I’m not sure how you spend your Friday nights. They may all be different. I know mine are. My husband was on a night schedule all this week, which threw off my schedule—not to mention his. Wait! I don’t have a schedule. You’re right! I don’t. That’s part of the reason for my current scenario.
I’m changing that—the no schedule portion, I mean.
I’m realizing I need structure!
I sort of have a schedule. then again, I do not.
Mondays are water days and bath days. I change all my fowl’s water and give all six of our dogs a bath. At least, that’s my goal. It very rarely works out that way. Most of the time, it’s either one or the other. Whatever doesn’t get done on Monday gets moved to Tuesday. Animals always take center stage. They always need something. Today, I had to keep the turkeys from attacking my hen chickens. They didn’t like the mating saddles any of the girls had on, including their own hens.
I spent most of the morning chasing turkeys that were attacking my hens. Then, of course, there are two feedings a day. I have turkeys, chickens, quail, geese, rabbits, ducks, dogs, cats, fish, and a turtle. Today wasn’t even coop cleaning day. That’s tomorrow, Saturday. Each chore is an all-day process. Yes, my flocks are free-range. They still need their grains. I’m working on other systems to put into place. I must get different temperaments within the flock straightened out first. That too, is a process.
I really need a schedule. Somewhere, I get so involved with the animals that I forget about the rest of my responsibilities, like housework.
So, I’m going to explain my Friday night. Maybe you, too, need somewhere to start. Life can be overwhelming at times with all the hats we wear throughout the day.
I found a speed cleaning checklist on simplyorganizedhome.com. Oh, this should be easy, I thought.
- 5 minutes strip the sheets and make the bed.
- 5 minutes, take a laundry basket to pick up stray items.
- 15 minutes clean up the kitchen.
- 10 minutes quickly vacuum all floors.
- 10 minutes quickly mop off hard surfaces.
- 10 minutes wipe down bathrooms
- 5 minutes gather all dirty laundry and start a load.
- 10 minutes Put stray items away.
- 15 minutes Clean all wood surfaces.
- 10 minutes Clean all glass surfaces.
- 10 minutes remake the beds with clean sheets
- 5 minutes grab some coffee and relax.
The whole process should have taken 2 hours. It didn’t!
It took me longer.
So, here’s how the breakdown went:
Again, at 10:35, I started the list. The only thing I changed was that I started doing some laundry first. Since I had just washed the sheets yesterday or maybe the day before, I made the bed. I folded a bag of laundry and put together six pairs of socks. That alone took me 20 minutes.
At 10:55 PM, I started the kitchen at 11:25 PM, I was not done with the kitchen. I took the clean dishes out of the dishwasher and put the dirty dishes into the dishwasher. From 11:25 to 11:40 PM, I vacuumed. I vacuumed all the floors. I vacuumed the kitchen, I vacuumed the hallway, the living room, and the front and bathroom. Yes, I vacuumed the linoleum floors, the hardwood floor, and the living room carpet. By this time, I had to take a 10-minute break.
Between 11:50 and 11:58, I quickly—and I do mean quickly—mopped the kitchen, the hall, and the front bathroom. From 11:58 to 12:05, I had to take another break. From 11:05 to 11:15, I wiped down the bathroom. From 12:15 to 12:30, I put away the stray items from the bag. I wiped down the kitchen counters. By 12:30 AM, my husband came home.
I did this more or less for a challenge. More to myself, I stopped at 12:30 a.m. but still had at least three more items on the list to finish. That was not going to happen today. I was listening to a Dana K. White podcast called A Slob Comes Clean the whole time. I had almost listened to three episodes.
I’m also realizing my limitations, and so many things must change. Once I get back onto a schedule, things will become easier. When things get out of hand, you must start somewhere. I may not have finished everything on the list, but I feel better about the improvement.
I just need to be more consistent and disciplined and hold myself accountable. I’m not going to penalize myself and question why or how it got this way. Life happens, and stuff happens. I do have the power to change it. Now, if I would get out of my way.
That is how I spent my Friday night. Tomorrow is another hour’s challenge.
Knowing I must break things down into tic-tac-sized pieces. Today was a very productive day.
Nothing is impossible; the word itself says ‘I’m possible’! Audrey Hepburn
