Tidy Home Tuesday: New Year's Edition

It's been about a year since I completed my Tidy Home Project and checked in (am I the only one who can't believe it's going to be 2012 in less than a week?!  Crazy!)  so I thought it was about time to update my cleaning schedule to better reflect my needs and check in here to talk about how the housekeeping has been going for me.

Here is my updated Cleaning Schedule for 2012:

Click to enlarge

You can find a blank template to make your own {HERE}.

It's very similar to my old one.  I switched a few things around to accommodate diaper laundry three days a week rather than two, which I stared doing back in June.  I also added one additional task: De-cluttering trouble spots. 

This refers to places like the kitchen table and top of the bookshelf in the family room (the final frontier of toddler-free space) which seem to attract all manner of clutter like moths to a flame!  I swear... I feel like every time I turn around the clutter multiplies!  Anyway, I'm planning to make sure the 'trouble spots' are clear every Monday because a lot of the accumulation seems to happen over the weekend and if I make it a point to tackle it at least once a week then there's no option for the clutter to get out of control!

And of course, these chores are in addition to the "everyday" (and in some cases multiple times a day) tasks like doing dishes/emptying the dishwasher, wiping down counters, making the bed, and of course there's spot cleaning that happens regardless of what day it is, like when the toddler feels like the floor is more in need of decor than his tummy is food. 

I've found that the tasks I have listed, the way I have them grouped together, and the number of times I have them listed work really well for me!  When I follow my plan it allows me to do a little bit each day to keep up with things rather than waiting until it's obvious something needs doing right now and then feeling overwhelmed and rushed, which was the whole point of the chart in the first place so it's definitely working out well!

Overall I feel like I've been doing a good job with keeping up with the cleaning.  'Good' is not 'perfect', but then again, I'm never going to be perfect so I'm pretty happy with the way things have been going.  Back when I switched to doing diaper laundry 3 days a week I really should have updated my chart at that time because I didn't stick to the schedule and therefore didn't have that added help to keep me on track.  Despite this, I still feel that I've done a pretty good job of keeping up with things and I pretty much started doing things the way my updated schedule reflects.

The laundry is done on time and often put away (this is something I could work on, I get it washed and folded right away, but then it sometimes sits around in the basket.  I don't know why, considering the hardest parts are done, but putting away is no fun!).  Diaper laundry has never been an issue because it's not really an optional kind of thing. 

I've been vacuuming every Tuesday and Friday nearly every week, I could dust more often, but it's been getting done at least bi-weekly or when I really fail, once a month when the dust starts becoming a big eyesore (oops!). 

The bed is made nearly everyday.  Weekends (and the past week when we were all kind of on Christmas vacation) are a little harder, but the bed is made nearly every weekday.  It's rare when it's not. 

I definitely think I've been doing a good job keeping up with the dishes. Mark takes care of doing the dishes after I make dinner, which he's always done and is a HUGE help! But I deal with dishes all day long and I also have to empty the dishwasher nearly every single day (sometimes twice :-/)! Considering this is my least favorite chore (probably because it's never ending!) I feel good about my efforts to stay on top of it. Not to mention, this is definitely something that if you don't keep up with it you pay the price because then you end up with a full dishwasher, dishes sitting in the sink waiting to be washed, and dishes that you've just used for a meal with nowhere to go. Then you're stuck playing catch up for days!

I've been doing okay, but not great with sweeping the kitchen floor (it's so hard to keep up with!  Besides, when I sweep it it gets messy again next time I cook or feed the toddler so :shrug: ) and I could definitely do better with mopping and washing the rugs.  Definitely room for improvement there. 

Menu planning gets done every week and lately I've been making a real effort to get it done on Saturday rather than leaving it til Sunday morning, and grocery shopping gets done every Sunday.

Our next cleaning/organizing project: turning the office into a playroom for Jack!