Schedule – part two
Besides the actual focus on NOT cleaning, I think the other reason this schedule is working well is how specific it is. I’ve read different methods of keeping a home clean, and none of them really made sense for the way we actually use our house, or our priorities. Not to mention, I really can’t follow somebody else’s method, and do things just because they say so. So I put a lot of thought into making a schedule that actually fits my needs.
I may have gotten a bit carried away, in fact. Ray came home one night to find me sitting in the middle of a bunch of paper, with lots of circles and scribbles all over them. They included questions like, “what are my ultimate goals for my family?” Sheets of paper covered with every thing that must be done each day, each week, each month, and each year; and a breakdown of what each job entails. And details about what each person in the family needs to be healthy and functioning.
The end result of all this is a schedule that so far, really works for my family. One my favorites things about it is the way I rotate our chores. That means that I will not have a perfectly clean house at any given point in time – which helps me to not switch into crazy-mode trying to keep the house perfect. I have just enough variety through the day to keep it interesting and challenging, and enough stability that I know exactly what needs to be done each day to keep the house running smoothly. If I miss a day, I have a couple of built in times that I can catch back up.
Because I know what I need to do when, I don’t need to spend my mental energy thinking about it, instead of living life with my kids. I am able to be very flexible, because I know exactly what I am not doing, and exactly when I will get to it again. I know exactly when I am doing each chore, so I don’t spend the whole day dreading it, and trying to figure out a way to fit it in. And, perhaps most surprising to me, my house is reasonably clean. I would be happy to have company drop by at any given time… as long as they don’t look in the den.