Cleaning Schedules...

To first start off with a cute little quote from my son, Cyrus as I was typing out my cleaning schedule.

Cyrus, "I like schedules.  I like schedules but not the cleaning kind."  Clearly he doesn't get it ;)

When I first married my prince-charming of a husband, I had NO clue of my lack of organization.  Heck!  Let's get real people!  I didn't care if I tried on 7 outfits and decided to go with the 8th!  You'd see the previous 7 all over the place.  And when I went back into my room, I hardly noticed.  But oh did my mother ;)

When it came time to really clean my room, which I actually really loved to do when it wasn't taking time away from riding bikes, hanging out with friends, cheerleading practice or anything WAY more fun, I was kind of obsessed.  Obsessed to the point that my clothes that were folded had to be lined perfectly.  And when one of my sisters would try to barrow any clothes, I would FREAK OUT because it would ruin all the time I spent on organizing.  I'm not bitter or anything, I just need to get it out ;) ha!

Anyway, back to the marriage thing.  My husband previously lived in a small dorm at seminary where everything had a perfect, little space for his perfect, little books for his perfect, geeky (and awfully handsome) self.  Blah.  Made my spontaneous, unorganized and free-as-a-bird skin crawl.  And I know he felt the same way about me.

So, it caused a few fights in the first couple of years of marraige.  I actually struggled a lot with it and it has been really hard for me to get a good cleaning schedule down.  I didn't really like schedules, or so I thought.  The fear of them is that I'll feel cramped and like I have to be obediant and follow these strict rules.  I'm a free-bird, remember ;)

The lie is that it will make me feel confined.  But, I have to believe it will actually make me feel free and full of accomplishment every day!  I have been researching blogs and anytime I see the words "organize" I tend to go over and read some more!  It's taken me years to figure out something that works but I think I've finally found it!

Let's see why a schedule is so important to me... 
1. I naturally see a mess and become overwhelmed and do not know where to start....actually, I've overcome this by literally telling myself, "find something and put it away.  Find another thing and put it away." ha!
2. I have had 4 kids in the span of a little over 5 years.  Yeah.
3. I homeschool.
4. I have a really sweet and gets-into-everything 2-year-old.
5. I actually want it to get done.
6. I want to shoot lasers from my eyes when the kids see me cleaning and say, "Who's coming over?" "No one, SWEET CHEEKS!  MOMMY JUST LIKES A CLEAN FREAKING HOUSE, OKAY?!" 
7. My husband appreciates it.

Clover Lane has been SUCH A blessing for me to read.  She's very real and for some reason, her cleaning and organizing posts do not stress me out.  These kinds of articles/blogs always made me want to run away from my computer, grab a bag of Dove Dark Chocolate on the way over to the corner and cry my little eyes out.

So, I did it! <---Not cry my eyes out, silly but I ate Dove Dark Chocolate and finally made a cleaning schedule!  Go, me!  I haven't started yet (it's not the new-year, judger!) but I will!  I plan to stick to it and see how it goes.  If I'm daring, I may even change it up a bit as I see what works and doesn't but even just saying that stresses me out.  I don't trust myself to change it up.  I trust, Sarah from Clover Lane and that's it people! ;)

Working on a daily one as well.  I'll keep you posted!    What are your cleaning schedules like?  Do you have one?  Do you stick to it?  Lie to me and tell me that once you actually make the schedule, you naturally follow all that it tells you ;)