New Year New Life

OK I promise this will be the last title with repeating words. (for now hahaha)

feel free to download this calendar via hello, cuteness!

After one year and five months of wedded bliss.  I know you're probably thinking that I felt my world drastically change last year.  However, since we spent most of these times living at my room at my mom's house and at my in law's place, we felt that we did not have to adjust that much.  There is something about lived in homes.  There is a system to each family, schedules and routines that vary from household to household.  Where you put things, where you get things.  We just had to abide by these systems.  Now that we are together in our own home, it's taking some time for us to adjust and to develop our own system for our home.

That's why I love this list from apartment therapy!  It gives me a sense of control over what to do everyday.  Unlike other people, I actually plan to start January 7, 2013.  Why wait for one more week?  Officially that's when I return to work. And also because my crazy friends are coming on January 5 for our Christmas/New Year party so after all that mayhem that at least I have a clean slate to work with. :)  So here's a 20 minute clean up schedule for 30 days.  They actually recommended that you have a cleaning sound track (this really helps!) and also use a timer so that you can actually see how much time you have left to do a particular task. 

1. Surface clean living room and kitchen (pick up stray items, dust, sweep, vacuum)

2. Clean bathrooms (toilets, showers, floors, walls, mirrors)

3. Surface clean bedrooms (put away toys, clothes, dust)

4. Surface clean "extra" rooms (basement, office, play room)

5. Surface clean living room and kitchen

6. Clean bathrooms

7. Clean all interior windows (white vinegar and newspaper works great and is cheap!)

8. Sweep and vacuum all floors in the house (don't forget stairs)

9. Surface clean bedrooms

10. Deep clean living room (mirrors, baseboards, dust artwork)

11. Clean bathrooms

12. Clean out closets (hang up clothes, mittens, jackets, hats)

13. Surface clean "extra" rooms

14. Deep clean bedrooms (organize drawers, check under bed, tidy closet, dust artwork, fans, lights, mop)

15. Surface clean living room and kitchen

16. Deep clean bathrooms (clean inside drawers, inside of trash cans, tops of mirrors, tile, mop)

17. Clean all door knobs, phones, entertainment equipment (remote controls), switch plates, banisters and other things that are repeatedly touched.

18. Clean out the refrigerator, take stock of food, organize pantry

19. Clean entryway, sweep porch (if you have one), clean out car (because they're often our home away from home)

20. Surface clean living room and kitchen

21. Surface clean bathrooms

22. Surface clean bedrooms

23. Sweep and vacuum all floors in the house

24. Clean linen closet, straighten towels, sheets or regular closet if not applicable

25. Surface clean living room and kitchen

26. Deep clean kitchen (scrub appliances, wash trash cans, base boards, wipe down and straighten cabinets)

27. Surface clean bathrooms

28. Surfaces clean bedrooms

29. Clean one item you've been meaning to get to and haven't (deep clean your stove, wipe down all light fixtures, tackle a particularly unruly area)

30. Sweep and vacuum all floors in the house

In our case, we also have to add a couple of other tasks that we have to do daily.  Laundry was suggested to be done daily but I don't think that's feasible, too much water and energy consumption me thinks.  There are two more chores that we have to do daily which is watering the plants and releasing the Cracken este walking the dog pala.  Will introduce the giant teddy bear to you in a few days.  :)  If you want to see the whole article on cleaning schedules, you can check it here.