Life reset -- Get back on track with me, Week 2

At the end of last weekend's post, I laid out a plan for the week. Did I accomplish anything on that plan? 

 

Other than meeting with my primary tutoring student and going to a doctor's visit, NOPE!

 

I could beat myself up about failing to achieve my plans for the week, but that's not productive. Instead, I'm recognizing that I'm a human being with a lot going on in my life and I'm giving myself some grace to try again this week. I've been dealing with some health issues that include pretty extreme fatigue and sometimes I just can't do what I set out for myself. I also had a health-related treatment this past Friday that has some unpleasant side effects, so I'm not doing as much today and am being gentle with myself.

 

I'm totally ok with that.

 

So, if like me, you need another attempt at a reset and getting back on track, follow along as I tidy, declutter, and clean today.

 

1. Trash and recycling

Like last week, I'm going to start with a trash and recycling sweep of my bedroom. I'll be setting out a trash bag, recycling bag, and a box for any items that should be donated. So, set up your own bags and/or boxes, and join me.  

 

2. Laundry, part one

I do need to do some laundry this week. I also want to work on pre-planning my outfits for the week and to have them all set and ready on a shelf so that I can just grab the day's outfit in the morning without thinking about it. 

 

I'm calling this "Laundry, part one" because I don't have the energy today to do it all at once. I'll be breaking my laundry up into chunks. 

 

Right now, I've just gathered all of the dirty laundry in my bedroom into one pile and all the clean but unfolded laundry into another. The dirty will be washed later today. The clean laundry I will fold and put away right now while I watch something on YouTube.  

 

3. Dishes that are astray

I'm tired after those two chores and want to take a break, but first, I'm going to go through my bedroom and bathroom and pick up any dishes and take them to the kitchen to be washed later.

 

BREAK TIME

Doing just those few chores was so surprisingly tiring! Mentally, I'm feeling more alert than I have for the past few weeks, but physically, I'm still drained. I am going to take a break and will be back at my reset shortly. 

 

BACK AT IT

Wow! What I had planned as a one hour break, at most, turned into a THREE HOUR nap! I must have really needed it though as I was so tired that I slept with my socks on which I NEVER do unless I'm sick or exhausted. I'm up now though, so let's get back to it.

 

4. Dishwasher and Dishes

After I was up and going from my nap, I decided to tackle the dishes in the kitchen. I unloaded the dishwasher, reloaded it, and turned it on. 

 

I started out gamifying doing the dishes (as I did last week), but ultimately, I really wanted to see the sink completely empty. I ended up completely emptying the sink and loaded the dishwasher fully, so I turned that on while I assessed the remainder of the dirty dishes. By this point, I was starting to feel fatigued again, so I tidied up what's left to wash, made myself some coffee and came back to post this update. 

 

5. Gather dirty laundry or laundry, part two

Earlier, I picked up the dirty laundry in my bedroom. I usually change my clothes in the bathroom and have my laundry basket in there. Well, all week, my laundry basket has been in my bedroom with clean laundry in it. After folding and putting away all of my clean clothes earlier today, I loaded up the dirty laundry from my bedroom.

 

Let's grab the rest of my dirty laundry and any kitchen linens and put them all in the basket and set that by the door before we take another break. As I mentioned last week, I typically sort my laundry into heavy items and lightweight items. This week, I also have to wash my winter coat and is it feel onto the floor at work into a mystery puddle in the bathroom....ewwwwww!

 

6. Fridge clean-out

Our fridge has been a mess and we're wasting a lot of money on rotting food as a result. Some of it is due to laziness and some due to all of us being ill.

 

Because I'm quite fatigued from my current health issues and treatments, I opted to focus only on the condiments in the fridge door. I did the following:

• Put everything from all of the door shelves onto the stove and counter
• Grabbed a small stool to sit on and cleaned all of the shelves in the door
• Sorted everything by similar groupings 
• As I sorted, checked expiration dates and freshness
• Tossed the things that were bad
• Combined like items (why did we have two half full jars of jalapeno slices?)
• Put everything back in like groupings (Asian sauces, Hispanic and Mexican sauces, mayo and mustard, etc.)

By the time everything was put away, I was ready for another break. Sigh... 

 

7. More fridge clean out

After a short break, I went back to the kitchen and worked on cleaning out more of my fridge. I tackled the top and middle shelves, and my drawer. 

 

Over the years, we've found that if we use the produce drawers for produce, we forget what we have and a lot rots. So, instead, we keep things on the shelves -- not the best way to keep things fresh, but it helps us to see what we have so we waste less. Then, the dairy drawer is mine, one produce drawer is for my kiddo, and the other produce drawer is for my kiddo's partner. The irony here is that I'm severely allergic to dairy! Hahaha! We use our drawers to keep things specific to our dietary restricts or that we've bought specifically for ourselves rather than for household use. 

