Maidservice? That would be.... me.

I am incredibly forgetful, scatterbrained and disorganized at the best of times. Like the time I locked myself out of the house. Twice. In the same hour. Only the second time, I didn't have an agile five year-old to squeeze through the bathroom window.

Unfortunately, this also means I spend a lot of time trying not to be scatter brained and forgetful. I spend a lot of time "planning", writing lists and notes to try and organize myself (and my brain). Yep, basically I spend a lot of time wasting time and complaining that I never have enough time. Sigh. And I can't help writing lists, I love writing lists because they always make me feel like I'm accomplishing something, even when I'm not.

I'm also pregnant (baby-brain combined with the scatterbrain not much help at all), have two extremely active children and a husband who likes to have a finger in every pie but tends to have too many pies and not enough fingers, and I'm currently working 30 hours a week. I have two days off, which doesn't necessarily mean I have two days off work, it just means I'm working somewhere else - usually cleaning or running errands at/from home. And I've been finding that everything (particularly the house) has been overwhelming my already-emotionally-fragile, hormone-riddled body.

So I came up with a "plan". Haha. To try and organize the biggest problem, the never-ending housework. Actually, I came up with a complicated and impractical (for me, anyway) Plan A, scrapped that and came up with a Plan B, and may have to find a Plan C.

Yeah (somewhat sheepish). I wrote another list. Several of them.

Here's my confusing and complicated Plan A.

The first thing I did was write down all the chores that needed to be done regularly and sort them into categories according to how often they needed to be done: 

                                                                                                                                                                

Daily Chores                                                 Twice A Week
Dishes                                                            Wipe down kitchen cupboards
Disinfect dish cloths/sponges                         Clean bathroom         
Sweep floors                                                   Laundry
Clean toilet                                                      Dusting
Disinfect door handles                                    Vacuuming
Make beds                                                      Mop floors
General tidy up of all rooms                            Wipe down fridge

Weekly                                                            Monthly
Clean and tidy laundry room                           Vacuum blinds and flyscreens
Clean piano                                                     Clean out pantry
Sort through all papers                                    Clean out entertainment unit
Wipe down all window sills                              Clear out junk accumulating areas
Clean out fridge                                               
Vacuum couches
Clean coffee table

Spring Cleaning                                                As Needed/Each Use
Wash windows                                                   Clean stove and oven
Scrub carpets                                                    Clean appliances (toaster, etc)
Wash walls                                                         Clean sink and benches
Clean out all cupboards
Clean under fridge and stove
Clean out linen cupboard
Clean out craft boxes/files
Clean out under beds and other storage areas.

                                                                                                                                                    

Then I wrote down the days of the week, Monday to Saturday and allocated each chore to a day. The I thought I would print out copies and laminate them and put one copy on the fridge so i can mark off when the chores are done with a whiteboard marker and keep another copy in my house file. 

But when I printed them the next day, I decided it was a bit pedantic, control-freakish and too confusing for me. Mistake. See how good I am at wasting time and doing things the hard way? I'm a pro.  And why would I want to print out and laminate extra copies? That's just creating more work! I then realized what a waste of time it was doing all that because I never have a problem with remembering the chores, I have a problem with actually DOING them. Don't we all (please tell me you do too)!!

So I scrapped "Plan A" and came up with "Plan B". Instead of allocating all the different chores to a day each week, I allocated a whole room to each day:

MONDAY - Laundry Room

TUESDAY - Bathroom

WEDNESDAY - Kitchen

THURSDAY -Kid's Room

FRIDAY - Lounge Room

SATURDAY -  Bedroom

Much simpler (because I need simple). And it only took me a minute to sort out that list. And it's much easier for me to remember whether I did or didn't do a particular room that day than it is to remember a whole list of chores!

Hubby takes care of his office (hopefully) and I can do other big chores as I get time, like cleaning out the linen cupboard or washing the walls.... but lets face it, they're not that high on my priority list and I probably won't get around to those ones for a long time...