Saying no to multitasking

Some weeks even the best schedule created with the best of intentions fails miserably to get things accomplished. The girls have done no chores this week. I think the only housework that I have done has been 1 load of laundry, vacuuming 2 rooms, and washing dishes just in time to reuse them for cooking. What happened?

1. Swim classes twice a week make it hard to do afternoon cleanup.
2. Tuesday we made an extra trip to town to get the groceries that I was too tired to stop for Monday
3. Wednesday afternoon we ran into JCPenneys when my Mom called and said they had winter coats on sale, and the sale ended that day.
4. Benny came down with a fever and has been extremely snuggly (It's hard to be productive and snuggle at the same time.)
5. I haven't been feeling all that great myself.

Now it's Thursday, and I have a ton of housework to do. As I was trying to think of ways to multitask and combine in order to save time, I recalled an article that I had read some time ago about successful CEOs. Did you know that successful CEOS don't multitask? The Money magazine article says:

"The biggest mistake most people make, according to Winston, is multitasking. 'Successful CEOs do not multitask,' she told me. 'They concentrate intensely on one thing at a time.'"

As I recall, the last time I tried this it worked great. Off I go to tackle my house one focused step at a time.

Managing our house, pt. 4 (Chores for Mom)

After setting up a list of chores for Jessie and Violet yesterday, it only seemed fair to take a second look at chores for myself. I have made progress. I'm getting more consistent again with my three things (swish and swipe bathrooms, vacuuming, and afternoon family clean up). Other things are getting done sporadically as I have time. When I created my MOTH schedule last month, I included two 30 minute blocks of time for cleaning. The first block is at 12:30 when the girls will also be starting their chores. The second block is at 4:30 when we clean up the house together. Here is my current plan for those times:

Monday: (1) Clean fish tank and laundry (2) Pick up and vacuum
Tuesday: (1) Sweep, mop, and recycle (2) Pick up and zone cleaning
Wednesday: (1) Clean girl's shower and laundry (2) Pick up and zone cleaning
Thursday: (1) Empty refrigerator and straighten up in office (2) Pick up and vacuum
Friday: (1) Change sheets, recycle, and laundry (2) Pick up and zone cleaning
Saturday: (1) Master bathroom tub, shower, and sink counter (2) Pick up

For the zones, I'm not going to use a specific list of things to do like the Flylady. The zone list was the point at which I gave up on Flylady because cleaning was taking over my life. The idea will be to just focus some time in that area each week either cleaning or organizing beyond what I would normally do. Our house is broken into four zones; (1) Master bed and bath and laundry area, (2) Kitchen and outside, (3) Living and Dining rooms, and (4) Hall and Kid's Rooms. If there are 5 Mondays, then I can either clean in the basement, work on a project, or have some free time.

Managing our house, pt.3

The next area that I want to tackle regarding our house is getting more involvement from my children. Jessie and Violet already have the following established morning routine:
Get up and dressed
Make your bed
Brush your hair
Wash your hands
Come to the kitchen for breakfast time

Both girls are fairly good about helping with a certain task when asked to do something; however, I always have to initiate the process by calling one or both of them and making the request. In considering ways that the girls can help on a more regular basis, I came up with three different areas:
1. General after meal clean up of the kitchen and dining room area.
2. Clean up and organizing specifically in their own room.
3. Regular household chores that I feel they are capable of performing.

After meal clean up:

We don't have a separate formal dining room. Our current dining room is basically a part of the kitchen. The only differentiation between the two spaces is the flooring: linoleum in the kitchen and carpet in the dining room. While I like having a carpeted dining room, I do not wish to take time after every meal to vacuum up under the table. My goal have the table clean enough to be used, and the floor picked up enough that it only needs vacuum twice a week with the rest of the house. All three kids will be expected after each meal to help with the following clean up.

1. Clear dirty dishes to the counter
2. Check floor under chair and pickup any dropped food.
3. Cleaning up any spills and messes on the table. (Jessie and Violet only)
4. After breakfast, brush teeth. (Including helping Benny put the toothpaste on his brush)

Then once a day after dinner, I'll clean the entire table cover.

