Oh dear, you guys. Your comments on my last post about laundry really kinda stressed me out. I need to reply to several of your comments and I need to address one very important issue.
YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT SOME OF YOU DON’T LIVE YOUR LIFE BY A SCHEDULE BUT INSTEAD LIVE ON THE EDGE, WITH THE POSSIBILITY THAT ON A RANDOM WEDNESDAY MORNING YOU COULD FIND YOURSELF WITH NO CLEAN UNDERWEAR?????????
I apologize for the ALL CAPS, OMG! but seriously, you don’t have a laundry day? I…I…I just couldn’t exist.
This need to have a schedule truly says a lot about the way my brain functions and what’s necessary to keep me sane. For me, if I don’t have a schedule (and I’ve tried to live my life all willy nilly), I feel incredibly overwhelmed. Laundry piles up, the bathrooms become hazardous waste areas, and I start imagining burrowed creatures living in my carpet.
I schedule my days’ chores around our weekly outings. On “off days” when we have no place to go, I do the most chores, on “busy days” I just do piddly, easy things. I used to do ALL of my chores on one day, but that became too stressful for my already fragile psyche and made me grumpy for three days. Day one of grumpiness would occur the day before “chore day” because I knew that the next day would be filled with doing stupid chores. Day two of grumpiness was on “chore day” because, well it was “chore day.” The third day of grumpiness would occur the day after “chore day” because I never got EVERYTHING on my to do list done, so there’d be much fretting and gnashing of teeth over my inability to live up to my own expectations.
(Wow. That Jennifer has some issues.)
Here’s a peek at my current weekly schedule. Sometimes I’m really wild and zany and do Friday things on Thursday or Monday things on Wednesday.
Prepare to be awed or disgusted.
Daily:
Straighten house
Keep kitchen clean by wiping down counters and cleaning out sink, load and unload dishwasher. (Sidenote: the dishwasher MUST be unloaded and it’s contents put away before any new meal can be prepared or I get a nasty eye twitch.)
Sort mail
Reduce piles (I wish I could eliminate piles, but that is ridiculously impossible.)
Monday:
Kids laundry (if their hamper is full)
Pay bills
Tuesday:
Main laundry day (towels, clothes; sheets every other week) (Honestly, sometimes the sheets only get washed every 3 or even 4 weeks.)
Bathrooms and sweep tile floors
Sweep hardwoods (mop kitchen floor once a month) (Or really, only when company is coming. So, uh, rarely.)
Vacuum upstairs
Wednesday:
Vacuum downstairs
Vacuum stairs (hardly ever happens because of it’s pain in the ass factor)
Dust
Thursday:
Kids laundry (if their hamper is full)
Friday:
Wash towels
Windows and baseboards, but only if they are really, really, really, really, really, really bad.
Sweep hardwoods
So, um, please tell me there are others of you out there like me. I mean, I can’t be the only person who enjoys knowing that every Wednesday, my favorite underwear will be clean and my jeans won’t be crusty anymore.
As for the cleaning, I think it’s pretty obvious from my list that I’m not exactly an ace housekeeper. I *should* sweep and mop everyday, living with two messy children, but I don’t. I like to think of my house as “clean enough.” I believe there are far more important things than a spot-free home. Things like Twitter and kicking Carson’s ass in Mario Kart certainly rank above crumb removal.
It’s not a question of having a schedule for me: I just start at the top of the house every day and work my way down over the course of two days. And then I start at the top again. And again.
Laundry? Man, I wish there was a day (or two days) that I did laundry. I do at least one load every single day. Why? Three kids, ages 7 to 13, all of whom play soccer or basketball or dance and, frankly, stink it up. (And did I mention the dog with her shedding to further underscore vacumming every day?!)
.-= patois´s last blog ..The Weekly Wonderings #137 =-.
Yeah. I fly by the seat of my possibly dirty pants.
BUT WHOO FOR YOU KEEPING A SCHEDULE!
.-= moosh in indy.´s last blog ..the vicious cycle of write. =-.
OMG!!! I thought I was the only OCD-ish mama who schedules her chores! You’ve just made my day.
And you are not alone, my friend.
.-= Chelsea´s last blog ..Hilton Head? Yes, please! =-.
I do almost the entire house every day. And laundry…man…I do at least one load every day! 3 kids, sports stuff, husband, husband’s dirty work clothes, etc. By the time 5 people wear 5 pairs of jeans in one day…almost a full load! I do wash sheets mostly every Friday and if I miss Friday, I do it first thing Monday. This time of year, I wash coats once a week. Mt boys went from football (that made TONS of laundry) to basketball and even baseball practice already. There’s always that stuff dirty. Summers don’t seem as bad…maybe the shorts make for smaller loads so I wait longer? haha
Wow! A schedule, both awe inspiring and a little scary….I’ll admit it, actually I will blog about it because it’s way more impressive and inspiring than scary!
.-= MamaB´s last blog ..Domestic Help =-.
OMG, I can’t even remember when my baseboards and windows have been washed. My house would send you into a fit, but I try to be organized…it just doesn’t happen. lol.
I can’t even imagine confining laundry to one day a week — I’d be doing it from sunrise till midnight. And I only have two kids!
(Like others here, I do a load or two every day.)
I’ve had a schedule for 20 years. My laundry schedule is a little different though–I do laundry daily or every other day. Everything gets folded into individual laundry baskets and then once a week everyone puts their own clothes away.
In my experience having a schedule gives you so much more free time–I couldn’t live without it.
.-= Jenn @ Juggling Life´s last blog ..Saturday Morning Breakfast =-.
I read posts like this and think things like, “Now why DON’T I have a schedule?”, “This would make my life SO much easier.”, “Maybe I’d actually get things done if I had a schedule!”, etc.
So, don’t feel like a freak – know that you’re an inspiration!
.-= punkinmama´s last blog ..Project 365: 2010 =-.
Wow, I admire your schedule, but I really don’t have one, other than to get the house clean for the Sabbath each week and try to keep the laundry piles under control. I blame the smaller (european style) Washing machines in Israel, and having to actually WASH the floors, not just vaccuum (all tile). I know women (with 6 or more kids) who have to do 2 or more loads of laundry EVERY DAY just to keep up. Some even have 2 machines (usually the ones with 10 or more kids). Laundry “day” is more like laundry life!
.-= rabbi’s wife´s last blog ..Living with terrorism. =-.