The Best App for the Busy Mom (Who wants to Keep a Tidy House)

I love to make New Year's resolutions. It's always great to set the bar a little higher for oneself and then try to improve. I've already written a post on setting a cleaning schedule for myself in an effort to get better at keeping my house clean. Since then, however, I've jumped into the current century and found a great app for my phone to help me improve.

I guess I should do a quick explanation of how I keep my house clean and orderly. I do a little each day. I am so not into the all day Saturday cleaning like my mom used to do. I don't work outside of the home like she did so there's no reason for me to not clean my house during the week and save Saturday for family time. :)

I came up with a system to always have a clean house but not work myself to death in the process. I simply divide my household chores amongst the days of the week. For example I clean the bathrooms every other Tuesday. I deep clean the kitchen and mop the floor every other Wednesday. Every Thursday I wash the whites, etc. I've got it worked out so I mostly only do one major chore per day which leaves me time for baking, errands, and playing with my two children that are still home during the day. It's a great system! To see it in greater detail clink on this link.

If you clicked on it then you noticed that I wrote all of my chores out on a calendar and color-coded it. It worked fine but it was time consuming. Now comes for the exciting part. Last year I discovered an app that reminds me of whatever I need reminding of.

It's called the To Do Reminder and I cannot say enough about how awesome it is. All I have to do is type into the app what I want to be reminded of and then the app does the rest!

It can remind me of my daily chores and keeps track of which ones come on any certain day. It can remind daily, hourly, every two weeks, monthly, whatever I need. I also like that it keeps reminding me every ten minutes for a time until I dismiss the task. Oh and did I mention it's free?!?

Here's an actual screenshot from my phone. Today is Saturday and I made that day be my "catch up on blog" day. Hey, I can mark that one off! ;)

Get this app! It's great!

New Year's Resolutions 2014

First and foremost, I would like to say how deeply sorry I am to myself and my loyal followers (if you haven't given up on me) that I can't seem to get into a good habit of regular blog posts. I am a mother of five children now and that has thrown everything out of balance. Now that baby boy is nearly one things should settle down a bit and I am hoping to get back into the swing of things. Which brings me to my goals for this year:

• Get back onto a regular cleaning schedule for the house. I created an awesome schedule for myself a couple of years back and I am resolved to get back on the schedule with a few modifications. For example: I no longer have to vacuum the main floor of my house because our pet Roomba does that. :) I also have two less bathrooms to clean and less dusting to do because my two big girls are old enough to do those things now. I instituted "10 Minute Pick Up" for my kids where we take the last ten minutes before it's time to leave for school and pick up as many things as we can. It works great. Finally, I cut down on the amount of cleaning I do. I opted to do a deep clean of the kitchen every other week as well as the bathrooms. Why? Because I can and I refuse to let all my free time be filled up with cleaning. The kitchen will still be dirty in another week as well as the bathrooms. :)

• The other goal I have for myself is to try one new meal a month and one new dessert. I have a recipe keeper where I like to clip out recipes and save them for later. One problem: later never seems to come. So this year I want to finally get around to trying all the recipes I've clipped so I can stop storing them if they are gross or keep on using them if they are a hit with the kids.

Finally, this has nothing to do with my own goals but just something I want to say. If your goal is to be more organized this year then I hope you can find ways to do it! Refer to this blog for some tips and I promise I will try to update it more regularly. :) So many people look at me and my house and say" Wow. She really has it all together." The only reason I know this is because people tell me that. I promise you I have many days where I don't but I have learned that having a place for everything, teaching my children how to pick up after themselves (and then holding them to it), and managing my time wisely have made my days run so much more smoothly. 

With my new goals I hope to be an even happier homemaker. I hope you reach your goals too. :) 

Resolution Update!

My New Year's resolution for this year was to be able to stay on top of my housework. I started that resolution three weeks ago and I'd like to report that it's going very well! As of today I have accomplished every chore on my to do list every day. I know you're wondering how I have managed to do that in conjunction with taxiing kids around, shopping, cooking, and all the millions of other demands on a stay-at-home mom. Well, I'm going to tell you. :)

First I decided to define what a clean house meant to me.  Everyone has their own definition of clean and so I decided that my cleaning schedule would have to focus on my own personal definition or I'd never feel satisfied with my effort. To me a clean house is everything put in it's place, no crumbs on the floor, and it is germ-free (or as close to it as I can get with my ankle-biters). With those things in mind I first made a list of all the basic chores that need to be done in my house. Every house is different of course but here's my list to be used as an example:

• Clean bathrooms-Monday
• Laundry- Monday-Friday
• Dusting/Polishing furniture- Thursday
• Sweeping- Monday-Friday
• Vacuuming main floor- Tuesday
• Vacuuming basement- Every 2nd Tuesday
• Vacuuming upstairs- Every 3rd Tuesday
• Clean kitchen- Wednesday
• Straightening main floor- Tuesday
• Straightening basement- Every 3rd Thursday 
• Straightening upstairs- Every 2nd Thursday
• Mopping hardwoods- Every 1st Wednesday

Once I had the list complete I strategically assigned a day of the week to each task. I don't like to waste my Saturdays cleaning so I stuck with Mon-Fri. When I say strategically I mean I assigned chores based on the amount of time I have each day as some days are busier than others. I also made sure to assign bathrooms to Mondays because they are the things I hate cleaning most and I just wanted to get them over with! I also tried to be realistic knowing that while I am in charge of the house, my kids are my most important charge and I wanted to spend as much time with them as possible which is why I made the chores I deemed to be a lower priority monthly instead of weekly.

