Overwhelmed by Housework? Thursday Routine
Welcome to Thursday! Today there is only one cleaning job, apart from daily chores, and that is to wash the children's sheets and remake their beds. Easy peasy. My two oldest children wash their own sheets on the weekend, so I only have two beds' worth of sheets to wash. Lucky me!
Let's race through the chores:
Open the curtains and blinds, and windows depending on the weather.
Wake up the family. Get dressed.
Unpack dish drainer and dish washer.
After breakfast, make the beds, dress small children. Put PJs away.
Clear the kitchen table and benches.
Pack the dishwasher.
Empty compost, bin, recycling.
Wash dishes if needed, rinse compost bin.
Wipe down the benches and table, wipe out the sink.
Change over hand towel, tea towel and dishcloths.
Tidy the living areas, hallway, bathroom.
Change bathroom hand towel.
Anything you need to prepare now for dinner?
Today is errand day. I have a list that I add to during the week. Anything that is not groceries that needs to be bought - hockey socks, new pillows, the wish list for the op shop. Bags of clutter to be dropped off at the op shop. Cards, presents posted. Dry cleaning, banking. I try to schedule appointments for today - dentist, vet etc. And then there is the fun stuff - the library, walking with a friend. I like to bundle all these things together on one day for reasons of economy. Time and energy and sanity saved from not popping out for half an hour every day to do a job. Money and the planet saved on fuel, and those short trips that are apparently so bad for the car's engine. Then I come home and read library books until 3 o'clock. Bliss!
Let's finish off the day..
Sorting mail and children's school papers.
Unpack and repack the dishwasher or wash dishes before you start dinner.
Bath the children and wipe out the bath. Tidy the bathroom.
Clear away children's toys.
After dinner, dishes, wipe stove and benches.
Check tomorrow's menu,and check diary for tomorrow.
Make sure children are prepared for school and activities tomorrow.
Make sure children put away clothes and 'things' from the living areas.
Tidy living areas and bathroom.
On the home straight now - it's nearly Friday. Tomorrow we will be doing laundry and vacuuming again, and cleaning the kitchen. What could be more jolly?
Does anyone else 'bundle' errands? Or run around and do everything while children are at after school activities (isn't that exhausting)? Or do you do a couple of jobs a day during lunch at work? Who else blesses the internet every time they pay a bill on-line instead of IN line at the post-office? And then feels slightly guilty because now all the small post offices are closing? Sigh.
Sleep well after sitting up late with a good book.
Comments
You've been inspiring me lately. I've been putting loads of laundry in the washer right when I wake up, I've been putting breakfast dishes straight into the dishwasher, and straightening up the house before bedtime...your influence is making me downright efficient. I keep cleaning up as I move around the house. I am actually enjoying the results, too. Thank you.
I'm glad you are enjoying your clean house. You should see mine this morning! Yesterday we moved furniture around, and this morning we have every surface in the living room covered with the contents of our ex-large TV cupboard. No library book reading for me today!
i try to do my errands after work, so i'm not traipsing around wasting my weekends; i'm in the car anyway so i just detour a bit on the way home. plus i figure i'm all dressed up from work so look more presentable, which may result in better service! i try to keep my work lunchbreaks for walking or bike riding, not errands, but sometimes i have to give that up. unless i can combine it (ie walk to the pharmacist, return library books along the way, ride to fruit and veg shop).
and i'm blessing my cotton socks that i live alone and do not have to vacuum as often as you do. it is the chore i loathe the most ( along with lawnmowing; it's a pushing thing, i'm sure) - and therefore ignore the most.
Isn't it wonderfully satisfying to cross off multiple items from the list of errands in one trip. I love it, because I hate leaving home. Such a good idea to keep weekends free.
You need a housework buddy. If I lived next door, I would gladly swap vacuuming chores for cleaning the bathroom.
Back when my children were all small, a friend and I would meet at each other's houses, let the tribe of children run wild (that's what homeschooled children do, right?) and do an afternoon of house cleaning. We took turns each week. It was brilliant! And it's so much more fun cleaning someone else's house.