I Can Do This!

Once upon a time. I live by a schedule, a routine if you will. I'd get up, make the bed, get dressed, clean the bathroom, clear emails and blog while drinking my coffee and then start cleaning and run errands if necessary. Honest, I did. But somewhere along the line, I stopped. I'd try over and over to get started again. But it was as if the long task of things I used to do was just too overwhelming, so why bother?

Baby steps.

I know that's the answer. Start small and build my way up. It's just like exercising and eating right. It' not like I can just start drinking 8 glasses of water a day and eat right and exercise for an hour a day and quit smoking and clean the house and get a job and take care of my father and spend time with my son and get a life and be Ms. Perfect. So, here's my plan: Start a new routine. Well not new. Old. Go back to my old routine. I know, I know. I've avoided doing this in the past because it was too overwhelming. I'm not saying I'll complete the routine everyday. I'm saying I'll start working on it. I may very well burn out after an hour. But an hour is better than nothing. Right? Right??? (Disregard the fact that in one paragraph I went from baby steps to full blown routine again. Let's just go with the flow.)

Today's Schedule (although I won't be changing out the bedding since I just did that the other day):

A)I have 15 minutes to strip beds and start laundry.

B)I have 30 minutes to rumble :
1)kitchen
2)living room
3)dining room or office
4)bathroom
5)bedroom
6)another room of choice

C)I have 15 minutes to do a load of dishes and clear a counter.

D)I have 10 minutes to dust, and 5 minutes for exercise.

E)I have 10 minutes to switch laundry, and 5 minutes to drink a glass of water.

F)I have 30 minutes to mop and/or vacuum:
1)kitchen
2)bathroom
3)living room
4)another room of choice

G)I have 10 minutes to clean out our wallet and purse or bag, and 5 minutes for exercise.

H)I have 10 minutes to switch laundry, and 5 minutes to drink a glass of water.

I)I have 30 minutes to:
1)shine the bathroom
2)fling 10 things
3)exercise for 5 minutes
4)drink a glass of water

J)I have 10 minutes to empty the trash cans and shine the sink, and 5 minutes for exercise.

K)I have 10 minutes to switch laundry, and 5 minutes to drink a glass of water.

L)I have 30 minutes to sort and put away laundry.

M)I have 15 minutes to remake beds and fluff pillows.


I will *try* to post tonight my actual accomplishments.

Laundry

 This is a laundry hamper.  It has but one use. To hold dirty laundry. 

I have always owned a laundry hamper of some sort.  Whether it be a laundry basket or an actual laundry hamper, the concept is not new in my house.  This particular laundry hamper has been owned by us for 9 years and 3 months.  I know this because I bought it when we purchased our first home.  I do not move it around to various parts of the house.  It has one home: in this tiny crook outside of the bedrooms.  I love my family and I'm willing to break my back as I carry this hamper downstairs so that I may wash/dry/fold/put away the laundry. 

But...

I am fed up with being the only one that knows how to use it.  Seriously.

Clothing does not belong on the kitchen chair.  I realize you were hot when you came in the house dear husband.  But the laundry room is one room over.  You PASSED through the laundry room to take off and toss your shirt here.  (Notice I failed to remove the previous days shirt.  Leaving it there doesn't help).

One moment please while I count the steps to the laundry room.....

5 steps TO the laundry room.  3 steps to the laundry organizer.  Not that any of them would understand the concept of separating whites and darks since they clearly don't how to use a laundry hamper.  

Don't think for a second that as a male grows older that he learns.  They don't. 

Case in point:

These 3 pairs of socks belong to my father. As if he's going to wear them again.  He's not. If he was, there wouldn't be 3 pair there.

While you would expect the kitchen to be the last place in the house to typically have dirty laundry, the living room is not immune either.

This shirt is actually atop another.  Like my husband and his use of the kitchen chair, my father has deemed this his location to hold his dirty shirts.

From old to young, even the teenager leaves his clothes lying around.  However, his are always in his bedroom and either left on the floor or on his bed. 

Like our teenage son, my dear, sweet husband also leaves his dirty clothes on the floor.  I would like to point out here that these clothes are 19 inches from the doorway.  If you look at the picture of the hamper at the top, you'll notice that the hamper is just outside of a doorway.  

