We are in full baby mode around our house, and she won't even be making her grand entrance for another three months! But unfortunately, despite how my mantra has become "I'm no delicate flower", I am starting to wither with this heat and this giant belly. And although I can keep myself busy during the day with all sorts of domestic feats of wonder (or swimming at my father's pool), it never seems the normal chores get finished in a timely routine manner.
No one enjoys cleaning or chores. Let me preface this whole conversation with my favorite movie fight that made me almost cry from it's honesty. No one wants to do the dishes. Everyone knows this. But as adults, we have to do things to keep everything running smoothly, whether we want to or not. I've had my freakishly unclean times, and I've had times where my cleaning instincts have simply been shut down, but with this house I've managed to keep it nice and sane for well over a year. Clearly enough time to create the habit of cleaning.
Now, my husband will tell you when he moved in with me, although he'd known me for ten years, he was honestly frightened by my hidden cleaning obsession. Everyone is probably imagining one of those stainless steal decorated sparse apartments with white carpets, but actually we just live in a lovely comfortable home. We have three dogs, so there is a hair issue. And I still have a certain mentality from my apartment in college that I can put things off when times get tough--I just can't invite people over (now my family realizes why during finals week I always screamed that no one could come up for a little visit). I just really like to clean the kitchen and living room, and I used to be obsessed with making the bed, but that obsession has suffered from the realization no one ever goes in my bedroom but me. But I do freak out with "drips" from coffee machines, or those stupid packs of flavor for water, or cluttered mail and bills on the computer desk. And I freak out about cleaning the base of the toilet, not just the parts that get dirty from, well, bathroom fun.
So, I've spent some time training husband to clean "the right way", and now that I can't spend an entire day cleaning with zeal like I once could, I've had to rethink the martyr strategy of cleaning for a new routine. My husband and I came up with... the Chore Chart.
Instead of one marathon cleaning session (imagine spending a day cleaning with newborn baby... not gonna happen) we created small chores each day that satisfy the house's cleaning requirements in around 20-30 minutes a day. Each day (except Friday, because who wants to do chores on Friday) there are two cleaning options. The rooms are split up: Master bathroom, guest bathroom, bedrooms (right now only one is actually getting used, but eventually there will be a baby's room too), kitchen and living room. There are repeat chores as well; with three dogs cleaning the floors and vacuuming really should be a more than once a week occurrence. On the weekends we each take a day for our respective laundry and also wash the sheets from the couches (because I'm a grandmother when it comes to my new couch) and the towels from the bathroom. After using the chart for two weeks, we've come up with some fine tweaking (its easier for me to clean the surfaces of the kitchen and the living room, but leave the floors for a separate job--and saving all the floors that need to be Swiffer-mopped for the same day) but overall, the house always appears fairly clean. And even with limited time, we can keep up with the chores. We're also flexible, meaning, maybe last night dear husband didn't get the floors finished, but tonight he'll pick that up along with the vacuum job while I clean the guest bathroom tonight. And I didn't get my laundry put away yet (that WAS a Monday job, but there was a terribly stinky incident later in the week that required a quick wash, so I did a new load of laundry that hasn't been "processed"). But for the most part, it works, and the big stuff gets done with enough time in the day to catch up on other things. The weekends also include "special" chores that we never seemed to do routinely, like clean out the basement, wash/brush the dogs, and clean their beds. That doesn't happen every weekend, but there is a list of chores to pick from that need to be done every once in a while. We have other chores--lawn mowing, trash, grocery shopping, cooking dinners, dishwasher duty, etc, but those stayed off the chart, since we really don't let those things get out of control.
I'm really excited about fine-tuning the last bugs out of the system once I head back to work because although I know life won't be perfect when the baby comes, we've already jumped a huge hurdle by establishing what actually needs to be done around here when. No mind reading required. I have everything split into manageable chunks; husband has a list of things to do, so no silent stand off from me expecting him to clean and him not having a clue what needs to be cleaned. We'll have to add in chores: baby laundry, diapers, all that, but right now it seems like we're on the right track to being a team on the cleaning front.
A domestique goddess appreciates the help from time to time!
My sister and her husband have a written chore chart on their fridge. It works really well for them. I've never had to worry about it, but now that T is getting old enough to do some chores it may be time to do one myself.
ReplyDeleteWell, a lot of people think this sounds bossy... but really... it's just a lot nicer to know what needs to be done each day. And since we've started this, we are excited about how clean the house looks. Something new is clean every day. We aren't pushing it off, and we don't need to rush because each day the chore is so short. It also helps us keep track of everything getting done. You'd be amazed at what we'd neglect on a weekend cleaning marathon.
ReplyDelete