31 days to a new housekeeping habit challenge?

[ltlmrs]

Any interest in this?

Pick one housekeeping habit that you'd like to work on in January and commit to doing it every single day.

Whether it's committing to a morning or evening routine, spending fifteen minutes decluttering or even just taking out the garbage: pick one thing that needs to become second nature and a life long habit.

To join:

1) Who you are

2) What your housekeeping struggles are

3) Your goal and how you plan to get there

Edited by ltlmrs - 12/31/10 at 8:47am

[ltlmrs]

...

Edited by ltlmrs - 7/2/11 at 7:58pm

[2lilsweetfoxes]

1) Who you are 
A WOHM to 3 kids, and wife to a WAHD.

2) What your housekeeping struggles are 

Everything.  Being too tired to do anything after work and no time to do anything before work.  Then the family is just sitting around doing nothing--take that back, they are making messes for me to clean. 

3) Your goal and how you plan to get there

My goal:  To have a house that "cleans itself" by having set routines or habits that get done.  To start with, I'd like to have the kitchen clean before I go to bed every night.  I make dinner, but first I end up having to do the dishes from the previous night and all that day...which starts a vicious cycle because not all the dishes fit in the dishwasher, so I have to leave some for "later"...which tonight's dishes get added to, then DH says "don't worry about the dishes, honey"  so I don't and then...wash, rinse, repeat.  (Seriously, when I hear someone tell me not to worry about something, that means they are going to do it--not, oh, leave it and come back to it when it will be harder because at this point you have to do it.)

Key:  (I'm borrowing yours, since my goal is similar)

Kitchen clean after every meal - not the goal, but would be great!

Kitchen cleaned for the day

Nothing got done because I was genuinely too sick (should be rare--I get sick less than once a year)

Could have done it, but didn't

  Not home to do it...(due to work)...what will it look like when I get home?

DH did the kitchen!!!

Edited by 2lilsweetfoxes - 1/1/11 at 4:45pm

[Brisen]

1) Who you are

SAHM to 5 kids... homeschooling the older ones

2) What your housekeeping struggles are

We have no routine, and I'm s-l-o-w at doing everything, especially things that aren't routine.  I have a few good habits started, but I have a long way to go.

3) Your goal and how you plan to get there

I think the most pressing thing right now is a morning routine.  Our dinner/evening routine is running OK, and it won't take much effort to improve it, but our morning routine is all over the place.  Mostly because I get distracted by a bunch of stuff I want to do.  I'm a morning person and want to do everything in the morning, but I really need to focus on getting the kids into the habit of a morning routine so we can get on with our day, and make time for my other projects (mostly decluttering right now) in the afternoon or late evening.  I do want to make a quick organizing/decluttering project part of my morning routine, though, like one shelf in a cupboard or the top of a closet.  Small steps.

[MamitaM]

1) Who you are

I'm a single stay at home mama to a sweet little sonny boy who's 3 months old.

2) What your housekeeping struggles are

Getting the dishes done! I really don't like doing the dishes and I seem to have so many of them all the time, which is hard to understand since I'm the only one here. I have no routine for anything right now and I know I really need to have one. So my goal is to come up with a nice routine and get it started and then stick to it.

3) Your goal and how you plan to get there

My first goal is to have the dishes done each night before bed. It should be pretty easy and I should NOT have any excuses for them not being done. My kitchen is pretty small, more like a galley really so it takes me about 5 minutes to wipe the counter and stove after washing the dishes, which should only take about 10-15 minutes at most. So dishes should be washed each night before bed and then put away when I wake up in the morning.

Dishes done each night 

Could have done it, but didn't

[IsaFrench]

1 - SAHM with 3 children aged 11 to 3

2 - reading too much about how to get things done .... and not doing it even !

especially for my weekly routine and monthly routine

(worked all of last year on my daily routine, am managing 8 out of 9 tasks on it, most days)

3 - find a way not to feel upset if I don't spend as much time online as I used to & actually implementing what I've been researching so far, either what I printed out from others of what I wrote for myself already

[aratiaw]

1) Who you are

SAHM to a 4yo and 2yo.

2) What your housekeeping struggles are

Never learned good housekeeping habits as a child and have big emotional roadblocks to learning them as an adult. Lack of routine combined with perfectionist tendencies, so if I don't have the energy/time etc. to do a perfect job, I tend to do nothing.

Many parts of 2lilsweetfoxes' dishes scenario are so familiar. Over the years, even before kids, there have been many times when DH and I bought dinner because there was a big pile of dishes to do before we could start cooking.

