Make Visitors Feel At Home With A "Welcome Guest" Box

As delightful as it might sound at times, being away from the hustle and bustle of home can be a double-edged sword.  Vacations relax and revive you, but you can still feel a little lost and displaced without the comfort of your own 'things' around you - I know I do!

If you're lucky enough to avoid a hotel and be invited to stay at a relative's or friend's home instead, it's a wonderful thing.  Good food, good company, and a comfortable bed.  Even without a separate guest room (our 'guest room' is a sofa bed in the living room), a lot can be done to accommodate overnight visitors and to make them feel at home.

One of the best ideas I ever heard about was the "Welcome Guest" box.  Upmarket hotels and bed-and-breakfasts have been doing it for years - a small box containing toiletries, first aid items and a few small luxuries is set aside to make the guest feel special.  I loved the idea, so I began doing it for myself at home.

I recycled a little straw storage box from elsewhere in the house and with each weekly grocery trip added an extra couple of items to my list - things like dental floss, spare toothbrushes, pretty soap, bandaids, hand lotion, individual purse packs of tissues and paracetemol.  Travel toiletries (mini bottles of favourite brands produced to comply with airplane regulations) are perfect for this because guests should generally be given unopened bottles, although there are exceptions depending on the product (larger bottles/packages of lotion or paracetemol, for example).

While guests should always be free to take the whole kit-and-caboodle home with them when they leave, I've found it works equally well to keep a box in the linen cupboard, and just restock it as needed.  Either way, feedback has been 100% complimentary and guests love knowing they can arrive with almost no notice and hardly anything packed and still know they're well covered with life's little basics!

Buffet Hutch Makeover - Before

So here's how it happened.  DH had some dry cleaning that needed to be put in, and since I am the resident PA around here, I found myself at the local shopping centre, pants surrendered (his, not mine) and craving a caramellatte.  I tried to round up stray friends to partake in the joy that is a freshly roasted brew, but they were all busy.  I got my coffee anyway - a new addiction, by the way - and wandered around for a bit.  It was too soon to go home, and I was in the mood for some window shopping.

Eventually I found myself at a fabric superstore, buying a couple of odds and ends, and then made my way to a local thrift store.  This particular thrift store (and most in the area) are mainly clothing-based, but they always have a few pieces of furniture in the back.  To be honest, there's rarely anything decent to be found (unless, of course, you actually want to decorate with chipped laminate furniture) but very rarely, they have a piece or two worth a second look.  That's when I saw it.

A little buffet hutch stood out from the crowd.  It had a pleasant appearance, but it needed some work.  I made an executive decision (after checking for soundness, of course) and bought it on the spot for $64.  After arranging for delivery (we don't own a trailer), I'd spent $104.  About fourteen seconds after spying it, my mind was already ticking over - specifically toward blogs the likes of this one, this one, this one and this one.  I knew I could make it over into something pretty and functional.

The panelled backing will be perfect.  The piece itself will most likely end up white or some shade of it, but the panelling and shelves will either stay a light pine stain (like the range shown here - love that look!) or the back of the hutch section will be painted a muted shade of pale blue or green (kinda like here - so beautiful!)  Also, if you look closely at the shelves in the above picture, you'll see grooves cut to display plates - so that's an option for later.

The hutch section is in better nick than the buffet section.  I love the scalloped edge at the top.

I doubt very much the unit would have been terribly expensive even new, but this is my first 'makeover' piece so for $64, I think it's a good piece to learn on.  I'll have to do something about those doors though.  They're too plain, and just chipboard panels.  I'll want to jazz them up a bit, but I have no idea where to start!  If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

It's also not a huge piece - about 32 cm (12 ½ inches) deep by 120 cm (around 4 ft) wide.  It's 'shallowness' might actually work for us rather than against us, depending on what we use it for.  It could turn into a table/unit for our (limited space) entryway.  But the allure of a new craft cabinet is pulling me hard and fast in another direction!

The inside of the buffet isn't very good, but fixable, I think.  I'm still undecided what to do in here - line the shelves (after sanding the crud away, of course) or paint them in a similar fashion to the hutch shelves.  It might depend on what we do with those ugly plain doors.

Didn't notice this until it was delivered today - oops!  While the backing of the hutch section is a nice panelling, the back of the buffet part is just ordinary chipboard.  This hole was covered over with duct tape!  The back should be easy enough to replace.

So there you have it - not an expensive wooden piece, that's for sure, but it will be fun to have a bit of a play around with!

A Basic Weekly Plan, Not A Weak Basic Plan

(image via Google)

Howdy! Glad you could join me again! Today we're talking about the Basic Weekly Plan, one of the most useful tools at a homemaker's disposal. It took me several years of marriage to cotton on to this method - what can I say? I was - ahem - 'perfecting my technique', LOL. Let's dive straight in...

The Basic Weekly Plan

In the old days, homemakers kept things simple and orderly by assigning different tasks to each day of the week. The concept was so common it became the acceptable way to clean house for decades, and for good reason - it works. Some of the benefits of this kind of plan include:

1. It effectively puts homemaking on autopilot. Can't remember how long it has been since you last scrubbed the bathtub? Use a Basic Weekly Plan and you'll never have to tax your brain again.
   
   
2. Homekeeping tasks, when scheduled in this way, become second nature. You know you'll (for example) never go more than a week between sheet changes, and as time goes on frequent 'practice' will produce an efficiency that sporadic homekeeping just can't match.
   
   
3. It keeps homekeeping down to manageable portions. If you don't pick up the iron for a month, the end result is scary. But an hour or two each Saturday afternoon is doable.
   
   
4. If you consistently complete what is on your plan, your home never really gets dirty. Messy and a bit dusty, sure (um...that's a given if you have kids!) but never more than 'the basics' away from company-ready.
   
   
5. If you are unable to keep up with homemaking due to illness or absence, your loved ones know exactly what is required. That's not to say it will be done perfectly, LOL, but it sure does help for Hubby to know when you do the wash, or shop for groceries, or tackle the bathroom.

The first thing you'll need is a blank sheet of paper and a pencil. Don't even go near the computer yet. On the left hand side of the paper, write the days of the week. Next, you'll want to start assigning the major tasks to a particular day, depending on what fits best for your family. These are the 'boulders' of your week - the big, non-moveable tasks. Here are some suggestions:


Errands Day

You may like to pick one day of the week specifically for errands. Some people can get away with an afternoon, but I'm so not one of those people! As I often travel by bus to a large shopping centre in my area, by the time I have dropped the kids off at school, jumped on the bus, completed my errands, factored in lunch, returned on the bus and picked the kids up at school, that's a whole day gone. Over time, I've worked out an approach that works best for me, and schedule special errands for this day, Friday. It cuts down on 'just popping out to --' trips for the rest of the week (I keep a running list of what I need to find, return and shop for during my next Friday trip and add to it as the week progresses - then I just grab the list as I head out the door on Friday morning) and lunch out on that day is my reward for getting through another week! I often meet friends and hang out, or call in at supermarkets not in my usual area to pick up their loss leaders. Reducing these little side trips also saves money. If I didn't schedule an Errands Day, I'd be going to and from constantly all week, wasting time, money and energy. Restricting my errands to one day per week (unless it is for something urgent or special, that is) forces me to think about a purchase well in advance, and helps me determine if I really need it or if I couldn't find it cheaper elsewhere. As it is, I savour my Fridays!


Grocery Shopping

I don't usually include my regular weekly shopping trip on Errands Day. This is mostly because our area starts their sales on a Monday and I'd already determined Friday works best for Errands Day for other reasons. Groceries are bought more locally than my Friday trips generally are and only require about an hour of my time, so I build it into the existing homekeeping duties of that day (more about that in future posts).

When working out the best time for your main shopping trip, factor in things like your husband's work schedule (does he like you to complete this while he's at work, or does he prefer to come with you? Don't laugh, it happens!), the day your grocery stores begin their sales, the day your main store has additional sales (some stores in my area bring out unadvertised sales on Thursday and Friday) and where your kids, if you have them, will be. You may prefer to slot in shopping for groceries on Errands Day - if you do, you'll be one up on me!


