The Plan

One of my favorite ways to motivate myself to clean is by breaking up tasks so that they are not so daunting. I have decided that I am going to adopt a strict regiment of doing one thing in each room each day.  It may not sound like much but here is how it works. On days I am working, subbing and going to school, I will only have the pressure of doing on chore in each room at some point after I wake up and before I go to bed. On days I am home for 4 and a half hours, I will do a circuit of cleaning followed by a short break and then another circuit.
I AM NO LONGER GOING TO BEAT MYSELF UP FOR NOT GETTING ENOUGH DONE! If I am able to do one thing in each room each day, I will have done seven things in each room by the end of one week.
Today I am home and I was able to circuit through the rooms 3 times.  I cleaned the sink, toilet and tub, folded and put away a load of laundry and took two bags of clothing out of my dresser and the kids dressers to donate.  I started putting away some of the laundry (and I now have room for the laundry to go) and I made all of the beds. I took all of the toys out of the living room, folded all of the blankets that were all over the floors and beds and the couch. (I think there were 10!) I started dinner in the crockpot and even started my blog.  If I could accomplish that much each day for the next two weeks, I know I will be able to start my semester without stress or frustration.
An additional step in this plan is that each family member is going to get one chore to complete each day. It sounds a bit pathetic, but I am so overwhelmed (and I am a control freak too!) that I don't make my kids do much. I want things done the right way and I know that it is overwhelming for them to walk into their rooms and wonder where to start.
Tonight my son will be working on recycling old school papers he has left on his floor and my daughter will be cleaning up dirty pj's and clothes she has left on the floor.  It's garbage night and the cans are overflowing because of the holiday, so my husband is already planning on that for his chore.
I feel motivated and excited.
If someone is reading this, I hope you feel a little support from me if you feel the same way about chores.  I'll be posting more tomorrow!