How To Be A Cleaning Machine And Maintain Your Sanity

I know I'm not the first person to think of this. The idea of a Fancy Cleaning Schedule. But just bear with me, OK?

Like many of you, I struggle with maintaining a clean home, happy Husband, well-adjusted Toddler, healthy Sheepdog and my sanity on a daily basis. 

This past February marked the second anniversary on the close of our home. Shortly thereafter we began renovations and necessary updates to the house while I was six months pregnant. Before we knew it, our life was turned upside down as we welcomed Baby C into the mix and any semblance of structure and organization in our lives went out the window. 

As a newly "unemployed" stay-at-home wife and mother I had a lot of adjusting to do those first few months and truth be told, I'm still adjusting. With every new milestone reached, a new "schedule" is created and the previous "schedule" is tweaked and shifted so that it fits with the days' needs.  

Pre-Fancy Cleaning Schedule, the thought of trying to keep our house clean intimidated the bajeezus out of me. Every day I would make excuses to myself and The Husband saying things like "well, I couldn't clean the bathrooms AND make dinner AND play with Carter AND blog AND vacuum the upstairs so something had to go." 

And usually that something was dinner.

I hate to admit this but in the two years that have passed since closing on our home and the twenty months since we welcomed C, I've finally come to the realization that a "cleaning schedule" is precisely what I needed to keep that overwhelming "oh my god how am I going to get all this done today" feeling at bay. 

You see, I'm a list-maker at heart and I've always thrived on lists and schedules and it truly amazes me that it took this long for me to restructure our lives so that I could, in theory, "do it all." 

During the first trimester of Complete And Utter Exhaustion my second pregnancy, we entertained the thought of hiring a Cleaning Service to help out around the house. As tempting as that was, however, I had to think about how much I love having some extra "play" money at the end of each month to buy new clothes for C or M2 or even a new pair of these for Mama. 

Until I'm ready to forgo those simple extra luxuries, which looks like it may not be for a very, very long time, I am the "Cleaning Lady" and so today I thought I'd share with you just how I breakdown my "chores" each week so that I'm not curled up in a corner in the fetal position, stuffing my face with Cheese Puffs muttering a string of profanities.  

Here's what my personal "chore chart" looks like. I started with a list of the typical cleaning chores that are required to keep our household running smoothly and off the radar of TLC's hit show Hoarders. 

I then simply divvied them up into a schedule of sorts that didn't send me running for the Cheese Puffs. I also  made sure to leave the weekend as just that. The Weekend. You see in the M household, there is no cleaning on the weekends. This, by far, has been my favorite adjustment. 

I cannot tell you how life-changing a simple "chore chart" has been for me. I'm sure many of you out there are saying, "Duh, AP. I can't believe you hadn't thought of this sooner" and believe me, Loyals, I had the same face-palm moment. 

This simple little chart has been laminated and stuck to our fridge for nearly three weeks now and each day I go at it with a dry erase marker checking off the tasks that have been completed for the day. 
It truly makes my List-Obsessed Heart squeal with joy and I no longer feel overwhelmed at the thought of trying to "do it all." Sure, there are still some nights that dinner isn't made but I'll let you in on a little secret, Loyals. 
As long as there's a clean kitchen and an empty sink? The Husband hardly notices. 
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some hardwoods to go steam. 
Happy Monday, Loyals!