From Average to More Series: Cleaning

This week is cleaning! Something I really love to have done but love to procrastinate. This is why it's good to have people over, it gives motivation. There are many methods to cleaning and most of them sound good to me! The method I think will be easiest to achieve realistically is a once a week deep clean. I would like to do this for several reasons including having my weekend free and not having to clean everyday even if it's just a little bit. Our house is not that big and with only one bathroom I feel this is quite manageable. Thursday will be my day! Currently in our week it's a "free" day which I use to have play dates or absolutely nothing. What I really loved about one mom's logic to cleaning the whole house at the end of the week is that for them as soon as they are finished they start their weekend! While that won't exactly be the case, after I complete my tasks the day again becomes a "free" day. Then comes Friday and we have our co-op which means we are out of the house all day so we can begin our weekend when we return to a still clean house. The anxiety this will erase for me! I could feel confident to welcome my husband home to a (somewhat, we do have kids!) orderly and clean house and also invite friends and family over on the weekend without worry of them seeing snot on the windows. So, let me outline my plan of action here:

The kitchen, while it is cleaned daily, does need a little extra attention once a week:
- Cabinets wiped down
- Fridge cleaned out of leftovers and wiped down
- Sink scoured
- pantry restocked from basement pantry
- butcher block counters oiled (every other week)

The bathroom, is pretty basic:
- sink, tub and shower scrubbed
- toilet
- floor vacuumed and washed
- linen closet organized (as needed)

Bedrooms need work more sporadically but they usually need at least:
- vacuum floor
- organize books and toys in kids
- toys retrieved from under the bed
- dusting

Our great room is both our living and dining room and it needs:
- floor vacuumed and washed
- toys and books sorted and put away or rotated
- dusting
- windows washed
- tame any piles of papers

The mudroom could be called a losing battle but let's:
- Organize shoes
- put away outdoor clothes in their place
- return less used coats and sweaters to the owner's closet
- vacuum and wash the floor
- wipe down the door

And that's about it! That doesn't look too bad to get done in a few hours right? Puzzle Boy will be expected to help with things like vacuuming, his room and dusting. Mini Me will start to be trained to put toys and books away but for the most part will be contained so she doesn't undo work in my wake. When the baby is here he/she will likely be worn by me as I work except for the bathroom, I will reserve that for a nap. I will definitely start using this method right away and will let you know how it works for me verses a room everyday. Although, with shedding animals I do have to vacuum the living room nearly daily in this house. I am hoping having hard floors in the new house reduces this to just needing a swipe of a "swiffer".

Til next week!

Going From an Average to a Large Family Attitude

With baby three on the way this has granted me a pause to reflect on how things will change. Our vehicle will be at it's max for capacity when we are all together. We don't have enough dining chairs. Grocery shopping is about to go from an adventure to an insane adventure (unless I order them and just pick them up *winkwink*). My laundry will again increase by a lot due to diapers and lots of clothing changes for the little one. Etc... fill in the blank, you get the picture. Some of you I am sure have 3 or more children and are either nodding in quiet agreement or some of you are saying "What's the big deal?". I have the urge to go with you who are saying the later and just not worry about it. But, then I think, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!". Just keeping it real here. No, I wouldn't necessarily call a family of five 'large' but it does change the dynamic more significantly than going from one to two children. For one thing, as parents, you are now out numbered. Reality check. I am a researcher. I like to research things. So what have I been researching lately? How to change my household logistics so I can confidently carry out organized chaos in 6 months time. Otherwise I might realize it's 2:00 in the afternoon and the goat is cussing me out for forgetting to milk her and my kids will still be in there clothes from yesterday. Ok, that's an extreme and unlikely scenario. Let's move on.

Because of my this new and uncharted territory for our family I am going to do a series on my preparations by the area of our life. Laundry, car, meals, homeschooling, cleaning, shopping, chores and, last but not least, personal time and husband/wife time. These I will schedule for Wednesday mornings over the next seven weeks. That will be perfect timing for me to start a new series on our spring here! Depending on progress I'm sure a house update or two will fill in the blanks on other days of the week.

Do You Have Grungy Cabinets?

Let's just assume you do because, let's face it, no one washes and de-greases their cabinets daily. If you have cherry cabinets you probably have no idea just how nasty they are. If you have white like this household does then you look at the filth daily. Most days I just ignore with firmness. Yesterday morning I cleaned them with a surprising snowball effect... it started with the microwave buttons. You know, the buttons on the microwave, they seem to be magnetic to all kitchen grime. Well, for some reason this grime was bothering me at 7:00 am and it needed to be DEALT with. I scrubbed with the dish rag. Hahahahaha! Yeah, right. It's grease embedded with 478 finger touches worth of who-knows-what. But I want you to hitch up your britches 'cause I am about to blow your mind into thrifty cleanliness.

Ta da! I really can't explain how this so quickly was produced in my brain as the answer, but there it is. Dish soap (preferably the blue one *wink wink*) and baking soda. Mix together about 3 tablespoons of baking soda to 1 tablespoon dish soap and thin with water until a just pour-able paste forms like this:

Then it's just as complicated as finger painting. Smear this on the grimiest spots and let it sit for about 5 minutes (see first picture) and then scrub lightly with a barely damp rag and scrub the rest of the cabinet. After it has come clean, wipe several times with a warm wet rag and use a toothpick to get any paste out of the tiny corners if it doesn't wipe out. Dry with a dry towel to avoid water spots.

This will dry slightly as it sits so little bits of paste will end up all over the floor and counter as you scrub. They wipe up no problem, scrub the floor and counter as you do. The results of cabinets that look like you just repainted will make this worth it! See how this can snowball? I just tried to make it feel purposeful and called it my fall kitchen cleaning.

Reasons I love this breakthrough of brilliance:

Non-toxic.

Cheap.

EASY.

Makes you get over your tactile issues with finger painting.

Your welcome. Til next time!