For Jessie and Violet, cleaning up / organizing their own room

When we finished building this house and moved in during January 2006, I spent a great deal of time organizing the girl's room. All the toys were divided by type and put in plastic tubs. The tubs were then assigned a space either in the crates in their walk in closet or on their bookshelf. I gave them crates for their shoes and one for their library books. It seemed like a great system at the time; however, Jessie and Violet were constantly shoving things under their bed or dumping it all in the dress up clothes box when "cleaning" their room. As a result, every couple of weeks I ended up going through the room and making a pile of toys, books, etc. in the middle of the room of things which were not being put away correctly. Then the girls have to help me put everything in the pile away. After a year and a half, I can at least say that they know where most things belong. To alleviate this problem, I thought we would try having Jessie and Violet each work on one specific part of their room each day to straighten the area up and put things in their rightful place. My goal is to teach the girls to organize their belongings, and hopefully longer term, they will realize that putting things away where they belong the first time makes finding them much easier. Here are the room chores, we going to try.

Monday - (J)Straighten wooden corner shelf, (V)Straighten plastic corner shelf
Tuesday - (J)Straighten books on bookshelf, (V) Straighten dress up clothes box and bucket
Wednesday - (J)Straighten toys on bookshelf, (V)Straighten toy tubs in closet
Thursday - (J)Clear off half of dresser top, (V)Clear off other half of dresser top
Friday - (J)Straighten books on bookshelf again, (V)Straighten up under bed
Saturday - (J)Straighten top drawer, (V) Straighten top drawer

Regular household chores for Jessie and Violet

My goal here is simply to begin involving the girls in work around the house as a first step in teaching them to someday manage their own home and as a means of serving one another within our family. Here is our first attempt at making the girls responsible for regular chores, or service, around the house:

Monday - (J)Dust, (V)Water plants
Tuesday - (J)Straighten game closet, (V)Empty bathroom trash
Wednesday - (J)Shake bathroom tugs, (V)Water plants
Thursday - (J)Gather library books, (V) Gather library books
Friday - (J)Straighten craft supplies, (V)Water plants
Saturday - (J)Clean out van, (M)Clean out van

I will expect Jessie and Violet to do both their room chore and their house chore immediately after lunch and will check behind them before can they go off to read and enjoy our afternoon quiet time.

"Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free." Galatians 6:7-8

Managing our house, pt. 2

A few things. Hmm...

Complaint: I should be able to walk through my house at night without stepping on something in the dark. Similarly, my husband would like to see the floor and be able to walk when he comes home in the evening.

Solution: We bought a small laundry basket for the living room. At 4:30, everyone helps to clean up the house. All the toys and children's books from the living room, dining room, and kitchen get put in the basket and taken back to the bedrooms to put away.

Complaint: Now that I can see the floor, it's not looking so good.

Solution: I vacuum on Mondays and Thursdays as a part of clean up time.

Complaint: Who left all this toothpaste in the sink? Which one of you forgot to flush the toilet?

Solution: For the sake of sanity and the smell in my house, I reinstated FlyLady's Swish and Swipe Routine every morning for both bathrooms. This worked really well the last time I tried it. Now I just have to consistently remember to use it.

It didn't work miracles overnight, but it was a start.

"I can do all things through him who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

Managing our house, pt.1

I've tried FlyLady. It's a good program, but I'm not very good at stopping after 15 minutes. I had to modify the zones and weekly plan to the point that the system didn't work for me. All the email was driving me nuts.

I've used an index card system, but it was too easy to just move the card to the next day and say maybe I'll get a chance to do it next time.

I've made lists, but the size of the lists could sometimes be very discouraging. Then of course there's the problem of losing the list and having to start all over and remake it again. Soon you have 5 different lists to keep up with and no time to do anything on the list.

I've tried just clean it up when you see the mess, and it felt like I spent the entire day cleaning. I had stayed home to spend time with my kids, but every time they came to me I was too busy.
I read the chapter in MOTH when I first got the book. Well, I could never get past step 1. "Start a list of the chores you feel need to be done daily, weekly, monthly, and infrequently." The task just seemed insurmountable.

I needed a balance: time to clean the house and time to school and enjoy my kids during the days plus time to clean the house and time with my husband alone and as a family on evenings and weekends. Somewhere in there, I needed to carve out some consisent time alone with God. The question remained. Where do I start? There was just too much for me to handle.

The words of Matthew 25:21 began to echo in my mind. "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness.'" A few things. Just a few things. There was my problem. I had been trying to solve the entire problem at once. Instead, I just needed to focus on a few things.