Housekeeping Schedule

Okay, so I like to have a clean house. It gives me a good feeling but a clean house doesn't just happen. It takes work and organization and decluttering.  I am going to attach a copy of my schedule I just recently made up. It still needs a little tweaking but you will get the idea.

There are a couple of things I would like to touch on. One is everyone has their own way of cleaning. Their own preferences.  I have recently been reviewing several books on scheduling and housekeeping. It seems that the more modern the book, the more the advice refers to working women. The advice is for what to do when you get home from work. That's fine but it just doesn't apply to me. I work only  a few days a month and so I am home most of the time. I need advice that helps me get my work done during the day. I ordered a well-recommended book today to help with my homemaking endeavors. The book is The GoodHousekeeping Book of Housekeeping 1947. I'll let you know how it is when I get it.
I like to do my cleaning one to two days a week as you will see on my schedule. I usually clean on Mondays and Tuesdays, dividing my chores into two categories: high and low. High things need dusted, wiped and scrubbed. These are things such as countertops and tables. Low things are floors that need scrubbed, mopped or vacuumed.  If I get everything finished in two days I feel like I have the rest of the week to do other things without a feeling of disorganization. Some others may tell you they prefer to clean a little everyday. If that works for you, that's fine. I don't because I like a feeling of accomplishment.

Now this is going to get switched around on my second thought and that is laundry. I do my laundry a little every day and then finish up with one big laundry day toward the end of the week. I am not sure why but I don't need that great feeling of accomplishment with laundry or maybe I just don't think it is doable, for me anyway. Everyday there are clothes my family needs. They can not wait one week for me to wash all of or certain items they need. So everyday I do at least one load of laundry and that way I can keep it a minimum.

Another thing to consider is to keep your schedule doable.  If you try to schedule too much in one day you will get exhausted. Also, ages and number of children and whether or not you homeschool. When I homeschooled my schedule would look a lot different. I am home by myself now and my son is in school so I can get alot  more accomplished.  One more thing to consider is your age. My mother in law is almost 80 years old but is a great housekeeper. Her house is always in order but she does things alot different than I and  doesn't do as much as I in a day and I am sure I can't do as much as a young person in their 20's could do in a day.

So, I hope to be adding more to this topic but here are a just a couple of ideas to get started on your schedule. First write down everything you would like to get done in a day, a week, or a month. Figure out what you are capable doing in a day. You might want to categorize the list into wants and needs.

I have found scheduling my day works so much better than winging it. I can get so much more accomplished and thus find I have a great feeling.

Time/Day	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri
0600	Rise and shower	---------------	-----------------	-------------	----------
0630	Make coffee/oatmeal/wake Josh/start laundry	---------------	-----------------	--------------	----------
0650	Fix Josh breakfast	--------------	---------------	---------------	----------
0730	Josh to school	--------------	---------------	----------------	----------
0800	Errands, prayer	--------------	---------------	-----------------	---------
0930	Begin laundry/ cleaning day/	----------- mop floors every other week alternate with sheet changing	Grocery shop	Laundry catchup/clean out frig	Start ironing/laundry or mow if needed/end of week shopping for weekend needs
1130	Lunch	--------------	---------------	---------------	-------
1230	Finish cleaning	Finish cleaning	Pick up around house	Put laundry away	Put laundry away
			Correspondences/ bills/insurance work	sewing	Continue ironing/sew if time allows. Monthly chores.
---------	-------------------	------------	----------------------	----------------	------------------
300	Leave to pick up Josh (unless crew)	------------	---------------	-----------------	-----------------
400	supper prep	-------------	------------------	--------------	----------------
430	Leave to pick up Josh if crew	-------------	------------------	--------------	----------------
530-600	Supper	--------------	-------------------	--------------	-----------------
Evening	Enjoy family	--------------	------------------	---------------	----------------

The times are not set in stone, are more of a routine and I do adjust as needed.  I don't get caught up on the time. I make my schedule my help not my master. I, also, soon will be adding a monthly schedule to go with this, so I can get chores done that don't need accomplished as often. That slot is included on Fridays.
Happy homemaking

Housecleaning

It's been a while since I posted. Alot has been happening and I am trying to be more of a housewife at home. I love it. There is always something I can be doing, but I do have to admit one of my least favorite jobs is laundry. I don't know why but I think it is the bending and pulling, you know moving the clothes from the washer to the dryer. I have found putting the clothes away is the easiest part of doing the laundry.  I love the feeling of having the clothes done up and put away, though. It is a very good feeling.

It is the same with cleaning the house.  I don't mean to be judgemental but I often wonder how women can leave their homes everyday knowing that it is a mess and needs cleaning. Maybe I am just some kind of a neat freak but there is something about a clean house. It could just be a feeling of satisfaction. I don't know but I do know when it is clean and I sit down in the evening and turn on the low lights and relax I have this great feeling that I have done something good. I have created a peaceful haven for myself and my family.  I enjoy the smell of pine from cleaning products and lemon from dusting products and I have a sense of order when everything is in its place.

I wasn't raised that way, except that I as a child had to clean my own room. I can remember dusting and picking up and straightening. I had hardwood floors so I had to sweep. Then when it was evening I would sit with satisfaction with my low milk glass light in my room and it was great. I had a feeling of accomplishment, a homey feeling.

