places - the computer & scrapbooking desks, the kids' books, the kids' toys, the bedrooms and the veranda.

Step 3: Think of 5 jobs that, if done on a weekly basis, would really help make your house seem very very clean - ready for guests at any time. Some of these jobs could be broken down so that they equal 5.

I chose the following jobs: dusting, washing of mirrors & metal surfaces, vacuuming, wiping floors. That's only four, so I added the grooming of Max and tidying of his room to the list.

Step 4: Take note of the jobs that need to get done on a daily basis in your house but are already a habit to you. For me, this was washing dishes, doing laundry, preparing Ailin's bag for daycare. (People who do not wash their dishes daily (and you know who you are) may need to put "dishes" on their hot spot list!)

Step 5: Now, put it all together into a do-able routine. Easier said than done.

You now have a hot spots list. You have 5 things that need to be done once a week & 5 more things that need to be "tidied" or "decluttered" once a week.

Decide a logical order for the 2nd and 3rd lists & pair them with days of the week.

The order I chose for cleaning & decluttering. (Note: d/c stands for "decluttering"):

Mondays

1.    Max – tidy room & groom him

2.    d/c Scrapbooking & computer desks

Tuesdays

1.    Dust all surfaces

2.    d/c toy areas

Wednesday

1.    Wipe mirrors, windows & metal surfaces

2.    d/c kids’ books

Thursdays

1.    Vacuum

2.    d/c bedrooms

Fridays

1.    Wipe floors

2.    d/c veranda

Step 6: Obviously, a few things are missing from these lists. The ideal thing would be to keep your weekends free so you can have fun with your family and pursue hobbies. So, save jobs that take very little time for the weekends, and if skipped, will still allow you to enjoy a clean home.

My weekend jobs include the following:
Clean vents & filters (in bathroom and ceilings)
Do extra laundry (sheets, air out futons)

Step 7: Then there are decluttering or cleaning jobs that need to be done but on a less regular basis, say every 3 months or maybe only 1x a year. As you make your list, think about the best order for these jobs and pair them with the 12 months of the year.

Here is my list of those jobs:

January

Clean Stove & Filter

February

Clean & wash down Veranda

March

Declutter Meds/Shoes/Toys

April

Clean Stove & Filter

May

Clean & wash down Veranda

June

Declutter Books/DVDs

July

Clean Stove & Filter

August

Clean & wash down Veranda

September

Declutter Meds/Shoes/Toys

October

Clean Stove & Filter

November

Clean & wash down Veranda

December

Declutter Seasonal Decorations

Golden Week & Silver Week (May & October)

Seasonal Clothing, blankets

Monthly

1. Bathe Max

2. Vacuum under couch & cushions

See my next post for Cleaning Prompts & Rewards!

November Lay Outs on Display

These are the lay outs for my Chronological Album - November 2009. I made all of them in the first month of the Design Your Life class at Big Picture Scrapbooking. In this class, Cathy Zielske teaches about the basic principles of design, and each week we have to create 3 lay outs based on the principle focused on for that week. The lay out designs are provided by her. Many of the students are doing traditional scrapbooking, but I chose to do all digital pages for her class, just to get more practice with Photoshop. She also provides photoshop templates for people like me. Remember that you can click on each to enlarge and read the journaling,

Nature Girl or Diva?

This is a double lay out. Can you guess the design principle for this lay out? Balance.

                              

Foodilicious was also made for the Balance week. Notice how both sides of the lay out takes up the same amount of space.

Luka's Dedication ceremony

Here, the focus was on balance too - asymmetrical balance. Pretty tricky, right?

Door County

Here again, asymmetrical balance. This is a 12x12 lay out, but the gutter (where you would have to cut it to put it in a 12x12 photo album) goes straight through the photos. We had to make sure to choose photos that would not cut anyone in half.

Thanksgiving

Here, we were focusing on repetitive elements. What repeats through out my lay out here? There are at least 4 things.

I guess that pretty much represents my month of November. You saw my lay outs for the Trips Home album a few posts ago, so the combination of all these lay outs gives a really good idea of how we spent our month in the USA last year. Wish it could have lasted longer, but I am glad to be back in my regular routine here. Routine is comfortable for me.

Date Night (Project 52) #3

I can't get the logo to work this week, so here is the link to Simply Modern Mom's blog. You can check out other bloggers who are participating in the Project 52 challenge.

To be honest, I am not sure if this really counts as a date, per say.

Over the weekend (which was lovely, by the way!), Yusuke came down with some kind of headache cold (which he wondered allowed was actually some form of cancer...typical!), and wasn't feeling well both Saturday night and Sunday. It was his turn to plan the date, and he assured me all week that he would take care of it.

On Saturday night, we had a family walk in Tokyo and then rushed back home to go grocery shopping at our local department store as they were having their monthly sale, and then off to his mom's for dinner. A little too much packed in one day plus the headache problem, so he said we would have our date on Sunday night.

I waited until dinner time on Sunday to inquire about it. Big mistake. He said we'd have to skip for this week.

Skip! No, no, no, it doesn't work that way. We can't skip.

Okay, he said, then our family walk in Tokyo can be like our date.

Uh, no. That doesn't work either. No kids allowed.

So, on Monday, I picked up some ice cream at the store and called him to remind him to be home by 10pm, if at all possible.

To make a long story short, I fell asleep with the kids and woke up a bit later than 10pm (10:45 pm). He was in the middle of cooking his dinner and he ate that while watching TV. Just as he was about to go for his snacks, I stopped him and showed him the ice cream surprise. I made a pot of tea and then served the ice cream and tea on a tray, asking him to turn off the TV so we could talk.

Just then, one of the kids started crying so I had to go take care of that. Twenty minutes later, the tea was bitter from being steeped too long. We quickly ate the ice cream and drank the tea, but all he could talk about was the kids and something about childproofing the house again. I tried to steer him away from those topics, but I was not in a very good mood by then.

He did ask what I had done all day, and I showed him some of my organizing projects. He was happy to see I had made progress there. Then, one of the kids started crying again and that was the end of our date.

We'll do better next time. Promise!