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Post by needmorecoffee on Apr 2, 2015 5:48:58 GMT -5
I did search, forgive me if I am repeating here. The first steps in maintenance. When you look around and go, ok. I can have people over now, this is what "of course you can come past" looks like! Uhm, What now? I'm pretty close to having all the "squalor" gone. Do you have a schedule to PEEP rooms? Do you do 15 minutes in every room every day and schedule floors and linen changes etc? Clearly just trying to wing it will NOT work for me. I have been where I am before and it has all fallen in a heap and I REFUSE to not have a game plan and make this stick. Of course I have still have some boxes (lots!) and draws and 'stashes' of clutter oh and the paper!! that I need to deal with, but thanks to the Epic Crisis Clean week with my Mum, I'm almost there with the public spaces and I want to maintain them in a way that becomes habit. To top it all off I am about to seek much longer work hours, so it needs to be a plan or I'll lose all the hard work. Ok, maintainers: where did you start to build a routime? Are there any classic threads on this I should read? HALP!
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Post by creativechaos on Apr 2, 2015 6:10:52 GMT -5
thank you for starting this thread! i wish i had answers for this one, needmorecoffee; i have never BEEN in maintenance, so will be following your thread closely, and hoping the maintainers come out with all their "hot tips." of course it's "just do it," but HOW do they just do it? i think it relates to NOTICING. and throwing away the blinders and, for me, the excuses. it's learning new habits - like while waiting for the water to boil, some swishing and swiping or doing a few dishes. and the one minute rule and the obvious - hang up, put away, throw away, etc. the checklist worked for inspection - perhaps a maintenance version of that for the rooms in the home and what to keep maintained or clean? i am visiting these same questions - and have not even dealt with the hoard yet. but i see that the ONLY chance of getting anywhere is to maintain what i have made progress on, and chip away at the volume. what you said about longer work hours - oh dread and fear! i ALWAYS have trouble when i go back to work every spring. it's physically demanding and very tiring. so you are right in wanting to get those good habits ingrained so that when you get busy again with long tiring days, you can still do maintenance. what about getting DD to help maintain her room? incentives? consequences if not? or is she still too young for it? (sorry for my failing memory!) classic threads - well, there is the BDG method - in favorite threads. that one is helpful since BDG was disabled, and made every movement, every trip to another room, count!
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Post by needmorecoffee on Apr 2, 2015 6:16:45 GMT -5
I did actually find the BDG method, very useful for my desk with paperwork and coffee cups etc! And my car with coffee cups too. Yeah.. I drink a LOT of coffee... The two elder children are absolutely old enough to maintain, plus they help with the dishwasher and the laundry, but they can only do that if I have everything else under control, you know? My youngerst little pumpkin loves to clean windows and cupboards for me. I'll miss her little "can I help mama?" when she goes to school next year.
I had a control journal but it really was overwhelming. I think it's part of the problem coming into maintenance from a crisis clean. I haven't built habits. humph. I think I am going to have to break the whole house up into chunks and assign to a day but it really didn't work last time :/
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Post by dtesposito on Apr 2, 2015 9:34:00 GMT -5
i think it relates to NOTICING.CC, you have hit the nail on the head. For years I've been trying to get a cleaning schedule going. Failed, every time. Now that I have the majority of the clutter gone, the actual cleaning is way easier--which is part of the battle--and when I clean it SHOWS that I've cleaned, that's another part of the battle. But in trying to set a schedule for cleaning I'm learning a lot. My work schedule varies completely--some days I work a lot and others not. Every week it's completely different. I'm learning, first of all, there's no way I can say "on Monday I'm doing this, on Tuesday this". If I didn't have arthritis pain, if I had more energy, if I had more discipline, maybe that would work even with my schedule. But I'm working with what I have now, so I've finally come to the conclusion that I have to be flexible. I'm scared of winging it too, because I spent too many years just taking the easiest way out and I know how quickly I can get into the habit of doing nothing. So my challenge is to figure out flexible cleaning depending on what I'm doing on each day. The difference for me now though, is that now that I have the space, and can clean a floor and SEE the clean floor, and dust something and see a dusted surface instead of a surface full of junk--is that I AM noticing dirt, and I actually want to clean it. Now, I don't want to clean it so badly that I jump right on it. But cleaning has such a positive effect now that it's so much less onerous. What I'm trying now (and still working out) is having the list of cleaning jobs, but by priority--and if I can't get to something on one day, the priority item is still there at the top of the list. Instead of saying--okay, I didn't do Monday's job on Monday, now it's Tuesday, do I do two jobs or forget about Monday's job til next Monday??? So, when I have time and energy to clean, the priority jobs that haven't been done are still at the top of the list. When I do a priority job, I put the date when I'd like to do it again on the list (I have a list program and it puts things in due date order) so that it comes up again at the top of the list, ahead of non-priority things that have no due date. I do risk never getting to the non-priority things, but I have to start somewhere. I'm hoping that as the non-priority things get more obvious (dust webs hanging from the ceiling, for example) I'll notice them and consider them a higher priority job and make time to do them. Hopefully this is a compromise between trying a rigid cleaning schedule to stick to every day (which I'm finally realizing is never going to work for me) and not cleaning at all until things are so bad I can't ignore them. It also solves the problem of resenting having to clean something that doesn't look dirty yet (I KNOW that if you clean something every day it will never look dirty--but I think some things can go longer than other things before the look dirty--and I have precious little cleaning energy and I don't want to use it on something that could wait a day or two). Instead, when I have time for cleaning I look at my list of next in priority and I evaluate it, and if it needs doing I do it. What I'm missing though, is actually scheduling a block of time for each day that morning, depending on my schedule, so that I know that will be my cleaning time and don't let the day slip away. Needmorecoffee, depending on your schedule and your personality, you could very well succeed with a list to do every day--so it's worth trying. But the key really is NOTICING the dirt/mess, and wanting to fix it. Then the cleaning lists and schedules mean something, instead of being a random horrible burden that you're being forced to take on. Diane
