Dirty Secret

And I mean that in a totally normal way. At least the "dirty" part, as in "soiled, grimy, grubby, cluttered, dusty, smudged, icky" or just plain old "unclean" (minus the biblical connotations). As for the secret part, well, if you've been over my house much (or had the challenge of being my roommate) it's not much of a secret.

Housekeeping is one of my challenges. I'm about as good at daily maintenance in my home as I am at mingling at a party. Both are WAY out of my comfort zone and often result in pain. I'm pretty good at project cleaning, which is why it's important to have a regular dinner party scheduled. But throw in my back issues this last year and an increasingly destructive toddler and I have seen the light, you know, at least as much of it filters in through my dirty windows ;-)

Seriously, though, I have been making a concentrated and prioritized effort to be better about daily cleaning. I know, I know, this is all plain and obvious to the vast majority of you (which is REALLY why I am writing it, we'll get to that in a minute), but I'm missing some pretty important habits like picking up after myself. Yes, I did just admit that.

Here's what I did:
I made a list of all the tasks that, if done everyday, prevent chaos from encroaching on our home--things that, if they don't get done they leave me behind the next day. They are really pretty basic and, again, obvious. The biggest one is running the dishwasher at night and unloading it in the morning. If that doesn't happen, the kitchen gets smelling bad really fast. So I made a list of these (and I included other daily goals for our family, like family devotional, family prayer, and my own personal prayer and scripture study) and put them all on a table with a space to check each of them off everyday. It's hanging on my fridge next to my sink and I can't help but see it everytime I get a drink of water (which is a lot these days). And you know what? It works.

Even with Christmas coming and the mess that getting all of that decor out and up made and the mess that Christmas crafting creates and, again, the mess of the destructo-Jane, I can maintain a minimum level of sanitation (I wouldn't really call it clean) if I just do my "foundation tasks." Anything above that, is, for now, just a bonus.

So here's where you know-it-alls come in. Any suggestions for becoming cleaner and dealing with the chaos a toddler naturally brings? You know, before I'm dealing with two of these creatures??? I am determined that in a (relatively) short amount of time that I regularly make my house a House of Order.