Seeking rhythm to my week, organizing our home for peace

[momee]

I am trying to "tie it all together" in terms of creating a peaceful home and a more peaceful mom. I've dejunked and I've created a daily type schedule. Now I'm at the step of looking at our weeks, determining on which days I will care for my home in certain areas.

 

If there are any organized moms who feel their life is in relative balance, AND who are trying to save money by baking, cooking at home, I would love to hear about your weekly rhythm.

 

I u/stand everyone's weeks are different, but I'm sure we all have the same tasks that need to be done over and over - shopping, cooking, baking, cleaning, laundry.

 

The Motiv. moms planner, fly lady stuff doesn't work. I'm not a list checker.

 

so I'm asking to see your schedule of how you bless your home and family

 

Thanks for sharing.

[Happy]

When my life feels 'balanced' I'm usually not overwhelmed with outside responsibilities. I have a tendency to be quick to volunteer because I like being busy. The down side is that a project is never quite as quick or easy as it seems.

 

So my best advice is to not overschedule.

 

Pick a day or two a week to be either baking day or laundry day. Knowing that Fridays are clean the house day, gives me some structure and accountability.

 

Blessings as you seek to bless your home and family.

[Audrey]

Daily: Mornings are a family touchpoint where we spend some time doing nothing together. It's really important for setting a calm pace to a day.

 

Then we go do the regular farm/house chores for the morning, come back, wash up, have breakfast, have some music time, do a bit of lessons, then have some outdoor time before lunch.

 

After lunch, we finish lessons, then have outdoor time, come in for cocoa and reading or art time (or both). Then afternoon chores (farm chores and house stuff like vaccuuming, wiping toilet and sink, tidying up, etc.), then wash up and supper.

 

After supper, dh and I do household tasks or read. On the occasion that something good is on, we'll watch some tv. Ds may read or play on the computer or do just about anything he chooses for relaxation.

 

 

Weekly: Mondays I'm usually gone in the afternoon, so I don't make the mornings crammed full of stuff. Monday evenings I make a double supper of some kind. Casseroles are easy to double but boring after a while, so I try to change it up each week.

 

Tuesdays I am gone all day, so that is a day for dh and ds to connect.

 

Wednesday evenings I make double soup. One for that supper another for a weekend supper.

 

Thursdays I'm home all day and I bake and deep clean the bathroom. Thursday evenings I deep clean the kitchen.

 

Fridays I do the grocery shopping -- sometimes this entails a trip to the Big Town, so dh and ds will come, too and it is a whole afternoon thing. Friday evenings I prep and store the groceries. Sometimes prep means that if I've bought a good deal on hamburger, I'll cook some of it scrambled, make some into meatballs or salisbury steaks, make some into meatloaf, etc. Then I have to freeze all of that properly. If I've bought chickens, I might strip some down to the carcasses and throw the bones into the great big pot to make stock. I always try to buy things like pasta, rice, beans, spices, etc. in bulk, so when I come home I have to store them properly, too. It all depends on what I've bought. I don't do this all alone. Dh and ds help. It's actually kind of fun.

 

Saturdays I do bedding & linen laundry, deep clean the carpets, air out the house (yes, even in winter) and go over the bathroom and kitchen again. We all wash walls. Little kids are great at reaching baseboards. :D If I can manage it, I might try to do the clothing laundry, too.

 

Sundays I just do the clothing laundry. We all do our most basic regular daily stuff, but otherwise we lay around like lazy ol' farts all day. Because I don't have other pressing stuff (usually) on Sundays, I will often go out of my way to make a really nice supper, and if the guys are extra sweet to me, I might even make some kind of ridiculously decadent dessert.

[Jayne J]

My schedule runs like this:

Monday--Laundry day, vacuuming day

Tuesday--light cleaning as needed; baking, if needed, dusting day

Wednesday--paper work (school planning, bill paying, meal planning)

Thurday--errands, grocieries, library

Friday--heavy cleaning, additional laundry

 

Of course, it looks all neat and tidy, but rarely do I do everything as planned.

 

One little trick that really helped me was this--instead of doing "room-by-room" cleaning, do a daily type of cleaning (vacuum all rooms, dust all rooms, clean all mirrors/glass etc.) This keeps you from getting all the same supplies out every single day, over and over. There also seems to be a rhythm to it--you're not constantly changing gears so to speak.

For me the trick is not to be tied to my schedule, but to use it as a gauge to help me stay in tune with what needs done and what doesn't. that was another epiphany for me--don't do just because its on the list! If the house is not dusty, don't dust just because it's dusting day!!

Yeah, I know, obvious. But it took me a long time to understand.:tongue_smilie:

[mamaof2andtwins]

I can tell you that Kim Brenneman really helped me with finding a rhythm to my week. She used to have a web site called Large Family Logistics, but now she just has a blog and a yahoo group. I think perhaps these might help you.