Day of Rest

In your week, there should be at least one day of rest. If you're a church-goer, naturally this would be Sunday or sometimes Saturday if you observe the Sabbath. Try not to schedule any major homekeeping tasks on this day. Your own definition of 'no work' will come into play, of course. You'll see from my own example below that I avoid most homekeeping but I do allow some 'wriggle-room' for things I consider to be 'interests' or 'fun things' - baking for the week ahead, for example, is tackled on Sundays. For some, this would be work, but for me, its more of a chance to goof off with my kids :)


Wash Day

I've toyed with the best way to do laundry for, oh, about a bazillion years. The system I've finally settled on is 100% flexible and will likely not fit with everyone's idea of perfection, but it works pretty well for us.

Our Wash Day is Saturday. This does NOT mean all laundry is left until Saturday. Not only would that be completely impossible to finish, but its also horrendously impractical. During winter when sunlight is at a premium (we're heading into the cooler months now down here), I need to be on the ball if I want to dry the clothes on the outside line. We don't have an inside clothes rack at the moment, and we try not to use the dryer, but life happens and sometimes the weather can't be helped. A full week's worth of laundry in one day? Good grief! No, Wash Day is reserved for things like towels, sheets, and work and school uniforms. Towels are done first and hung early to take advantage of a full day of sunlight (they take longer to dry), sheets next (because they're big and need lots of line space), and other bedding (things like throw rugs or the odd quilt) and school and work gear bring up the rear. Sometimes, if the last load doesn't go out on the line until the afternoon, I have to finish things off in the dryer (still far, far cheaper) and yes, this is several loads worth, but the only other homekeeping tasks I schedule on this day are the ironing (I rarely iron regular clothes until we need them, so this is set aside for Hubby's work shirts, which are ironed straight from the washing machine - and this can easily be slotted in while waiting for the next load to run through) and some minor yard work (also thrown in between loads).

So what about the rest of the laundry? Its incorporated into my Basic Daily Plan (more soon) and takes care of our everyday clothing and, depending on how industrious I am on any given day, some of what I might have otherwise left until Saturday. One load is started when I wake (generally the clothing) and then I reboot the wash during my morning housework block, hanging, folding and putting away as needed. If I start a second load, it means we've all been incredibly messy the day before, certain things (like jeans or brand new items) need a load of their own, or I'm getting a kick start on the weekend wash. Sometimes I miss days - and that's fine too. I just catch up over the next day or two. Laundry is just one of those things that never quits, unfortunately, LOL.

By my calculations, that leaves me four complete days in which to finish up the rest of the housework, with one day each taken out for Errands Day, Wash Day and Rest Day. This is where it gets interesting!

Take a walk around your home, noting each of the rooms/areas. Here's my list, to get you started:

• Main Bedroom & Robe
• Bedroom 2
• Bedroom 3
• Bedroom 4
• Bathroom
• Laundry Room
• Ensuite
• Kitchen
• Family Room
• Loungeroom & Office Area
• Entrance & Hall

You can see from this list that I have combined some rooms/areas. This comes into play later, when deciding which days to schedule each room or area on - and some areas are small or don't require much work. We have 11 main rooms/areas in our home, not including outside. Here's how I've spread them out in my Basic Weekly Plan:

(click to enlarge)

When deciding when to schedule all these tasks, you'll probably need to consider things like:

• Do you homeschool? (If you do, your Basic Weekly Plan will look entirely different to mine as I don't have my kids at home during the day)
• Does anyone in your family play sport? On which day? (Perhaps a Saturday morning game?)
• Do you volunteer or otherwise work outside of the home?
• Do you undertake middle-of-the-week church activities such as a lunchtime bible study or a ladies' group?
• Are there any other commitments during your week which could create a daytime scheduling conflict?
• Does your husband prefer certain things to be done on certain days? (For example, does he host a men's group on Thursday nights and would a spruce-up of the living room be better scheduled for that morning? Does he enjoy a full cooked breakfast on Saturdays and could you make batter etc the night before?)
• Do you entertain friends regularly? On which day?
  

...and so on. For my own example above, I thought about what our week normally looks like. Grocery shopping on Monday means a clean out of the fridge is appropriate on Sunday (though the bulk of my menu planning takes place reading the Saturday morning circulars, I usually take all weekend to finalise meals for the week ahead, and a Sunday clean-out gives me a 'heads-up' on leftovers that can be incorporated into the menu). The 'wet areas' are all scheduled for the same day (Tuesday) when I will already have the mop and similar cleaning gear out. Bedrooms 2, 3 and 4 (the kids' rooms) are all lumped in on the same day because (in theory!) the kids are responsible enough to clean their own rooms now - all I really have to do is dust, vacuum and change sheets, and three rooms' worth of that can easily be done in my housework block. Our kitchen and family room is an open-plan layout so tackling them on the same day makes sense. You get the idea!

When you've completed the first draft of your Basic Weekly Plan, post it somewhere obvious, like the fridge. Don't bother prettying it up on the computer - it's a waste of time. You'll be changing things around anyway, as you work your way through the first couple of weeks - some tasks will fit better on different days and you won't know which until you jump in and get your feet wet. You do NOT need this to be perfect straight up (I've fallen into that trap more often than I can count!) When you've settled into a nice rhythm, then you can print out a cute copy with graphics for your Home Management Binder or, as I like to do, laminate a copy to stick to the pantry or fridge door - where its harder to ignore, LOL.

In my Basic Daily Plan (coming soon!) I'll cover just how I make this all work day to day. Please don't misunderstand though - things get changed ALL THE TIME. Several weeks ago, for example, we dropped to an even more basic version of 'the bare basics' as I recovered (slowly!) from pneumonia. That's the nature of homemaking. There are other days when I'll have the time to slip in a short walk to a nearly small shopping centre (strip mall?) to return books to the library, pick up some loss leaders at the supermarket there, or visit the chicken butcher. Any of these plans are examples only.

Happy homemaking!

The Five Homekeeping Tools Every Woman Should Use

(image via Google)

Remember the feeling you had when, as a small girl, you would wander into Grandma's immaculate, vintage kitchen and wonder at her ability to keep things neat and shiny while still serving up a full roast dinner - for lunch no less! - without breaking a sweat? How did she do it? How did any depression or wartime bride manage?

It's really quite simple. Homekeepers of the past planned. Everything from managing the household finances to calculating how many jars of preserves could be put away that year based on different crop yields was carefully considered before lifting a single finger. In our own times, things have changed dramatically. Just take a walk through your local grocery store's freezer aisle and marvel at the amount of pre-prepared, packaged 'convenience' food on offer. We've grown busy - too busy to whip up our own chicken nuggets so we rely on chemical-laden and expensive alternatives.

Now, not every modern convenience is a bad thing. The invention of the Internet and dishwashers rank pretty highly in my book, LOL. But in our busy lives we are losing our grip on the pleasures of a well run, organized home. A certain degree of mess is acceptable now. Women work. Children are demanding. Marriages dissolve. Things happen. Different problems, perhaps, than our grandmothers had to face, but all things that take our time and energy.

The trick is to work smarter, not harder.

In this chaotic little home of mine, there are five homekeeping 'building blocks' I use which save my bacon every time. If nothing else gets done, if the kids are having a particularly horrid day, if Talented Hubby needs some extra help with a project or an ear after a long day - these are the basics I aim for.

• Basic Weekly Plan
• Basic Daily Plan
• Morning Routine
• Afternoon Routine
• Evening Routine

The actual contents of these five lists change frequently in this house - but that's the beauty of the 'system'. It's what works for YOU, at THIS SEASON in YOUR life in YOUR home. Not your mother in law's home. Not the homes of the 'totally together' Proverbs 31 ladies at church. Just yours.

A tip - never, ever wait until your Plans are 'perfect' before jumping in. The fact is, they'll never be perfect and you'll still be living in a messy home a year from now. Even if you don't do your Detailed Cleaning for a week or two, your home should still be pretty presentable if you've kept up with the five tools above.

Some of you die-hard Binder fans will recognize the basic format as harking from FlyLady. I love Marla, I honestly do, but when I was a FlyBaby, I often felt smothered - the emails were never in the correct timezone for me down here in Australia and my computer wasn't on all day to hear the 'ping' of a new email coming in anyway. Her Zones never worked for me. And - gasp! - while I loved receiving decluttering testimonials, I began to get annoyed with the frequent product advertisements (um...you don't really need a FlyLady branded calendar or timer, *smile*). One day, I 'decluttered' her emails, and it felt great. I still acknowledge her influence on much of my approach to homemaking now, but I don't feel the need to 'dress to my shoes' every morning either. As with any organizing approach, a good attitude to keep in mind is this: take what you need, and leave behind everything else without guilt - don't sweat it! (That goes for anything you read here too!)

