I'm a flylady convert. I love flylady and she has taught me a great deal about home management and dealing with CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome). I learned about morning routines, evening routines and weekly routines. I learned how to take it to a different level with Brenneman's book, Large Family Logistics. I'd read something similar in Home Comforts, but Brenneman made it far more practical and manageable.
She discusses designating each day for a particular set of tasks. For example, have a laundry day, a kitchen day, an office day, a town day and a cleaning day. And on that day, have a routine that you can follow for that day. She talks a lot about teaching your children what happens and how to do any of the tasks themselves. She even has a chapter for each kind of day, where she presents the routines and various things to think about as you figure out that day for your family.
We are a family of three. This means I do diaper laundry on Mondays and Thursdays, a load of clothes laundry on one day and a load of sheets on one day -- that's 4 loads. Total. I don't really need a day dedicated to laundry just yet. Give me a few more children, some of whom are a bit older and I'm sure this will change. But for now, since Samuel wears a diaper only most days and neither Hubby nor I have "dirty" jobs, so we don't use that many clothes. That was one chapter that I didn't find much useful information from, but what I read is filed away for future reference.
Of the other kinds of days, however, I learned a great deal of practicalness to put into practice. I designated an office day (Monday), a town day (Tuesday), a kitchen day (Wednesday), and a cleaning day (Thursday). This leaves Friday and Saturday as "catch up" days, or free days, or what have you. For two weeks now, this seems to be working nicely. There have been kinks and unexpected events to disrupt each weeks rhythm, but overall, I like how the system is panning out.
The next step is for me to write down my routines and to dos for each of these days. Currently, I spend Monday (office day) working out the week and what needs to be done and when to do it. There are some things that are done the same way each week, I suspect, and I hope to figure that out on the sooner side, so I'm not replanning the same thing each week. But with the baby, so many things are new or feel new, that I'm not always sure if its the same thing I did before or not -- I sure hope that makes sense!
Speaking of which, its late enough, and I should head to bed. Tomorrow is just as important -- a rest day!
Rachael's ponderings and ramblings about life, teaching, gardening, knitting, home keeping and the various other topics and hobbies that prompt her interest.
Great post! I have scheduled our weeks very much like that for many years. It really is helpful to know ahead of time what is going on for the day. So efficient and there is great comfort for all to know what to expect each day of the week. Because I am trying to line dry all of our laundry (as much as possible), I do have to change our laundry day if we get rain on Monday. I do clothes laundry nearly every day out of necessity (nowhere to store that much dirty laundry for a week plus my line would never fit that much in one day), but all the bed linens and towels get washed on Laundry Day. 6 sets of sheets, 7 bath towels, hand towels and face cloths. Fantastic to get in to that routine early in your parenting career - it will help you so much!
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