The Ever Elusive Good Daily Schedule

I know I’ve touched on this subject before but it continues to elude me. A Good Daily Schedule. I’ve read other blogs of moms who seem to have it down. The trend I’ve noticed from those moms is that they don’t seem to watch t.v hardly ever. They also don’t seem to go anywhere other than the grocery store during the week. Is it really unrealistic for me wish and strive for a daily schedule that allows me to

Read my Bible and pray

Keep my house relatively clean (not perfect),

Get to certain parts of the house each day without the rest falling apart. Get to a good “maintaining” point each week where nothing piles up.

Purposefully parent my girls

Exercise

Blog

Answer e-mails and blog comments

Tweet occasionally throughout the day

Stay in touch on Facebook

Read other blogs that I’ve been really wanting to get to {I hardly actually read any blogs anymore other than family on a regular basis. And even those I’m behind on}

Be on time with starting dinner {Which reminds me that I REALLY want to menu plan and do some bulk cooking days}

Not letting clean clothes sit in baskets for days on end

Iron Mike’s work clothes and get his lunch made all by around 8:00 in the evening so I can sit on the couch with Mike and watch t.v until 10{ish} when we should both be going to bed.

Oh and in between those things grocery shop, try to keep track of really good sales and deals to make the best of our grocery budget, run any errands that need to be run, and keep our Excel spreadsheet budget updated.

Does that sound unrealistic to you?

The one thing I’ve noticed about these moms who seem to have the good daily schedule down pat is that they get up 5:00 and go to bed at 9:00, don’t seem to watch t.v or ever be on Facebook! They also don’t seem to have a lot of comittments outside being of being a homemaker and mom ( Sunday school teacher, Bible studies etc).

My biggest struggle right now is trying to NOT be a slave to my household chores and errands so I can enjoy the summer with swimming, doing fun outside things, visiting with friends etc. Right now any morning spent swimming totally throws off the rest of my day. Anything that I do right now away from my house seems to take FOREVER.

Here are the stumbling points I cannot seem to get past:

Our house is too small for us and the layout is not practical for the way we live at all. My kitchen is tiny and not meant for someone who cooks a lot. It’s an eating out type of kitchen.There’s no getting around any of these facts. But changing the size of our house is not an option right now. So I have to learn to live within the space that I have.

Letting things pile up around the house. My desk piles up with not only paper stuff but random things. The basement (which is now the playroom, guestroom and laundry room) gets piled up with toys and other stuff that just needs to be put away somewhere.

Clean laundry piled up. My laundry room is in the basement. My bedrooms are on the second floor. I’m great about doing loads of laundry. Bringing the baskets of clean laundry upstairs usually takes a day or so. And then folding them and putting them away takes another day. {Or so}.

My bedroom becomes a dumping ground for stuff that needs to get put away upstairs. Because of this my bed hardly ever gets made in the morning. We just move stuff from our bed to the top of my vanity or the floor, back to my bed.

The dining room table has a habit of collecting stuff we dump on it. However, I’ve done a pretty good job of keeping that cleaned off lately.

I usually spend most of my time each day doing the same things. Loading and unloading the dishwasher,taking out and putting things away in the kitchen, wiping counters, changing trash bags, sweeping, keeping the living room straightened, keeping the dining room table cleaned off, and cooking. I feel like a hamster running in one of those exercise wheels most of the time. I feel like I’m never caught up, constantly two steps behind. Just trying to leave the house is trying most of the time. We never seem to be on time anywhere anymore. I’m usually always snapping and yelling at my girls to hurry up and stop fooling around. We need to leave NOW!. And it’s usually MY fault. I didn’t plan well and start getting ready early enough. Every single day I seem to develop amnesia as to the time it takes and the things we need to get us together to go to the different places we go.

AND IT FRUSTRATES THE HECK OUT OF ME.