 

When it comes to the shelves and the door compartments, most of that space is for everyone, but the bottom shelf typically ends up with more of what my kiddo and their partner eat, the middle shelf is usually produce, and the top shelf typically is mostly mine. 

 

I am saddened by how much had gone bad over the last several weeks, but this is a fresh week to start again, right? We still have plenty of food and, now that I've cleaned out and organized the fridge, we can see what we have. My goal this week is to not grocery shop at all. We have plenty of food to keep us going for more than a week -- we could probably stretch the entire month, if we really had to, without grocery shopping!

 

After cleaning out the fridge, I made myself a fruit smoothie with bananas, frozen cherries, frozen raspberries, frozen pineapple, pomegranate juice, water, and ground flax. It's delicious! I had a bunch of bananas that were getting soft, so I unpeeled them, broke each in half, and put them into a container in the fridge to use in future smoothies. 

 

At this point, I'm quite tired and probably won't do any further cleaning or tidying. The medical treatment I had on Friday really took me out this weekend! I do plan to set out an outfit for work tomorrow though. As for the rest of my laundry, I'll try to do that after work on Monday.

 

What did you get accomplished today? Drop a comment and let me know!

 

Life Reset -- Get back on track with me

The last several months -- really the last year and a half -- have been incredibly difficult. I've faced several health challenges, started a new job that's beyond stressful, and more. 

 

As often happens when negatives pile upon negatives, life starts to feel out of control. 

 

Today, I'm working towards getting things back in order and getting my life back on track. Join me as I reset my life. I'm not talking about setting and accomplishing life goals. Rather, I'm talking about things like making my house feel more comfortable, making it easier to get back into old habits and routines, and just improving my overall quality of life. 

 

I thought about putting this on another of my blogs, but I have also been feeling a pull to resurrect Mom2MomEd. So, here we are...

 

Today is Sunday and I work this coming week from Monday through Friday. On Monday, I have a healthcare related test and on Friday, I have a doctor's appointment; however, I'm going to try to keep my focus on TODAY and the next five minutes and then the next five minutes and then the next five minutes. I've felt so overwhelmed recently that sometimes focusing on life in five minute increments is the best way for me to feel in control.

 

{Please note, this is not a reset for hoarder-level conditions in your home or for anyone with significant medical issues that prevent you from doing your own  home and life care -- please seek out professional help if you fall into these categories.}

 

So, let's get started. Are you with me? 

 

1. Trash and recycling

I'm starting my reset by going around my entire home -- excluding my adult kiddo's bedroom -- and picking up any and all trash and recycling. I've already set up a trash bag (hanging from my bedroom doorknob) and a bag for recycling (on the floor next to the trash bag). I'm starting in my bedroom and then will move on to the bathroom, kitchen, living room, and dining room.

 

I'm embarrassed to admit how much trash and recycling we have just lying around. It's not disgusting and not like some of the homes you see on cleaning shows, but it's not great either. 

 

So, stop reading here, grab a trash bag and recycling bag and join me in gathering your own trash and recycling. When you're done, come back and we'll continue onward.

 

Leave me a comment and let me know if you had more or less trash and recycling to pick up than what you expected.

 

I actually had a lot less which was a nice surprise!

 

2. Dishes

While I'm pretty good at not leaving dirty dishes around, I do have a tendency to leave a coffee mug or two on my desk and sometimes I'll find a random spoon or fork that didn't make it's way back to the sink. Occasionally, I'll find a plate on my side table in the living room. Usually these are dishes that don't have food particles on them that I told myself I'd take to the kitchen and then didn't... 

 

Go around your home and collect any dishes and put them in the kitchen. No need to wash them right now...we'll do that later.

 

Leave a comment and let me know how many dishes you found and returned to your kitchen. 

 

I was quite surprised to only find one spoon and one water bottle that needed to get to the kitchen. I do have a coffee mug and two water bottles on my desk right now, but I'm drinking from these today.

 

TIP: If you struggle to drink enough water, try this: I fill two water bottles and set them side by side on my desk to remind myself to drink more water. By filling two at a time and putting them together, I find I drink more water than if I just fill one with the intention of refilling it later. Often, I end up not refilling my water bottle and just skip drinking more water.

3. Shoes, bags, clothing

Next, we're going to pick up shoes, bags, and clothes that aren't where they belong; however, I'm not going to fully put them away yet. Instead, I'm going to set them in the areas where they belong. 

We (myself, my kiddo, and my kiddo's partner) are guilty of shedding shoes, jackets, sweatshirts, and bags in random places and not putting them away. It's laziness and overwhelm that drive these behaviors at my house -- usually more overwhelm than anything. We are all finding our jobs incredibly stressful right now, and when we get home, we have been kind of shutting down and not really caring much about anything. So, let's go and collect shoes, bags, and random clothes and put them in the areas where they belong.

