Keeping House

 Tragically, I was not born with the "automatically knows how to keep house" gene.
And boy do I wish I was. It is a thorn in my side. I've tried multiple charts and lists, scolding myself for not being a good homemaker, snapping my fingers ala Mary Poppins, cleaning one room a day, but they all seemed not quite right for us. Finally, sometime back, I printed up every semi helpful cleaning schedule or chart I could find on Pinterest (totally getting distracted by ugly colors and fonts- am I the only one who does that?), sat down with a cup of coffee- because I do everything with a cup of coffee (including writing this post)- and started writing down everything that seemed like it would suit our needs and haves. I *need* a list to keep me on task, otherwise I'll bring down a load of laundry to start and clean out the pantry instead. This is what I came with, based on what I felt was a necessary to keep our house clean and mostly picked up on a daily basis. (there are piles of books all over the living room right now by the way) My goal was something that wouldn't take too long and consume our day, and also something that could easily be done around homeschooling. This worked for me beautifully, until I spent a very large part of last summer at the dentists (one pulled tooth, one abscessed tooth and a root canal, plus assorted fillings. yay me.) and I got lazy. For a very long time. Like until today. I mean we picked up and cleaned and all that (major spring cleaning in the kids rooms which was GREAT!), but not the hour or just over that we *had* been doing when we followed my lists. So, having finished school for the summer last Thursday, today was THE day. And guess what? In a little over an hour, we had the bathroom sinks sparkling, bedrooms dusted and vacuumed and the breakfast dishes done. The kids are outside playing and I'm avoiding the sewing I have to finish for my sisters wedding this Saturday. (2 flower girl dresses, a 2 bow ties, a junior bridesmaids dress, my bridesmaids dress, and a head band and flowers for the flower girls, if you were wondering.) So, if you need a little inspiration housekeeping wise, here are my charts, wrinkly paper and all. I keep them in page protectors on the fridge and use a dry erase marker to cross things off.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a load of laundry to hang out and lunch to come up with. And B.'s tilling the garden this evening!

The lines are for any extra jobs that may come up. So far I've managed to avoid that though.