Finally I got out a calendar. Mine is our family calendar that we use to keep track of birthdays. It doesn't need to be anything fancy or if you'd rather you can keep track of things on a computer. I'm a list girl myself which is why I chose the old-fashioned way.

I made each chore be a different color so I could make sure I wasn't missing anything. This calendar is now hanging in my kitchen where I pass by it a hundred times a day and have to read it. No excuses! You might have noticed that I didn't assign any chores to Friday (except a laundry chore) and that was purposeful. We all have special projects that need to be done and I'm no exception to that. On Fridays I work on those extra things such as cleaning out the refrigerator, boxing up clothes my kids have outgrown, cleaning out a closet, etc. Make a list of those somewhere too so you can add to it as needed.

Having all my chores mapped out for the year has been so helpful! It is really forcing me to be accountable to my list and it feels great to have a clean house again. The best part is that I am only cleaning for the morning and so I still have plenty of time to spend with my kids and do other things. I suggest you conquer the hardest task first thing in the morning while you're still energized. For example, on bathroom days I try my hardest to get both full baths on the top level cleaned before I have to take my daughter to kindergarten. These two are the dirtiest and require the most attention. The other two I can get done while my baby is around because there are more things to occupy her attention. Yesterday I was literally down to the last couple of minutes trying to complete my two bathrooms and was running around like a crazy person. I got them both done with seconds to spare, however, and I felt proud!

I know, I know, who cares if I get two bathrooms cleaned before school? Well, you know what? I do. I like to set goals for myself and work on improving each day. My house is clean. My kids are happy. My stress-levels are down.

And I feel great. :)

2012 Resolution: Cleaning More=Less Stress

Okay, okay, so I don't have homework to do but you get my point!

Two kids ago, I used to be pretty darn amazing at keeping my house clean. The bathrooms were cleaned once a week, my floors were always mopped, the beds were made everyday, the garbage was never overflowing, and all the laundry was folded, and put away the same day it was washed. Ahh, my glory days!

Four years later I've added two more kids to the mix and live in a house nearly double the size of the house we lived in with two kids. Add to that my youngest being a very clingy child and I've suddenly found myself woefully behind on my housework. It's not that I don't want to keep my house clean because that couldn't be farther from the truth.  It's just that somehow, everything has gotten out of balance and it's driving me crazy! I look around at my dirty floors and scummy toilets and I do not feel at peace. I feel anxiety and that's not a good way to be.

My floors are rarely mopped, the bathrooms only get cleaned when I noticed scum growing in the toilets and the bed? Well, let's just say that I only make it when I notice my husband has pulled all the sheets over to one side and so I quickly tuck everything back in right before I go to bed. In my defense, however, my house may not be clean but it is organized. Organizing is my my favorite pastime after all. Cleaning? Not so much.

I'm hoping this year that I will get back on track. I knew I needed help when a friend of mine who cleans houses for a living asked me if I'd like her to clean my house every week. Apparently I have complained a little too much to her about how difficult it is for me to keep up on my housework. Her offer was tempting for sure but I know I am capable of keeping my house maintained on my own. After all, my labor is free. Someone else is not!

So here's how I've decided to do it. I've decided to make a list of chores that need to be done and dole them out to the days of the week. When I only had two kids I did this and it worked well. For example: Every Monday I will clean the bathrooms, every Tuesday do the dusting and vacuuming, etc. Laundry is already working fine. Click here if you want to see how I do laundry. :)

Easy, I can do that. Now comes the tricky part; Finding the extra time in my already full day to add necessary cleaning. To make that happen I plan to shower at night instead of in the morning before I take my daughter to kindergarten and my son to preschool. I was already letting the baby watch an Elmo movie during that time so I could shower in privacy so that should work out well. While my kids are playing and the baby's preoccupied with Elmo I can get my chores started.

I'm going to try it. I'll get started on my list right away and begin implementing my plan tomorrow. I guess all I needed was a little organization.

Wait did I just say organization? Hey! I'm good at that! :)

Resolve to Get More Organized

Tis the season for New Year's resolutions! I know that some people don't agree with making them but I see a resolution as a gigantic goal and I'm all about goal-setting. This year I challenge you to make one of yours to become more organized.

I know people think my house is always immaculate and that I spend all day slaving away to make everything sparkly and clean. I am here to state, however, that both of those statements are untrue. If you were to drop in on me unexpectedly you would find toys strewn about, crumbs under the table, and rings in my toilets. I have four kids, one of whom is a sweet little baby who insists on being carried pretty much constantly. That makes keeping a spotless house impossible. I do, however, clean up quickly if I am expecting guests. :)

Day-to-day maintenance of a house is a necessity, not a passion for me. I try to at least keep up on laundry and keep the main floor of my home picked up every day. The rest of the chores get fit in where ever they can. Organizing is where I shine and find a lot of peace.

When my house is organized I feel my life is too. In fact, when I am stressed, I clean out a closet and feel so much better. It drives me crazy when I can't find things or piles of clutter start to build up.

Now I want you to take a look around your own home and ask yourself, "Are there any specific points in my daily routine that aren't working for me?" "Which areas cause me a lot of unnecessary stress?" Did you find any? I'll bet you did! These are questions I ask myself constantly and when I realize problem areas, I fix them.

Find and fix yours too. Whether it's a cluttered pantry that's slowing you down in the kitchen, a way to get your kids to put their things away, or an inexpensive way to make a laundry room more functional. The possibilities are endless if you can find the motivation to do it.

And don't you worry I've got lots more ideas in store. So stay tuned!