How did you do? Leave me a comment and let me know:

• Was it hard to put things just in the areas where they belong or did you find yourself wanting to fully put things away?
• Did you have more or less to pick up than expected?

I have to admit, I did a sweep for clothing a few days ago, so I didn't have as many clothes lying around as expected, but I found several pairs of socks in random places, some flip flops, and multiple tote bags here and there. 

I tend to prefer to put things just in the area where they belong and then to do a more focused tidying session of those areas later, which we'll get to -- this is going to be a LONG post!

 

4. Clean out and organize your main bag/purse/wallet

This past week, I found myself using several different tote bags as I had to take packages to the post office after work one day, another day I was taking snacks to refill my work snack cupboard, and another day I was carrying some extra supplies to deal with an asthma flare. As a result, I've got three different totes to clean out and consolidate. My allergy and asthma kit has also gotten quite disorganized. 

 

In the prior step, when gathering bags, I emptied everything from a couple of totes into one pile with my primary work bag. It's Sunday and I work tomorrow, so it's the perfect day to reset my work tote and allergy and asthma kit (which I carry everywhere).

 

When I reset my work tote and my kit, I always:

1. Pull everything out.
2. Sort out any trash and recycling (we already have bags set up for this from step 1!)
3. Pull out anything that shouldn't be in my work tote or medical kit and set them in the areas where they belong
4. Check my bag and kit for holes or damage
5. Organize the things that do belong in the bag and kit and put them back in a tidy manner
6. Set my bag by the front door so it's ready for me in the morning

How'd you do? Leave a comment and let me know!

 

I ended up consolidating contents from two totes, gathered and tidied my allergy and asthma medications, pulled out several random notebooks that don't need to go to work every day, made sure my work badge was easily accessible, and ended up with everything I need for the week fitting into the smaller of the totes. I also found a few bits of trash, some mail, and some snacks that I thought I'd misplaced the last time I refilled my work snack stash. In addition, I double checked the expiration dates on my epi-pens and other medications, and I checked to see if I needed to refill my pill cases. Thankfully, everything is fairly full and nothing expires for several more months.

TIP: If you carry epi-pens or other medications with expiration dates or refill dates, put a reminder on your calendar to refill or replace these items. 

 

My epi-pen reminder is set for mid-May as they expire in June and it will take a few days for my doctor to authorize a refill request from the pharmacy. I want to be sure they are refilled before they expire. 

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for a break. One of the health conditions I'm dealing with has involved a lot of fatigue over the last few months, so it's tempting to lay down and not get up for the rest of the day. It's not even noon for me though, so I'll be setting an alarm for one hour. Withing that hour, I'll rest, eat something, drink some water, and do some reading.

 

5. Regroup and reassess

I have to admit that it was difficult to get back to my plan for the day after taking a break. It was so tempting to just stay in bed and read! As much as I wanted to do that, I am keeping my objective at the front my mind: to reclaim control of my home and my life and to stop feeling so overwhelmed every day.

 

After a break, I often find that I need to mentally regroup and to reassess my plan for the day. When I initially took my break, I wasn't sure what to tackle next. Because so much of my home feels so out of control, it's easy to get overwhelmed and give up.

 

Instead, we will be switching from broad tasks throughout the home to specific areas.

 

6. Select a defined area and sort, clean, and purge

Instead of cleaning up an entire room, I often will choose one room and break it down into smaller areas of focus. When I'm done with one small area, I'll move on to another until the room is done or until I feel to overwhelmed to continue in that room.

 

You can follow the same areas as I will be tackling, or come up with your own. When I choose an area, it could be quite small (even just one foot by one foot) or a defined space (like the top of your desk or the dining table). I will be taking care of the bedroom in the following sections (sizes are approximations):

• A 3' x 5' area on my bedroom floor that has a pile of clean laundry and some miscellaneous items: I folded and put away the clean clothes, a backpack and tote bag, and moved a small bundle of craft supplies to my desk.
• The floor under my desk: I put books back on the bookshelf, picked up a few bits of trash I missed earlier, and gathered more craft items and put them away.
• The floor around my bed: I picked up my asthma treatment nebulizer and moved it to the bathroom as I haven't needed it in more than a week, took a bag of craft items from a shopping outing last weekend and put it in my office, picked up random bits from the bedroom floor that belong in the bathroom.
• Around the bedroom door: I picked up a few random items that belong in the living room and my office and put them in those rooms, and I tidied the shoes that I keep behind the door.
• My bedroom desk: I have a desk in my bedroom as well as one in my office and both get cluttered regularly. Most of what is on my bedroom desk are things I use regularly, but they just need to be tidied up a bit so it's easier to find what and use items. I stacked up my journals and put them next to my laptop, put away some craft supplies, and gathered pens and pencils into their cup. This desk also doubles as my nightstand, so I tidied the things I regularly reach for at night. 

