My household cleaning routines: Part 7 – summary

Here’s a summary of all my cleaning routines (adapted from the FlyLady).

Morning Routine

1. Get up at 6.15 (6.45 at the weekend)
2. Read emails, check blog stats and read RSS feeds while it is quiet before anyone else is up
3. Unload the dishwasher (and reload with the breakfast stuff)
4. Quickly wipe the toilets and sinks
5. Put a load in the washing machine
6. Wipe the kitchen worktop and table
7. Check the calendar and my to-dos in Things for the day
8. Check my list of meals for the week (to see if I need to take anything out the freezer or buy something later)

On a Friday morning I also bleach the toilets. On a Sunday morning I do my GTD weekly review.

Afternoon Routine

1. Hang out the washing on the line or put it in the tumble dryer, depending on the weather
2. 15 minutes decluttering/tidying in the “deep clean area” of the week
3. Monthly deep-cleaning jobs (Monday to Thursday only)
4. Get the dried washing and do 15 minutes ironing
5. Process my in-basket (GTD style)
6. Make dinner

In addition, I wipe the fridge and do my meal plans and shopping list on a Monday. I do the weekly shop on a Tuesday afternoon.

My household cleaning routines: Part 6 – Friday

The usual morning routine:

1. Read emails, check blog stats and read RSS feeds while it’s quiet before anyone else is up
2. Unload the dishwasher (and reload with the breakfast stuff)
3. Quickly wipe the toilets and sinks (and I also put bleach down the toilets on a Friday)
4. Put a load in the washing machine
5. Wipe the kitchen worktop and table
6. Check the calendar and my to-dos in Things for the day
7. Check my list of meals for the week (to see if I need to take anything out the freezer or buy something later

I don’t work on a Friday so it’s my big housework day. I do this in the morning and I do it as quickly as I can. (The FlyLady does all this on a Monday but I prefer a Friday so the house is all clean for the weekend and I can relax knowing there is nothing needing done. She also says it should take about an hour but I find it takes me close to double that. It obviously depends on the size of your house…and whether you have a dog who is moulting more than you would think is caninely possible!)

1. Hoover everywhere apart from the rooms done yesterday. This is a “maintenance” job so I don’t move furniture. (I only hoover under furniture when part of deep-clean jobs.)
2. Wash the kitchen floor
3. Dust
4. Clean the glass on the internal doors and all the mirrors (using my trusty e-cloth so it takes no time at all)

My household cleaning routines: Part 5 – Thursday

Same old morning routine:

1. Read emails, check blog stats and read RSS feeds while it’s quiet before anyone else is up
2. Unload the dishwasher (and reload with the breakfast stuff)
3. Quickly wipe the toilets and sinks
4. Put a load in the washing machine
5. Wipe the kitchen worktop and table
6. Check the calendar and my to-dos in Things for the day
7. Check my list of meals for the week (to see if I need to take anything out the freezer or buy something later

The Thursday afternoon routine follows the same pattern.

1. Hang out the washing on the line or put it in the tumble dryer, depending on the weather
2. 15 minutes decluttering/tidying in “deep clean area” for the week, i.e. for this week the children’s bedrooms, their bathroom and the downstairs toilet. (Most weeks, by the time I get to Thursday there isn’t really anything left to tidy.)
3. Monthly deep-cleaning jobs: Big one today – wash and hoover the bathroom and downstairs toilet floors. Then hoover the children’s bedrooms, including under the beds.
4. Get the dried washing and do 15 minutes ironing
5. Process my in-basket (GTD style)
6. Make dinner

My household cleaning routines: Part 4 – Wednesday

The morning routine is the same as before.

1. Read emails, check blog stats and read RSS feeds while it’s quiet before anyone else is up
2. Unload the dishwasher (and reload with the breakfast stuff)
3. Quickly wipe the toilets and sinks
4. Put a load in the washing machine
5. Wipe the kitchen worktop and table
6. Check the calendar and my to-dos in Things for the day
7. Check my list of meals for the week (to see if I need to take anything out the freezer or buy something later)

I don’t work on a Wednesday so I usually try and do as much of my afternoon routine in the morning if I can. Then I’ll have the afternoon free.

My household cleaning routines: Part 3 – Tuesday

The morning routine is the same as Monday’s.

1. Read emails, check blog stats and read RSS feeds while it’s quiet before anyone else is up
2. Unload the dishwasher (and reload with the breakfast stuff)
3. Quickly wipe the toilets and sinks
4. Put a load in the washing machine
5. Wipe the kitchen worktop and table
6. Check the calendar and my to-dos in Things for the day
7. Check my list of meals for the week (to see if I need to take anything out the freezer or buy something later)

I do the week’s shopping on the way home from work on a Tuesday. Then, the afternoon is much the same as Monday’s except for the deep-cleaning jobs.

1. Hang out the washing on the line or put it in the tumble dryer, depending on the weather.
2. 15 minutes decluttering/tidying in “deep clean area” for the week, i.e. for this week the children’s bedrooms, their bathroom and the downstairs toilet
3. Monthly deep-cleaning jobs: dusting the children’s bedrooms and bathroom; wiping fingermarks off the walls and doors
4. Get the dried washing and do 15 minutes ironing
5. Process my in-basket (GTD style)
6. Make dinner

My household cleaning routines: Part 2 – Monday

I have the same morning routine for every day.