Over the next few days, I'll be detailing my Daily and Weekly Plan, and my Routines. Probably most of the individual entries won't work for you, but use them as a jumping off point and devise your own. Do NOT worry about setting up a pretty binder yet - concentrate on the execution, not the beautification.

Do I follow my Magic Five every single day or week? Heck no. But they form the framework over which our daily life is stretched and basically, the whole family would collapse without them, so they must be important, right? LOL.

Stay tuned!

The Wonderful World of Lists

Oh gosh, I just had an overwhelming feeling of being at the bottom of a very, very deep hole, commitments wise, LOL.

Time for a BIG. FAT. LIST.

Does anyone else 'do' a Master To-Do List? I've already got a template somewhere on the computer that I'm thinking of putting up in the Printables section for others to use. I'm also thinking of creating another template that lists short, medium and long term goals all on the one page. Sort of a 'one stop shop' for keeping on track. What do you think?

At some point I'm going to set myself a challenge to follow my Routines to a tee for an entire week, specifically the bits about being in bed by 11pm and doing the Evening Routine before the kids go to bed so my evenings aren't spent madly scrambling to get stuff prepped for the next day. And then I can relax and enjoy my crafts or TV. I follow the Routines now at a rate of about 80%, LOL.

D-Day for yet another go at 'eating healthy' and 'getting fit' (no diets here) is Monday 2nd September. And I'll leave it at that because whenever I talk up these attempts and fail, I feel horrible. 'Nuff said.

Another quick dose of kudos goes to Tina of Mummified Times Five for (once again) selflessly sharing large chunks of her free time this past week to help me nut out HTML. It's slowly sinking in Tina. Slowly (LOL).

Cheers,
Lizzie

Lizzie's Basic Weekly Plan

There's a rumor going around Bloggityville that I am super-organised. Untrue...so very untrue, LOL. But having a plan for each day of the week does help to minimise the 'headless chook' feeling, and so, because I want you all to keep your heads, I offer up my Basic Weekly Plan for inspiration. Pick what you like, and ignore the rest. Remember, what works for me, may not work for you.

Those familiar with Flylady (God rest her moderately disturbing sense of order...) will already be up to speed on one of the 'cleaning schedule camps' - the Zone Method. You spend a whole week in any given zone (sometimes made up of a couple of rooms or areas), and last time I checked, she works on having five zones to the average house (more or less). That never really worked for me. I like to have a set plan for Monday, a set plan for Tuesday, and so on. Autopilot Housekeeping for Dummies, if you like!

Lizzie's Basic Weekly Plan

~ Monday ~

Bedroom 2

Bedroom 3

~ Tuesday ~

Laundry Room
Bathroom
Ensuite

~ Wednesday ~

Kitchen
Family Room
Desk Day
Menu Planning

~ Thursday ~

Main Bedroom & Robe

Loungeroom
Grocery Shopping

~ Friday ~

Entrance & Hall
Bedroom 4
Errands Day (library, fruit & veg shop, butcher, post office, etc)

~ Saturday ~

Weekly Yard Blessing (the usual yardwork)
Misc Laundry (school uniforms, work uniforms, towels, sheets, other bedding)
Home Project (1 hour)

~ Sunday ~

Baking Day (I try to aim for a cake or muffins and some cookies, for the kids lunches for the week ahead)
Set Aside Returnables (donations, library books, borrowed items)
Pamper Day (random pottering about the house, reading the paper etc)

As you can see, most of the nitty-gritty housework stuff is deliberately scheduled for weekdays, when the kids are in school. On the weekends, all bets are usually off!

Saturday is a big washing day but if we start it early it isn't too bad, and its during the rebooting of all those loads that we pick a project we need to work on around the house (cleaning out tupperware cupboard, reorganising pantry, putting photos into albums and so on) and Hubs starts on the yard, with me (and the kids) helping as time permits.

Sundays are very loose, just the way we like them :) We sleep later, read the paper, and Mama relaxes until the oven goes on for baking in the afternoon.

I have a section in my Home Management Binder (update coming soon) for Focus Cleaning, and it is from those lists that I work on the applicable room depending on the day. I have a two-hour window allocated toward housework a day which I've worked out is plenty if I don't dawdle or get distracted :P Because it will only be a week before that particular room pops up again in my rotation, it never gets filthy enough to require a mammoth cleaning session.

Cheers,
Lizzie

Creating a Beautiful Home

Two years ago today, we moved into this house.

I was thrilled. Though Hubs and I have lived together for several years at that point, we'd never owned any of the (several) houses we'd lived in. In the fourteen months prior to applying for a home loan, we managed to save $18k to add to our original account balance of $10k, making our deposit a very healthy $28k. We did without just about everything to amass those savings, mind you. But it was so worth it.

I remember the phone call that told us our offer had been accepted despite the fact our 'maximum' price was the seller's 'minimum' price. They'd advertised the property with a $20k window, and would absolutely have gotten much more money than we eventually paid because the market was booming in our area at the time. We still can't figure it out. It probably helped that we were pre-approved for finance and could move at whatever timeframe the seller needed, but I like to think there was a little providence involved somewhere :)

We had five weeks to pack up and move, and they were the longest five weeks of my entire life (well, outside of the last five weeks of each pregnancy, at least!). There's nothing like a new house waiting for you at the other end to kickstart a mammoth decluttering enterprise - we purged and cleaned and purged some more. I was positively convinced that I would instantly morph into a Martha Stewart-type woman, who was ridiculously houseproud and would show the new place off to its best advantage.

I did not become that woman.

For the first few months, every time I turned into the driveway I felt truly humbled, that we'd achieved something which had been a goal for what seemed like eons. Every dollar we didn't spend on the nice coffee, the nice spaghetti sauce, yes, even the nice toilet paper (LOL) was one more dollar - one more brick - into this place. The holidays we didn't take during the preceding few years probably paid for the fourth bedroom we desperately needed by that stage.

And then something happened. Over time, I lost focus. I still do what needs to be done about the place, but the pride I felt when I first moved in has mellowed. I don't clean enough. I don't stick to my routines as often as I should. I don't entertain the way I'd like to. Housework makes me feel almost resentful.

This is NOT what I wanted it to be like!

Over the last several days I've discovered several new (and some old) homemaking blogs, most of them Christian, and read with interest. I found one particularly good church website which gave a list of Bible Studies for women on topics such as homemaking, motherhood, beautiful womanhood and marriage. I've come to realise that I need to move my 'rear into gear' over some issues about my home.

Mrs Mabyn Clark, speaking via this article on the LAF website, gave this quote some time back:

"What are the cornerstones to running an efficient household? I would
have to say they are clean laundry, a clean kitchen (especially clean dishes)
and three square meals a day. Without a vigilant attitude toward these things,
we can hinder any other efforts we make in our homes."

She's hit on the three areas I struggle the most with, right there! My kitchen - blessfully clean and tidy today (probably because of the fact the inlaws are on their way, LOL!) - is usually the worst area of the entire house. It's not uncommon during particularly bad weeks to have to wash a particular dirty pot or pan to cook dinner. It's a serious failing of mine that I'm trying to overcome (but hey, look over here, a CLEAN kitchen! A clean one!).

I want to tackle a few major areas of the home in the next couple of months. First, its about time Boofah got his own room. That fourth bedroom we so desperately needed? For the last two years, we've used it as a combo gym/junk room! It needs attention, and badly. I also want to organise my kitchen cupboards so that they are more efficient. Remove and donate all of the old crockery and tupperware I no longer use. And seriously work on maintaining a menu plan, even if that menu plan extends only toward what I mention in the right sidebar, all loosey-goosey like.

What do you do to promote a feeling of peace and 'homeliness' to your place?

I recently discovered 'Waffle Bars', by Time and Again - heavenly scented 'melts' designed for oil burners. They come in little packs shaped to appear like a block of eight chocolate squares, but coloured, of course, depending on the scent. I got a bar of honeysuckle and one of lemon verbena. You drop a couple of squares into the 'bowl' of an oil burner, add a tealight candle and away you go. They release the fragrance as they melt and when not in use, harden up. You can re-melt and re-harden them as often as the fragrance lasts. Some of the 'flavours' include Chocolate Truffles, Sugar Cookie and Nutty Taffy Apple. You can mix and match the scents to create your own, such as Sugar Cookie + Spice = Sugar and Spice. How delicious! They're made in Canada but down here in Australia I've picked them up in Barbara's Home & Gift stores for about $8 (AUD). One block of 8 squares has lasted me about two months.

