I like to be organised. I like everything to have its own space and generally speaking be clean and tidy. I also have two fabulously fun boys and with boys such as these come water fights, mud digging, tree climbing, painting, making and of course mess. To be honest I wouldn’t have it any other way. I’ve always said that a clean and tidy child is just one that hasn’t done what they’re planning yet and so I’ve embraced the fact that they are messy little darlings.
While I’m grateful that they are such active boys and they are very good at wiping feet and if they’ve got messy in the garden, dumping their clothes in the baskets in the utility room on the way back in I’m finding myself in need of something of a firmer cleaning schedule to keep the house the way I want it to be.
As many of you know I work from home full time and around the boys. I have an odd schedule at times which may see me starting at 4am (half so that this frees up time for family and half habit these days). My current housework/cleaning schedule starts with washing and drying the bedding on a Monday. That’s it, nothing else is scheduled as I just get on with it as and when I have two minutes. I can’t help but feel that I could be making life a little easier for myself though.
I want to spend the minimum each day on cleaning/housework and yet see results. As a family we have fairly good habits; clothes do fall into wash baskets which are brought downstairs without my having to use the Mum Stare, the boys see to their own rooms, help with the recycling, set and clear the table etc. Both do other odd jobs too so it isn’t that people don’t pull their weight. I think we just aren’t organised enough because there are days when I look around and while everything is clean it isn’t tidy and so I hope no-one rings the door bell unexpectedly!
I do like things to have a decent deep clean and so Roy bought me one of these bad boys for steam cleaning. Honestly, it is fantastic, especially for lifting dirt off stone floors, the shower and suchlike. Now I need a routine that gets me into the habit of using it more often!
Having done a lot of research (namely on Pinterest and through reading blogs with the word organised in the title) the one system that keeps popping up is FlyLady. Have you tried it? I’m trying to get my head around it as I know many people swear by it. Basically the house is split into zones and everything is organised , cleaned and sorted on a rolling schedule which after a while helps you obtain housework harmony (or so I’m told).
Have you used Fly Lady? Like I said I’m still trying to get my head around it all, although I do know you have to start with a shiny sink, or in my case a gleaming Belfast sink. If you’ve used it and you think it will help me keep on top of family mess and be more organised with my cleaning (me and the steam mop just can’t do it all alone) do comment. I’m waiting to be convinced to take the plunge!