If your bedroom still has areas that need tidying, keep going! Maybe you have a dresser top to clear off, a chair that regularly collects laundry, and so on. For me, the above areas pretty much take care of my entire bedroom, other than the closet which I'll save for another day (I'm mostly focusing on things that are visible when you walk into different areas). My kiddo and my kiddo's partner are still asleep (they work late hours), so I will save vacuuming my bedroom until they are awake.

7. Choose a chore you dread and gamify it in some way

I hate washing dishes and our kitchen is out of control. All three of us cook regularly and for a long time, we had a dishes rotation that worked well. In December and January, we all took turns being sick and several times were sick at the same time. As a result, the dishes piled up and we've fallen off of our rotations. We do wash dishes regularly, but it's been a while since we've had the sink, counters, and dishwasher totally cleared. 

Since I hate doing the dishes so much, I often create little rules around doing them, such as:

• Every time I enter the kitchen, I have to wash 5 or 10 dishes or load 5 or 10 items into the dishwasher.
• Five pieces of silverware count as one dish.
• A container and it's matching lid count as one dish.
• Three cooking utensils count as one dish.
  

If I'm feeling good, I usually aim for 10 items. If I'm feeling low or unwell, I'll aim for five at a time. Let's see how I do right now...

I spent just about an hour in the kitchen -- longer than I thought I'd spend! I was able to:

• Unload clean dishes from the dishwasher
• Load 20 items into the dishwasher
• Fill a dirty pot with water and add several items that need to soak a bit
• Put away a few things that were sitting on the counter
• Empty and clean the coffee maker
• Make a pot of coffee for the household
• Make myself some lunch (and cleaned up afterwards)

How did this round of cleaning and tidying go for you?  

I was quite fatigued after that round of cleaning in the kitchen, so I'm taking another one hour break while I eat my lunch and do some more reading.

 

8. Keep going on the chore you really dislike or hate

I will be heading back to my kitchen to keep working on dishes and to clean up the counters and stove top. 

 

Because this feels like a never ending chore and we've been so lax on the kitchen lately, it feels like I made very little progress in my first round of doing dishes. This time, I will be tackling the counter in small sections, just one small square at a time so that I can see my progress as I work. I plan to start in one corner of the kitchen and work my way around on the visible surfaces.

 

There's not much more to say here, other than: keep going!

 

In this round of cleaning the kitchen, I:

• Finished cleaning all the counter surfaces except for right above the dishwasher
• Put away some non-perishable foods that have been on the counter for more than a week
• Took out the trash and replaced the bag
• Cleaned the soap and sponge caddy
• Loaded more into the dishwasher
• Stacked all non-dishwasher items in the sink

At this point, I'm also making a list of chores for my kiddo and my kiddo's partner, which includes:

• Clean the microwave (inside, outside, tray)
• Finish dishes in the sink
• Bring out and wash all dishes from their room
• Take out recycling

 

I've been working hard most of the day (It's just before 4pm) and working up more of a sweat than I anticipated. Unfortunately, all of the activity is triggering some of my chronic health problems. As a result, I'm taking another break before moving on to anything else. This break may be a bit longer than the previous ones. 

 

Even with needing to take a longer break at this point, I feel like I've accomplished a lot and I can actually see a difference in my bedroom and the kitchen. When I'm feeling recovered, I'll start in on my bathroom.

My kiddo and my kiddo's partner are up now and about two hours have gone by. I did a lot of reading and catching up on some social media and texts, and I feel ready to conquer my next tasks:

9. Vacuum my bedroom

We are all pretty bad at emptying the vacuum, so I will do that first, and then I'll actually get to vacuuming. Because of the work I did earlier in the day, my bedroom floor is quite clear and this should be easy and quick. I'll also vacuum the hall while I'm at it.

It always surprises and delights me when I finish vacuuming -- the room seems just clean and ready for whatever may lay ahead. It's a refreshing feeling and fits in with my reset goal.

10. Start laundry

My kiddo and my kiddo's partner are now up and doing their personal chores, and they are getting started on the communal chores I assigned to them. While they get going on those, I'm going to start my laundry. 

I have very few light colors or whites in my closet, so I don't sort my laundry by color or into lights and darks. Instead, I sort by heavy items and light, fast drying items. Often, I will hang dry the light, fast drying items to save money and so that they will last longer. During the summer months, I typically will hang or air dry everything.