Cheers,
Lizzie

Weekly Home & Weekly Yard Blessings

About once a week I see fit to try to accomplish the following things, LOL. The Weekly Yard Blessing is always on a Saturday morning but the Weekly Home Blessing is wherever I manage to slot it in :P

Lizzie's Weekly Home Blessing

1. Dust
2. Sweep / Vacuum (main living areas and bedrooms, inc under furniture)
3. Mop (main living areas and bathrooms)
4. Mirrors
5. Fingerprint Patrol (there are always some lurking!)
6. Change sheets
7. Empty bins

Lizzie's Weekly Yard Blessing

1. General tidy up (front and back yards)
2. Mow lawns (front and back yards, alternate weeks)
3. Trim the lawn edges (if needed)
4. Sweep paths (front and back yards)
5. Pull weeds (15 mins)
6. Prune (15 mins)
7. Cobweb Patrol (verandah and pergola areas)
8. Wipe down outdoor furniture
9. Refill bird feeder and birdbath

Cheers,
Lizzie

A Typical School Day Around Lizzie's Home

Even though I don't homeschool, I thought it would be helpful to add this post as a permanent fixture in the 'schedules' section in the right hand sidebar. Cause, you know, you might wanna peak over the bloggityville fence from time to time.

This is how a typical school day looks for us. Also, if Hubs wants to drop in and peruse this list he might find an answer to the question 'How hard can it be now the kids are all at school?". Ahem.

Lizzie's School Day Schedule

7:00 am ~ School prep (Master J needs to be ready by 7:45 for taxi pick-up)

8:35 am ~ School run (spend some time in Boofah's classroom, then some time in Miss Moo's)

9:15 am ~ Exercise (usually my daily walk)

10:30 am ~ Break (sometimes a shower is required, plus there's morning tea to eat)

11:00 am ~ Housework (I don't wanna, but I have to, darn it)

1:00 pm ~ Lunch

1:30 pm ~ Study

3:00 pm ~ School run (mad dash home to be here for when Master J's taxi drops him off around 3:40 pm)

4:00 pm ~ Afternoon Routine (kids read to us, have a snack, get changed, have computer time etc)

5:00 pm ~ Dinner prep / Break (depending on what needs doing)

5:30 pm ~ Dinner prep

6:30 pm ~ Dinner

7:00 pm ~ Evening Routine (baths, make lunches, tidy up after dinner etc)

8:00 pm ~ Quiet Time (pick an activity)

8:30 pm ~ Kids' Bedtime / Mum's Down Time

10:30 pm ~ Prep for bed (shower, jammies, etc)

11:00 pm ~ Bedtime

On weekends, and during the school holidays, this list changes enormously. We sleep later for a start, and it seems I finish cleaning up from one meal/snack and they're asking for the next one, LOL. And the list is really just a guideline. Today, for example, I'm ignoring the housework and putting in some extra study time. But this is the aim in an ideal world :P

Cheers,
Lizzie

The Evening Routine

My Evening Routine starts as soon as we finish eating, usually around 7:00. The kids jump in the bath (in shifts!) and while they're occupied I get started. Daddy helps when he's home, but if he's working, they're old enough to be left in the bath by themselves (I check frequently nonetheless).

Lizzie's Evening Routine

* Clear away dinner dishes
* Load and run dishwasher
* Kitchen Patrol
* General tidy
* Quick sweep
* Lay out clothes for tomorrow
* Check school bags
* Pre-make lunches
* Load washing machine
* Cup of tea and Think About Tomorrow

Of all the routines, the Evening Routine is by far the most useful. It cuts my workload during the next morning by at least half, and there's no 'headless chicken' feeling to contend with. This is especially important as I often don't get my first cup of tea and start feeling human until after I see Master J off to the taxi :) If I sleep in, I can go from waking up to pushing a fully fed, dressed and packed up kid out the door in twenty minutes. This is very important!

The aim is to get the Evening Routine done (and the kids' dried off and dressed in jammies) by the kids' bedtime at 8:30. All the really good TV programs come on after 8:30 and it means I can relax and have what I like to call Mum's Down Time for a couple of hours :)

At 10:30 (okay, in an ideal world, LOL) I prep for bed - teeth, shower, etc - and hit the sack by 11:00. Like I said...in an IDEAL world :P

As with all the routines, things chop and change quite a bit along the way. Some days we go off track completely. If, for example, I'm out doing errands, I might skip the Mid-Morning Routine altogether. I'm extremely loose with the execution of all of the routines, LOL, but they do help keep me on track.

Cheers,
Lizzie

The Afternoon Routine

When I walk in the door after the school run, its bedlam. Shoes, jackets, school bags and notes go flying. Mama goes a little crazy in this first hour after school :)

Apart from the necessity of feeding the children their after school snack (think a nest full of baby chicks all clamouring for food and you've about hit the mark), if I can manage to do just two or three other things during this time it makes life so much easier later on in the evening.

Lizzie's Afternoon Routine

* Help the kids change out of their uniforms (if it's clean enough to wear again the next day, it gets folded to be reworn - no point playing the martyr!)
* Afternoon tea (the standard deal is whatever they've got leftover in their lunchboxes, with a tub of yoghurt thrown in for good measure)
* Unpack / repack school bags (check for notes, dig up library books for the next day etc)
* Reading Time (each kid has to read to a grown up)
* Fold / iron clothes (I'm happy if I can just iron two or three things...)
* Hotspot (there's always something that needs doing!)

The main purpose of the Afternoon Routine is to kill as many birds with as few stones as possible. Repacking the bags now helps me later when I do the Evening Routine, reading with the kids now helps minimise the (worse!) craziness of the kids' bedtime routines, and so on. At a pinch, its the one that get drops first, but most days I try hard to stick to the plan. The Afternoon Routine is (loosely) pencilled in for 4:00 - 5:00.

Then comes another break until around 5:30. Mama takes a couple of headache pills and sends the kids to their rooms for some peace! (Just kidding....sort of!)

I try to get dinner going by 5:30. Sometimes I can get away with starting later, if its a really simple dinner. I also try to get dinner on the table by around 6:30. I'm laughing inside my head as I type this though because I can't remember the last time I actually managed to achieve this, but its the ideal, LOL. The days are getting shorter down my way and little tummies somehow get hungrier sooner with the cooler weather :)

Cheers,
Lizzie

The Mid-Morning Routine

Okay...so after I've walked in the door after taking the kids to school (you'll notice that whenever I talk about my daily routines they're usually geared toward school days - on non-school days we just kind of sloth about, LOL) it's usually around 9:30, maybe a little earlier.

It took me a long time to get around to doing this, but I have been making myself carve out about an hour for exercise each and every day at around this time. I'm fresh, I'm not bogged down by the inevitably-long To Do list (yet!) and the house is quiet. If I plan to go for a walk, then I dress for walking prior to taking the kids to school and begin my walk from there, rather than coming home first (we live only a few minutes walk away from our school anyway). Sometimes I don't walk, and sometimes even if I do, I just go for half an hour, but I like to leave that hour long window just in case. I usually finish up (including a quick shower) at around 10:30. I take half an hour to have a snack and a rest, then the 'real' work starts from around 11:00.

Lizzie's Mid-Morning Routine

* What's For Dinner? (I take meat out of the freezer, set aside ingredients, that sort of thing)
* Reboot laundry (hang out, throw on another load etc)
* Kitchen Patrol (I finish cleaning the kitchen after breakfast, generally get organised)
* General Tidy - main living areas (the kids have usually left lots of 'stuff' around in the school prep rush)
* Make beds
* Lay out after school clothes
* Hotspot
* Focus Cleaning tasks

I leave about 2 hours, from 11:00 until 1:00 for the above routine. It's pretty flexible. Depending on what's on my Focus Cleaning list for that day, it might only take me an hour, or it might take me two-and-a-half hours. The average is around 2 hours though. This is a good, steady pace, without any distractions, LOL.

I stop for another half hour to have some lunch and a rest.

At 1:30, I crack open my books and try my hardest to get in some quality, non-kid, minimal-noise studying in. I've figured out if I make myself sit down, much the same as if I make myself take that hour long exercise stint, then I'm far less likely to get bogged down with assignments. Little bites, little chunks. It works. Sort of. LOL.

At 3:00 I put the books down and race off to get the kids from school.

Now as you can see this is less of a Mid-Morning Routine and more of a 'middle of the day routine', LOL, but oh well. You get the idea!

