Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Balancing Life with Kids- Part3: Housework and Organizing

Photos in this post are of pages in "Keeping Life Simple" by Karen Levine




The first thing I have to say on this topic goes back to my earlier posts on simplicity. DECLUTTERing is the single most important thing needed for effective housecleaning and organization. This I can say with no fear of doing wrong, because I have been doing it for a long time. It works. My house is sort of known by friends for being"clean" but the truth is, we just keep our possessions to a minimum, which makes it easier to tidy and manage. This post is divided in two categories: Cleaning and Organization; These are by no means as comprehensive as the info you will find in books or other web sites, but hopefully, it will give people an opportunity to get started without becoming overwhelmed. Some very useful links will be provided for you to check out as well...
Are you ready?






  • Points # 1, 2 and 3 come straight from Karen Levine's little book "Keeping Life Simple", and are the steps I have been following for about 5 years now;

  • Divide your housecleaning tasks in four categories:what needs to be done everyday; what needs to be done every week; what needs to be done every month; what needs to be done only a few times a year; Check out this handy house cleaning checklist from Microsoft Office Online: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC100762411033.aspx

  • If you absolutely despise one or more tasks, do something fun as you move along: listen to music (while cleaning), watch your favorite movie (while you fold clothes), talk on the phone...

  • Delegate chores, and for goodness sake ABANDON GENDER ROLES! The dishes don't care whether you have boy or girl parts, they just want to be clean!

  • The best web site (and magazine) out there, in my opinion, is REAL SIMPLE. Check out this link for more info on house cleaning, find out your cleaning style, fake a clean house, and much, much more!http://www.realsimple.com/home-organizing/cleaning/cleaning-101-00000000009633/index.html


Wise words from Beth "Keep in mind - no one gives you an award for cleanest house or smallest pile of dirty laundry. This time with your kids goes so quick, don't spend all of it overdoing the housekeeping part. I want my home to be the background of the activity, not the focus."






  • My kids have these brand new chore charts that were created and put together by my hubby (who needs Brad Pitt when your husband does chore charts?), anyway, we've tried tons of things but I think this is the best one yet! All you need is a magnet board (for each child), some computer printed pictures that represent the chores of the day, glued on magnet strips; The boards have two columns, "to do" and "done" and all the kids have to do is make sure all magnet chips are on the "done" side before they go to bed.

  • Have cute baskets and bins in strategic areas in your home, to pick up all sorts of things. We have a huge trunk that serves as coffee table and toy bin, no one sees the mess but the stuff is always available for the kids when they want it.
  • Routine is a biggy too, kids just do so much better when they know what's expected of them. My kids are full of energy, with strong personalities, but you can be sure, they will not visit someone's home and leave it messy, its a learned behavior, and they have learned to understand how much work it takes to run a household.
  • One thing that I have discovered to be helpful, is an online family calendar.What's the use of having all the stuff written down at home, if when you go to work you don't have it in front of you? Beth uses yahoo for her calendar, which allows her to share her familie's activities and plans with her husband while he is at work. I use the google calendar on http://www.google.com/ig and I love the fact that you can color code the activities by person, set up reminders, repeat events with a click of a button...
  • Last words of advice before I send you to another wonderful link at REAL SIMPLE: Try and prep for the next morning activities the night before, your mornings will be less crazy, and you will sleep better; Also, put the kids to bed EARLY- they can use the sleep and you can use some time to breathe! Our bed time is 8:30 p.m. But of course for those with babies that's a whole different story...
  • Now go check this out: http://browse.realsimple.com/home-organizing/organizing/index.html again, REAL SIMPLE has so much good info!

    That's all I have this time, thanks for stopping by!

beijos

allypye

3 comments:

  1. Love the Brad Pitt comment! So true! A man who helps is the sexiest man ever :)

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  2. These are great ideas Allypye. I like the idea of dividing in categories. That's what I need to do. My house needs "real" cleaning, so I better get to it....except that right now I'm working on a project and it is taking a lot of my time. I didn't know you were the Brazilian woman.:D Have a great day and thanks for all the great hints.

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  3. Sooo helpful. I so want to be uncluttered and organized but often don't know where to start. Thanks for the great ideas.

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Thanks for leaving a comment! Hope to see you back here soon:)Beijos, allypye