A month or so ago the post-baby survival mode haze started to clear and I looked around and saw what a wreck the house was. I have never been a consistent, thorough, or efficient housekeeper. My only excuse is that cleaning is super boring. But all that was about to change. I was going to make A PLAN. I like plans. For a couple of days I took a good look around the casa and did some pondering. I wanted to come up with a list of all the housekeeping tasks I would like to do, if I had unlimited time, energy, and a lack of whining from the small ones. What I came up with was a little bit daunting. But I made this schedule with the understanding that they are more of what you would call "guidelines" rather than actual rules. A gurl (omg I really just did type "gurl" instead of "girl". Geez I'm tired. I blame Nemo for introducing me to the concept of wiki racing late at night when I should have already been asleep. Thanks babe.) needs to have something to shoot for, after all. My hope is that if I can manage to stick with it for a couple of weeks I will a) develop more efficient housekeeping techniques and b) get the mess & dirt buildup down to a reasonable level so that if I skip a day here and there the health department won't come a-knocking. That way cleaning should be a breeze, right? I will be able to do it all before lunch and then spend nap time doing whatever I want? Right? Right? Just say right. It ain't pretty enough to be Pinterest-worthy but I was pretty impressed with myself for fitting all that info onto one 8.5"x11" piece of paper. The top row is the regular chores that I (try to) do every day. I put them there so I still get the satisfaction of crossing them off. Below that are the chores I do on a weekly basis, and to the right are the monthly-basis chores. These ones have been the hardest for me because prior to the creation of this schedule these chores were relegated to the "Do these NEVER" column. I've been sticking to the schedule about 90% for the past week and a half, and so far I'm liking it, as much as one can like scrubbing toilets on a regular basis. BTW, I crammed all the chores into 6 days because I'm trying to make Sundays a rest day in all areas of my life. So no extra chores (other than necessary ones like washing dishes and diapers) and no working out. Man, does this system really make me look forward to Sundays! Anyway. Back to cleaning. Or maybe ice cream. I think I deserve it.