Cheers,
Lizzie

The Morning Routine

Firstly, I'm back...but more on that later...

I thought I'd throw in a little post about routines. Those of you familiar with Flylady would know the concept back-to-front and sideways. Personally, I've always struggled with the execution of routines, but nonetheless, I have some, LOL.

Around our house, especially on school mornings, we would not function without some semblance of structure. My Morning Routine goes something like this:

Lizzie's Morning Routine

* Run washing machine
* Kids' breakfast
* Finish lunches
* Master J dressed - ready by 7:45 (he's picked up by taxi)
* Boofah and Miss Moo dressed
* Breakfast and Think About Today
* Dress to shoes
* School run

As I said, some mornings are better than others and often whole chunks will be skipped altogether (LOL), but when I'm on top of my game, this is how things look.

One thing that makes an enormous difference to how my mornings go is my Evening Routine, but we'll talk more about that later. If I'm on the ball, I pretty much just have to wake up, put some cereal in front of the kids, take the refridgerated sandwiches and fruit from the fridge and throw them into the lunchboxes that are already on the benchtop (pre-making what I can of the lunches as part of my Evening Routine is a lifesaver), help the kids to dress, and make sure we leave the house on time. I've pre-made lunches the night before for so long now that if I ever had to scramble to make them in the mornings I'd probably have a mini-meltdown.

By the time I'm back from the school run, the laundry is ready to be hung out and I'm already one chore down my list :)

Stay tuned (probably later today as I'm coming down off blog-withdrawals after the holiday!) for the rest of my routines...

Cheers,
Lizzie

Life Would Be Easier If Clothes Were Optional

I hate laundry. Along with many, many other women I suspect. It's not so much the physical act of throwing on a load of clothes that bothers me, its the sorting. And the folding. And the putting away. And the knowledge deep in your heart that this will never end. Ever.

My laundry room is a comfortable sized room, with a door leading out to the side of the house (a shortcut round to the clothesline) and the usual ammenities in the form of the tub, the washing machine, a dryer perched on a waist-height cupboard DH knocked up one day and an upright freezer. Throw in a couple of shelves and that's about it.

I use the dryer too much (*gasp!*) and as a result, the tops of all the appliances are covered in a thick layer of dust. Okay, so the thickness of this layer is determined by my own laziness in using a feather duster up there, but regardless of why, the dust is a prominent feature. If I've been particularly neglectful, the dust has also crawled up the wall, around the skirting boards and in between the appliances and cupboards on the floor. Asthmatics wouldn't dare go near it.

The room is cheery enough - as anything remotely associated with laundry can be - but I don't like going in there much. I usually have several loads of laundry backing up and after a couple of weeks of hard study slog, I have many, many more than that currently wanting attention. It's sad. So very sad!

But today I rolled up my sleeves and sorted the laundry. I won't go into details but even if we continue to wear today's clothes into May, I'll probably still be behind, LOL. I stain treated things that I hadn't even realised I still owned, let alone hadn't washed. (Note to self: soak Boofah's sheets immediately after a midnight blood nose next time). I'm having a hard time getting a couple of stains out of a few things but I will perservere. Most of the kids clothes are knock-about type things, stuff purchased for a few bucks a piece and which I don't get upset over if they get a bit marked over time. Thus is life with two boys who, even now after 8 and 6 years, can't seem to find their mouths when they eat.

Oh, but there's so MUCH laundry to catch up on...sigh. I figured I'd be much more inclined to spend the necessary time in the laundry room if the dust and clutter was gone, so that was my project for today. I had to vacuum dust from the wall at one point. Yes, true. I threw out 7 empty boxes of washing powder which is roughly 4 months supply. I had a plastic grocery sack full of dryer lint hanging on the back of the door - and I have no idea why. But it's getting there. The next step is to pretty up the space a bit. I'm going to put in a couple of picture hooks and put up some cheery pictures. And I'm going to try really, really hard not to rely on the dryer so much (though as we're heading into winter, this will become a bit more difficult). I'm going to invest in a super-dooper indoor drying rack. I'm going to actually stick to my own Routines and include laundry every day. I'm going to FOLD and IRON and PUT AWAY. And I'm going to do a weekly spruce up so that the laundry room doesn't disintegrate into such a state again.

I'm off to reboot my washer. See you in May, LOL.

Cheers,
Lizzie

Country Decorating

A couple of months ago, on one of my many internet wanderings, I came across HGTV's Dream Home for 2007. I came this close to swooning. It's pretty much what I consider my own dream home. That is, if I was mayor of Fantasy Land, LOL.

Our actual house (back in the real world) is a standard suburban family home with four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a modest backyard. We fell in love with it instantly, but we were panicking over putting in an offer because the previous owners had specified a 'price window' that spanned $20k and their minimum in that window was our maximum. We had no room to move on that offer either, but we put it in anyway and hoped for the best. Our offer was accepted within about four hours. We stood there shaking our heads at each other - how on earth did we manage that?

I'm still in love with the house, but after having lived in it for nearly two years now, there are some personal touches I'd like to add. We purposely sought out a house that didn't require renovation or any 'add-ons' like new paint or carpet, because we knew when we were saddled with a mortgage for the first time in our lives, we probably weren't going to be able to afford to spruce up.

I'd love to deck the place out in full country style, from the furnishings and linens, to the pictures that hang on the wall, but I married a much more, um, contemporary person than I am (LOL) and he's a little hesitant! I did, however, buy myself a five-subject notebook that I'm going to use as a 'decorating folder' to cut and paste in pictures from magazines. There are some really lovely ideas floating around cyberspace too. If I ever get around to actually attempting such things, I'll take photos and post about it :)

Cheers,
Lizzie

The Gardening Bug

(print courtesy of www.allposters.com)

To the mirth of everyone in my extended family, I cannot keep a plant alive more than three weeks. I try, I really do, but that seems to be the magical number. I don't know my perenials from my annuals and I had to ask my mother-in-law how to prune my rose bush.

The ironic thing about this is that when we moved into this, our first 'real' home, 18 months ago, I swore blind I'd be the most houseproud woman anyone knew. Apparently the 'blind' part stuck because now I simply don't notice the clutter, LOL - and that extends to the garden.

What I know about gardening could fit onto one (very small) page. Yet today I did something I will probably end up regretting - I decided to get stuck into our backyard garden beds. We have a simple and relatively small garden - small expanse of lawn in an L-shape with a long edged garden bed running along the back fence and a very narrow garden bed running down the side of the house. We noticed a couple of weeks ago that one of the bushes/shrubs/things with leaves in the long garden bed had died. We didn't even notice it was ill. We don't even know what it WAS, for that matter. We just realised one day it was brown from root to tip. So today I cut it down.

It was strangely satisfying to hack at the pile of kindling with my bare hands (I am woman, hear me ROAR!) and DH's handsaw. What once was a bush is now a rootball with a few sticks point out of the ground. I'm going out there later tonight and digging up the stump.

At any rate, as I was imagining everyone who has ever wronged me and ripping this thing to pieces, it struck me what a perfect opportunity I had to teach myself gardening. First of all, the garden bed is already laid out, edged and has an irrigation system. Second, it's in a spot that gets sun for about 4-6hrs a day. Originally I was thinking vegies, but my limited knowledge tells me they are water-guzzlers and we're on water restrictions where we are at the moment - we're only allowed to water on Saturdays, after dark (and not all night either). It's coming into winter now so rainfall will help but come next spring/summer, the plants need to survive on very little water.

After I cut down the bush, I went to Bunnings (hardware/garden store) with the inlaws and looked at a few different drought-hardy plants. I have a few ideas :) DH, the usually resistant half of the partnership, is giving me a short leash to plan out and execute a garden, probably just in that small spot where the bush once lived to begin with. I am thinking of planting some lavender, federation daisies and a type of chrysanthemum (whose name escapes me right now, LOL) that gives masses of colour but survives well with low water. The garden bed itself needs a bit of improving...we have sandy soil (I had to look up the difference *grin*) but its looking good - apparently lavender grows well in this area. DH will be well pleased as the flowers will bring in the butterflies and bees and he can take photos until he bursts.

