Saturday, May 14, 2016

Cleaning the kitchen

Today my plan is to deep clean the kitchen.  This means dusting the light fixtures, wiping down the cabinets, wiping the appliances, the counters, the sink and even inside that warming drawer of the stove that is only used for storage.  I will then clean the oven and the microwave.  My oven has a quick clean cycle, so it's no big deal to clean it and I try to do it at least once a month.  If I have time, I will work on organizing the pantry as well.  
 


Have a great day
 
 

Friday, May 13, 2016

Thursday, May 12, 2016

Are your Dailies Done?

Are your Dailies done? 
Make sure all items for dinner are available and make a list of anything needed
Clean up all breakfast dishes. Wash them and put them away
Quick clean main bathroom: Wipe off counter and sink, wipe off mirror. Put anything away that was left out.
Make beds
Start a load of laundry
Fold and put away a load of laundry
Wipe off kitchen counters and sink after each meal
Sweep kitchen floor after dinner
Scoop litter box 
Go through mail and either throw it out, deal with it or put it into the decision file
Run the dishwasher
Unload the dishwasher
Close the kitchen at the end of the day

Meal Planning

Last night, I closed the kitchen at 8:30, watched some tv with the family and a house guests then went to bed.  I woke this morning to find every drawer and every door in the kitchen open.  My system isn't perfect, but like I have said before, we will get through this together.  I picked up all the dirty dishes and ran the dishwasher, started a load of laundry and finished my morning dailies.  

The weekly chore that I want to talk about today is meal planning.  Meal planning for me is not just writing down food and buying it.  Meal planning starts the day before I grocery shop with cleaning out the fridge and deciding if there is anything I need to use up.  I then look at the ads and plan a menu for the week.  Some people are able to plan for 2 weeks at a time, but I am just not able to think that far in advance.  I plan our main meal of the day and plan to have foods available for lunches, but sometimes we do eat leftovers at lunch. 

After the fridge is cleaned out, I make a list of any staples that appear to be running low, then I pull up the ad for the grocery store and plan my meals.  I tend to use pinterest to store my recipes because I am a very visual person.  I do not buy my entire weeks fresh fruits and vegetables on this shop, but I do buy about three days worth.  I don't know about your stores, but 3 days is about all I get out of vegetables here.  After that they start to look sad and wilted or they go bad. 

***Helpful tip****

I have found that with fruits, I can wash them and cut them up, then soak them for a few minutes in a solution of vinegar and water and then rinse them off again.  This seems to get me a few extra days use.

The morning after I have made my list, I grocery shop.  It is nice to come home to a fridge and pantry that have already been cleaned out and it makes putting groceries away a much easier task.  My pantry has been sorted and is full of dollar store containers to help me organize items.  I will post later about how my fridge is organized because now it is time to get to work!

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Are your Dailies done? 
Make sure all items for dinner are available and make a list of anything needed
Clean up all breakfast dishes. Wash them and put them away
Quick clean main bathroom: Wipe off counter and sink, wipe off mirror. Put anything away that was left out.
Make beds
Start a load of laundry
Fold and put away a load of laundry
Wipe off kitchen counters and sink after each meal
Sweep kitchen floor after dinner
Scoop litter box 
Go through mail and either throw it out, deal with it or put it into the decision file
Run the dishwasher
Unload the dishwasher
Close the kitchen at the end of the day

Why did I start this blog and What does Close the Kitchen mean?

     As you can read in my profile, I am a very busy mom.  With a house full of kids and pets, it only takes a few hours for my entire house to fall apart.  For a few years, I felt like I was riding behind the wave of mess.  I couldn't catch up.  No matter what I did or tried to do, the second I was into an hour long project, at least one of the kids was making a mess that would take me longer to clean up.  I was frustrated.  My frustration came to a head when I had to talk to a friend while standing on my front porch, holding a baby with a dirty diaper so that he didn't get into it while she was talking to me.  I was embarrassed.  I had to figure out a way to manage my household.  While this blog will include posts about daily activities That need to be finished, it will be much more than that. 
      I plan to have videos, housekeeping tips, product reviews and anything else that I thing will relate to making managing a home easier.  I am not perfect.  If you stopped by my house any day, it may or may not be clean, but if I follow my steps to managing the house, it is presentable.  One of my thoughts is that we need to touch everything we own at least once a year.  That means our days are full of organizing and cleaning and we keep only things that bring us joy or are vital to running our household.
      I love Konmari as much as the next person, but after reading her book, I threw out my ironing board, all my mops, the alarm clock and the oven.  I may refer to her methods from time to time, but for a mom with four kids, taking everything out of my closet and throwing it on a bed to sort through all in one day just isn't going to work.  I do use a modified version that is more family friendly. 
     You will also notice that in my list of chores to do daily I have a chore that is called, "Close the Kitchen".  This means that at a set time, I go into the kitchen and I wash all dishes, I wipe the counters, the stovetop, fridge and sink.  I then sweep the floor and if needed, start or unload the dishwasher.  After this point, if anyone decides they need a snack, they must reclean the kitchen if they get one.  That means hand washing their dish, sweeping where they stood.  I have found that this puts an end to me waking up with a torn up kitchen because someone decided to have a late night and made snacks at midnight.  I presently close my kitchen at around 8pm.  I do have a daughter that works a part time job and if she is getting home at 8:30, I wait until she has warmed her dinner before I close the kitchen.  Some people do this right after dinner, but I found that it was a waste of my time to sweep the floor just to have one of the many people living in my house to mess it up an hour later.  Closing the Kitchen works for me.
      I also keep a 3 ring binder with my chores listed.  I place the lists inside page protectors and mark through each chore as it is completed.  I will write more about this in a later blog.   If there are any products you would like me to review or any topics you want to discuss please leave them in the comment section.  I look forward to all of us having a clean and tidy home.
Emma

My pinterest page..a work in progress

My pinterest page. A work in progress.https://www.pinterest.com/francis8231/

Daily Chore

Wednesday is DUSTING DAY. Run around the entire house and quickly dust any surface.