Plan Ahead to Avoid the Sacrifice

Hey everyone! On the podcast this week, we talked about making those little sacrifices every now and then. Those little sacrifices could be skipping on personal hygiene or other self care activities. Basically, if you are running tight on time, you might omit important parts of your selfcare routine. We all do it; it might not be sacrificing the shower or brushing your teeth, some might sacrifice even more if they are really pressed for time! These are just the choices we make on an everyday basis. I find that when I return from a trip or have a huge schedule upheaval, I get really off my routine and miss important things, like meal planning and other personal business.

Travis, Reyna and I recently went on a family trip to New Orleans, Louisiana. We were only gone for four days, but it was right in the middle of a busy week at work and right before the Labor Day holiday. I knew that we would be cutting it close when it came down to packing and heading out for our trip, and even getting back home and unpacking might be a struggle. I made sure to take an extra day off before we left town, and another one when we got back so that we could get packed and unpacked without feeling rushed. I also wanted to make sure that all the clothes that I wanted were clean and easy to find so that I wouldn't have to make any compromises with my wardrobe. Since I get a little off track due to vacations, I thought I would share what we did this time around to prevent our personal matters from slipping through the cracks – a little premeditated self-care if you will. These are just some things you can do to prepare before you go on a trip. By planning ahead, you can prevent yourself from making last minute sacrifices. 

Reyna living it up in NOLA

Prevent a clothing catastrophe:

• Wash, fold and put away all your laundry at least 1-2 days before you start packing.
• Pack the day before (or sooner)
• Use a packing list
• I start tossing things I want to take into an empty laundry basket when I come across it in the week before my trip

Kitchen clean out:

• Plan your meals for the week before your trip and the week after
• Clean out your fridge; freeze, use or throw away anything that will expire while you are gone
• Order your road trip snacks with grocery pick up instead of buying from expensive convenient stores as you travel - Check out Cindy's blog here
• Get grocery pick up when you arrive back in town
• Do a quick run through your cleaning checklist for your kitchen

Don’t let the bills slip:

• Check your bills that will be due while traveling and anything coming up afterwards.
• Pay them before you go or make sure auto pay will go through

Come home to a clean house:

• Tidy up and declutter before you go
• Empty all your trash cans and waste bins
• Set out clean towels for your kitchen and bathrooms
• Make your bed
• Make sure all the dishes are washed and put away
• Do a quick run through your cleaning checklist for the rest of your home

Travis enjoying brunch on our way back home.

If you can manage to take care of these everyday tasks before you set out on your vacation, you will come home to a clean house, and you’ll  have less things to worry about when you get back. Once you get back home, you can unpack and relax a little before getting back into your daily routine. Doing the extra work before you play by planning meals and pre-paying the bills will ensure that you don’t forget anything or feel overwhelmed when you return.

Everyday Tasks

Let’s face it – cleaning is hard. It’s hard especially if you have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). It is like the angel and devil on your shoulder. My OCD says, “Clean,” and my ADHD says, “Do Everything But….” That is why I need to have a cleaning checklist.

In my last blog, I talked about my tendency to hoard and how difficult it was to move to a new place. What I didn’t talk about was how cleaning my old place after I moved was a nightmare. I had two years' worth of cobwebs on my ceiling, two years of dust on my blinds, and two years of grime on my baseboards. When I moved to my new place, I vowed to never my place get that dirty again and I resolved to make an effort to keep my house clean, if anything, to be able to invite company over.

Because I struggle so much with consistency, I try to keep a daily checklist of things that I need to do for that day on my fridge. Not all the things on my checklist are cleaning-related. I have the simplest things on there such as “drink water” because I find that I have to constantly remind myself to do things. I’ve tried cleaning my house in a variety of ways over the years but I find it best if I complete one task every day and I do that task immediately after I get home from work or I will sit down and all will be lost.

• Sunday: Laundry and Vacuum Day. I do this simultaneously between laundry loads.
• Monday: Kitchen Day. I typically run the dishwasher, clean my counters, and stove, and clean out my fridge on this day.
• Tuesday: Bathroom Day. I typically clean most of my bathroom this day. I clean my shower daily as I shower. This is a hack I picked up from TikTok (featured on ThisYouNeed).
• Wednesday: Miscellaneous Dusting/Clutter Day. I typically try to lightly dust my bookshelves, window sills, and blinds for cobwebs if needed. I also try and go through any clutter that is amassed during the week and get my trash ready to be taken out.
• Thursday: Date Night/Rest Day. Jason is off on Thursdays so we typically have our date night on Thursday.
• Friday/Saturday: Deep Sweeping Day/Deep Cat Box cleaning. Caring for cats is almost a daily task but I typically wash out their cat box at least once a week. Over the week they also tend to get litter on the floor in the area of their cat box or track it across the house.

My cleaning checklist isn’t perfect and I don’t follow it 100% every week but I have lived a much cleaner existence since I have implemented it. I want to hear from our readers. Do you have a cleaning checklist? What do you do to make your life easier when cleaning? Continue the conversation on our Facebook Group: MMC Chat.

My Household Tending List

Hi there! It’s Cindy again. I hope you enjoyed our podcast yesterday about cleaning checklists. As I mentioned in our discussion, I think checklists are a great idea, and I have been using them to help me get through all my chores for a long time. Let’s face it…we’re busy! We have jobs, kids, spouses, boyfriends, hobbies, and so much stuff that we have to take care of at any given time that some of that stuff tends to fall through the cracks. That’s why I created a monthly checklist that I put in my day planner.

