Controlling the Chaos

Ever feel like pulling your hair out? Sure you do!! Who doesn't have those days...more often than you would like to. I recently wrote a post and mentioned how I am more organized now and actually keep a binder now for it. Believe it or not, I have had several people ask me questions about it, so I thought I would just save time and write it in a post. I decided to make a binder for the simple fact that sometimes everything I need to do at home can be completely overwhelming. I hated looking at the house and thinking I had to clean the whole thing in one day. Let's be realistic, here! NOT going to happen. Now, I am totally not an anal person, OCD, or rigid on keeping my life in order. How this happened, I have no idea. But keeping this binder has been a life saver. My family looks at me now like I have a third eye. Whatever though, it works for me.

So, I've separated the binder into different sections with dividers that have tabs and pockets. The sections are: House Duties, Monday through Friday routine, Davis' routine, Menu, and Coupons.

House Duties: This is much easier than trying to cram everything in a day or two. Some days I don't have to do anything for the simple fact that it's been done already.
One page I have Daily Tasks. This includes: Defrost food/dinner prep; Straighten up; Dishes; Sweep kitchen if needed; One load of laundry-wash/dry/fold/ put away; Wipe down counters/sinks; Water plants...that I have now mostly killed all of
Every Week: Clean kitchen/bathrooms; Change sheets (every other); Grocery list/shopping; Empty trash; Dust; Vacuum; Mop
Monthly (If Needed): Base boards; Window ledges; Ceiling fans (quarterly)

I broke down easy tasks for everyday. Like I said, there are some days where I don't have to do anything.
Monday: Daily tasks; Make grocery list; Empty trash; Dust (if needed)
Tuesday: Daily tasks; Grocery shopping; Trash Day; Bathrooms
Wednesday: Daily tasks; Kitchen; Monthly item if needed
Thursday: Daily tasks; Sheets (every other); Mop kitchen and back room
Friday: Daily; Any remaining errands
**I know this sounds like a lot, but it maybe takes me 30 minutes max a day to do this stuff.
Next tab is Davis' routine. I did this one at first to try to help me figure out when was the best time to get out of the house to go to the gym, meet with friends, group dates, etc. Seeing his feeding/nap schedule down on paper helped me to figure this out. My big thing is working out everyday. If I don't go to the gym, I walk for an hour, or do Mommy and Baby Yoga. OMG! That is getting so much harder. My little butterball turkey has some extra stuffing now!! But I usually get out of the house everyday. I would go nuts if I stayed inside all the time. Just because I'm a stay at home mom, doesn't mean I actually stay at home all day. (I say this because people actually think this. Umm...no.)

Next tab for me is Menu. I make a menu list every week of all the dinners that we are going to eat. Why?? Otherwise I would just go to the store and buy stuff and have no idea of what we would actually be eating during the week. This saves so much time and money. If I know what I'm making ahead of time, I can start to prepare it during the day and try to have it ready when Michael gets home. So I write out all of the dinners on a piece of paper and keep that in the front folder of the tab. In the back folder are all of the recipes the correspond. This also works great because if Michael is cooking that night, he can just go grab a recipe. This is a lifesaver :)

The last tab is for coupons. I try and cut coupons if the newspaper ever has any!! So I have them all together in the binder. Whether they are for restaurants or groceries.

So, I hope this helps for those of you that have asked me questions about it. If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask me. Like I said though, I did this to save time and give me peace of mind. Not because I'm a crazy anal person! It helps a TON!