Cleaning Tuesday's

I have tried out a few cleaning schedules for my home. I used to do a room or two a day and that worked out okay. I am now trying out a new schedule that looks something like this:

Monday - Laundry and Baking
Tuesday - Cleaning "Wet" Rooms (The term "wet" rooms is from a book and it refers to kitchen and bathrooms. The idea is not original from me.) So, basically I clean the kitchen and the bathrooms.
Wednesday - Dusting (This would be dusting the entire house including light fixtures and ceiling fans)
Thursday - Floors (I would probably mop the kitchen and bathrooms on Tuesday.) This would be vacuuming the bedrooms and cleaning our wood floor in the living room and hallway.
Friday - Paperwork and clean out the car

I will probably do one or two loads of laundry throughout the week in addition to my Monday laundry. I chose not to clean anything on Monday's because I am recovering from the weekend and usually need to pick up and put away on Monday's so I use that day to make sure everything is picked up and put away for the rest of the week's cleaning.

So there you go! What does everyone else do regarding cleaning? I know some people just do it all in one day. I used to do that too, and it just didn't work for me.

Caring for your home starting with . . . The Kitchen

I am starting this series because my sisters are getting married within a week of each other in less than 2 months. I wanted to put a book together to help them in their new homemaking adventures.

The kitchen is the place that I spend most of my time. There is the cooking, the baking, the cleaning, and of course, the feeding. I am going to start with cleaning the kitchen, because, let's face it - who wants to cook in a dirty kitchen? You will need a to make a list of what needs to be cleaned when. Start with the daily, then the weekly, and then move onto the monthly.

I. Cleaning

Daily
Pick up clutter
Empty/Load dishwasher
Wipe counter tops
Sweep floor/Wet Swiffer floor as well

Weekly
Wipe down cabinets/Clean Appliances
Clean stove/burners (this might actually be more monthly)
Mop floor
Wipe out/clean out fridge

The Fly Lady is also a good place to start to organize your cleaning schedule.

How to Speed Clean your Kitchen by Real Simple online is another great resource.

Odds and Ends about Cleaning your Kitchen:

Cleaning the microwave made easy - Take a glass container, fill it with 2-3 cups of water or vinegar and microwave for 5 minutes. Take the water/vinegar out and wipe down the microwave. The steam helps to loosen any particles that have hardened and it is very easy to clean after that. I put the glass plate in my dishwasher to wash.

II. Menu Planning

I do not profess to be an expert here. I will just share what I do and I will also share a few links from others that do it differently, for you to choose from. You can see all of my past menus here.

First of all, menu planning is a must if you want to save money and not pull your hair out everyday. What I do is to keep a list of staples and pantry items that I use all the time. I try to not run out of these items. I asked my husband to name some meals that he likes that he could eat almost every week. I then made themes - 5 of them. Basically it is a master list of meals.

Monday Stir Fry/Main Dish Salad/Freezer Meal*

Tuesday Meat/Poultry**, mashed potatoes, corn and salad

Wednesday Fish/Lentils/Meatless (Chickpea/black bean burgers)

Thursday Italian Night*** (usually a meatless night)

Friday Homemade Pizza/Calzones (Alfredo or regular)

*I always have 6 freezer meals on hand to choose from, from our OAMC Cooking Club.
**This will be a choice of meat from the freezer or chicken that I got on sale or meatloaf made ahead and frozen.
***This can be Lasagna, Fettuccine Alfredo, Manicotti or Garlic Butter Pasta

I do try to make things ahead and freeze them as much as possible.

III. Grocery Shopping

If you are using coupons or want to, go here on Today's Daily Dose to see a wonderful post my friend just did regarding coupon questions and answers.

If you do not want to or cannot use coupons, Money Saving Mom has some good tips for grocery shopping without using coupons. Basically, what I have been trying to do is make as many things from scratch as possible. When I am about to run out of something (such as Hershey's chocolate syrup), I do some research and see if I could make it from scratch with the things that I have on hand. If we like it then I won't buy it from the store again. Basically, I am trying to find a way to rarely enter a grocery store (wish me luck).

On that note, if you do shop at Aldi please go to Mom Advice and see her Aldi Menu Planner.

I also really enjoyed Heavenly Homemaker's "Getting Real with Food" series. You can read her answer to a question that I e-mailed her.

