I am desperately wanting my home to be neater, tidier, and more attractive. We were once again considering buying a house closer to the church, but I came to my senses about the reality of our finances and stopped that process at an emotionally graceful point (when the real estate agent canceled the showing, I just never rescheduled it). But, even though I didn't even see that house and I had no chance to fall in love with it, I'm still sad about what I have.
All that angst aside, here are a few things that are going well:
1. I have typed up chore lists and I am trying to enlist the whole family in getting them done. This works best on the weekends, and it's a sweet deal to have everyone work and be done in 1/2 hour when it would have taken me a couple hours by myself.
2. We are using the kitchen timer a couple times a week for bedroom cleaning time. I set it for 20 minutes, and everyone (including me) just goes in their own room and cleans it. The kids don't actually get that much done in there, but it's nice for me to spend the time cleaning my own room, and in theory they will get theirs clean also.
3. I'm realizing that the children will just keep pushing their chaos further out into the world if they are not stopped and pushed back. If their rooms become too messy, they don't clean them so that there is room to play. No - they just bring their toys out into the living room. And if the living room gets too messy, they will find another place to play, until that is also messy. It just goes on like that, so I have to draw a line in the sand. All toys back into bedrooms by the end of every day is my goal.
4. I have a 5 gallon plastic bucket, and I'm trying to pull enough weeds from the garden to fill that everyday. It doesn't keep the garden weed-free, but it's an amount of work that I can manage and it keeps things at least under control out there. I dump the weeds into the chicken coop, and they eat them.
It's a constant balancing act, isn't it? I'm in one of those times where I have nearly given up on the weeds and am just trying to keep up with necessary inside chores. Good luck to you!
ReplyDeleteI just want to say, about the house thing, that I have been there. We checked out several houses closer to the church, etc.
ReplyDeleteNow that I left my nice affordable home in WA and got myself a nice home in MA that ultimately has made me "house poor," I would say, you are in a great position. I know the grass is always greener, but I seriously have so much anxiety over my house that it makes me want to vomit everytime I really, really think about it.
Getting things tidy is a much more affordable and sanity-saving approach. Good for you!