Day Eight: Weekly Homekeeping 101

I love lists.  I love to make them, brainstorm over them, and especially to check things off when they've been completed. (Simple pleasures, simple minds, folks.)

Martha loves lists too. Not that she's told me personally, but I can tell because she always provides us with lots of lists to help us along.

One of my favorite lists:  Homekeeping.

This Homekeeping List is even organized into weekly, monthly, and seasonal items.  Sure, you've heard of Spring cleaning, but have you met Fall cleaning???

In addition to lists, I love a clean house.  But I hate cleaning.  That's why I set aside a small portion of my childrens' inheritance each week to have my house cleaned by someone else.  These ladies do the tedious, time-consuming jobs like scrubbing the toilets, cleaning the oven, and mopping the floor. This means I have time to do those daily necessities like take a shower, feed my family and sleep.

Other than this visit from my housekeeper, my weekly cleaning list pretty much looks like this:






:insert cricket sounds:






Admittedly, I have little more than a passing acquaintance with the cleaning supplies under my sink...as in when they pass me on that conveyer belt at the store.

I am the person, however, who cleans the molding, touches up the paint, and dusts all those places that are forgotten. (And there are a lot.)  I am also the person who spends so much time picking up and putting away toys, clothes, books and mail that it could be considered a hobby.  

I thought my weekly cleaning chores were covered, but looking at Martha's Weekly Housekeeping has made me feel quite the slacker.  Sure, my kitchen surfaces are cleaned weekly, but when was the last time I flushed my drain with boiling water or cleaned the inside of my trash bin?

Now, I didn't get to do everything on the list, (after all it is a WEEKLY housekeeping list) but I did get to all those "other" items that one normal person might overlook.  Among the items I completed:   flushing the kitchen drain with boiling water,  disposing of evidence that there are children in the house (i.e. removing hand and nose prints from the glass doors and windows), and cleaning the inside and outside of our trash can.*  While one might not notice that the inside of my drains are clean, I can be proud that my stainless steel trash can sparkles like Elizabeth Taylor's diamonds.


*Side note:  While I have cleaned my trash can before, it has not been cleaned since The Perfect Storm of Cleaning hit our house in 2009.  Perfect Storm =  Spring Cleaning Time + expecting out of town guests + Nesting with second child.

For a list of all these Housekeeping items, see MS Homekeeping, Weekly Homekeeping p. 24.