There are many ways to menu plan. I have tried a lot of them. I find that the way I am doing it now works well for me. Some people plan their menus around what sales are going at the grocery stores. Some people plan their menus a month in advance. Some people do the Once A Month Cooking plan (which I do some of). There really isn't a wrong way to do menu planning (unless you just don't do it). You need to find out what works best for you and your family.

And a great menu planning resource is to check out OrgJunkie.com's Menu Plan Monday. You will get all sorts of ideas and great recipes.

I find that I enjoy the time I spend in my kitchen. I really enjoy it when it is clean and I have a plan. Now, it isn't always clean and there are times when the best plans don't work. The point is that you will be spending most of your time in the kitchen so make the best of that time!

For more kitchen tips and all sorts of wonderful recipes, visit Tammy's recipes. She has wonderful kitchen tips.

Chores at our house - today anyway

I was inspired by this post at Our Busy Homeschool to tell you about where we are with our chores.

I have done every chore chart out there and let me tell you - keep it simple!  Let me first tell you what we do.

8 year old (just turned) boy
Unloads the dishwasher every other day
Wipes down (cleans) the bathrooms every 2-3 days or as needed
Makes his bed
Picks up when asks
Helps vacuum when asked

5 1/2 year old girl
Unloads the dishwasher every other day
Wipes down little bathroom as needed (unless brother has already done it)
Makes her bed and helps her little brother make his bed
Cleans her room
Helps dust when asked

3 (almost 4) year old boy
Unloads silverware from the dishwasher every day
Makes bed with the help of sister
Picks up toys when asked

*Notice I put "when asked" because as of yet, my kids don't do things like pick up unless they are asked.  My daughter will occasionally pick up the living room without being asked and I treasure it when she does.

As far as the weekly cleaning - I don't do a schedule.  I wipe down the kitchen counters everyday (try to).  I steam mop the kitchen and living room/hallway as needed.  My husband usually does the bedroom vacuuming.  We don't really have that much to dust in the kids room and in our room (we like it that way - less to clean).

I dust the living room when people are coming over or when I see it getting too dusty and the kids will help me with this.  I also do mirrors as needed - not on a schedule.

We don't have a huge house - about 1400 square feet so we try to not have a lot of stuff - we declutter constantly and we are finally down to a manageable amount of stuff.  We could always do better of course.

I used to have a checklist for the kids and we may go back to that someday but I'm all about easy right now.  So I just put initials on the calendar for unloading the dishwasher.  Everything else is just done as needed.  I'm not a slave to a schedule anymore.  If it is dirty - we clean it.  We don't clean it because its Tuesday and Tuesday says we should clean the bathrooms.

This is easy.  It works.  Things get done.  As far as laundry - we are spoiled.  We pay my mom a little money to help us fold and put away our laundry for us.  We do the laundry and pile it on our futon for her and she comes twice a week to fold and put away.  It is the best investment!  I have paired the kids clothes down for her though. 

And let me say a bit about perfectionism - stop it.  I don't expect perfection when it comes to bed making.  I am thankful they do it.  I do point out if it is really messy but if I see they put forth effort I thank them and move on.  My son is not the best at bed making.  My daughter could make a career of it - she is excellent at it.  As far as the bathrooms - I go over how to do it the first several times they do it.  I go back and look at their work and point out if they missed something but again - I do not expect perfection.  I just try to keep reminding them of how to do it but praising them as well.

I could be better.  I could be stricter.  I could be more consistent.  But right now, our house is clean enough for company and can be picked up pretty quickly.  There you have it - our chore system for today anyway.









 

Kitchen Tip Tuesday, organize your medicine and vitamins!

So I am sure some of you are wondering why this would be a kitchen tip. Well, because we keep our medicines and vitamins in the kitchen. Some people keep them in the bathroom, but I personally like them here because it is easy to get a glass of water to take your medicine with.

I also keep them in the cabinet above the sink out of reach of little hands. I have been needing to organize these for some time. I had them in a large shoe box which I just took down and picked out the medicine I needed. This got to be a little crazy and time consuming searching for what I needed.

So below is the picture of what the cabinet looks like now. My mother will be so proud.



I have the bigger medicines and vitamins in the basket. I labeled the drawers with allergy relief, acid relief, pain relief and so on.

Lest you think I am an organizing queen (I know you were thinking it, ha!), here is my project for next week - the other side of this cabinet:

This would be my dish washing, kitchen cleaning utensil basket. I'm not quite sure what I am going to do with it yet, but feel free to offer any suggestions!

For more Kitchen tips, visit Tammy's Recipes.