 

We use a communal laundry room in our apartment building and every wash is $2 with every dryer use also at $2. For the dryer, you can add time in 7-minute increments (your first $2 gets you one hour) for 25-cents per 7-minutes. The dryers are powerful enough that if I wash two loads of laundry, I can usually dry them together in one dryer. Today, however, I have three loads: heavy items (jeans, sweatpants, sweatshirts), light/fast dry items (underpants, t-shirts, shorts, exercise clothes, socks), and linens (today, a bath towel, some new washcloths, and kitchen cloths). I plan to air dry the light, fast drying items and to combine my heavy items and linens in one dryer load. 

11. Do some meal prep

While my laundry is washing, I started some meal prep for the week. It's getting later in the day and I'm not going to be doing a whole lot more, but I have a plan for the week!

 

While my laundry wash cycles are going, I prepped some bean and rice bowls for work lunches and/or dinners this week. If I hadn't cleaned so much in the kitchen earlier today, I would not have been able to do any meal prep at all. Having clear counters and a clean stove top made such a huge difference in my ability and my motivation when it came to meal prepping. 

 

For the bean and rice bowls, I cooked two cups of rice in our rice cooker. While the rice was cooking, I mixed two cans of refried beans with taco seasoning, diced jalapenos, diced mixed peppers, and a small can of diced green chilies. Once the rice was done, I layered rice, then beans, then my favorite VioLife vegan cheese shreds into four containers. Each container has a larger section where I added the rice and beans and a smaller section into which I portioned halved flavor bomb cherry tomatoes and a few spoonfuls of Trader Joe's corn salsa. Into some much smaller snack sized containers, I portioned out a few kalamata olives and a few manzanilla olives. 

11. Continue with laundry

After putting my prepped meals into the fridge and cleaning up, I went to check on the laundry. I picked up everything that was ready to be hung up to air dry on a rack in the living room, and I put my second heavy load in to wash with the first heavy load folded on top of that washer. 

After taking care of laundry, I came back to the apartment and ate some of the leftovers from my meal prep for dinner tonight, drank more water, and did a bit more reading. 

Once I'd finished eating, I hung up all of the air dry laundry, chatted with my kiddo and my kiddo's partner about chores and about life, and then I went back to the laundry room -- this time I took my two loads of heavy items and consolidated them into one dryer.

12. Make a plan for the week

Now that I've gotten such a good jump on things that we've all been lagging on, I feel like I can confidently make a plan to continue cleaning throughout the week so that by next weekend, we just need to work on maintaining and refining things.

Of course, I'll have to judge day-by-day if I have the energy reserves to follow this plan (my job is highly stressful and I often just want to go to bed when I get home), but for now the after work plan for the week is this:

• Monday: meal prep two tofu and veggie dishes; meal prep breakfast burritos; clean up the meal prep dishes
• Tuesday: clean the bathroom sink and counter thoroughly, wipe down shower shelves; meet with my tutoring student
  
• Wednesday: clean the shower surround; meet with my tutoring student
  
• Thursday: clean the tub; meet with my tutoring student
  
• Friday: likely will go straight to bed after a medical appointment that I already know is likely to be exhausting

So, how did you do? Do you feel like you were able to get things done alongside me? What is your plan for the rest of the week?

The Rule of 5 Mini-Tasks for Easy Housekeeping

Lately, I've been struggling to keep my house tidy due to a number of factors ranging from just everyday life to anxiety and mild depression to trying to work from home and beyond. As a result, I've reverted back to a lot of simple, but effective, little tricks to make housekeeping easier and faster. Each one centers around the number FIVE, and you can read them (and other housekeeping posts) HERE.

Today, I decided my rule of five would center on five mini-tasks. These are the small tasks we all know we should do, but we ignore them in favor of either things that are bigger projects, bigger eyesores, or things that we perceive as being more important.

 

As a result, we end up with a build up of small annoyances scattered about our physical space and creating both physical and mental clutter. 

I get tired of walking past the same jacket over a chair back, the items on my steps waiting to go upstairs, dishtowels that need to go to the laundry, and so on. 

It takes next to no time to do these things, so why does it seem to take so many of us foreeeever to actually do them?

Enter the Rule of 5 Mini-Tasks for Easy Housekeeping. I want you to set a timer and see how long it takes you to do five tiny tasks. I'm betting it takes less than ten minutes.

 

The five mini-tasks I completed right before writing this were:

1. Put away my coat (fully hanging it up in the closet)
2. Emptied and put away my backpack (in the same closet as my coat!)
   
3. Took two items upstairs (sweater shaver -- put in dresser drawer; book -- put on bedside table)
   
4. Put away small stack of folded laundry (mostly belonged in three drawers total)
   
5. Put away small amount of clean dishes (the longest task, but still easy!)

These five tasks took me just about eight minutes total!

 

To some, these tasks may seem like no brainers and so easy to complete, and maybe at times they are, but if you are suffering for depression, anxiety, burn out, and other overwhelming feelings, these small tasks can feel like huge burdens. 