 

Large Family Logistics Yahoo Group

 

Kim's Blog

 

My weeks look like this:

 

Monday: Laundry Day

Tuesday: Clean upstairs bedrooms

Wednesday: Bathrooms and floors

Thursday: Kitchen Day

Friday: Main living areas

Saturday: gardening/baking

 

Jennie

[Ria]

The thing that can put me over the edge is dinners. I've found that having a weekly menu helps tremendously. I get up in the morning and know what is for dinner, what to thaw, etc. For general cleaning I use Motivated Moms as much as possible; with my work schedule I don't often get everything done, but the downstairs remains clean and vacuumed, which is important to me.

 

Ria

[Chris in VA]

I don't like splitting the house up and only cleaning part of it on a day, because then it feels like it's never really "all done." OTOH, only when we have parental company (or a Bishop or someone like that) do we totally clean that way! I'll be watching for ideas.

 

One thing a friend did that inspired a peaceful home was to take time on Friday to ready her house and her family for her Saturday Sabbath. They would do half a day of school, then clean and straighten, make the Challah, and then have sundown Sabbath time. She did not go to Temple on Saturday, but she taught her kids their Jewish heritage at home this way. I always admired that, and have often thought that simple act of preparing and then celebrating weekly such an important day would be a lovely way to raise my children.

[FO4UR]

I struggle with the same things. It helps to name a day for certain things. Each room of the house is assigned a day and I spend atleast 15min cleaning in the assigned room. Kitchen demands more time, and bathrooms get 2(or 3:glare:) days.

 

I can't do all laundry in one day, so I do a couple loads per day. I make it a habit to put one load in as part of my morning routine and at the end of the day make sure everything is folded and put away (teaching my dc to do some of this;))

 

I am not shy about putting up the kids toys when their hands forget how to put them away - locked away. In fact, generally I keep their toys in a locked closet and bring out 1 box at a time. If they want another box, the toys out must be put away first. This keeps me sane.:tongue_smilie:

 

Above all, I have learned to accept a certain level of mess. If it's not dangerous to the health and safetey of my family, it's not that important. (I can vacuum every other day rather than 3 times per day....)

[Laura Corin]

I am getting back to having daily tasks. I did it for a few months and it worked well, but all semblance of order disappeared during the move. I have every day tasks (washing, wiping down kitchen, etc.) but in addition I do:

 

Monday: one bathroom and supermarket (the latter while boys are at chess club)

Tuesday: the other bathroom

Wednesday: kitchen

Thursday: dusting

Friday: vacuuming

Saturday: brush the dog

Sunday: prepare homeschooling for week

 

Laura

[Once]

Monday is survival day around here. We have big adjustment issues after the weekend.

Tuesday is a regular school day and bath night.

Wednesday is errands and small grocery day.

Thursday is house cleaning day.

Friday is planning for next week schooling and laundry day.

Saturday is library, bath night, lunch out and big grocery shopping day.

Sunday is resting as much as possible and finishing laundry.

 

Our schooling activites fall into a weekly schedule but I didn't think you were asking about that....just the housekeeping things.

 

It helps when the week is simplified. Best wishes getting something to work for you.

[MamaT]

We all take a few hours on the weekend (Saturday) and work together to get the house clean for the week. I also do laundry, bedding, and get school stuff put together for the next week. My husband usually takes my three little ones out for something fun while I work on school stuff.

 

My children all do chores for about 20 minutes before school each morning and a pick-up before bed.

 

I do laundry again on Wednesday, as it's the only day we do not have outside activities in the afternoon.

[Nestof3]

deep clean the carpets, air out the house (yes, even in winter)

 

What do you use to deep-clean the carpets? Also, for how long do you air out the house?

[Strengthen My Hands]

Organized I am NOT... but:

 

A monthly menu is a wonderful thing!

 

It allows me to have variety in my selection (no more stir fry once a week:rolleyes:), shop for the month (if that's what I want to do), plan a food budget, but most importantly I simply don't have to be inspired to come up with the answer to "what's for dinner" after spending all day focusing on more important things :willy_nilly:! I know what I'm having in the morning, so I can take things out of the freezer early enough, let things marinate if need be... or simply change my menu if I change my mind!

 

When I have a menu it is so freeing to use that mental energy for other things.

HTH

[laughing lioness]

Finding a daily rhythem is one that has to work for you. I'm not a big a.m. person so we don't hit school hard by 7 a.m. We are hanging out, cleaning, listening to CD's etc in the a.m., dh is doing math with the olders, etc. By 10 a.m. we are hitting school hard. Some days I am still reading outloud, the kids are writing in the evening. We flex and flow if the weather is nice- cause that's a treat. I have clear goals and time tables and we meet them, with lots of other stuff thrown in, plays, TeenPact, women's retreats, blogging, talking to our out of state dd, etc. How I "get it all done" --

 

Clarify your vision. Who you are

Clarify your mission. What you do.