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Post by needmorecoffee on Apr 2, 2015 9:46:22 GMT -5
What I'm trying now (and still working out) is having the list of cleaning jobs, but by priority--and if I can't get to something on one day, the priority item is still there at the top of the list. Instead of saying--okay, I didn't do Monday's job on Monday, now it's Tuesday, do I do two jobs or forget about Monday's job til next Monday??? So, when I have time and energy to clean, the priority jobs that haven't been done are still at the top of the list. When I do a priority job, I put the date when I'd like to do it again on the list (I have a list program and it puts things in due date order) so that it comes up again at the top of the list, ahead of non-priority things that have no due date. Hopefully this is a compromise between trying a rigid cleaning schedule to stick to every day (which I'm finally realizing is never going to work for me) and not cleaning at all until things are so bad I can't ignore them. It also solves the problem of resenting having to clean something that doesn't look dirty yet (I KNOW that if you clean something every day it will never look dirty--but I think some things can go longer than other things before the look dirty--and I have precious little cleaning energy and I don't want to use it on something that could wait a day or two). Instead, when I have time for cleaning I look at my list of next in priority and I evaluate it, and if it needs doing I do it. What I'm missing though, is actually scheduling a block of time for each day that morning, depending on my schedule, so that I know that will be my cleaning time and don't let the day slip away.Yes this!! I could run a list several ways. But if I don't get up early enough then I have to do it after work and I'll be exhausted once I've worked and mothered.. Bleh! I have everything I need to do written down from my old control journals, I just got wound up if I missed a day or something... ugh!!
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Post by dtesposito on Apr 2, 2015 9:54:06 GMT -5
On some days, there just will not be a block of time that I'll clean--I know that. And I'm only working part-time now. Even when I was younger and more energetic, working a demanding full time job meant I did nothing when I got home from it--I just did animal care, made dinner, and then sat and rested for the 2 hours left before bedtime. It was only on my days off that I had any energy to do stuff.
So I feel for you--if you have an outside job AND kids then it's really hard to schedule in the cleaning time.
Diane
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Post by creativechaos on Apr 2, 2015 22:22:29 GMT -5
needmorecoffee, working mothers have it particularly difficult, especially if your home role is somewhat traditional or you are a single mom (you are cook, cleaner, mom, worker. ) tough shoes to fill and very little "me" time. i wish i could give you some of the time i squander! so back to the "noticing" - if i clean up a spill when it happens, say on the kitchen floor, it might take 5 or even 15 minutes, but then it's done. i think it's the same way with maintenance of all kinds. it will take 30 seconds to hang up a coat. if i drop it on the floor, then another, and another etc until there is a pile of disorder AND dirt, and if i let it get bad enough, that pile can take hours or even days, never mind the energy it robs from me! so, my thought - and i use this in my garden jobs all the time - is: More maintenance = Less maintenance. if i keep my "garden" weeded (ie trash thrown out, things put away and hung up, dishes washed, spaces picked up as soon as i NOTICE i'm letting clutter creep back in) - it saves tons of time and hard unnecessary work! if i let the weeds take over, then i have a 10 year old blackberry jungle to try to cut through with a plastic to-go knife. and what dtesposito says - i still have too much clutter on all of my flat surfaces. how much easier it is to clean a cleared counter than a piled one! THAT's the economy of time i think we're all looking for. if that makes sense. maybe on those busy days, no cleaning is done. but i can still hang up/put away/wash something/throw out/ fold the grocery bag after i put away the groceries/ at least erase the evidence that i am making anything WORSE. lioness's thread entitled "Abstinence from Neglecting Any Mess" always resonates with me, and snaps me back to some better reality. i say all this of course with none of these habits ingrained. but they start with the noticing. and then my doing something about what i notice. then any cleaning i have to do will be 90% easier, faster, and more efficient. at least that is what i am going to hang on to like a life raft in the middle of the ocean. here's that thread; i believe it's in the favorites, but i have it bookmarked. it is so brilliant. it is my go-to thread. she breaks her thought process down into 5 posts. it is well worth reading. takeonestepatatime.proboards.com/thread/16215/abstinence-neglecting-any-messoh - i meant to mention that i have an artist friend (mom, grandmom, now taking care of both parents with alzheimers) who is very organized. she set different days for different tasks: ie Monday would be watering plants, cleaning the bathroom, etc. it worked for her and broke up the housework into manageable bits. my thought i'd add would be to try to hit some task in every room. that way you'd "notice" more in more places, and could more easily rectify any creeping squalor while it is still easily done. i'm not sure if a schedule would work for me, and i think you said in your first post that it didn't work for you either. i think i will stick to a weekly list for now. that has been instructive as a guideline. and it can be prioritized, week by week.
