Flash forward to this past year, again with littles and a house that needs my attention. (Just an aside here, this stage of life is hard. As moms, we labor to raise our babies, teaching them to do chores alongside us, and they grow up and become a vital part of the housekeeping team, but then they leave you but said chores do not go away! So here I am with work to do and fewer hands to do the work.)
It came to my attention a few months ago that dear Fly Lady now has a free smartphone app. Glory be! All her routines in one place and I can add my own for customization! Plus I can check them off as I go, a win.
Right now, my goal is to have my morning routine done before babies arrive between 8 and 8:15AM. It goes better if I get up at 5:30, but I have not mastered that yet.
Morning Routine
- Make bed
- Ride bike 20-30 minutes
- Get dressed to shoes (includes a shower, teeth, etc...)
- Eat breakfast
- Empty dishwasher
- Start a load of laundry
- Kitty box #1
- Cat bowls changed
- Swish & swipe bathroom(s)
- Powder room reboot
- Adjust thermostat
- Talk to my precious mom
Then, I try to get my afternoon routine done by the end of naptime, usually 3PM.
Afternoon Routine
Afternoon Routine
- What's for dinner?
- What can I do now to make dinner easier later? (Lazy Genius question)
- Drink your water ( my cue to refill my water bottle)
- Reboot laundry
- Fold clothes
- Homeschool paperwork/emails
- Sweep kitchen
- Be a reader!
I am usually pretty good at getting both morning and afternoon routines done, but my after-dinner routine suffers at times, depending on if there is an after-dinner activity or a dreadful attack of apathy occurs. My future self depends on this routine happening, but so far it is the hardest to make happen.
After Dinner/Before Bed Routine
- Check calendar and forecast
- Hot spot clean up (dining room table is usually the worst offender)
- Shine your sink
- Vacuum living room, set up for babies (I do this in the morning a lot.)
- Personal hygiene
- Go to bed at a decent hour
- Kitty box #2
- Put away laundry
- Bible
I am blessed to have Mondays off to get errands run, appointments made, groceries bought and my house blessed. The key to Fly Lady's weekly home blessing is to do the middles! Set your timer for 15 minutes and quickly go through each item. It does take me longer than an hour but I do not mind. Fly Lady also breaks the house into 5 zones and there are lists to do in each zone as well as weekly missions. I am hit or miss on those. She suggests a daily 15 minute decluttering, but I try to at least do a weekly one. This summer I plan to do a daily one in the garage. I need to purge in there but it is too cold right now.
My Weekly Home Blessing
- Vacuum
- Dust
- Mop
- Windows/sliding glass door
- Trash/recycling
- Tend to plants (water, fertilize)
- Change sheets
- Change bath towels
- Save the veggies (My own reminder)
- Declutter in this week's zone
How about you? Do you have routines? Do you wing it? I'd love to know. :)
I am working so hard trying to get a morning routine going. For years I would write first thing in the morning. Then I decided that perhaps I should spend that time on foundational things like Bible and exercise etc, but I'm thinking that is not the best way for me to do things. It's such a learning curve, and it seems to last my whole life.
ReplyDeleteI have found that it helps to have checklists for the basics each day, and perhaps when I do them is not as important.
I used to do Fly Lady but these days I've been using Get Organized Gal's 5 minute a day organizing/dejunking planner. When I'm feeling foggy it is so good to have someone else tell me exactly what to do...and I can almost always fit it in.
Great Post Jenn!!! And good for you being so on top of things even with the littles. I have a routine and housekeeping plan that I made up a couple of years ago or so, but have yet to actually implement it. Oh, I have my routines, but as far as housework goes, it's been mostly Amber & I scrambling to do it all before her twice monthly girls Bible Study at our house; not a great plan and something I've been wanting to change for quite some time. I am planning on actually giving my plan a whirl starting tomorrow (Monday, new month). I still do the best I can keeping the house clean despite 5 cats & a giant furry dog that is now starting to shed again. I vacuum & sweep almost daily. Laundry gets done twice a week. Meals are made. But keeping an always-tidy house has not been a priority (it use to be, I was such a neat freak). Now with a house, farm, and cabin, and a whole list of other things I want to do like making recipe cards of our favorites for the girls and teaching myself to play piano by cords and other things, I must admit that I need to pull myself from social media a bit and gitter done. Thanks for the additional inspiration friend (hugs).
ReplyDeleteGood for you, I am in the feels of it again. Baby G is just now getting a Morning routine down, but it leaves the afternoon a big on the hmmm side.. I do long for the normalcy of a routine.. I guess with a 4 month old the inconsistency is the normalcy ha ha h a
ReplyDeleteHi Jenn~
ReplyDeleteI did not know FlyLady had an app. I may have to try that again, but right now life is in such a state of upheaval that I'm not sure anything is going to work. Maybe for future, though. And kudos to you for getting back to it! Apathy... ugh, my nemesis. :P