Monday, August 16, 2010

Zone Work...Works for Me!

Over the 20 years of marriage I have tried several things to keep the house is shape. What works for me the very most is assigning what I call "detail work" for certain rooms/areas to certain days. I have only 30 minutes assigned per day to get this zone done. Whatever does not get done waits until the next week unless it's something I do on a whim when time is available. It happens, but hardly so during those 30 minutes I give it my all.:) I do not include the living room into this because it's given a cleaning as we see it needs to be done. I have A LOT of things to dust on high shelves in there and it gets done (A) when I see I have a chance to or (B) whenever it's disgusts me so much that I cannot stand it anymore. I also do not include the kitchen in this zone time. I am already in there for about 2- 2 1/2 hours a day for goodness sake! If I cannot get whatever done in that time, then whatever isn't getting done. So I just try to do things as I think of it and it rounds out pretty well.

Here's the current zone schedule.

Monday: schoolroom, playroom; In the schoolroom I clear the floor of stray papers, etc. and vacuum carpet. I try to put away any unwanted books that are out, clear off computer table, clear off my desk, wipe down windows and exercise equipment. This has to be very rushed because I only have 15 minutes for this room. In the playroom, I take the two youngest with me. They help me pick up the toys. We sweep up and I try to take a rag to do a quick dusting. Sometimes I bring down a few toys to wash in the sink or take a wet rag to wipe down any toys that needs it.

Tuesday: diningroom, stairs, hall; While the diningroom is swept a few times each day, it is a given that's it's NOT going to be swept to my standards. Sometimes I think the usual sweeper is trying his best to sweep things out to the corners instead of into the dustpan. Of course, this is pure speculation. ;D So I do a thorough sweeping, glass clean the window and french doors, organize school bookshelf, wipe down radio and shelf it sits on. Sometimes I do a good cleaning of the chairs and/ or the pedestal of the diningroom table. Still most of the time that seems to fall behind. :/ As for the stairs and hall, I just sweep and mop, wipe the window and sill in the stairwell, wipe the stair rails as well. I do a quick wiping of the wall as well.

Wednesday: laundryroom This is when we catch up on all the clothes we didn't get put away and organized during the rest of the week. Face it, ladies, this DOES happen! If you don't have this problem please don't turn up your nose to me but I've been behind on laundry for the past decade unless I am about to go into the hospital to have a baby. So this is the time to hurry up and catch up on folding and putting away. It's not so hard since all the children's clothes are kept in the same room as the washer and dryer. I also wipe the window in there as well. When I leave the room after a crash cleaning, it may still look messy but it's BETTER than it was. :) I also do feel better once leaving and it makes things easier when I go to get our clothes ready for church that night.


Thursday: Master bedroom; This includes the usual task of clearing the dresser, dusting all furniture, putting away any clothes in our room, throwing away any trash(where does it come from?), dust mopping, damp mopping if needed and any window cleaning, if needed. I also put away as many clothes as I can that accumulated in the crib of which I haven't had the heart/time to take down yet. Oh, the clothes are never FULLY put away but the pile does shrink. This is reality here! Oh and I cannot blame this on being a homeschool mom because it's just as bad during our down time too. :)

Friday: bathrooms; We have three bathrooms. This is when I do the deep scrubbing of each. I will classify them as the master bath, red bath and brown bath. The master is swished and swiped almost daily. So I put away any clothes (here we go again!), makeup, hair things, etc. that accumulated on the counter. I must move QUICKLY too because I have three to clean! I move to the toilet and give it a bonus scrubbing along with spraying it down all over, inside and out. Then I take a rag and wipe the whole thing down-top to bottom. Now for the shower. I clear the edges of the tub of any and all bottles, soap there is. I spray a cleaner on the walls and shower curtain. While that soaks I sprinkle Comet(has to be Comet) into the tub. Then I take one of those green scrubby pads and get the "lip" of the tub, soap dish and tub itself. Oh, did I mention that I am in the tub while doing this? I just hop in barefooted, gird up my....skirt and have at it. Once I am done with that I rinse everything down. Now I sweep and mop the floor on the way out. If the scatter rug needs washing I throw it in the hamper and wash it the next day. Sometimes I even take wood cleaner and dust the doors, etc. :) I do the same thing for both the red and brown bathrooms except we've been using the brown bathroom shower as storage for a while. I keep that shower door closed and ignore it's there for now. :)

Saturday: porch,back deck, yard, van; Okay so it's Saturday. That means that I can delegate more since our day isn't tied up with schoolwork as well. IDEALLY the boys mow the yard and clean the van. I do the porch and deck. Sometimes I don't get to doing the porch and deck. When that happens I ignore the deck till the next week and do a quick sweeping and pickup as time permits.

So that's all for our daily 30 minute allotment of zone work. Things still looked lived in at our place but it's home and I figured I'll be bored one day and wish I had someone to mess up the place. So I'll just accept what we have, do what we can and be happy. :)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Susan! I am glad to have found your blog again. I enjoyed reading over the posts and love the feminine friday pictures. Makes me want to get mine going again, but I can never think of interesting things to share!
You are truly blessed with a sweet family.
Ginny Hickman