Getting organized, Week 1

I don't know if I'm nesting or just terrified at the thought of trying to run a household with four small children, but I have been working this week at trying to get myself organized. Not organize my stuff (that is part II of the plan) but to develop a plan for doing the things that I really hate yet still need to be done. Here's what I've come up with so far:

1. The Grocery List
This is just a master grocery list organized by category. It would be more logical to organize it by aisle, but I don't always go to the same store. So for now it's divided into Produce, Canned goods, Dry goods, Dairy, etc. All the things that I regularly buy are on there, I just have to highlight them if I need to get them on that particular week's trip. Hopefully this saves me some time and also keeps me from ending up with four extra jars of peanut butter and no stewed tomatoes.

2. The Detailed Menu
I make a menu every week before I go shopping so I know what to get. Unfortunately, it has been taking me longer and longer every week just to come up with dinner ideas. Seriously, like two hours. Then by the time I'm done with dinner plans, I don't feel like planning breakfast or lunch and so every day I'm either searching for something to make or throwing Cheerios and PBJs at the kids. And that's pretty silly, considering it's just as easy to throw muffins and fruit and cheese cubes at them-- I am just terrible at coming up with ideas (which is why I need to plan ahead in the first place).

Anyway, I busted out my old menu template (yes, I have one!) and revised it so that dinner should be a little easier to come up with. Monday will be a main course with meat in it ("Meatful Monday") because I have discovered that Tom sneaks out to eat fast food if he doesn't get meat at home. At least I can feed him something semi-healthy... and destroy his excuses, mwa ha ha! Next is "Tofu Tuesday" because it's really good for you and I need practice using it. If I can squeeze in the time to start making my own seitan again I could also plan for that in this category. Wednesday is Italian, Thursday is Indian, Friday is Mexican, Saturday is American, and Sunday is Chinese. My goal here is to have the variety in the meals that I like, but to still have some direction so that it's faster to come up with the recipes. Again, my biggest problem is coming up with ideas. The less creative I have to be, the better life is.

3. The Chore List
Phase three of Part I of the plan is the chore list. I've tried this in the past, but overplanning every little chore I do pretty much leads to the list going in the garbage after a week that was not cookie-cutter enough to get things done. Scheduling things like vacuuming and mopping just doesn't work because they get done almost every day anyway, and of course there are frequent messes and spills that throw it all off. But there are other, more hateful, things that need to be done that I think would be accomplished in a more timely fashion if I just made the effort to do them on certain days.

To that end: Monday's laundry is towels, blankets and sheets. Monday is also dusting/wiping cupboards/other surfaces. Tuesday's laundry is clothes, as well as "scour bathrooms". Wednesday is grocery list and shopping, as well as food prep. I'm kind of excited about this one, because I think it will save me some hassle during the week. If I do things like wash and prepare all the fruit, cut the cheese into cubes, make muffins and bread, etc, then for the rest of the week all I have to do is reach into the fridge or freezer when I need them and not pass them by because I don't feel like preparing them or don't have time. It's a simple concept, I know. I'm a slow learner. Anyhoo, Wednesday is also "clean off counters/dressers/shelves". Thursday is clothes laundry again. It's also the dreaded "clean-up basket". This is the basket that sits in the living room collecting toys, clothes, books, shoes and random odds and ends all week. Honestly I kind of hate having it at all, but efforts to keep toys and books in the kid's rooms have failed and when it's time to vacuum it's a lot faster to toss everything in the basket than to put it all away. I do make the kids put some of the stuff away, but every so often it's necessary to purge the thing completely. For some reason I despise this job. I give it to Thursday. Friday's laundry is whites, and also to make sure everything is folded and put away. I already have a laundry room system in which clothes are sorted into individual people's baskets as soon as they come out of the dryer. The problem is, sometimes it doesn't get any farther than that and I just have really full baskets of sorted wrinkly clothes. Friday is also dog poop day. Right now I can get away with cleaning up dog poop once a week, though as summer kicks in I'll probably have to get out there at least twice. That probably sounds gross. We have a big yard, there's enough room for them to poop it up a little before I get out there.

Finally, there are the "other things". The special projects, if you will. Things that need to be done, but maybe not every week. I am compiling a list of those things and trying to figure out how to work them in. They include cleaning the oven and fridge, vacuuming the car, wiping down doors and baseboards, organizing closets. They are the "as-needed" things that just never seem to get done. Maybe I will figure that out in Week 2.

Ok, so Week 1 has been developing the plan and beginning to implement it. So far so good. I have been making steady progress with the laundry, making adjustments for those who would poo in their beds AFTER sheets/blankets day (Norah, I'm looking at you). My house is really quite clean today so I'm even getting a little ahead... but the plan isn't for the days when I have to oomph to get ahead, it's for the majority of days when I have to drag myself around. Stay tuned for week 2!