3) Your goal and how you plan to get there

Focus on the kitchen - my main goal is to clean up shortly after dinner each evening. I tend to leave it for 'later', then it gets late and I leave it for 'the morning', then something else happens and it doesn't get touched until afternoon or even the next evening... you get the picture. DH does help, but the kitchen is mainly my responsibility.

Other goals:

Sell or otherwise get rid of the big fridge in the corner. It wouldn't fit in the fridge space when we moved in, so we've bought one that does fit and just need to get the old one out of here.

Organise all the bits and pieces that accumulate on top of the microwave and corners of the benchtops but that don't actually belong in the kitchen.

[mkksmom]

SAHM to 15 mo and  6.5 YO dd's

I am just a mess. I'm working with an organizer to get it together, but I feel like I can rarely relax in my own home because my to-do list is so long. I had a tough couple of years before my second dd was born. I was sick, then dealt with infertility, then miscarriages, then fertility treatments, then a nervous pregnancy where I had to spend a lot of time on the couch in the first 2 trimesters. The first year with a baby isn't the best time for getting it all together, so here I am. I'm good at keeping up with floors, bathrooms, wiping counters and such, but the dishes and laundry need to be more consistent. And the clutter has to go. I don't know what to pick. I guess I can add things each month, so just pick something.

It'll have to be the kitchen. DH and I are going to clean it after dinner every night.

[trghig]

1) Who you are
I am Tiffany, SAHM to 2 little ones under 3. I am hoping to go back to school come fall.
 

2) What your housekeeping struggles are

My housekeeping struggle is keeping up with everything. It seems like my little ones make  a new mess for everyone 1 I get cleaned. Add DH working nights (thankfully he is going back to days on the 4th of this month) and a very clingy youngest and nothing gets done. We have a very small house and its cluttered and disorganized. After 5 moves in 3 years I have lost track of what we have and all sense of organization.

3) Your goal and how you plan to get there

My goal is to get organized again and get back into a routine- so that my house stays clean but I don't feel like I am cleaning all the time, which is how it feels now. I want my house to run smoothly so I can start taking classes in the fall to finish my degree.  To start with I am going to keep the kitchen clean. I deep cleaned it yesterday and now I want to keep it that way. Which mostly means washing the dishes every day and wiping the counter every day.

[ltlmrs]

Happy New Year!

It's so comforting to know that I'm not alone in this.  Sometimes I get so depressed especially around the holidays because I visit other people's immaculate houses and I just want to cry.  I've always looked for quick solutions (and yes, even Flylady is a relatively quick solution for some of us) and then I realized that it took me years to make my bad habits so I will not get new habits over night.  Everyone always talks about baby steps, but babies have to learn how to roll over before they can sit up before they can crawl and only then walk!  Hence, the idea for this challenge.

aratiaw you described my situation perfectly!  I always leave things till later and then it just gets worse.  We were visiting my IL's over Christmas and after Christmas dinner, when everybody was too full to do anything but go take a nap, my 67 yo MIL went straight to washing all the dishes by hand!  DH and I tried to convince her to put them off till later and she wouldn't hear of it.  There was nothing else to do but help.  It honestly didn't take as long as I expected and we were still able to nap a little later, but the kitchen was clean!  She was more tired than any of us because she had gotten up early to cook, but the habit of cleaning immediately after a meal is so ingrained in her that it would be against her nature to put it off, even if none of us had helped her.  That's when I realized that is the reason why my kitchen is always dirty and her's is always clean.  But, it will take a long time to get into such a habit.

IsaFrench, I've been reading housekeeping books since I was a little girl.  Nothing has sunk in :(

Welcome everyone and let's help each other along by being accountable!

1. Adding a new smiley because DH swept me off my feet by cleaning the kitchen and even scrubbing the floor!  Today would have been a otherwise because I wasn't able to clean the kitchen yesterday like I had intended to (to start with a clean slate) and was too tired from the New Year's celebrations and couldn't get up to do *anything* purely from being overwhelmed (the kitchen was very icky).  DH made me take a nap with Ladybug and indicated that he would take one too (he had stayed up later than I did), but when I woke up I came into a clean living room and kitchen.  I am so in love with my husband.

Key:

Kitchen clean after every meal - not the goal, but would be great!

Kitchen cleaned for the day

Nothing got done because I was genuinely too sick

Could have done it, but didn't

DH saves the day!

[starbuckmom]

1: Who are you?

  I am a SAHM to 3 kids, ages 5 and almost 2 (twins)

2: What your housekeeping struggles are:

   Keeping the kitchen and the front room picked up.