I keep telling myself if I could just catch up with everything and truly find a spot for everything that needs a home, give everything a good cleaning that then I could learn to maintain every day. I could quickly, efficiently and simply run my household. And leave time in the day for more time with my girls and for truly spending time with Mike watching t.v and hanging out together. But I can never seem to catch up. I feel like most people who know me wonder what my problem is. Why am I always so taken up with cleaning my house? Why don’t I ever seem to have my act together?

I really want to use this Summer as a “guinea pig” of sorts with trying out different schedules, methods and routines. And I really want to have it down pat by the fall when all of our commitments start back up again. Because if I don’t get it together by then I’m afraid everything is just going to start falling down around me. And this is all with just two kids!!

And, yes, I’m learning to say “no” to a lot of things.

I’ve read so many house keeping and organizing books, articles and blogs. They all have great ideas. I guess I just haven’t found the ones that works for me yet. Or I’m not applying them correctly!

Help a girl out. Am I crazy?? Unrealistic? Just completely disorganized? What works for you?????

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If you choose to keep on reading here are some pictures I’ve been meaning post. These are from Katelyn’s last day of Pre-K in May. Her class went on a field trip to a playground and then to a dairy farm. Moms and siblings got to tag along too.

This is Katelyn and her best school friend, Isabel.

Madelyn spent most of the time at the playground doing this:

As they day wore on she finally got to this:

After the playground we went to the dairy farm for lunch and ice cream. Yum!

Comments

Waldo'sWorld

Wow! I'm not the only one! Yea!!!! I feel like there just aren't enough hours. I have to designate one day of the week to laundry. I used to let it sit and then before I folded it I would throw it back into the dryer to get the wrinkles out. I can't do that anymore because the dryer makes a burning smell if I do. So that forces me to fold immediately or iron (which I hate!) So, I say today is laundry day and that is all I'm doing. It will usually get done.

As for the rest of the house, it can wait. Keep it picked up as best you can (have the kids clean there toys up at the end of the day) and don't worry about it. Enjoy your kids more. That's what's really important. Enjoy the summer. School will start again soon and you will regret not taking them swimming that one time because you cleaned. They don't care about the house. You do. They just care about you and spending time with them. You are a great mom. Just be that and forget about the rest. In time that will get easier as the kids get bigger and take on more responsibility.
Erin

I am there too and I don't even have kids yet! With both of us working full time and being involved in other activities it gets really hard to cook, clean, and do laundry. I end up squeezing it in where I can, and am embarrassed to say that it's not uncommon to get to Friday with most of the week's dishes in the sink. I agree that you're a great mom and when the girls grow up they won't remember how clean the house was; they'll remember the time you spent with them. And that will mean a lot. Good luck with this, and if you come up with a good solution let me know! I need to work on a lot of those things as well..
givinguponperfect

Your girls are so cute!

I'm considering staying home with my daughter this fall, and I've wondered the same thing you're asking here: How could I possibly get it all done? As it is now, I have the excuse of working full-time to make me feel better about not getting a whole lot done. But when I really look at what our new, SAH schedule would look like, I'm not sure it will be any easier at all!
lidandthekids

Preach it sista! You're saying exactly everything that I deal with on a daily basis. Everything you get accomplished in a day is the same as me. Then I think “When am I going to clean the bathrooms? Someday I need to wash our windows. (which has not happened once since we've lived here, how pathetic.) I really need to mop the floors.” etc. I will say that at the end of the day, about 30 minutes before bedtime, I make Garrett clean up the living room. I help if I can. He gets a little treat before bed as a reward for helping (since he's equally picking up Cooper's toys as he is his own). That always makes me feel better to know that atleast the living room isn't a total disaster constantly. And I also have one day devoted to laundry. Usually Saturdays when Keith is home and I can hole myself up in my bedroom and fold everything and then put everything away. I've found if I do it that way, I'm more likely to get everything put up rather than sitting in the laundry basket for days on end. I just pile each load up on my bed until they're all done and then I start folding. I try to wash the loads in an order so that the clothes that will wrinkle are in the last loads so they aren't sitting in a wad on the bed wrinkling up before they're put away. Other than that, I have no tips.
http://www.perrymanponderings.blogspot.com Stephanie