You see my mom worked 4 days a week and didn't always have time to clean so she was very busy. Not that she was messy, she just didn't have the time to spend on it.  I remember a woman lived next door to us who kept her house clean. She was a stay at home mom, a housewife and I always admired the order of her home.

Don't get me wrong, I have messes. My house gets messy. I clean once a week and so there are days it gets bad and right now I am tackling different projects, that have gone way too long and are very cluttered. Some of my projects are cleaning out dresser drawers, lining shelves, cleaning junk drawers,  closets and the garage. There are lots of jobs to be done at home. Being a housewife is good and godly. I love the old phrase, "cleanliness is next to godliness." 

You know we can lift our household chores up to God and make them prayers to him as we do them and ask him to bless our homes and make them great domestic churches because as the scriptures say, "unless the Lord build a house, they labor in vain who build it." Psalm 126:1. 

Happy cleaning.

Trying to do too many things at once. A body can't be two places at one time. A person can't do two jobs at the same time. One will not come out so well. Oh, sure you can catch up but at the time one job is lacking in quality.
I work part time and I am very grateful I have a family that pitches in and helps out around the house when I work, but my heart is in my home. I love being a housewife, homemaker, wife and mother. I love having a home ready for them when they come home from work and school. It gives me such a good feeling.I am just realizing how important that is to me and to them.

Titus 2:  4: That they may teach the young women to be wise, to love their husbands, to love their children, 5: To be discreet, chaste, sober, having a care of the house, gentle...

It makes me think of how it must have been for Mary. Oh, yes, she didn't have all of the modern conveniences we have today but she must have loved having a home for Jesus and Joseph. Nesting. Keeping a place for your family to find comfort.

Cleaning and dusting and vacuuming

I recently have suffered with a very bad allergy attack. It was so bad the swelling on my sinuses was putting pressure on my ears and causing dizziness.  It was very scarey because I didn't know what was going on. I suffer with allergies typically but nothing that a Tylenol wouldn't take away the headache but this was different.

Now, I don't claim to have the cleanest house around so as I start talking about this I am not picking on anyone's way of cleaning but after going through this I have learned a few things about dust and dust mites.

Dust mites are the most common cause of allergy from dust mites. These critters belong to the arachnid family. They multiply in warm, humid spaces. They are not found in dry climates.

If you are  allergic to dust mites you are  reacting to proteins within the bodies and feces of the mites. Yuck. These particles are found mostly in pillows, mattresses, carpeting and upholstered furniture. They float into the air during vacuuming, walking on a carpet or any disturbance of bedding, but settle out of the air soon after the disturbance is over, but it takes about two hours for them to settle completely

Each mite produces about 10 to 20 waste particles per day and lives for 30 days. Egg-laying females can add 25 to 30 new mites to the population during their lifetime. Yuck again.


They do have a purpose. Mites eat particles of skin and dander, so they thrive in places where there are people and animals. They don't bite, do not spread diseases and usually do not live on people. They are harmful only to people who become allergic to them.

There are ways, though, to control exposure to dusts mites.

1. Keep moisure levels low. Use vent fans in bathrooms when needed and use oven fans when cooking.
2. Remove wall to wall carpet if possible. If not, use a vacuum with a HEPA filter regularly. Possibly wear a dust mask. Don't clean at night. Remember it takes two hours for dust to settle.

3. Keep pets out of the bedroom.

4. Wash linens in hot soapy water. Encase pillows and mattresses in mite-proof covers.

5. Use a high-efficiency furnace filter. Leave the fan on to create a whole house filter. Change your filter every three months.

I don't claim to be an expert on any of this.  This is not medical advice or expert advice and is not to be taken that way. I have recieved my information from the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. If you are suffering from allergies consult a doctor.

As a housekeeper I try to vacuum and dust and keep a clean house and was surprised about the two hours for dust to fall.  I recently helped someone move who was elderly and had alot of dust in their house because of lack of cleaning.  The point I am trying to make here is try to keep your dust to a mininum because it can be painful

Home Organization

I love taking care of my home. There is something great about the feeling you get when making things comfy and clean for your family. I don't always get my house as clean as I would like. It is hard when there are several people living in one home. Every one needs to pitch in and help do their share.  My pots and pans are not all shiny. I just recently found out that S.O.S. Cleaning Pads stands for "save our saucepans".  I think it is too late for some of mine.
I don't have a written out schedule I follow but I have found I do most things on a routine which is pretty much the same thing.  I clean the house on the days that work the best for what is happening that week, that usually ends up Monday or Tuesday which is what I prefer. If there are reasons I will switch cleaning that week to a better day and then return to my routine the next week, but I feel cleaning needs to be done once a week and it is best to keep it on the same days. Dust buildup causes sneezes and painful sinuses. Our cat, Johanne Sebastion Tiger, leaves fur here and there, so need I say more.
Laundry is something that must be done every day because there is something usually in the wash that someone needs. Waiting until a particular day doesn't help here. 

One of the things that helps to keep the home running smooth is having a binder full of important checklists and papers. Some items in mine are:  work schedules, phone numbers, computer passwords (nothing is worse than forgetting a password to a particular website), childhood vaccine schedules,  school testing score sheets, other medical papers, vacation and traveling checklists, holiday schedules, insurance papers and more.
The home isn't always kept perfect but I like coming up with new ways to organize and improve. My next goal is to set up a routine for cleaning out the refrigerator. Now there is a job that needs tackling.