I'll take a couple of photos of the areas and you garden folk out there can help me plan :)

Cheers,
Lizzie

Chore Charts & Pocket Money

With the New Year approaching fast, and my children coming to the age where my husband and I have decided to begin pocket money (they are 8, 6 and 5), we've decided to implement a two-pronged attack :)

The issues of pocket money and chores will, at this stage, remain separate. They will get paid an amount equal to half their age (so $4, $3 and $2.50) because we want them to experience making sound financial choices when the amounts are small. Technically speaking, they will be paid this amount irrespective of the chores arrangement - so its more like we're beginning two new systems and the timing is coincidental. In reality, we'll play it by ear.

The pocket money will be divided into two - half immediately goes into their piggy banks (which periodically get deposited to their savings accounts), and half is kept in their wallets/coin purse and is free to be spent. Money given as gifts (birthdays, Christmas) is free to spend in full, though Mum and Dad will encourage the 50-50 rule whenever possible. We'll make them up their own booklets showing their savings account history (our local bank doesn't do this as a general rule anymore with the type of accounts the kids will have) and take them along with us when we visit the bank so they have concrete experience with how money is handled, deposited, stored and withdrawn.

As well as money handling skills, I want to spend a large part of 2007 concentrating on their general behaviour and 'part of the family' skills. General co-operation and helping around the house needs some work! (*grin*)

We've been doing the Routines with the kids for quite some time - we're a bit looser during the school holidays (it's summer holidays for another four weeks here in Australia) so most of the benefits won't be seen until school starts up again in the last week of January, but now seemed like the perfect time to go that one step further.

We've chosen Thursdays for Payday, so our Chore Charts begin on that day.



I just got these laminated today. I've chosen eight main chores:

Morning Routine
Make your bed
Keep your bedroom tidy
Bring your clothes to the Laundry
Afternoon Routine
Kitchen Chore
Put toys away
Before Bed Routine

As well as these, I have four extra spots to handwrite in chores, depending on whether I feel we need to concentrate on a particular skill for a few weeks, or if we've got an event coming up that needs preparing for.

Wish I had some groovier fridge magnets!

If you look closely at the above picture, you can see a black-lidded marker in the top right hand corner. It turns out the extra 'finger grip' on our fridge (the door of which can be hung from either side, hence two finger grips) is perfect as a pen holder. It doesn't interfere with the opening of the door and its right there when we need it.

The laminating makes all the difference. I had tried using clear contact paper before but the effect wasn't nearly as professional or long-lasting. The reason for the sheer surface is that I wanted to be able to write on it using whiteboard markers - that way there isn't the need to reprint a new chart each week, and the ticks (or smiley faces!) are simply erased with a dry cloth.

Here's a close up shot of one of the charts.

One of the main things we want to achieve through the use of the charts is better behaviour. The Chore Chart is more of a checklist of jobs that need to be done, but it doesn't reward the kids for initiative or good attitude. We have pretty good kids, but they need some direction to think beyond their own needs and that's where the Values Chart comes in.

Between the kids and I we decided on some things we felt were good values to promote in our home. Both of our boys do something similar at their schools so were familiar with the concept already, and in addition, both of them have reward-based behaviour systems in their classrooms. Our Values are:

Be helpful
Use your manners
Be responsible
Take turns
Do chores quickly and without fuss

Anytime we see one of the kids displaying good examples of the above Values, they get a tick on the Values Chart. It's sort of like a bonus for going beyond the call of duty. We have various rewards they can choose from when they reach 10 Values ticks - things like choosing an item from the Lucky Box (a box filled with inexpensive knick knacks the kids seem to go wild for), renting a kids' DVD, an afternoon out alone with Mum or Dad, cook with Mum, staying up an extra 30 minutes. We sat down and brainstormed together.

I bought this calendar today because a) I was tired of printing out one month at a time from the generic 'do it yourself' printable sites and b) it had really big squares. Most of the calendars are on sale at 50% off this week - I picked this one up for a bit over $11. It's a Hallmark 17 month Planner Calendar (goes right through till May 08) and will be perfect for our family.

A final word:

We struggled with a way to demonstrate to the kids what the consequences of bad behaviour would be. We toyed with the idea of docking the pocket money but felt that would be less successful than taking away other privileges. The last thing we wanted was for them to develop a belief that they didn't need any money that week so were free to misbehave. So in conjunction with the above two systems, we've also introduced Screen Free Days. Any behaviour that is blatantly disrespectful or malicious results in removal (of item or of child) from anything with a screen - TV, DVD, Playstation, hand-held electronic games, stereo etc. My kids are very much children of the 'noughties' and this would be akin to cutting off their lifelines - at least according to them!

Cheers,
Lizzie

A Tour of my Home Management Binder

If you were to walk into my house right now, you’d probably die of shock. It’s not at all tidy – there are dishes in the sink, the floors are cluttered, the bathrooms need doing and I need to have another conversation with my 8yo and 6yo sons about the necessity of lifting the toilet seat and actually opening their eyes while peeing in that “I’ve just woken up” phase in the morning. The girls in this family know to look before we sit down!

Those that know me well will attest to the fact that I am far from a natural housekeeper. In fact, I’m pretty darn ordinary. I never learned to love that particular part of my role at home and so I avoid it whenever possible. Despite this, I like the feeling I get when I’ve decluttered a little, or when I’ve completed a task of some sort. I just have trouble with the “It’s messy AGAIN!” part :)

Several years ago, I stumbled across Flylady and spent quite a bit of time immersing myself in her approach – Routines, Weekly Home Blessing, Control Journal, Yahoo groups, email reminders, the works. While some of the basic principles have stuck, I just stopped being as motivated and unsubscribed. Plus, the name ‘Control Journal’ seemed restrictive somehow. Then one lazy afternoon, after happily following the internet’s equivalent of the Yellow Brick Road (has anyone gone on a ‘link treasure hunt’ lately? Great fun :) I came across the Keeping The Home site. Those already familiar with Keeping The Home and Flylady will probably notice the Home Management Binder is essentially the same thing as a Control Journal – call it semantics, but I still think “Home Management Binder” rolls off the tongue more smoothly. Plus, on a personal level, I’m a work on progress! I’m always striving for Management but I’m almost never in Control :)

It’s strangely voyeuristic, but I enjoy reading about how other people have set up their Home Management Binders, taking a peek at the photos they post and of course mucking around with my own. In describing my latest Binder attempt to others, I’ve been accused of being a perfectionist – they’re probably right, to a degree! To me, function and prettiness don’t have to be mutually exclusive. I pay attention to things others think are irrelevant – borders, graphics, arranging the text on the page and so on. If it doesn’t ‘feel’ right, I fiddle with it until it does. That’s just part of my personality. I’ll always be aesthetics-oriented :) Plus, I enjoy tweaking and fiddling with spreadsheets and templates on the computer and consider it almost a ‘craft’. In my defence, it’s a lot less expensive than scrapbooking!

So in the spirit of peeking over your neighbour’s fence, I give you my own effort…

(Please note: If you don't already have a cup of tea and some choccie biscuits, now is the time to go and get them. This post is enormous. I thought about dividing it into two or three parts, but decided against it, LOL)

COVER

This is the front cover of my Binder. The rose paper comes from a once-started-never-finished scrapbooking endeavour :) The Binder itself is a standard 2 inch, 4 ring, clear cover type. The back is covered with the same rose paper.

A shot of the spine. I used some of the trimmings from the front.

A close up showing the index tabs. I couldn’t find a set of binder dividers that extended past the edge of the paper (don’t ask me why!) and then I came across the individual stick on ones. The labels kept slipping out of the sides though, so I had to tape each end shut.

INSIDE

The first page as you open the Binder is a blog entry I printed out from Lady Lydia’s Homeliving Helper called Organising For Success. It struck such a chord with me that I put it permanently in the front of the Binder. It is the first thing I read (in theory!) before moving on to my Routines, and I try to read it each day. This spot in the Binder will change periodically – just whatever essay or article I really identify with at any given time.

ROUTINES

This is an example of a title page I use for my categories. As you can see from the number of tabs, I have a lot! They all share the same font and flower divider, but the picture changes with each category.

Over the page are my actual Routines. I have four – Morning, Mid-Morning, Afternoon and Evening.

Morning Routine
(starts as soon as we’re up)

1. Run washing machine (which has been preloaded the night before)
2. Kids’ breakfast
3. Finish lunches (I premake sandwiches the night before and freeze them, so this is
usually just a case of throwing everything in the lunchboxes)
4. J dressed – bus
5. Unload / reload dishwasher
6. B and M dressed
7. Dress to shoes (some elements and terminology of Flylady are hard to shake!)
8. School run
9. Breakfast & Think About Today

If things run smoothly I generally have enough time to have breakfast in between J getting on the bus and B and M needing to get dressed, but I usually prefer to just sip a cup of tea while doing the school preparation and have a quieter, calmer breakfast when I return from the school run. Doing it this way also gives me more time to look over my ToDo list for that day.

