I have a lot of respect for working mom's. I can't imagine how exhausted I would be if I had to work a 8 to 5 and then come home to loads of laundry, vacuuming, dishes, etc. While I was working at my last job I couldn't stop thinking about all the things I needed to do at home and it drove me crazy. That's why I'm thrilled to call "housewife" my job title now!
However, I haven't really taken it seriously as a "career" up to this point. I guess I was still getting used to the fact that I am unemployed. Now, I've decided to "own" my new role and treat our household as if it were a business and I'm the CEO. My goal is to run an organized, efficient, clean, welcoming and loving home for my family and anyone else who comes into our house.
The first step for me is making sure the house is clean. I don't mean spotless and sparkling because let's face it...I have 2 children under the age of 3 and my time is not spent on making sure I can see my reflection in the floors 24/7. I'm pretty sure there is still some peas on the dining room floor from lunch today, but I'm ok with that. p.s. we really need to get a dog.
I put together a chore chart before Sean was born so Mark could help me with the work load after the baby came. It lists all the chores I do for each day of the week. I like to spread out the household cleaning throughout the week because it makes it seem less daunting. I used to clean our 1 bedroom condo all in one day, and it was easy because it was super tiny, but I still hated doing it. With my new system, each day of the week has a designated set of chores and I can usually get them all done well before noon, which leaves the rest of the day for doing fun things. Less chores on my to-do list motivates me to actually do them! I need that kind of motivation sometimes.
Here is my weekly schedule:
Monday:
- Bed linen laundry
- Clean kitchen sink
- Clean kitchen stove top
- Mop kitchen floors
- Vacuum kitchen and garage entry rugs
- Grocery shopping
- Dust and vacuum bedrooms
- Vacuum bathroom floors
- Vacuum hallway
- Clean bathrooms
- Bath linen laundry
Friday:
- Dust and vacuum living room and family room
- Pay bills
As you can see 3 days out of the week are open. This works well for us if we have something going on, for example on a Wednesday, we can move Wednesday's chores to Thursday no problem. Sunday night we put out the trash and I do some meal planning and write my grocery list.
I also have chores that are done everyday and others once or twice a month as shown below:
Everyday:
- Clean up toys
- Clean kitchen counters
- Sweep kitchen and dining room floors
- Mop Family/Dining Room - 1st and 3rd Fridays
- Clean Showers - 3rd Wednesday
- Clean Microwave 1st Tuesday of odd numbered month
- Clean Refrigerator on the day the season changes
There are also a few larger chores like washing windows, baseboards, washing rugs that only get done a couple times a year. So far in this new house I haven't done these things yet. But every six months or so would be good.
This system is working out pretty good for me right now. As the boys grow older I can enlist their help and eventually consolidate all the household chores to 1 or 2 days a week.
I might possibly post a more in depth look at each day and how I go about completing each chore. Right now it's Thursday so I'm going to kick back and relax!
Oh yeah...Happy Halloween!
WW
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