Cleaning Schedule

I like my house to be clean... right!  Unfortunately, like most people, I don't like doing what I need to do to get my house clean.  I used to avoid cleaning until the weekend and then spend a whole day sweating and madly cleaning the house, but that plan hasn't been working for me.  2 of my friends had good cleaning systems so I thought them over...

1 friend cleans on Thursday evenings so that her house is clean for the weekend.  Oh, and she enjoys drinking a bottle of wine while doing so.  Sounds fantastic!!  She admits, though, that she sometimes can't find things the next day that she has put away due to the excess wine consumption while cleaning. :)

The other friend has a daily system.  Take out the garbages on this day, clean the bathrooms on a different day, etc.  This system sounded like something I could wrap my head around so for the past 9 months or so I've been cleaning this way.  Now I don't always get to my cleaning chores for the day and if that is the case then I push them to the next day and everything gets bumped, but I've found that by doing this it only takes me about 20 - 30 minutes to clean daily and I am actually getting to everything every week.

Here is my cleaning schedule along with my fantasy of what I would like to get done and the reality of what actually gets done...

Sunday - Kitchen and Dining Room

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Fantasy - vacuum dining room, dust dining room blinds, clean dining room table, vacuum and mop kitchen floor, clean all kitchen countertops and stove, wipe down fridge

Reality - vacuum dining room, clean dining room table, vacuum kitchen, wipe down kitchen countertops with antibacterial all-purpose cleaner, and do a quick vacuum of the living room and entry way

Monday - Kids Rooms, Hallway, Guest Bathroom

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Fantasy - put away toys and books, dust kids rooms, vacuum and mop floors (because M still spits up and out of her crib so the floor in her room is covered in white spots), clean bathroom well (toilets, tub, sink, and floor get a scrub down)

Reality: put away toys and books and vacuum kids rooms and hallway, vacuum bathroom and clean well every other week - unless we have company and then I will clean the bathroom (your welcome guests!)

Tuesday - No Cleaning Day!

Wednesday - Living Room and Entry Way

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Fantasy - put away toys, dust, vacuum couch and area rug and floors, vacuum hairs and dirt that cling to the bench

Reality - pick up toys, vacuum floors and bench, dust when I have some extra time (so not very often!), and do a quick vacuum of the kitchen and dining room

Thursday - No Cleaning Day!

Friday - Master Bedroom and Master Bathroom

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Fantasy - dust, vacuum, clean bathroom well (sink, tub, toilet, and floor get a scrub down)

Reality - vacuum floors and clean master bathroom well every other week

Saturday - Stairs and Downstairs

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Fantasy - vacuum and mop stairs, organize and vacuum playroom, vacuum laundry room, clean bathroom

Reality - sweep stairs every other week and vacuum once a month (we don't eat down there and the dog doesn't go downstairs so it really doesn't get that dirty anyway), and when it drives me crazy I will clean the downstairs bathroom but Nick is the only one to use it so I figure if he doesn't care if its dirty then I'm not going to worry about it

I do what I can to keep the house as clean as possible without devoting ALL of my time to cleaning.  There are areas that need improvement in the cleaning routine, but right now it is working for me and I've come to accept the fact that things are going to be a bit dusty and the bathroom isn't perfectly clean all of the time, but as a friend said to me once, I'd rather be spending time with my child than cleaning so things aren't going to get done like they used to (thanks Erica).

*I would like to add that none of these pictures are from my actual house... just dreaming!

Packing Plans

Just a warning, this is a long post, but there are lots of pictures if you just want to scan. :)

2 things just happened... 1, Nick, the girls, and I went to San Diego for a little vacation and 2, before going on the trip, I decided to take on a challenge.  I came across an article titled How to Pack 20 Outfits in One Carry On.  It intrigued me because just like pretty much every other person out there, I always pack waaay too much because I never know what I am going to want to wear.  For this trip, though, I followed the guidelines of the article pretty closely by packing only a few items of clothing that could all be matched together in different ways.  This way I could come up with various outfits using the few clothes that I brought.

I followed the amount of each item of clothing to bring, but I didn't follow the exact items the article suggested because of where I was going and what we would be doing.  It's not like I needed a pair of black trousers and a button front blouse on a trip to a warm climate city where I would be chasing kids at SeaWorld and playing at the beach!  Check out what the article said to bring here and then check out what I did...

*Side note: Some of the items of clothing in the pictures are items that look like the clothing that I brought.  Not every picture is an exact match of the clothes, but I tried to find pictures of things that looked very similar to what I brought.

Color Palette:

• The article says to pick a color palette and I've read in other articles that this helps reduce the amount of shoes, accessories, etc. that you will need to pack and then you can also throw neutral colored clothes in with your theme.  I didn't pick a color palette ahead of packing, but after looking at my clothes, I realized that I actually did have a color theme...

Plane Ride:

• I wore a skirt for 2 reasons: 1, it was a hot day in Seattle and San Diego and 2, it was my way of bringing a skirt in case I wanted one to wear instead of the maxi dress that I decided to pack as a "Bottoms" item (see Bottoms below).
• Instead of packing the Outer Layer cardigan, I brought it with me on the plane in case I got chilly  and so I would have more room in my suitcase (also see Outer Layer below).
• I always wear flip flops now on plane rides to avoid the hassle of taking off shoes while also trying to get everything up on the scanning belt and then back into the carry on bags, etc., etc.

Bottoms (4 items):

• khaki shorts
• army green shorts
• jeans - the article says to bring dark jeans, but I knew that if I wanted to dress nice, I could wear the maxi dress, so I opted for the comfy jeans (I never ended up wearing the jeans)
• dress - the article says to bring a skirt, but I kind of wanted to bring a maxi dress so I decided to wear a skirt on the plane, just in case I ended up wanting one

Tops (4 items):

• polka dot blouse
• navy tank
• gray tshirt
• white tank

Shoes (the article says to bring 3, but I just packed 2) and Accessories (3):

• brown sandals
• brown flip flops - I've had these for years, they are my favorite, my staple, and I go nowhere without them!
• scarf
• jewelry
• belt

Outer Layers (2)

• I wore the white cardigan on the plane for one less item to pack.
• I brought a hoody in case I got cold at night in the hotel room.

Bags (the article says 2, but I didn't pack any extra)

• Only brought my tote as a carry on.  I had no need for extra bags on this trip.

The article says that every bottom should match every top.  I didn't quite meet that requirement, but I was close enough.  Here is an example of how my khaki shorts matched every top and the possible outfits that could be put together:

Of course, I also had to brings things for the beach (bikini, shorts, tank) and personal items (underwear, bras, white tanks, etc.) that are a given, but don't go on the list.

So that was my plan.  Here are the outfits I ended up putting together...

I was a little nervous because I wasn't sure if I'd run out of clothes.  1 year old M peed on me at SeaWorld so that shirt was out for the rest of the trip (luckily it was hot so the pee dried quickly!), but other than that, I was able to repeat clothes because nothing got too dirty or stinky. :) Nick even forgot to wear deodorant to SeaWorld and he surprisingly didn't stink by the end of the day - he's going to just love that I posted that!

Also, I had so much room in my suitcase!!  I couldn't believe all the extra space in there... I didn't have to sit on my suitcase in order to zip it up this time!  AND... I wore jewelry!  I never wear jewelry, but since I was following the article and it said to bring jewelry, I brought it... so since it was in my suitcase I decided to wear it!!

Do you think you could pack like this?  It was actually kind of fun putting the clothes and outfits together!!

P.S. My favorite part of this trip... my little traveler that insisted on lugging her suitcase around both the Seattle and San Diego airports...