4/2/15: Creating the Sunday Basket

Summer break means Spring Cleaning. However, cleaning my house with the kids home is like shoveling snow in a blizzard. Once a room is clean and you tackle the next room, the first room gets dirty all over again.

Our biggest problem: L A U N D R Y!!!  I want to hire a housekeeper to come in and go through all the laundry in the house, wash it, dry it, fold it and most importantly PUT IT AWAY!!!  Let me save that post for another time though.

Today I had two things on the agenda. 1) Cleaning the floors.  2) Sunday Basket(s)

Lexie and I got on our hands and knees and scrubs the kitchen floors, baseboards, under the stove & frig, under the table & chairs and part of the living room. Adding a little helper made it go fast and it was fun to do it together.

I started the 40 Weeks Whole House Challenge on Monday.  My first thing to do was take every piece of paper in my kitchen and shove it in a basket. However, the kitchen isn't where I keep my papers. It's my bedroom. So I started there - however, I didn't use one basket, I used 3 baskets.

• Basket 1 - Girl Scout crap
• Basket 2 - Family photos and awards
• Basket 3 - Everything else

The goal of the Sunday Basket is to take every paper you collect and just dump it into the basket each week. On Sunday, I go through the basket and sort through the things that are important and the things that can wait.  I altered that a little more and I went out to the store and purchased a file folder where I can put information in their files as I go (or sort it all out on Sunday).

 

I went out and purchased a Open Top File Storage container. I already have the Hanging File Folders.
These will be where I store my actual files. Then I am planning to make the following Oval Metal Pail with Handles into the "Sunday Basket" since it has a nice clean look.

I also went out and purchased these Oval Carry Totes for storing the cleaning supplies - for those Work for Hire chores:

Time to get my butt up and off this computer so I can get this Activity Center done and post a photo of it!

3/31/15: In the Beginning

I just totally started giggling when I saw that the last time I even peeked at this blog was back in 2014. Where does my determination go? Do I really find that I'm so busy I can't keep up on task like blogging? Well, here's my effort to try and knock that out of the ball park and turn over the page and start fresh. My husband will be truly amazed if I actually keep this up. 

Yesterday I spent the entire morning on Pinterest trying to figure out all the ideas of putting chore charts, allowance systems, organizing ideas and cleaning tips together so I can attack what I consider a tornado of a house. Now that I have all these fabulous ideas, it's time to put them together. I did purchase the items to make the Family Center. I went to Hobby Lobby and picked up some aluminum sheets, magnets, wood chips and a large cork board. Here's my idea of what I want to do:

Here's what the magnets and wood chips are for - mine will hopefully be a little more fancy:

Here were just a few of the ideas that I want to put on those disks:

- clean room, make bed
- get dressed, brush teeth, comb hair
- practice instrument
- read 20 minutes
- feed dog/cat
- Doggie Duty
- Kitty Clean-up
- homework
- empty garbage
- help with laundry
- take dirty clothes downstairs
- vacuum front room
- pick up trash in yard
- sweep kitchen
- set table for dinner
- help clear table after dinner
- do dishes/load dishwasher
- empty dishwasher
- vacuum couch
- wipe down bathroom
- clean out van
- wash cupboards
- wipe down microwave
- take out/bring in garbage can
- sport practice
- load dishes

For the top of the cork board, I thought it would be fun to add something that would allow the kids instant (monetary) gratitude. They won't be able to do these additional chores until all their daily chores are done. Here's the idea:

Here are the Work for Hire ideas that I came up with:
- Clean Refrigerator
- Kitchen Appliances
- Clean Kitchen Area
- Downstairs Bathroom
- Upstairs Bathroom
- Basket of Laundry
- Vacuum Hallway & Stairs
- Clean Downstairs Windows & Glass
- Clean Upstairs Windows & Glass
- Dust Entire House
- Wipe Down Kitchen Cabinets
- Deep Sweeping
- Sweep & Mop
- Yardwork

Last but not least, I ran over to the dollar store and picked up some baskets for the Work for Hire jobs. This way the kids will just grab a basket, follow the instructions on the front of the basket and go to it:

After the laundry, dishes, tidying up and general cleaning, hopefully I'll be able to post the photos of the completed Family Center tomorrow.

 ~ Debbie

You can't reach for anything new if your hands are full of yesterday's junk.