My current household checklist

I call this checklist my “tending list” because it goes along with my PowerSheets® tending list.  Whenever I check one, I automatically check the other. It’s a great form of accountability for me because I love filling in all the little squares (an OCD thing from childhood), and I feel so accomplished when I look at them and see that I’ve accomplished a lot. My list has far more than just cleaning tasks, as I’ve included some work, health, and family items on it as well. There are a few items I’d like to add to it, but it works for me so far – maybe next month.

My list started several years ago as a bujo (see bullet journal) entry, but I prefer having it in my Happy Planner with all my other tasks. My early planner lists were all drawn by hand onto the opening page of each month and I arranged everything to fit in the space available. It was also a very short list compared to the list I use today, so there’s nothing that says your list has to be as long as the one I use. If you make a list, make sure that it works with your goals and the items you want to track. 

My first household tending list - January 2021

By December it had evolved to this

In January, I started my new Happy Planner® and was surprised to see that the format of the opening page for each month had changed significantly and that my old checklist layout didn’t work anymore. So, I rearranged the list and again drew it by hand, but because it was no longer on a dot-grid paper, drawing it out took significantly longer than the old design and I abandoned that effort the very next month. Instead, I scanned the January list before I filled in all the text, and now I just run the planner page through my printer. I’ve used a similar technique for other pages in my Happy Planner (more on that in an upcoming episode!), and the printer handles the disc-punched pages just fine. I’d also like to note that I do use a “White Out” correction tape on a small section of the page, and since my printer is a laser printer, it prints over it just fine. I do not know how an inkjet printer will react to the whiteout, so your mileage may vary. I’ve linked both my printer and the correction tape below.

The blank file that I print onto my planner page

Add Amazon links to Happy Planner, my printer, favorite pen, and correction tape. Creating your checklist in a bullet journal or notebook can be fun if you like to do such things…I’m a list-maker at heart, and I love any excuse to make a list! But for those of you who aren’t, or you’d like a quick start on a list of your own, I’ve included a link to a blank version of my checklist below. I’ve offered a bundle that includes a JPEG, PDF, and PSD (Photoshop) version. If you have any questions about how I use it, please feel free to drop me a line using the email form on the right, leave a comment below, or even contact me through our Facebook page or MMC Chat group. 

Download the Checklist Bundle

Products I've mentioned in this article:

 

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A Simple Cleaning Checklist for Anyone

Hi there, it’s Christen - Happy Monday! It is springtime, which always makes me feel perky and motivated. This year, I set a goal to manage my household more efficiently. Effective communication with my husband, Travis, has been a challenge due to our schedules. I wanted to find a way to make it easier for both of us to access important household information without having to call each other during work hours. I also wanted Travis to have the knowledge at his fingertips to effectively manage the household without me guiding or micro-managing him. I decided that a “Home Binder” was necessary, and set a goal to create one as part of my Cultivate What Matters tending lists and 2022 goals. I may have mentioned my home binder and some of its contents on the podcast a few times and hope to provide an update on my progress here on the blog soon. Be on the look out for that!

Among the sections that provide helpful information in the binder is one for household maintenance. By maintenance, I mean cleaning, seasonal care, repairs and services. This time of year, I have many of these processes in mind, especially the routine and seasonal cleaning. As a newly married couple, we have learned what each other’s strengths are and where we can give each other support. Although my husband knows how to clean up after himself, he does not know all the ins and outs of sanitizing and deep cleaning. I wanted to give him an idea of when each of these tasks should be completed, and with what chemicals and tools. 

Getting married and some drastic changes in my work schedule has changed most of my routines. I simply can’t count on using one of my days off to do all the laundry, cleaning and meal prepping and still make it to bed at a decent hour. I went back and forth trying to set up a new routine and struggled with sticking with it. Thankfully, my husband and daughter are willing to help around the house, and the chores do not all fall on me. 

In order to ensure that all the necessary tasks are completed in a timely manner, I decided to compile a master cleaning list. Since my brain has been conditioned to think in monthly, weekly, and daily tasks thanks to my Cultivate What Matters tending list, I decided to drop my previous weekly cleaning schedule and opt for a more flexible checklist. 

In the free download, you will find a cleaning checklist broken down into the three groups outlined below:

• Daily - Action items that should be completed every single day, like washing your dishes, taking the garbage out, making your bed, and tidying up.

• Weekly - Action items that need to be performed once per week and can either be done on a specific day or any time during the week. For example, the garbage can needs to be rolled out to the curb every week on the same day, and you will be sorry if you missed it. Vacuuming however can probably happen only once per week and you can often live with going one day longer if needed.

• Monthly - Action items that only have to be completed once per month, usually around the same time each month. For example, it's a good idea to dust the ceiling fans, but no one is going to suffer if you don’t do it exactly on the “first Friday of the month.”

My cleaning schedule might not be frequent enough for you, or might even be more than you want to commit to, but it should at least give you some ideas on how to create your own schedule. As I mentioned above, I’ve linked a free one to download for your own use - I encourage you to make it your own! I saved it as a WORD .doc so that you can edit it to your liking. Is there something that I left off? I would love to know what you think! Please don’t forget to come over to our Facebook chat group, and be sure to listen to the podcast on Wednesday when we’ll continue the conversation.