Home-keeping Schedules

I should have also added that when my kids were younger, I had to break up the housecleaning on different days. It has gotten easier now that they are older.
Vicki

Okay, how do you get your little ones to help? My boys have their days, where they will help pick up, but I would like to start having them help more. Does anyone have any suggestions?????? Thanks!

I love Motivated Moms, too. I have to say I didn't have much discipline before now. We're actually doing The Excellent Wife, which sounds a lot like your book akmyilee & it helped me to come to many of the same realizations. Motivated Moms gives me something to try to aspire to & reminds me of things I may not clean otherwise

I wouldn't say we have a schedule really, but that kind of goes with the rest of our lives. Very fluid.

week days we:

pick up toys and laundry
do laundry
do dishes
prepare some of the next day's foods
generally declutter
vacuum
do maintenance gardening (weeds, etc)

Thursday and Friday (our preparation day) we:

do extra laundry that may need to be done
prepare church clothes
prepare all Sabbath meals
do the deeper "cleaning" (toilets, etc)

Sabbath:

we rest!!!!! It sure is nice having a clean house then!

Sundays we:

do the major gardening (planting, building, etc)
mow the lawn
wash the bedding or other major laundry
precook things such as a crock of soup or large pot of beans or gluten for the week
grocery shop

At this point (we haven't always had good home routines) we need to frequently remind the twins to help. We've been doing better since we had Noah so he's always wanted to help clean.

we have certain days that the kids do their "chores" Tues. is always trash can emptying day, since Wed. is or trash pickup day.

Thurs. nights is general pickup the toys, since Fri. is cleaning day.

The kids are supposed to put away their own clothes, after I fold them.

Dd can earn money for washing pots, watering plants, etc. She has a daily routine of feeding fish, cat, and is supposed to make her bed. On weekends I don't care (about the bedmaking part)

My dh is essential in establishing/maintaining the routine. My kids are 3 and 7. and no, it isn't always a well-oiled machine.
Vicki

Here's our routine. I do follow it. I go nuts if my house gets too disorderly.

Each week is a different zone (flylady's influence).
- Entries
- Living and dining rooms
- sunroom and kitchen
- bedrooms and bathroom
- basement

Each day I do 1-3 tasks in each zone. (3 short tasks, 1 long task, etc.) I dont' do the 15 minutes because, well, I just don't. Yesterday, I washed the windows in my bedroom, today I'll do DS's bedroom windows.

Each day, I wash the dishes immediately upon awakening. We don't have a dishwasher and it's easier to wash dishes daily than let them stack up. I can do 5 minutes daily. I can't do 30 minutes every third day.

Each day, I check my Daily Four:
- How is the laundry, including diapers?
- Does the garbage need to be taken out?
- What are we having for dinner?
- Do I need to pick up? ( the answer is always Yes)

Each night before bed, I make a mad dash through the house, tossing toys where they go, stacking books, putting tupperware back in the cupboard, etc.

Each week, on Friday or Saturday, I take care of things like:
- good whole-house pick up
- take basket of misc stuff that is upstairs but should be downstairs downstairs where it belongs
- toilet, sink, and shower

Each Monday, I balance the checkbook, pay bills, and answer email.

Well I see I am coming on board after every one else has moved on but I just have something to say about this one .
My mother worked so most of the housecleaning fell onto me. There were 8 in our family and I was the one that did not like having friends over with the dirty house. So I cleaned heavy duty if I wanted to invite someone over.
When I was first married I kept an immaculate see yourself in the waxed floors house
When my children were little I tried to keep up with this style of housekeeping but Crystal cured me of the floors. Every time I would mop and wax, she would spill something major on my see yourself in the floor job. After several times of this I did not like my attitude so I changed my expectations. . Since it was a choice I was not embarrased by it . I prayed and asked God to just let me have a home people could relax and be comfortable in. .
Then during pregnancy # 3 I found I had a harder time keeping up because I believed that the children would be gone soon[ and they were] and I didn' want to miss a moment of fun with them.
We didn't have the flylady and People began to tell me how comfortable they felt in my home .
During the years from my childhood to date I moved 61 times, so most of my major cleaning was at moving time . So when we moved into our last home of 18 years, that was my challenge, to learn how to spring clean .
Then I got a job that brought lots of boxes into the home, so now I just got a bigger home where they don' take up the whole living space.
I also believe in helping my daughter and son that have children and try to clean something every time I visit. ie do the dishes , swish the toilet brush around vacuum etc. They have let me know they appreciate this so I don't feel like I am insulting them or intruding. I see how wonderful the dgc are turning out so I like helping this way.