Mid-Morning Routine
(starts at around 10:00am)

1. Morning tea
2. What’s For Dinner?
3. Reboot laundry (hang, swap loads, run dryer – whatever needs doing)
4. Kitchen Patrol
5. General tidy (the main living areas usually need a pick up after the madness of school prep)
6. Make beds
7. Lay out after-school clothes
8. Hotspot

My kitchen is a raging hotspot 95% of the time and I’ve found a reminder to check for crusty cereal bowls, wipe benches and put things away is generally warranted :)

Afternoon Routine
(as soon as we walk in the door after the school run)

1. Change into after-school clothes
2. Afternoon tea
3. Unpack / repack bags (deal with school paperwork straight away)
4. Kids’ Reading Time
5. Fold / iron clothes (I try – though I usually fail! – to spend 30mins a day on this)
6. Hotspot

Evening Routine
(as soon as dinner is finished)

1. Clear away dinner dishes
2. Load & run dishwasher
3. Kitchen Patrol
4. General tidy
5. Quick sweep
6. Lay out clothes for tomorrow
7. Double-check bags
8. Semi-pack lunches (make and freeze sandwiches, lay out everything else)
9. Load washing machine
10. Cuppa & Think About Tomorrow

My kids have their own Routines as well. We have a copy of this posted permanently to the pantry door, but it is handy having a copy of it in the Binder as well.

Kids’ Morning Routine
(done concurrently with Mummy’s)

1. Wake up! (yes, they sometimes need a reminder to do this! :)
2. Eat breakfast
3. Brush your teeth
4. Wash your face
5. Take off your pyjamas (put them in your sock drawer)
6. Get dressed
7. Put on your shoes (with Mum’s help)
8. Watch TV quietly in the loungeroom

Kids’ Afternoon Routine
(done concurrently with Mummy’s)

1. Take off your school shoes (line them up near the front door)
2. Take off your school clothes (give them to Mum)
3. Get dressed in your after-school clothes
4. Bring Mum your lunchbox, drink bottle and folder
5. Afternoon tea
6. Reading Time
7. Computer Time – 20 mins each (Mum will set the timer!)

Kids’ Bedtime Routine
(done concurrently with Mummy’s)

1. Eat dinner
2. Bring your plate to the bench
3. Play quietly until Mum calls you
4. Brush your teeth
5. Take off your after-school clothes (give them to Mum)
6. Put on your pyjamas (remember they are in your sock drawer!)
7. Tuck in. Goodnight!

As you can see, all of these Routines are mostly geared toward school days – on days that we are home we just skip over or modify the things we need to do, as we go along.

This shows a projected Basic Daily Schedule for 2007 – morning on the left, afternoon on the right. It came about when I sat down and made a list of all the things I wanted to achieve or change about my schedule in 2007 – walk more regularly, spend time in each of my kids’ classrooms (my baby is starting school next year – sigh!), study, housework, kids’ stuff, Mum’s Down Time etc. I couldn’t quite visualise in my head how I was going to be able to find time for all of those things, so I began scratching out a loose schedule for next year. Even though I’ve included times, nine times out of ten they’ll be ignored on purpose in favour of just having a basic guideline to follow.

BASIC WEEKLY PLAN

One of the main differences between Flylady’s approach and the one I use is that while she works on one room or area per week (eventually cycling through all five zones every five weeks), I prefer to assign each day of the week two or three rooms. I’ve timed myself and I can accomplish what needs to be done on any given day in about 1½ hours of solid effort. No, this is not always deep cleaning, but is a level of cleanliness that works for my family. Every few weeks I’ll deep clean a room as part of my Saturday morning Home Project hour (more about that later :) but for now, this works for us.

The picture above shows my plan for Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday

Weekly Yard Blessing
Home Project – 1 hour
Misc Laundry (change and wash sheets, school uniforms, work uniforms, towels)

Sunday

Baking Day
Pamper Day (bubble bath, TV catch up, etc)
Set aside Returnables (library books, borrowed items, Goodwill donations)

On second thoughts, this probably isn’t as clear a reflection of a day’s housework, as none of the ten main rooms are done on the weekend. A better example would be:

Wednesday

Kitchen
Family Room
Desk Day (pay bills, file paid bills, phone calls, menu planning, grocery list, computer back-ups, file receipts, price book)


MENU PLANNING

The next section in my Binder is Menu Planning. The first page in this section (not pictured) is my Master Grocery List. I have 26 categories of food and other household goods that I buy – Meat, Dairy, Breads, Toiletries…right through to Chemist (Non-Prescription) and Stationery. Everything I buy on a semi-regular basis is added to the list and it also forms the basis of my Price Book section (coming up later!)

In the above picture you can see my 8 Week Menu Plan. Most meals are repeated in the second four weeks, with a few minor variations (for example, there might be Chicken Schnitzel in Week 1 and Chicken Parmigiana in the corresponding spot in Week 5 – the difference simply being the addition of some meatless spaghetti sauce and some cheese).

For menu planning, I tend to follow a general rule of thumb:

Thursday – Fish
Friday – Beef
Saturday – Chicken
Sunday – Frugal / Misc
Monday – Pasta
Tuesday – Crumbed Chicken (homecrumbed!)
Wednesday – Frugal / Vegetarian / Soup

It makes figuring out what to slot in very easy. As you can see in the picture, I still have some spots to fill (it’s a work in progress :) There’s also room for Takeaway once a month and spots for New Recipes to try out.

PRICE BOOK

This picture shows the layout of my Price Book section. I’ve tried quite a few ways of tracking prices, including the last attempt of an A5 ‘mini me’ binder and hundreds and hundreds of pages (one page per item!). It got quite ridiculous and the amount of paper and ink I wasted was horrendous. The above example shows one page per category, rather than one page per item, so the whole thing is reduced to 26 pages in the (normal sized) Binder. Much more manageable. Down the left I list the ingredients or other household items I buy regularly. Across the top, the column headings are:

Brand
Size
Price
Unit Price
Store
Date
Reg Price (non sale)
Max Price to Pay

The first six columns are fairly standard things to track, but I included the last two columns because they are important to the way I shop. I like to know if the base price is rising, and in the event of needing something that isn’t on ‘the best sale’ that week, I like to set a maximum price I’m willing to pay. For example, I know that every few weeks our brand of toilet paper goes on sale for 38c per roll. It’s regular price is more like 55c per roll. Occasionally I miscalculate how much I need of something to last me until the next great sale and need to buy it again. I try to never pay the regular price for anything, but I generally set the ‘max price’ at about halfway between the best sale price I can get regularly, and the regular non-sale price. That way, I may not be getting it as cheaply as I have in the past, but I feel okay knowing at least I’m not paying full price. I hope that explanation made a moderate amount of sense! :)

This approach is somewhat restrictive in that I cannot have a ‘recent activity’ summary of any given item as I would if I used a ‘one item per page’ approach, but what it lacks in detail, it makes up in compactibility. And the other important information is still there.


CALENDARS



Next up is my Calendars section. In the picture above you can see a simple calendar for 2006 on the left, and one for 2007 on the right, printed from Donna Young’s site. You can see a note I made next to September to remind me to have my annual checkup. The 2006 calendar will be scrapped in a couple of weeks. The idea being that a new calendar is printed in December of each year and all reoccurring events are transferred over to the new one.

Over the page (no picture) is a one page ‘birthday calendar’ I printed off the Hallmark website. I use this one solely to record family and friend’s birthdays. I also make sure to note how old they will be – for example, Fred (35). If you have lots of young kids in your family or circle of friends, this is especially important. I’ve sent out several wrong-aged birthday cards in my time!


CLEANING



The first page in this section is dedicated to my Weekly Home and Weekly Yard Blessings.

Weekly Home Blessing
(done Mondays)

1. Dust
2. Vacuum – main living areas and bedrooms
3. Mop – main living areas and bathrooms
4. Mirrors
5. Fingerprint Patrol (doorframes and doorknobs are sticky finger MAGNETS :)
6. Empty bins

(In the picture you can see the ‘Change Sheets’ item still listed – I’ve since moved this to Saturdays as part of my Misc Laundry session)

Weekly Yard Blessing
(done Saturdays)

1. General tidy – front and back
2. Mow lawns – front and back (if needed)
3. Trim edges – front and back (if needed)
4. Sweep paths
5. Pull weeds – 15 mins
6. Prune – 15 mins
7. Clear away cobwebs – verandah and pergola areas
8. Wipe down outdoor furniture
9. Refill bird feeder and bird bath (currently a Pyrex dish!)

