Saturday, August 10, 2013

Setting up a Daily Schedule

Can you believe it is August?  I can't!  Over all, we've had a perfect summer other than one week of horrid nasty weather (in other words - hot and humid and almost unbearable).  Instead we've had sunny days, even cool days, and a lot less humidity than normal.  We've hardly used the little kiddie pool, I've been able to clean all the rooms in the house (not just the ones that have A/C HA!) and we've been able to keep the A/C units off except at bedtime.  (Granted if I had central air, we would have run it often since some days it did get warmer than I like in the house ;-) )  It's this time of year that I start revamping my daily schedule, weekly schedule and other routines.  I tend to loosen it up in the summer and get out of the old routines and need a new plan to start  with in September.  I thought I would take a few minutes to share my latest plan.  I still plan to enjoy August but . . .am starting to lean the direction of a little more structure :-)

Monday - Monday is always recovery day around here.  I don't know about anyone else but our house takes a beating on the weekends, especially if we are all home.  Things get set down in odd places, we get home from staying on the other side of the state for Church and bags get set down without enough time to unpack before bedtime, and just general pick-up doesn't get done.  With that in mind, the first thing that is on my Monday list is always something called "Pick up/Put away" also known as PUPA.  I go through each room and make sure that everything is put away where it belongs.  Here's my list:
* PUPA
* Laundry
* Clean the kitchen and dining room
 ----- This is weekly cleaning of each room which includes things like dusting, wiping down the countertop, table and chairs, sweeping, mopping, and vacuuming the floors/rug, wiping down light switches and appliances.  All the basic cleaning things.  In general it should only take about 30 minutes total to do it all.

Tuesday - The List:
* Baking - cookies and usually a dessert or bread is on the list to be baked for the week
* Laundry
* Clean the bathroom
 ---- Cleaning the counters, bathtub/shower, the toilet (inside, outside and all around since there are many little boys in this house!), cat litter, sweeping and mopping along with washing the bathroom rugs

Wednesday - The list:
* Change Sheets
* Laundry
* Empty all trash cans
* write menu/grocery list
* Clean the Living Room
 ---- Since we "live" in the living room on a daily basis it tends to get more attention during the week but on Wednesday I specifically clean it including dusting, matching up misc toys, getting toys out of the corners that have been missed in nightly pick-up, and vacuuming.  I also try to take a few minutes and clean up the desk area since it tends to implode :-)

Thursday - The List:
* Desk/Paperwork day
 ---- Balance budget, pay bills, make any phone calls/send e-mails that are needed
* Laundry
* Clean cat litter
* Clean the bedrooms
 ---- Dust, pick up things that are not in their right homes, vacuum

Friday - The List:
* Home Blessing Hour - this is the counterpart to Monday's PUPA.  Just a quick once over to get ready for the weekend including, making sure stuff is put away, vacuuming, spraying furniture with Fabreeze, sweeping the stairs and picking up the playroom and office/classroom as needed.  The goal really is for this to last no more than an hour.
* Laundry
* Weekly food prep since I usually grocery shop on Thursday evenings.

Saturday - The List:
* School Prep for the following week
 - - - - As I slowly get out year running, I hope that I can spend about an hour on Saturday morning and get everything ready for the week.  This will also allow me to see if I need to pick up any needed supplies before Monday.  I do plan on doing printing of units throughout the week - especially in the evenings - but as far as putting together the lessons, I need an hour or so on Saturday to get that done.  I will also have the "free week", which is week 7, to work on stuff like printing and organizing and planning to help keep this hour to a true hour each week ;-)

Sunday - The List:
* This is a day of rest.  We attend church, watch Football now that Football season is underway.  I'd also like to be able to scrapbook or work on crafts on this day but it depends on where we at - we are travling often to my Brother's church which is a little trek :-)

By following this simple list, it keeps everything in working order.  I do have monthly tasks and other items that I fit into my week but I'll wait until I post my daily schedule post to share those.  (I'm sure you are thrilled)