Before this turns into a novel this is a poem I just read and hope it blesses you.
"This is a Home Where Children Live.
Judith Bond
You may not find things all in place,
Friend when you enter here.
But we're a home where children live,
We hold them very dear.
And you may find small fingerprints
And smudges on the wall.
When the kids are gone we'll clean them up ,
Right now we're playing ball.
For theres one thing of which we're sure,
These children are on loan.
One day they're always underfoot,
Next thing you know they're grown.
That's when we'll have a well-kept house,
When they're off on their own.
Right now, this is where children live,
A loved and lived-in home."
I,m thankful for flylady but I am also set free from see yourself in the floors attitude
Love Karmen

Awesome inspiration & poem, Karmen. THANKS! I'm going to go play w/ my son now.

Tina

LOL - at least right now, cleaning IS playing with my son! He thinks the broom is a special toy that mama only gets out at special times. He loves to use the feather duster as his own mini broom, following me around as I sweep. Any time I get 3 crumbs in a pile, he's right there, scattering them around for me!

He enjoys when I dust, too, and went nuts as I was cleaning the windows. Mostly it was a game of Hide The Soapy Water Bowl From Wally, but he thought it was great fun.

13 month olds are pretty easy, though!

During the years from my childhood to date I moved 61 times, so most of my major cleaning was at moving time . So when we moved into our last home of 18 years, that was my challenge, to learn how to spring clean .

Oh my gosh Spirit of the Home....you must have been a military child to have moved that many times! God bless you for keeping up with all that!

[ArmsOfLove]

Actually, she was the daughter of a minister who moved around and set up new churches and then a military wife--I was the military brat and had the joy of moving and never learning how to spring clean until the last few years :P

Is The Excellent Wife the book? Does she have some program that goes with it? I do not like that book at all. Is Motivated Moms similar doctrinally? I've gotten a lot out of flylady but right now I don't want all the emails so I'm not getting any daily encouragement.

Yes, The Excellent Wife is a book by Martha Peace & a Bible Study. I don't agree w/ everything the book reads, but it's been helpful in a lot of areas w/ my relationship w/ dh.

Motivated Moms has daily reminders w/ emails or you can purchase a schedule OL that downloads & you print it out. It just has a daily list of things that's recommended you do around the house (i.e. make beds, sweep kitchen, etc.) & then diff't things for you to do daily each week (i.e. on Sundays you clip coupons & change bath/kitchen hand towels). I find it helpful b/c I need more of a schedule of things to keep me on track

Tina

[ArmsOfLove]

I'll have to check out the Motivated Moms site. Thanks

[Punkie]

Here's the yahoo group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MotivatedMom/

Its free and announcement-only. They send out the exact same thing that's in the ebook...

gracieannsmom
Hi most people think that I was a child in a military family because of all the moves but I was a wife of a military man.
My daddy was a preacher that was raised in the circus, The wonderlust was in him from moving so much in the circus as a child, and he would just get a whim to move on one day and we would be packing the next. It was a big adventure to me . God used him to minister to small hurting churches that had people that loved the pastor that just left, He would get their focus on God so they could keep going no matter who their preacher was. He did this while still having a lot of fun with the people and they loved him also but their priority was in the right place.
I guess there are more ways that housekeeping to clean up
Karmen