 

By doing five mini-tasks rather than larger cleaning or organizing chores, you are still getting something done. If you feel motivated, continue and find five more mini tasks! Do this and one (or more) of my other easy housekeeping rules every day, and over time, you should start to see some shifts in your living space.

 

Have you seen my other easy housekeeping posts? Check them out HERE.

 

I mentioned putting away my sweater shaver -- do you use one? Should I write a blog post or film a video about using mine?

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The 5 Minute Rule for Easy Housekeeping

I am a fan of the idea that nearly anyone and everyone can do something for five minutes -- even if there are times when you feel like you can't for whatever reason. Maybe you are seriously depressed or anxious or over-excited or sick or exhausted. 

 

You can probably carve out five minutes to do something, even if it's a tiny task.

 

On its own, five minutes isn't going to revolutionize your life or your housekeeping, but five minutes multiple times per day or multiple times over a week and built into a habit can have a significant impact.

 

If you are struggling with housekeeping, de-cluttering, getting things in order, or anything else, set a timer for five minutes and tackle one thing. 

In five minutes, you can probably:

• Unload one rack of your dishwasher, if not the whole thing
• Hand wash a few dishes
• Hang up several pieces of clothing or coats
• Gather shoes and put them away where they belong
• Clear a small counter space 
• Go through a small pile of mail
• Match food storage container lids and bottoms
• Sweep through a room with a trash bag and pick up trash
• Take your recycling or trash out
• Tidy a section of your workspace
• Wipe down a counter

Some days, I choose one area of my house to focus on in five minute increments. Other days, I kind of go slipshod through my house and clean lots of small areas in five minute increments. Some days, I manage to do both. 

On days that I choose an area of focus, I make it a point to clean or de-clutter that area for five minutes either every time I go in that space or every few hours throughout the day -- I work from home, so this may be easier for me than it is for you, but you can still follow this method on a day off or over the course of an evening. 

Most recently, after a dinner gathering, my kitchen was an absolute wreck. My kiddo and I attacked the kitchen in five minute increments over and over throughout the day to make it more manageable. For us, it looked something like this:

1. Gather any visible trash or recycling and put it in the appropriate bins. If full, empty the bins into the appropriate places.
2. Put away clean dishes and items and move as many dirty dishes as possible to one defined space. Try to open up a clear space for air drying dishes later. Remove dirty dishtowels and linens.
   
3. Put away any ingredients that have been left out -- usually spices, herbs, pantry items like pasta or rice, and so on -- or unused cooking tools.
   
4. Wash dishes using my Five Items rule -- read about it HERE. Repeat until five minutes are up or repeat for another five items/five minutes.
   
5. Choose a small counter space -- maybe 1ft by 1ft in size -- and focus on cleaning and clearing that space. Repeat several times over the course of the day. If our stove is particularly messy or cluttered, this might mean focusing on one fourth of the stove at a time.
6. Spend five minutes tidying items in the fridge or freezer door or on a fridge or freezer shelf.
   

By repeating these tasks over and over throughout the day (or over several days, if necessary), eventually the mess gets taken care of and you begin to see progress. 

 

Of course, there is a risk that the mess will reoccur -- it does -- but, these five minute tasks have made subsequent messes much easier for us to handle and much easier for us to get back on track when we get derailed.

 

I've even used this rule when sick -- with the flu, with Covid, with food poisoning. When sick, I might take my time getting to the kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, living room, and so on, but once I am there, I sit down for a few minutes and focus on catching my breath or gathering some energy, and then I choose a small task that I can focus on for five minutes, even if those five minutes are with me sitting down or with me expending as little energy as possible. I might fold socks and underwear (yes, I fold my undies) while sitting in bed or put away silverware while sitting on a stool or wipe down the dining table while sitting in a chair, but I get at least a few small tasks done. Of course, do NOT do this while sick if it will impair you further or put others in your home at risk! Follow your doctor's recommendations, please!

When it comes to doing these tasks, I also find it helpful to use tools that feel good in my hands or that make the jobs easier. A few of my favorites are from Grove Collaborative -- this post is not sponsored by Grove, but I do have an affiliate link following this small list -- and include: 

• Grove Collaborative Free & Clear dish and hand soaps
• Grove Collaborative glass spray bottles with silicone sleeves
• Grove Collaborative Replaceable Head dish brush (the head can go in the dishwasher!) 
  

You can sign up for Grove Collaborative using my affiliate link -- I will receive a small commission if you sign up and order and YOU will receive a free gift set and $10 after your first purchase. Sign up HERE and login to take a look around! Please note that per Grove's terms, this offer is only open to new customers and they currently only ship to the contiguous United States.

 

I love that Grove Collaborative is committed to the environment and has worked hard to greatly reduce plastic and other non-sustainable products and waste. They are a certified B-corporation and I've had great customer service experiences on the rare occasions I've had to contact them about an order.