1. Read emails, check blog stats and read RSS feeds while it’s quiet before anyone else is up. (I get up at quarter past six – my husband and children appear at about seven.)
2. Unload the dishwasher (and reload with the breakfast stuff).
3. Clean the toilets and sinks. (I use antibacterial washable cloths, separate cloths for the toilets and the sinks (obviously!). I don’t use any cleaning products for this daily clean-up – this is just a quick wipe. It takes me no more than 4 minutes to do three bathrooms.)
4. Put a load in the washing machine (including the cloths I just used in the bathrooms).
5. Wipe the kitchen worktop and table.
6. Check the calendar and my to-dos in Things for the day.
7. Check my list of meals for the week (to see if I need to take anything out the freezer or buy something later).

Once I get in from work at lunchtime I have an afternoon routine. This varies depending on the day of the week and which area of the house I intend to “deep clean” for the week.

My household cleaning routines: Part 1

Back in January I wrote a post about how I had implemented the FlyLady routines into my life. In November last year I discovered the FlyLady website and it provided the solution to the chaos my house was in at the time. The housework had completely gotten on top of me and I felt as though I had lost control. The kitchen was a mess, the bathrooms looked horrible, the laundry was either not done or sitting crumpled in a basket, waiting to be ironed. I needed a good two days’ notice before anyone could visit so I could get the house looking presentable! I was totally stressed.

The FlyLady has routines to follow to get your house tidied and to then maintain it that way. Initially I stuck rigidly to the suggested plans but over time I’ve modified them to suit me. I’ve also combined them with a bit of GTD. And it’s worked really well. The house doesn’t look perfect. It still gets untidy (how could it not with three children!) but it takes no time to get it looking nice again. It we have unannounced visitors it doesn’t matter because the house is always presentable. And I feel so much calmer – I don’t have that horrible underlying stress I used to feel. I now really enjoy my home.

I have daily morning, afternoon and before-bed routines. There are also weekly and monthly routines. It keep these all documented in Pages so I don’t forget them. The daily and weekly routines maintain the house in a clean, tidy, presentable state. The monthly (actually five weekly) routines are for deeper cleaning. For a whole week one area of the house is concentrated on, on a rolling five week rota.

Since it is Sunday I did my GTD weekly review earlier this morning. At this time I plan my bigger housework jobs for the upcoming week. This week I’m concentrating on the children’s bathroom, the downstairs toilet and the children’s bedrooms. I have entered what needs to be done into Things and set due dates. I only do these monthly housework tasks on weekdays. I don’t do any housework (other than my quick daily routines) at the weekend.

Each day over the next week I will explain what my specific cleaning routines are for the day.

Also:

• My household cleaning routines: Part 2 – Monday
• My household cleaning routines: Part 3 – Tuesday
• My household cleaning routines: Part 4 – Wednesday
• My household cleaning routines: Part 5 – Thursday
• My household cleaning routines: Part 6 -Friday
• Cleaning my house the FlyLady way

Goodbye iBank 3, hello Moneydance

Regular readers will recall my disappointment with iBank 3. The upgrade from the previous version was going to cost $30 and I didn’t feel I was getting good value for money. I decided to retry Moneydance for a while. This had been my previous personal finance app before I was won over by iBank 2 eighteen months ago.

I’ve used the Moneydance 2008 beta in place of iBank for the last two weeks. I wanted to see if I would miss iBank 3 and if so, was it worth paying $30 for the upgrade?

What do I miss from iBank?

• It has the feel of a proper Mac application
• The ability to only view recent transactions
• The widget to enter today’s transactions

What have I gained using Moneydance?

Changing the look of the blog

Apologies to anyone who has been looking at the blog over the last half hour – I’ve been fiddling with different themes and colours. I was unhappy with the previous style of the blog – I thought it looked cluttered and I didn’t think the text was terribly easy to read. So I’m trying out this nice cheery orange instead which I think is a little easier on the eye.

Did I manage to give up the computer for a day?

Five days ago I wrote a post about my compulsion to use my computer (to the point of being an addiction). I decided to see if I could go for a day without it as this computer is starting to take over my life.

Did I manage it? Yes – I didn’t touch the computer at all yesterday. I also turned email off on my iPhone. And it wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I was most worried how the morning would go. Usually I get up early and have my breakfast at the computer. I check my emails, RSS feeds, the weather forecast and the news. And of course, I check my blog stats. Yesterday I had decided that I would read while I had my tea and toast. I was rather looking forward to it actually. As it happened the children all got up early and I had breakfast with them instead.

We had already arranged to go out with the children in the morning so I wouldn’t have been at the computer anyway. The afternoon was lovely and sunny so I spent it reading in the conservatory in the sunshine. It was great – very relaxing. And I didn’t miss the computer at all, actually. Probably because I knew I was only abstaining for one day. Had it been longer I think it would have been much harder.