I need to add a tenth item – top up outdoor pest control (Ant Sand, barrier spray etc). We’ve been having a lot of ant invasions with the warmer weather and we need to keep on top of this. Last week I discovered a colony in residence in my walk in robe, feasting merrily on the groceries I was storing for Christmas. Yuk.




This is an example of how I set out my Detailed Cleaning Lists. In this case, it’s Main Bathroom and Ensuite on the left and Laundry on the right. I try to group like rooms on the same day – these are all ‘wet’ areas and are done on Tuesdays. I’ve already got the mop and cleaning gear out – might as well do all the jobs that require those things.

For interest’s sake, here’s a list of the rooms in my house:

Main Bedroom & Robe
Bedroom 2
Bedroom 3
Bedroom 4
Main Bathroom
Ensuite
Laundry
Kitchen
Family Room
Loungeroom
Entrance & Hall


CHILDREN




This page details the usual diet of my kids. It’s more for the benefit of others who might have to take care of them at short notice, like grandparents or babysitters. Daddy also uses it as a ‘cheat sheet’ for filling lunchboxes – for me, its automatic, for him, not yet!


FINANCIAL

I just have the one page in here at present (no photo though) listing all of our household expenses from the mortgage right through to DVD rental and a small budget for school sausage sizzles :) We listed absolutely everything we could possibly spend money on in a given year.

I have plans at some point to include a few self-made spreadsheets detailing household expenditure across all of these categories but that’s quite a big chunk to bite off, so I’ll leave that one for now!


PEOPLE

At the moment the only page I have here is a Family Yellow Pages printable courtesy of Organized Home's Household Notebook. It’s a simple one-page span of all our most frequently called numbers from family and friends, through to doctors and service people.


HOME PROJECTS

Occasionally a task will pop up that fits nowhere else in my regular housework rotation, or it is a long term ‘take a bite here and there’ kind of task. I keep a running list of such items and put aside up to an hour each Saturday (while the Misc Washing loads are cycling through :) to jump in and do something from the list. Current ideas floating around are:

Put photos into albums
Declutter Bedroom 4 (currently a gym room/storeroom)
Organise clothing in walk-in-robe
Rip recipes to try out of magazines
Add keeper recipes to the Family Cookbook (more about that shortly!)
Weed out old toys and clothes for donation
Reorganise filing cabinet
Sort out linen cupboard
Wash sliding doors
Wash windows
Declutter kitchen cupboards
Reorganise pantry
Extra weeding/yardwork


WEIGHT LOSS




Currently, I am off the wagon – ahem! But when I’m ‘on track’ I use these two self-made spreadsheets to track my progress. On the left is my Weight Record. It’s designed to track over a 12 week period. Days of the week are across the top (I ‘start’ my week on Thursdays, the day I grocery shop). The small box at the bottom shows a ‘total lost’ over the 12 weeks. On the right is my Measurements spreadsheet, designed to compliment the Weight Record. Down the side (or across the bottom, depending on your perspective :) I list the areas I track – Calf, Above Knee, Thigh, Hip, Waist, Bust, Chest, Arm. There are 8 columns in total. One to record the starting measurements, six to track my progress (every 2 weeks) and the last to track ‘total lost’ over the whole 12 weeks.


PERSONAL

Every now and then I find something – an article, clipping or similar – that has nothing to do with homemaking and want to keep it. This is the spot for it. At the moment I have information about short courses, a list of personal goals, documents pertaining to family matters, and personal correspondence.


STUDY

I am three years into a four year part time course. It has been a LONG three years! :) In this section I have an Assignment Time Line showing the breakdown of how I approach each assignment – read the unit, take notes, re-write assignment in own words, work through harder sections first – and so on. It helps…when I remember to refer to it!


CRAFT

I get sporadic urges to craft (*grin*). I think it’s deep in my genetic code somewhere. The problem with this is that I almost never have the time to sit and ‘do’ a craft. When the urge does strike, I tend not to be prepared and get sucked into the vortex that is the internet, searching for the ‘right’ thing to make according to the mood I’m in at the time. I know, its ridiculous. So I now print out things as I see them on my cyber-travels. When I get the urge to be creative, I just flick through this section as opposed to trawling the entire web :) At the moment (being the Christmas season and all) I have instructions for easy fabric gift bags, and various ornaments. At this rate I might actually get one or two done by next Christmas!


CHRISTMAS




This section encompasses all things Christmassey :) Ideas on gifts, decorations, Christmas recipes, and so on. The above picture is of my Master Gift List (not filled out, *grin*). The column headings are: Name, Gift Ideas, Make?, Bought?, Wrapped?, Tagged?, Mailed?, Sale? and Cost? As I get ideas throughout the coming year, I’ll jot them down. Then maybe I’ll be calmer for Christmas 2007 :)


INSPIRATION

My eldest son is special needs, and I’ve gained an enormous amount of comfort from the various essays I come across on the internet. One of the best sources I’ve found is MountainWings. Be sure to check out their Favourite Past Issues (bottom of the page – Page 1 and Page 2). Even coming at it from a non-religious viewpoint, I’ve found so much inspiration in these stories. My absolute favourite is “Shay”. Years later and I still cry at this one :)

At the moment I probably have about a dozen essays and articles in here that I’m particularly close to. To me, reading these essays is like listening to your favourite uplifting (or sad!) song – very cathartic.


ARTICLES

I’m always coming across articles about homemaking that hit home. Lady Lydia’s Organising For Success is a good example, and it will eventually move from the front of my Binder into this section. I like to print things out :) We buy a LOT of printer paper in this house!


ONCE A MONTH COOKING

I have the distinct misfortune of regularly battling the Too Many Eggs in the Basket Syndrome (*grin*). I cycle through Pet Projects and interests and I like to dabble in lots of different areas of interest in any given week. However, as you can imagine, this leads to a lot of problems. OAMC is one of those Eggs I’d like to be able to keep permanently in my basket but I keep putting it aside for other Eggs I’ve prioritised higher! I’ve read and dabbled in various methods of OAMC but nothing really addressed my “too many Eggs, not enough baskets!” issues until I read about Lynn Nelson’s Busy Cooks Pyramid approach. I plan to try out this system during January in preparation for the new school year.

This is also the section I keep bulk recipes.


MISC

Exactly as the name suggests, this is the ‘overflow’ section. At the moment I have most things neatly categorised (with the amount of sections I have in my Binder, I’d better have!) but occasionally there’ll be things that just don’t fit elsewhere. At the moment I have a couple of lists – one of DVDs I’d like to rent (updated and crossed off as I go along) and one of DVDs I’d like to add to my collection.


BONUS PICTURES – FAMILY COOKBOOK

I recently set up a Family Cookbook for our keeper recipes. I’d been handwriting them into a spiral bound notebook but decided to create something more permanent and hardwearing by recycling one of the A5 binders from my previous attempt at a Price Book. It was perfect.

The scrap of paper is there for security purposes! :) I used some more offcuts from old scrapbooking projects, with the back cover being the same deep pink.




A shot of the spine.




An example of how the title pages look. On the left I have a pocket where I slip in recipes to try out. The Pancakes recipe comes courtesy of Hillbilly Housewife.

Sections in my Family Cookbook include:

Mains – Beef
Mains – Chicken
Mains – Misc
Cakes, Muffins & Slices
Biscuits
Light Meals
Snacks
Side Dishes
Misc
Special Occasions
Breakfasts
Non-Food

Here’s an example of how I’ve typed up each recipe. The good thing about having individual sheets (as opposed to a whole notebook) is that I can remove each recipe as needed and simply magnet it to the fridge while I’m cooking.

And there you have it….

The Home Management Binder is constantly evolving – this is really just a snapshot of how it looks at the moment. But it was great fun to set up and it honestly does make life a whole lot easier. I lay mine out on the end of the dining room table ready to open in the morning - I work through my Routines with a cup of tea in one hand and a hairbrush in the other :) I’d be lying if I said I don’t have regular slip-ups and hiccups (*grin*) but just looking at the Binder sitting there on the table does wonders.

Cheers,
Lizzie