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Post by papermoon on Apr 2, 2015 22:56:23 GMT -5
Just a simple little daily... PEEP before bedtime. I do it for 12 minutes on the timer, some folks prefer 10 minutes or 5. Even 2 minutes helps make maintenance easier.
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Post by papermoon on Apr 2, 2015 23:13:44 GMT -5
"It's easier to clean a clean house",... make that your mantra.
It's true. Keeping a house messy and dirty creates TWICE THE WORK to clean it up. No wonder we don't want to clean!
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Post by wind on Apr 2, 2015 23:55:10 GMT -5
For me to stay in maintenance, I need:
1) one side of my sink clean and clear 2) laundry done 3) trash taken out
Those are the big three. If I lack any of those, it takes some reverse engineering to make the house presentable. If I do have those 3 done, it's easy peasy.
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Post by Serendipity on Apr 3, 2015 0:06:29 GMT -5
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Post by needmorecoffee on Apr 3, 2015 2:30:52 GMT -5
creativechaos That thread had me on the verge of tears of relief. Finally a mindmap of the whole problem as it is for me. Thankyou for directing me to it. CourageouslyLion SeeksSerenity I don't know if you'll see the tag but thankyou thankyou thankyou from the bottom of my heart for your posts. I think my brain must work very similarly to yours. Your post highlighted why I'm struggling with "where to" because the de-squalor happened so quickly, leaving hidden pockets and me floundering with my mother no longer here directing the clean up. I am ADD, unmedicated, so it's not that I want to leave dirt, I simply neglect it. Your rules I can handle ie part three. I read through going YES! YES! For anyone struggling to visualise the process of maintenance and what it means or actually looks like I'll link the thread again. Maybe it'll help you too! takeonestepatatime.proboards.com/thread/16215/abstinence-neglecting-any-messSo here's my baby steps: Figure out what I need to do to maintain the basic areas now. In priority order. Write out my weekly plan Set up my control journal again in a simplified fashion that is hand written not typed, so I can adjust it and pretty much only set up the next day at a time. that's enough for now. I can refine as I go along.
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Post by razy on Apr 3, 2015 4:04:05 GMT -5
I have a master list of tasks I need to do regularly (daily/weekly/monthly).
I use a kanbanflow board (kanbanflow.com) to keep the list organised. Roadrunner put me on to it. I find it easy to use, easy to add things too and it can be adapted to make it suit.
As well as having a list, I actually try to do the things on the list regularly. If things are done regularly, then, as people have said, they are easy to do and if I miss a week, which often happens, it's not hard to catch up.
Having a list is a way of keeping track of of when I have done things or when I have missed them, so they don't get missed for too long.
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Post by 7sweetbabiesgranny on Apr 4, 2015 9:30:13 GMT -5
One thing that certainly helped me was making sure that everything was at least in the right room Then it's just seconds to get it to its proper place You can do it! Good for you!
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Post by sauberkite on Apr 13, 2015 8:53:09 GMT -5
I do an evening routine, a morning routine and "one more thing".
Evenings: I make sure the sink is empty, wipe down counters, sweep crumbs off the kitchen floor. And then I walk through the downstairs and put all "upstairs" things into a laundry basket and bring them upstairs. I leave the stuff on a table in the hallway. Then I bring the downstairs things downstairs. I put my clothes away and pick out an outfit for tomorrow.
Morning: I put everything away that I moved upstairs and downstairs. While I do that I keep an eye out for my "one more thing". I quickly clean the bathroom sinks, mirrors and toilets.
One More Thing: I spend 15 minutes doing whatever it is I noticed that needs to be done.
Habits: Always squeegee the shower before you get out. If something takes less than two minutes to clean/do/put away do it NOW. Before you go food shopping, straighten out the fridge and pantry. Before kids go to bed, everything should be off the floor in their room.
My husband does the laundry and takes the garbage out.
We have a cleaning lady to deep clean the bathrooms and vacuum/wash the floors, but before I had a baby I did it myself for two hours on Sunday mornings.
For me, the dishes and my closet are the hardest things. If the sink has dishes, the rest of the kitchen goes quickly. When my closet gets full of clothes that I just threw in there without putting it away, more ends up on the floor.
At this point, my daughter is a big motivator for me. I grew up in squalor and I want so badly for her to have no idea what that's like.
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