Have you tried any of my "Rule of 5" housekeeping tips? Have they helped you out in any way? What are some of the ways you make housekeeping more manageable in your home?

Check out all of my Rule of 5 and other housekeeping posts HERE.

 

And, please consider visiting our Etsy shop where we've got printable lunchbox notes, thank you notes, Valentine's and more! Just click on the image below:

The Rule of 5 Items for Easy Housekeeping

 

If you saw my post, The 5 Up, 5 Down Rule for Housekeeping, you'll know that I love simple, easy, and fast housekeeping rules to help keep my home under control. I love easy and fast wins that add up over time, but I hate housekeeping. By creating a series of rules for myself that revolve around five minutes or five items and repeating these rules over and over throughout the day, housekeeping has become much more manageable for me.

Today's housekeeping rule is The Rule of 5 Items. This rule can be applied in many areas of your home and housekeeping routine, even if you are super busy.

In essence, the goal is to take care of five items at a time. 

If you have a sink full of dishes and can't fathom washing them all at once, focus on washing just five -- five plates, five cups, five cooking tools, five random dishes. For this particular situation, I classify five utensils (forks, knives, and spoons) as one item -- so, I might wash four plates and then five forks. I classify cooking utensils (spatulas, wooden spoons, carving knives, and so on) such that three of these make up one item -- so, I might was a bowl, two cups, a plate, and then two spatulas and a wooden spoon.

If I have piles of laundry to fold and put away, I focus on folding only five pieces at a time. I will fold five pairs of pants or five shirts. I'll put five dresses on hangers. I classify socks and underwear in groups of ten, however. After I've fold five items (or ten pieces of undies and/or socks), I put them away before folding the next five. 

If I am de-cluttering, I will look for five items to purge all at once. Or, I will go through my home and find five items that aren't where they belong and I will put them away before moving on to anything else.

The key here is to repeat these rules several times throughout the day.

For example, right now our dishwasher is broken and we don't particularly enjoy washing dishes, so they tend to pile up in the sink. If I wash five dishes first thing in the morning -- while I wait for my coffee to be ready -- then another five when I take a work break (I work from home) at mid-morning, five more at lunch, and so on, by the end of the day, most of our dishes are washed. If my kiddo does the same, then by the end of the day all of the dishes are washed. 

If I am feeling really motivated, I'll take care of five items and immediately take care of another five. For me, this is particularly easy when I'm folding laundry. If I fold and put away five items immediately, it is much easier to fold and put away the next five as I see the pile shrinking as I go. I find it hard to fold the entire mountain of laundry first and then put it all away all at once -- the pile never shrinks, it just gets tidier. Shrinking the pile is key to my motivation!

Stay tuned for our next Rules of 5 post!

The 5 Up, 5 Down Rule for Housekeeping

Upstairs, downstairs. Room to room. 

Do you find yourself moving about your house and cleaning and organizing, yet it never really feels like you have a handle on things? There's always a mess and it never seems to get any better?

That was definitely me until I began implementing my Rules of 5. Today, I'm going to talk about my 5 Up, 5 Down rule.

My home is a two story townhouse, so the 5 Up and 5 Down refer to when I go from downstairs to upstairs and vice versa. 

This rule is so simple, but over time it has big impact! 

In essence, anytime you go from downstairs to upstairs, you have to spend five minutes cleaning or doing a tidying task before you can go back downstairs. If you are upstairs and head downstairs, you have to spend five minutes tidying or cleaning something before you can go back upstairs.

That's it! Super simple, right? It might seem so simple as to be ineffective, but I've noticed that these micro cleaning and tidying tasks add up over time and help keep things in check.

If you live in a single story home, you could change the rule so that it's five minutes in family spaces and five minutes in private spaces. For example, if you're in the kitchen, living room, or dining areas and go to a bedroom or bathroom, you have to spend five minutes tidying in the bedroom or bathroom before going back out to the public spaces of the house. If you are your bedroom or bathroom and go to a more public/family space of the home, you have to do five minutes of cleaning or tidying in the public/family spaces before returning to the more private spaces. 

I don't have a garage or shed, but I do have two patios. I also apply this rule to those spaces and make it a 5 In, 5 Out rule -- if I'm inside and go outside, I have to do five minutes of cleaning or tidying on the patios before I come back in. If I'm outside and go inside, I have to do five minutes of indoor cleaning and tidying before going back to the patios.

My five minute tasks over the past few months have included:

• folding towels
• folding shirts or pants or undergarments
• wiping down the bathroom counter and sink
• wiping down the kitchen counters
• cleaning the stove top
• wiping down cabinet doors
• sweeping
• going through the area for trash or recycling
• de-cluttering a drawer
• and a lot more!
  

Do you think this rule could help you in your housekeeping goals? What are some of the tasks you can do in five minutes? 

