Wednesday, February 15, 2006

If it's Saturday it must be kitchen day.

Blah blah blah tired. Blah blah blah sick. Blah blah blah snot.

So yesterday was Valentines Day. I had intended on going out and buying Mark a pair of slippers he was coveting, but with a sick monkey, I wasn’t able to go anywhere. Therefore Mr. Mark received nothing but cards from me and the little man. Mark came home with flowers on Monday night, so he was already ahead of the game. We ordered Mexican takeout and drank a bottle of wine after Noah went to bed. On Sunday my Mom is coming in town to babysit while Mark and I go out to a French BYOB, so we have that couple time to look forward to. While I agree that Valentine’s Day is a market driven holiday, I think of it as just one more reason to make sure that Mark knows how much I love and appreciate everything he does for me, and for us. And it’s another good excuse to make sure we have time together as a couple.

Maybe you’re Super Mom - and you can wrangle and entertain an active toddler all day while keeping your house tidy and getting things done. I however am NOT. During Noah’s waking hours I can get all of nothing done. So household tasks are put off for after bedtime or on weekends when we can take turns watching Noah and cleaning. But honestly nothing much was getting done after bedtime because we’re both beat from long days, and because there is just nothing making us do it.

Mark is a list and schedule man by nature and over the years he’s converted me. Lists help my failing memory and schedules give me a framework with which to organize our days. Though I was always pretty organized at work, it wasn’t until I was home fulltime that I became interested in becoming more organized at home. In making Me-time Mondays a part of our weekly schedule I’ve insured that we take some time for ourselves every week. And since that seems to be working so well, I’ve decided we should increase our scheduling to include some light cleaning. Call me crazy, but this week I made a chore schedule. Now every night we have a goal, a focus for what we should get done instead of looking around at our overwhelmingly messy house and not knowing where to start. For example, after Noah went to bed last night I straightened the rooms on the second floor while Mark collected and did loads of towels and linens. Today I need to do Noah’s laundry and Mark needs to concentrate on straightening the first floor. And while we both have an assignment each night, the chores don’t need to be done alone, but one of us is in charge of making sure they get done. For instance though Mark started the towels last night, I helped fold them and put them away. The schedule is really just the basics of not letting the house fall into total chaos – there is no dusting or heavy cleaning involved. We usually save those tasks for when we are expecting company, so that while we live in filth we don’t exhibit it. This whole chore schedule is new, so we’ll see how it goes. It sure makes us sound exciting, doesn’t it?

10 comments:

hazel said...

you should totally go on tour.

just kidding. it's not only important, but ADMIRABLE that you came up with that! in fact, I may steal it. I'm lucky in that since sean is off mondays and we have to pay for that day in daycare anyways, he takes bella to school and then comes home and cleans. on his own! but not everything gets done so we may wind up divvying up the rest.

we have to dust, or we may never find some of our knicknacks. it may be because of all the traffic on our street, but we get shitloads of dust in our house.

Marksthespot said...

I've noticed that Noah's name appears nowhere on the chore schedule. What's up with that? And don't get me started on the damn cats...

dasereht said...

I'm with Patrice – it's a great idea. We don't even have a monkey to wrangle, but if we didn't make chore lists, we would have a super-clean living room and bathroom (the two rooms other people see), and everything else would be a hellhole.

Enjoy the French BYOB! Which one is it?

NME said...

La Boheme. I've only been once before and it was to die for, so I'm looking forward to a return trip.

lonna said...

I always wondered how SAHMs with kids preschool age and younger get anything done. When they are tiny you spend all of your time feeding them and doing their laundry. As they get older and can do more you spend all of your time feeding them and keeping them out of trouble. We never get anything done even on weekends because both of us do things with Dermot. We're starting to give that up a little bit, but not much. We tried to come up with a schedule months ago, and I just never did it. I'm even too lazy and tired to create the damn list.

amandak said...

My mother was the list nazi, so I've rebelled by NOT making lists around here. And, my husband refuses to accept a honey-do type thing. That said, I'm TOTALLY jealous of your organization, and find myself wishing I could get motivated enough to create (and stick to) some kind of schedule. Maybe I should stop trying so hard not to be my mother, and do it because it works.

Katy said...

You're lucky that Mark is up for that. I think, nay KNOW! that there are a lot of men (maybe just around here) that would see wash towels on a honey-do list and think hell no that's woman's work. Cavemen. Good luck and good organizing!

NME said...

I would NEVER marry a man who would think washing towels was woman's work. Never. And noone should. They should be left to die alone.

Missuz J said...

I also think your chore schedule is a great idea. My E doesn't think washing towels is beneath him, he just thinks that washing towels is something you do tomorrow.

Froggylady said...

Please keep us updated with the chore schedule. We've tried different things but they don't seem to work. The schedule is a great idea!