Yes, it is the exact same doorway. 

Now if you're going to wear clothing for about an hour or so, there's really no point in putting it in the dirty laundry, right?  I mean, you could just fold it up and put it back in the drawer.  

That was my husband's intention.

Except, when he went to bed last night, they ended up on the floor with the rest of the dirty laundry.

 

 My husband had a job interview last week.  These are the clothes he wore. He was told he'd have a second interview.  So he's planning on wearing these again.  

The problem: We own 5 cats.

The bigger problem: I'm not moving them.  

The biggest problem: He really needs a job.  I really need him to get a job.  Damn.  I guess I'll move them to the hamper.  Tomorrow. 

Freaking Out!

Even with no sleep, yesterday was semi-productive.  I completed my shopping at Walgreens, purchased some stocking stuffers at Dollar Tree, purchased 1 gift at Kmart and discovered the deal of the year at Kmart: coupons doubled up to $2.  I also clipped coupons (okay, some...not all) and learned how to operate my webcam so I can begin vlogging.  While the day seems productive, I didn't get a hundred other things done, thus, semi-productive.

Because I got no sleep yesterday, I ended up sleeping almost 14 hours and not waking up til after 10 today.  I have so much to do, I don't even know where to begin!  Basically, I haven't worked on my chemistry homework since last Wednesday.  This puts me majorly behind and I have to take a test this week for that class.  I'm caught up on ethics homework, but the question is whether to fall a little behind and just concentrate on chemistry or do a little of that as well to stay current. 

I have at least 3 loads of laundry to do today.  That's just so the basics are clean.  Fortunately, Dad was kind enough to do dishes last night while I was sleeping and put them away this morning, so that's one thing off my list.  What else?  OH!  I want to try vlogging the Monday Mingle's with eightymphmom which means creating a vlog of less than 10 minutes which will probably take me at least 2 hours to do.  At LEAST!!!  What else?  *tapping fingers* I know there is more....

OH YEAH!  Vistaprint is offering a a free 2010 calendar, so I'm hoping to do that, but first I want to use the photo collage software I found over the weekend (see yesterday's post), which means I have to go through more photos, because I'd ideally like to have 25 photos for the calendar, and I think I have 11 set aside right now.  This also means scanning.  This project will take at least 3 hours I'd imagine.

Then there's that Kmart deal.  I know it doesn't expire today.  BUT, I can get the Hormel Compleats FREE with the $1 coupons I have, and I'm sure there is even more deals to be found, so I really want to go through my coupons and head to Kmart.  I suppose this could wait til tomorrow or Wednesday, but I want free stuff NOW!!!

Oh right, and then basic housecleaning on top of all of that.  Guess I should get going, huh?  Will try to get my Monday Mingle in today!!!

The Perfect Day

Over the weekend I was asked how I do everything I do. Personally, I feel like I'm always going one step forward, two steps back. I never have a day that works out exactly like I plan.

My perfect day would look something like this:

7:00 - Wake up without an alarm clock, make the bed, get dressed, grab dirty clothes from both bedrooms and toss in hamper, take hamper downstairs and start laundry. Go to the bathroom and complete a swish and swipe of sink and toilet.

7:15 - Get coffee, check email, get more coffee, check Facebook games, get more coffee, check calendar, update POA (Plan of Attack), log into SP (SparkPeople), plan dinner (ideally, I already have a menu in place, so this is more like checking what I'm making that day and seeing now long it will take to cook, taking out to defrost, etc.)

8:00 - Take a shower and do personal care

8:30 - Update Quicken and balance accounts and write blog(s).

9:00 - Spend 3-4 hours on cleaning and exercise(Laundry, Dishes, Vacuuming, Sweeping, Mopping, Dusting, Room Rumbles (picking up and putting items away), etc)

12:30 - Lunch

1:00 - Homework (2 hours per class)

5:00 - Start dinner

6:00 - Eat dinner

6:30 - Begin dinner cleanup

7:00 - Check email, FB, and SP (to log food for the day)

8:00 - Watch prime time tv

11:00 - Go to bed

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA....as if that type of day even exists!