Melissa, I'm right there with you. In fact, today, mom came and took Brooklyn so that I could finally get some cleaning done. Brooklyn is at a place where I CANNOT do anything when she is here!! It's so frustrating because I had so many plans for things I was going to get done this summer and I haven't done any of them yet. I only have ONE kid and I feel completely overwhelmed with getting everything done! And that's with me not really going out and doing anything because up until today, I didn't have a car that really functioned. I really shouldn't have any reason with only having one child and being home ALL DAY to not get more done than I do but if you came to my house on any given day, it would look like 5 kids lived there and that their parent was a pig!! I'm a horrible schedule keeper so it's hard for me to come up with something that works for us. I really want to go back and finish and implement some of the stuff from “The House That Cleans Itself”. She had some things that I really think will work for us.

I've had some mini melt-downs over how messy our house is and not being able to get things done. It's driving me CRAZY! I get angry and then I'm in a foul, foul mood for the rest of the day because of it. I'm really trying to get better about this and not let it upset me so much. I guess I just had in my mind that being at home all day was going to make it so much easier to get things done and it hasn't, I've actually had a messier house since not working. It's frustrating!
http://www.simplymelsblog.com/ Simply Mel

Thank you, Debra! Exactly!! :O)
http://www.simplymelsblog.com/ Simply Mel

Erin, I remember having the same problem before I had school too. I think our lives are just so busy these days!
http://www.simplymelsblog.com/ Simply Mel

Good luck with your decision! It's totally worth it it if you can do it. There's just not always ready evidence at the end of each day of all you've accomplished other than the fact that you and your child are still alive!
http://www.simplymelsblog.com/ Simply Mel

oh, and thank you!
http://www.simplymelsblog.com/ Simply Mel

don't feel bad. I haven't washed the windows or the blinds since we've moved in here either!! Glad to hear I'm not the only one!!
http://www.simplymelsblog.com/ Simply Mel

I think there's a catch 22 with the staying at home thing. You're home so you should “have more time” to do stuff but you're also making more of a mess than you would be if you were out of the house all day every day. And you have lots of interruptions!
http://www.perrymanponderings.blogspot.com Stephanie

http://raisinghomemakers.com/2010/how-to-get-al...

I follow this blog and came across this post today and thought about you! I enjoyed reading through the comments of it because several women listed their weekly schedules plus links to other sites they get info from.
El

It sounds like you have a bad
attitude to begin with. Why are you complaining about how small your kitchen
is? That has nothing to do with your daily schedule. Try to get on track with
planning to devote a day to one room until you have the house where you want
it. The rule for the rooms you clean are:
ANYONE who enters the room will leave that room the way you cleaned it. Period.
Then after you get every room in your house they way you want, you make chores
and rules for every member of the household as equals. Do not be afraid to ask
for contributions toward the family house because you all live there as a
family. So that will leave time for EVERYONE to have personal and work time
including you. As for the way you wish to spend work, personal and family time,
you might have a better chance of figuring that part out; after you get the
house in a comfortable condition in order for you to even think about how you
make a daily schedule for work, family and personal time. If you didn’t pick up
on this yet, I think a schedule should be made for a specific place or task
that you are expected to be at anyway, so then you can fit it into your bigger
schedule. From morning to evening, day to day, week to week, month to month, bi monthly, quarterly, semi annually, and
annually. I hope this makes sense. This is
what works for me.
SimplyMel

Thanks for your input. My attitude is definitely not as it should be all the time. I like your rule everyone should leave a room in the same (clean) state it was in when they came in! And yes, it all made sense.