A rainy Friday morning....

Today is generally a big cleaning day for me....I don't clean on the weekends. Sure, I throw a load of laundry in the machine and we at least try to keep the dishes from overflowing the sink, but the weekend is for us to hang out as a family-not to catch up on cleaning. That said, I am having some family over tomorrow for dinner and she's a very clean person. I have to step up the routine a bit....

It's 10:16 as I sit down to write this (this is a break for me) I have been up since 6.15. I get the boy up and fed, his lunch put together and catch up on the over night news. The Mr. took him to school this morning so at about 7.30 I get to start cleaning. By 8.30 I had a load of wash in, both bathrooms cleaned-toilet, sinks and floors but not the shower, the bedrooms picked up, beds made and the dirty clothes taken to the laundry room. By 9.30 I had my hair and makeup done, the dishwasher unloaded and loaded again, I made myself breakfast and read two chapters of a book I wanted to start.  I have cleaned the kitchen counters and the stovetop. I still have to do the floors and the microwave, but that will take less than 4 minutes..

Someone asked how I do this as fast as I do. Easy.

1. I have no children at home to slow my roll. I don't homeschool. I am alone.

2. I plan my time. When I go down the hallway I have a load of stuff with me....I do everything in an order that works for me. Like....I take all the hanging clothes from the laundry room with me when I go down to the bedroom. I start at the back bedroom- put those clothes away, make that bed, straighten that room, then move on. The next room gets the same treatment. Then, I clean the bathroom since it's across the hall. I clean from top to bottom, except when I vacuum- that I always do first in a room since it actually kicks up dust.  I try to figure out the fastest way to do a job with the least amount of movements. Silly I know, but it keeps me sharp.

3. I clean to either music or movies. Music if I have to do it fast. I have a playlist and know how long it takes me to do a task (putting the dishwasher away takes me one song. My Sharona is 4.04 minutes and I can do the entire dishwasher and countertops in that time so when the next song comes on I can be ready to go on to the next job) Next on my list is cleaning the living room...I have on a video on PBS on my computer on about the war of 1812. I can learn something and clean and organize the living room- including washing the windows, the dining room, and the laundry room during that time... and probably have to pause it for a few minutes while I vacuum.

4. I realize that this is my job right now so I treat it as such. End of story. I want to be able to spend as much time with my family when they are all together as  I can, so getting this stuff done when they aren't here makes sense.

So, that's it. This is my day today. Next week I am starting to put more stuff on my Etsy shop so I'll probably share that with you all here too..... maybe I'll even go to the city and do some shopping since the Mr.s birthday is next weekend.....