Happy All Hallows Eve tomorrow

We carved a pumpkin tonight. Fun and enjoyable.
I'm not sure what we are going to do tomorrow night besides hand out candy. My son is almost 15 and had planned on trick or treating with the neighbor boy but now there is kind of concern going around about teenagers trick or treating. I guess I kind of understand but I think 14 and 15 year olds should still be able to trick or treat.
Oh well, we remember as Catholics that it is really an evening to remember what the next day is. All Saint's Day.

Housekeeping Schedule

Okay, so I like to have a clean house. It gives me a good feeling but a clean house doesn't just happen. It takes work and organization and decluttering.  I am going to attach a copy of my schedule I just recently made up. It still needs a little tweaking but you will get the idea.

There are a couple of things I would like to touch on. One is everyone has their own way of cleaning. Their own preferences.  I have recently been reviewing several books on scheduling and housekeeping. It seems that the more modern the book, the more the advice refers to working women. The advice is for what to do when you get home from work. That's fine but it just doesn't apply to me. I work only  a few days a month and so I am home most of the time. I need advice that helps me get my work done during the day. I ordered a well-recommended book today to help with my homemaking endeavors. The book is The GoodHousekeeping Book of Housekeeping 1947. I'll let you know how it is when I get it.
I like to do my cleaning one to two days a week as you will see on my schedule. I usually clean on Mondays and Tuesdays, dividing my chores into two categories: high and low. High things need dusted, wiped and scrubbed. These are things such as countertops and tables. Low things are floors that need scrubbed, mopped or vacuumed.  If I get everything finished in two days I feel like I have the rest of the week to do other things without a feeling of disorganization. Some others may tell you they prefer to clean a little everyday. If that works for you, that's fine. I don't because I like a feeling of accomplishment.

Now this is going to get switched around on my second thought and that is laundry. I do my laundry a little every day and then finish up with one big laundry day toward the end of the week. I am not sure why but I don't need that great feeling of accomplishment with laundry or maybe I just don't think it is doable, for me anyway. Everyday there are clothes my family needs. They can not wait one week for me to wash all of or certain items they need. So everyday I do at least one load of laundry and that way I can keep it a minimum.

Another thing to consider is to keep your schedule doable.  If you try to schedule too much in one day you will get exhausted. Also, ages and number of children and whether or not you homeschool. When I homeschooled my schedule would look a lot different. I am home by myself now and my son is in school so I can get alot  more accomplished.  One more thing to consider is your age. My mother in law is almost 80 years old but is a great housekeeper. Her house is always in order but she does things alot different than I and  doesn't do as much as I in a day and I am sure I can't do as much as a young person in their 20's could do in a day.

So, I hope to be adding more to this topic but here are a just a couple of ideas to get started on your schedule. First write down everything you would like to get done in a day, a week, or a month. Figure out what you are capable doing in a day. You might want to categorize the list into wants and needs.

I have found scheduling my day works so much better than winging it. I can get so much more accomplished and thus find I have a great feeling.

Time/Day	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri
0600	Rise and shower	---------------	-----------------	-------------	----------
0630	Make coffee/oatmeal/wake Josh/start laundry	---------------	-----------------	--------------	----------
0650	Fix Josh breakfast	--------------	---------------	---------------	----------
0730	Josh to school	--------------	---------------	----------------	----------
0800	Errands, prayer	--------------	---------------	-----------------	---------
0930	Begin laundry/ cleaning day/	----------- mop floors every other week alternate with sheet changing	Grocery shop	Laundry catchup/clean out frig	Start ironing/laundry or mow if needed/end of week shopping for weekend needs
1130	Lunch	--------------	---------------	---------------	-------
1230	Finish cleaning	Finish cleaning	Pick up around house	Put laundry away	Put laundry away
			Correspondences/ bills/insurance work	sewing	Continue ironing/sew if time allows. Monthly chores.
---------	-------------------	------------	----------------------	----------------	------------------
300	Leave to pick up Josh (unless crew)	------------	---------------	-----------------	-----------------
400	supper prep	-------------	------------------	--------------	----------------
430	Leave to pick up Josh if crew	-------------	------------------	--------------	----------------
530-600	Supper	--------------	-------------------	--------------	-----------------
Evening	Enjoy family	--------------	------------------	---------------	----------------

The times are not set in stone, are more of a routine and I do adjust as needed.  I don't get caught up on the time. I make my schedule my help not my master. I, also, soon will be adding a monthly schedule to go with this, so I can get chores done that don't need accomplished as often. That slot is included on Fridays.
Happy homemaking

Housecleaning

It's been a while since I posted. Alot has been happening and I am trying to be more of a housewife at home. I love it. There is always something I can be doing, but I do have to admit one of my least favorite jobs is laundry. I don't know why but I think it is the bending and pulling, you know moving the clothes from the washer to the dryer. I have found putting the clothes away is the easiest part of doing the laundry.  I love the feeling of having the clothes done up and put away, though. It is a very good feeling.

It is the same with cleaning the house.  I don't mean to be judgemental but I often wonder how women can leave their homes everyday knowing that it is a mess and needs cleaning. Maybe I am just some kind of a neat freak but there is something about a clean house. It could just be a feeling of satisfaction. I don't know but I do know when it is clean and I sit down in the evening and turn on the low lights and relax I have this great feeling that I have done something good. I have created a peaceful haven for myself and my family.  I enjoy the smell of pine from cleaning products and lemon from dusting products and I have a sense of order when everything is in its place.

I wasn't raised that way, except that I as a child had to clean my own room. I can remember dusting and picking up and straightening. I had hardwood floors so I had to sweep. Then when it was evening I would sit with satisfaction with my low milk glass light in my room and it was great. I had a feeling of accomplishment, a homey feeling.

You see my mom worked 4 days a week and didn't always have time to clean so she was very busy. Not that she was messy, she just didn't have the time to spend on it.  I remember a woman lived next door to us who kept her house clean. She was a stay at home mom, a housewife and I always admired the order of her home.

Don't get me wrong, I have messes. My house gets messy. I clean once a week and so there are days it gets bad and right now I am tackling different projects, that have gone way too long and are very cluttered. Some of my projects are cleaning out dresser drawers, lining shelves, cleaning junk drawers,  closets and the garage. There are lots of jobs to be done at home. Being a housewife is good and godly. I love the old phrase, "cleanliness is next to godliness." 

You know we can lift our household chores up to God and make them prayers to him as we do them and ask him to bless our homes and make them great domestic churches because as the scriptures say, "unless the Lord build a house, they labor in vain who build it." Psalm 126:1. 

Happy cleaning.