3: Your goal and how do you plan to get there?

     Make sure I clean the kitchen before going to bed to make sure the sink is shiny and ready to go for the next day.  For the front room:  Clean it as soon as the twins go down for their afternoon nap.  That mean, clean up clutter, put toys away and vacuum the rug and clean of the top of the cabinet.

[mkksmom]

day # 1 and the kitchen is done! Yay!

[AtYourCervices]

1) Who you are

SAHM to 10 y/o & 4 y/o girls.

2) What your housekeeping struggles are

As is the case with many of you I struggle cleaning up after dinner. I leave some food on the table in case the girls want to finish up within an hour or two after the meal. Then I forget about it.

I also struggle with laundry. My 10 y/o likes to change her clothes multiple times a day, and I have to sort the clothes, and I end up with several loads I can't get done by the end of the day. It all ends up piling up.

3) Your goal and how you plan to get there

I need to set up a strict schedule, print it out, and display it. I'll be working on that tomorrow. Just found this post and wanted to say I'm in!
 

[MamitaM]

Jan. 1 All the dishes are clean and drying in the rack, except one. It's the casserole dish though so I'm allowing myself the smiley b/c it does need a good soak, BUT it must be done tomorrow morning right after I put all those clean dishes away.

So today was a great start for me and my 2 challenges of creating a new habit with my housecleaning and having a nice. healthy home cooked meal. Thanks for helping me mamas!

[starbuckmom]

End of January 1st and my sink is shiny for the morning!!!  The living room will be picked up tomorrow but since it's Sunday, I won't worry about how clean it is but I will declutter tomorrow night so it's ready for kids to play on Monday.  I will make sure it's ready for my dh to walk through the door right after I put the twins down for their morning nap.

[tanyalynn]

Starting a little late, but really, that's how things go around here (thus, why I need to be here )

1) Who you are

Tanya, SAHM to a 7yo DD and 4yo son, relaxed homeschoolers

2) What your housekeeping struggles are

I never had good routines to start with, but these last few years, I've been working on health stuff for me and the kids, and that was the priority, and everything else came in second.  Now I want to start creating a peaceful, relaxing home, instead of the chaos and piles of unfiled papers that exist here now. 

3) Your goal and how you plan to get there

I'm starting small, I've still got some fatigue and I am, again, making dietary changes that _should_ meet the needs of everyone, but that takes a lot of mental energy.  So small goals for me.

So I'm starting with laundry.  I run loads fine, but getting stuff folded and then put away in a timely fashion, that does me in, and then that disorder breeds more disorder elsewhere and it snowballs.  My goal will be to have everything that's done drying folded and put away by bedtime each night.  Realistically it should be done by 3pm because sometimes my energy fades fast after that point and just getting dinner done is hard.  And I want to include the kids, to help teach them better skills and routines than I learned as a child. 

I'm going to call that pass/fail, with a high pass for including the kids. 

And I think I want to say that I'll take 15 minutes to tidy or organize something.  Don't care what, plenty to choose from, but a month of 15-minuteses will do wonders around here.  That'll just be pass/fail. 

[treegardner]

 

1) Who you are

SAHM to a 2 year old boy

2) What your housekeeping struggles are

I had a really great example growing up, my mom, but she didn't teach me anything. She is super tidy, but never let my sister or I help out around the house. Her mother lives with her now and they constantly fight about chores because my mom has to have everything done a certain way. Also, I'm a huge procrastinator, so I keep putting chores off until they are way too much to tackle.

3) Your goal and how you plan to get there

I ordered the Motivated Moms planner to help me know what needs to be done each day. It's all spelled out for me so all I need to do is make the time to do it!

[ltlmrs]

1.

2. This is awful, it's only the second day.

Key:

Kitchen clean after every meal - not the goal, but would be great!

Kitchen cleaned for the day

Nothing got done because I was genuinely too sick

Could have done it, but didn't

DH saves the day!

[MamitaM]

Jan.1.

Jan. 2. All clean,except the cheese grater and the glass that I've been drinking from all day. The cheese grater will get washed before bed, but I want to use it to make my snack with as soon as my sons goes to sleep.

[starbuckmom]

Day 2 for me:  Living room is ok.  My dh picked up toys and put away shoes earlier.  I have 2 baskets of clothes to fold.  The kitchen is ok but could use some help.  I know my sink isn't shiny but I will take care of it before I go to bed.  My dh helped in there earlier and put some things away.  I would like to make sure my table is cleared off too.  I am going to take the time to get sippy cups ready for tomorrow too.