Organizing in 2010!

Okay, so for the past few months I have been a lazy person. Why? Well, that is for another post. But for now, I have been trying to get back on the wagon for a few weeks, since before Christmas. I have done a schedule again. I've been de-cluttering 15 minutes a day. Filing 15 minutes a day. Exercising 30 minutes a day. Making the kids be responsible for their things.

I have been "organized" several times in my life. And it seems that as soon as I have things "down pat", then a change happens that turns my world into a chaotic mess.

My schedule use to be "It's 9:00. Time to clean the bathrooms and then off to switch laundry, fold the load and put away. Then it will be time for some 'me' time. I'll sit and read a bit while I have some cocoa." Now it is more like: 1st I make the bed, 2nd exercise, 3rd, get Jayden up, 4th make breakfast...

With 3 little girls at home, I have to spend my time differently. I also have to be ready for things to not be perfect. I don't get much me time. But I DO get to be home with them. That is a GREAT blessing.

Maybe I'll share some things with you that have been great, even if they were not lasting.

When I was a working mom, I would come home in the evening, and after fixing/eating dinner, I'd spend a bit of time with the kids (3 of them at the time). Then bathe, "jamma", and read to them. (We'd read scriptures then 3 stories that they each chosen.)
After they were in bed, I would do one of 4 things: Mondays I folded laundry, Tuesday I paid bills, Wednesday was sometimes Relief Society, so other Wednesdays I would take a break, read or something like that. Thursdays I would deep clean the house (you know, mop, vacuum, scrub, that sorta thing). I also had only a few papers that I had to keep track of, so the filing cabinet was a small 2 drawer type. The bills and accounts I had most of them memorized (numbers, amounts, and some addresses). I had a place for everything. For a few years we had a toy area, so the kids could have free rain in that room (within reason).

Jump forward to today. I get to be a stay-at-home mom.

I do have a sorta schedule. I do laundry everyday. Monday is change sheets day, Tuesday is switch towels and scrub bathrooms day, Wednesday is preschool coop and vacuum day, Thursdays I work in Jayden's classroom, Friday is pay bills and go grocery shopping day.
I give the kids chores for after school. They each have a room that they are in charge of straightening, then they help wrap up laundry and put theirs away. Even Jayden (almost 6) helps.

So thing that I have set as a goal for the year is to have a place for everything, and teach the kids to put things there when they are finished. We read this book called Polite as a Princess that says "Cinderella always puts away the things from one project before starting another." How to teach this, I don't know. Hover and nag I guess. For myself, I need to be able to say, "Just a minute while I finish cleaning up. Then I can come do (whatever) with/for you." That has been a hard thing. I usually drop what I'm doing and go with/to them.

I also need to keep up with balancing the checkbook every week, filing, sorting mail as it comes in, and not making my room the hide everything storage place.

I have fluttered with Flylady for years and have done alright, but with 2 almost 2 year-olds and an older sister who follows them more than leading them, I have fallen off my broom. I guess I'm mainly overwhelmed.

Well, let's see what happens. Pin It