Completely unmotivated

I've been in a slump since we've been back from vacation.  I just have not wanted to do anything more than the bare minimum since we got back home last Thursday.  Maybe it was the driving 2200 miles over the week that did me in.  I just feel like I need to "wake up" or follow the Nike slogan and "Just Do It".

Daily Cleaning

So I'm not one of those people that can just put "Clean Kitchen" down and then know that I'm going to do it the same way every time every day/week/month.  So this list may sound silly to some but it works for me even though a lot of these daily things are in the kitchen so bare with me.

Here is what I (try to) do everyday:

• Make Bed
• Check Mail
• Cook Dinner
• Put Away Leftovers
• Put Dishes in the Dishwasher
• Clean Pots/Pans by Hand
• Empty Dishwasher
• Sweep Kitchen
• Clean Kitchen Counters
• Clean Kitchen Table
• Wipe Down Stove
• Clean Kitchen Sink
• Check Recycling
• Check Trash 

These are done in no particular order but a majority are done at night after the rest of the family goes to bed.  I, sometimes, think that I need to add to this list, but it's hard to get the above done on a consistent basis so for now, it'll stay the way it is.

BTW, in case you're wondering and I'm being completely honest, I skip sweeping the kitchen a lot.  This is the one thing that I would like to at least do a half-ass job at doing everyday as I believe it will be better than not doing it.

The yard is mowed

I started hinting at the start of the weekend that my husband needed to mow.

Finally, on Sunday, I asked if he was going to mow some time before the day was over.  He said he wasn't planning on it.

Our lawn hasn't been mowed since July 4th and we are going on vacation at the end of the week so this was out last weekend home. 

So I headed upstairs to find some old shoes.  He asked where I was going and I said, "I'm going to go get shoes on so I can go mow."  He asked, "Why are you being nasty over this?"  I asked him how going to go mow was "being nasty".  He said that I didn't ask him the right way.

So I repeated our whole conversation and asked how I "didn't ask the right way."  He said he would go do it so he got his old shoes on and did it.

Our yard still has weeds that are taller than I am, but at least the bare minimum of not being "that neighbor" is done.

Productive Day

Wow, what a productive Sunday.

I did:

Diaper Laundry

The Kids' Laundry

My Laundry

Cleaned 3 Bathrooms

I'll do the dishes before I go to bed.  Gonna watch some trash TV first.

How do I keep track of my cleaning tasks?

I've been using the ChoreChecklist app that is available in the Apple App Store.  I'm pretty sure it's available for Android too.

It's free, but in the last couple of months, I decided to pay for the app as it provides some different views that I wanted.  Plus, I was gifted with a ton of iTunes gift cards at Christmas and haven't used them to buy anything so I decided to splurge on the $1.99 purchase.

So far (even in the free version), this is exactly the type of app I've been looking for.  It just had a checklist of things to do.  You can put a due date and how you want it calculated out.  For example, you can have your next due date calculated out from the date that you completed the task or you can have it calculate by the same time frame every week (or month, etc).

It definitely allows me the freedom to do as much or as little as I want when I have time.  My weekly list is for sure the longest list I have so, if I have spare time after my kids go to sleep, I can just open the app and see what I have left to do for the week.  When I have enough time to do more time consuming tasks, I check out my monthly list. 

I have my monthly list deadline for the 1st of every month and I have my weekly cleaning expiring on Saturday.

How do you get your spouse to clean?

That's a serious question.....HOW?!?  I haven't figured it out.

We both work full time.  We both work the same amount of hours.  We both make approximately the same amount of money (I make a smidge more).  So why aren't we both contributing to the house cleaning?

Most couples argue about money.  Our fights are over house cleaning.  He just doesn't do it!

Even what I consider "man jobs" like mowing and taking the trash out don't get done.  It's been over a month since our yard has been mowed.  I usually break down and take the trash out.  I offer to mow, but then it turns into a fight over me "nagging" him.  So I haven't said anything.......in a month.  Our highs have been in the 70's so the weather shouldn't be an excuse like it normally is in the summer.

Most YouTube videos and other websites that bring up having an uncooperative member of your household usually suggest "cleaning for yourself".  I do like my house to be clean, but it would be nice to be able to have an "off" day/week/month and know that it's not just going to be a month's worth of work piling up to the point I have to take vacation days just to clean.

I stopped doing my husband and my stepson's laundry in March of 2014 when I was halfway through my pregnancy with our youngest son.  I just couldn't do it anymore.  I was doing laundry for 4 people and the fact that the 5th person was on the way was just too overwhelming especially when I thought about the extra towels and sheets that go along with all those people.

My husband has a work schedule where he is home by 1pm.  I get home at approximately 4:30pm.  So that's 3.5 hours he is home before I am and he would wait until he went to bed at 8pm to ask me to wash his dress shirts for work.  So he caught me on a bad day in March 2014.  I had told him no before, but it never stuck.  On this particular day, when he told me he needed work shirts, I responded with "That's nice."  I could tell he was caught off guard so he said, "So you're going to have them clean for me." I said, "No."

This, of course, was the start to a pretty heated argument where I'll call it a win because I no longer do my husband's or my stepson's laundry.  So now if my husband needs his shirts (or underwear or socks), it's his problem.

However, that's where my "winning" stops.  I stopped doing his laundry and it works because that only affects him.  If I stop doing anything else, it eventually affects me even if it's later down the road.

Is this a big deal for anyone else or should I just get my 1950's apron on and do my "womanly duties"?

Why am I doing dishes?

So a couple years ago, I landed on a blog called A Slob Comes Clean.  Her first thing that she started implementing was to do her dishes daily.

When I read her several blog posts about doing dishes, it was like a light bulb went off.  Why hadn't I been doing this?  Seriously, when you do this every single day, it literally takes minutes.  I, originally, was waiting until had overflowing sinks and countertops before I did the dishes and it would take forever and by forever I mean at least 30 minutes.  Since having kids, I've realized how hard 30 minutes is to come by.  Plus, my husband isn't the best at rinsing off dishes so having to get dried on food particles off before sticking them in the dishwasher was extremely time consuming.

Do I necessarily have enough dishes do run the dishwasher every night?  No, but a majority of the time I do.

I haven't gotten to the point where I can empty the dishwasher in the morning and have everyone's dirty dishes go into the dishwasher, but that would ultimately be my goal some day.  I'm usually racing out the door in the morning to get to work on time so emptying the dishes is just not on the agenda and until I'm able to do it consistently, there is no point in having my family fill the dishwasher up.