That's so Montessori: Preparing your house the Montessori way

As a Montessori trained teacher, I notice things that are "so Montessori" in my every day environment. 

I was a Montessori parent even before I knew what that meant. I'll break down what that looks like in detail in later posts, but for today, I'll give you a little overview of what it means to bring Montessori into your house.

You'll find that it's likely not much different than what you are doing now. The difference is intentionality when setting up a Montessori environment at home. After all, the primary principles of Montessori theory are "follow the child" and "the prepared environment." 

Seems simple enough, right?

The conscious component of creating a Montessori environment at home is about making sure you are providing real life opportunities for your children to practice specific skills. For example, if your child is interested in learning how to use tools, your first thought might be to go and buy a plastic toy tool set or a child-specific set of tools. In Montessori, you skip this and jump right to the real thing -- real nails, a real hammer, and real wood. You show your child how to safely use the tools (sometimes reinforcing safety over and over), and then you give them space to practice. When the activity is over, you don't tuck the materials and tools away in some out of reach place, but rather, you make them available and you ensure that your child -- who know knows how to safely use the tools and materials -- can hammer something in the future.

Another way to look at this concept is to think about learning to cook spaghetti. You don't get out a plastic pot and plastic food to do so. While toy food and toy pots and pans (we have a toy kitchen in our house!) can be fun, they aren't really preparing your children for the real life tasks of actually cooking food. You may be worried about your child burning or cutting themselves or totally screwing up in some way, but in reality, you are teaching them the skills to avoid such problems. Once you've shown them how to safely and properly use their tools (a knife, a stove or oven, etc), you can monitor their progress and help them practice their new skills. 

Sometimes, you have to rein in the chaos and start over when showing your children a new skill.

Sometimes, you have to abort the lesson or plans and say, "We'll try again another day." 

But, you never fully take the reigns completely and take over the task as your own.

You don't learn math by someone else calculating every problem for you, and the same is true of most lessons your children should and will learn. So, how will your kids learn life skills if they aren't allowed to try and allowed to occasionally fail? 

I understand that teaching many life skills can be time consuming and messy, and we can often easily do these tasks faster and much more efficiently ourselves. But, that's not the point. The point is teaching your children the skills they need to be successful in life. In Montessori theory, this is called "Practical Life".

I've allowed my own children to use real knives since they were old enough to sit at the kitchen table with us. Neither thinks of knives as toys or weapons as a result because they've been taught to use them properly and know exactly the purpose of these tools. In fact, today, my son said that he was hungry and got up and made his own quesadilla on the stove. All I had to do was check on him and make sure he had the stove at the right setting, but otherwise I was totally hands off. 

This was my son's rodeo, not mine.

I used to be afraid that my son would burn himself on the stove, but I have also taught him well and I know he is also smart enough to know when a pan is hot and to not put his hand on it. Does that mean we've been totally without little incidents here and there? No, of course not, because these are skills learned through trial and error. 

I'm not a free range parent by any means, but I am also a realist and want my children to be able to learn and grow and to be able to things independently.

If you aren't comfortable with your kids using a stove, never fear! You can still prepare areas of your kitchen where your kids can prepare food for themselves using real kitchen tools and materials. For example, peanut butter (or other "butter") and jelly sandwiches are great starter items! Make sure the ingredients are all in close proximity to one another and within reach of your children and then let them go for it (after you've shown them or guided them through the steps, of course!). 

Really, these principles can be applied to any task anywhere in your house. The keys are to make sure the tools and materials necessary are in reach, preferably grouped together, and that you've given your kids some basic instruction in safely handling the items and completing the tasks at hand.

I have also shown my children how to start the bathtub, where to find towels, and what the bathroom should look like after their baths are done. Now, when they are ready for a bath, I can say, "OK! You know what to do!" I still help wash hair and to pour in fancy bubbles and so on, but overall, they know what to do for themselves! 

Of course, it is important to make sure tasks are age and maturity level appropriate. For example, while her older brother is able to handle the stove, I would not let my six year old daughter make her own quesadilla. That said, she's much better at putting together a snack tray than her brother. He's too timid to take bigger risks, but my daughter will gladly wield a hammer or a saw by herself and go at a construction project!

You know your child best and what they are capable of. 

So, you see none of this is really rocket science, but rather common sense and knowing your children's abilities and maturity levels. And, it's about intentionally providing opportunities and materials for your children to learn to do tasks for themselves.

I'll break down how to set up your house room-by-room with Montessori principles in later posts and also share some my favorite Practical Life jobs that I utilize in my classroom and home year round. 

For now though, I challenge you to set up at least one task that your child can do completely on their own. It could be a small cooking job, laundry, watering the plants, or anything else that fits or that they seem interested in. 

Leave a comment and let us know what tasks your kids do at home and how you support them in growing and learning independently!