Create goals that are smart. Bite sized pieces that allow you to accomplish your mission.

Have fun. This season flies by!

[Ellie]

There were a few things that helped me when my first-born was little, and which I have continued ever since:

 

I take my shower at night. Mr. Ellie is home to take care of any problems with dc. In the morning when I get up, I make the bed and get dressed before I leave my bedroom. I wash my hair in the kitchen :-)

 

I clean the kitchen immediately after we eat supper, even if we're late. (In fact, I never leave the house with the kitchen dirty. Ever.) And I make sure it's clean before I go to bed.

 

So, in the morning, when I come out of my bedromm the kitchen is clean, my bedroom is tidy, and I am dressed for the day. If I get nothing else done I still feel like I'm together, KWIM?

 

It took me a year or so to get my act together after I started hsing (dc were almost 7 and almost 4). I'm pretty organized and had never really had to *plan* household stuff...I just did it. Homeschooling changed all that, mostly because I went into it full speed ahead as an unschooler, not realizing that when I said to myself "We aren't doing anything" (which dd needed, poor thing) would spill over into home management, lol.

 

So after a year, the plan ended up like this:

 

Daily: my regular routine (shower at night, keep kitchen clean, etc.)

 

Monday and Tuesday: Official School Days. Whatever Official School Stuff I had was laid out on the kitchen table for dc to do if they wanted to. We didn't go anywhere on those days--no errands, no field trips, no crafty things for me, nothing. Dc would often pick up their Official School Stuff out of boredom, lol.

 

Wednesday: library. We went and goofed off. Dc could check out whatever they wanted to or nothing at all. After a couple of hours we came home...and stayed home until *way* late in the afternoon.

 

Thursday: field trip. Every week, dds and I left the house for a field trip. Sometimes it might be part of something we were studying, sometimes not.

 

Friday: Clean the house, do all the laundry, go to park day once a month.

 

Weekends: free of any major cleaning, time to goof off with Mr. Ellie, everyone has clean underwear for church on Sunday.:D

 

And on Mondays, we could just...get up when we were finished sleeping, mosey out into the kitchen, have breakfast, and...stay home. No laundry, no major housecleaning, just...gentle, relaxed, doing Official School Stuff.

 

We started hsing before there were support groups, but eventually there was one--in fact, a whole county of them (long story--and at first I did the field trips the group planned, regardless of the day of the week, but that messed me up too much. My final decision was that I only did field trips on Thursdays or if the s.g. outing was something I could not do myself.

 

One year I enrolled dc in a "homeschool" gym class, on a Tuesday...hated it. It *so* messed up my week. So the rule became no outside activities until after 3 in the afternoon. No exceptions.

 

I could tell when I was doing too much because the house looked like a train wreck.:glare:

 

It's over 25 years later, and I still do laundry on Fridays, and sometimes even a field trip on Thursdays.:D

[Jen in PA]

I am not as organized as I would like to be, but I think we manage pretty well as long as I stick to a few basic things.

 

We are out of the house all day on Tuesdays and Fridays with activities. The final activity on Fridays is grocery shopping, but no other "household" tasks get done that day.

 

Sundays I leave very loosely scheduled, although sometimes DH and I will work on a special project (e.g. we moved furniture and set up a second computer today).

 

So I am left with Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I do 2 loads of laundry on each of those. Thursdays one of those loads is "special," rotating between my comforter, the kids' comforters, general household blankets, and the shower curtain, so that all of the rooms have fresh linens each month. I use the "regular" wash for all of our sheets and towels, bath rugs, etc., so they are always clean and ready.

 

I pick up the house (toys, school supplies, books, newspapers, etc.) each evening, and either use the dustbuster or the vacuum, depending on the condition of the carpets. The kitchen is carpeted, so I always vacuum it at the end of the day. I wipe down the bathroom and swish the toilet every night while the dc are taking their bath. Every other Saturday I change the bathroom rugs, mop the floor, and scrub the tub.

 

On the alternate Saturdays, I dust and do a more in depth vacuuming, moving furniture to get in all the nooks and crannies.

 

I bake bread/muffins/desserts on Mondays and Thursdays. I make yogurt on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I cook a few meals ahead on Saturdays to freeze or eat during the week. On Mondays and Thursdays I make a double sized dinner since I get in around suppertime the following night.

 

My general evening routine involves cleaning the kitchen, setting up the dishwasher, packing dh's lunch, setting up the coffeemaker, giving the kids a bath, taking a shower, and setting out my clothes for the following day. I also gather up all of the handtowels, dishrags, etc., to be washed and set out new ones. On Sundays I sort through bills and correspondence that dh and I can tackle through the week. I do online bills on Monday mornings.

 

That's about it.... Oh, I make all the beds (help the kids) each morning to keep the whole house looking decent. HTH!