The Daily To Do List

I was thinking about the To Do List posted yesterday -- projects that I want to accomplish this week -- and thought perhaps I should also post my normal everyday To Do List. These are my "must do's" day in and day out. Obviously other things make it to my list as they need to be done, but this list is generally what happens during the week, on a day to day basis. These are the things I pretty much get accomplished, no matter what, each week.

• Make bed. (Change sheets on Mondays)
• Empty dishwasher
• Vac or sweep kitchen floor
• Tu, Th, Fr - Babysit Mr. B and take him to Preschool
• Feed the cat, let him in and out the door 500 times a day
• Clean kitchen counters and stove top
• Laundry (1 load every other day, then 2-3 loads on weekend)
• Ironing (every other week - husband's dress shirts for work)
• Menu planning, grocery list, coupon cutting/matching, grocery shopping (1 x wk)
• Library (1 x wk)
• Clean kitchen sink
• Good gen'l pickup of downstairs
• Empty trash (trash to curb on Wed.)
• Shake out area rug at back door and at kitchen sink
• Vac, Dust (1 x wk)
• Clean bathrooms (1 x wk x 3 bathrooms)
• Sweep front porch (1 x wk)
• Windex front of appliances and sliding door (2 x wk)
• Re-organize pots and pans cupboard (3 x wk)
• Make breakfast (5 x wk)
• Pack Jeff's lunch (5 x wk)
• Clean, organize refrigerator, throw away old food (1 x wk)

I think that's pretty much my day to day list. Other things need to get done "as needed". Right now all my baseboards and windowsills need to be washed down. I also need to do a "cobweb patrol" -- where I walk around with a long-handled duster and get all the corners, door tops, shelves, window and curtains tops. I do the entire house at once and it only takes 10 minutes.

Some things I don't do as often as I should. Wash the kitchen floor. Ugh. Hate it and it hurts my back. Wash woodwork, especially doors now that there's a sticky-fingered 4 yr old in the house again. And we have a very high shelf that goes around 3 walls of my kitchen that containers pitchers and coffee pots that I collect, and I have a tendency to forget to dust up there -- until I see cobwebs!

I'm a routine kind of person. I like knowing what I'm doing, when I'm doing it, and why I'm doing it. I like lists, obviously. When there's a list, I get things done. No list, I'm a slacker!

If you would like to be more organized and develop a good routine for cleaning your home, I strongly suggest going to FlyLady.Net and sign up for her emails. You'll get a zillion emails reminding you of things you should do that day, and you'll get specific chores to do to develop a routine. Once your routines are established, you can unsubscribe from her email list and develop your own reminder system!

Now I'm off to make breakfast, pack lunch, and wait for Mr. B to arrive and brighten up my day!