So I wanted to start this year off with a post about what I am going to be doing to help keep me organized. Being a mom in general is tough, but when you add a full time job to that, things can get a little chaotic.
I am one of those people that needs organization and structure in order to remain at peace. So needless to say, the last year has been a disaster for me. I started out 2015 as a new mom, and just finding the time to take care of myself was hard, let alone take care of my house!
I'm not going to lie to all of you, there have been days when I would look at my messy house, or we would be eating fast food for the 3rd time in a week, and I wanted to cry. I felt like I was failing as a mom, wife, and as me...organized, clean ME!
I kept making excuses, and I would tell myself that next week I would get things back in order. Which of course turned into next month etc... Finally back in August I had had enough. I had dishes piled in the sink and clutter at every corner and I wanted to change that!
I remembered my weekly planner dry erase board that someone had given to me as a wedding gift. It is a GREAT resource for organization so I decided to pull it out of the closet and fill it out. I bought some bright fun dry erase markers that would be sure to grab my attention, and off I went!
At first it started out AWESOME! I was using it every week and following it to a T. It helped Chris too. He would see what was planned for dinner, and if he got home before me, he would get started cooking. Again... AWESOME!
Then a few weeks passed and suddenly I wasn't feeling the "chore portion" of the planner. So Once again I was back to having to clean the whole house on the weekend. I don't know about y'all, but I don't want to spend my weekend cleaning up my house!
Finally, I just kind of stopped putting in the effort to even fill it out every week. So there it hung, outdated, mocking me every time I passed by!
I finally decided that since it is a new year I am GOING to stick with it. Not only that, but I figured that maybe if I make a post about it here, that will be enough to keep me motivated and to keep using it.
Now that my sob story is over, I'm going to not only show you my planner, I am also going to break it down for you guys.
Dinner: I plan my meals around what groceries I buy. So I sit down and write out what meal we eat on which day. We allow ourselves two free nights a week. Our free nights mean we can get fast food, order Chinese or pizza or go eat somewhere.If we happen to have leftovers from a previous night, that will replace a free night, thus saving us time and money! This week we are going to Texas Road House on Saturday because we have a gift card to use! So not only is it a free from cooking night, its is also a free dinner night! win win!
Chores: One of my biggest problems now that Alden is needing constant entertainment / walking all over the place is getting the house work done. Chris helps me out when he can, but somethings I just prefer to do myself. I was feeling overwhelmed on the weekends because I had to do EVERYTHING in two days, on top of wanting to find some time to relax. I thought that perhaps if I could break it down throughout the 7 days then I'd have plenty of time for myself on the weekend. I'm thinking about maybe rotating the chores each month too, just to change it up.
Note: On Saturdays it says "all chores". This just means I do a quick run through and if something needs to be done again, then I do it. I have lots of tile in my house, and I also have a big giant lady face of a dog who likes to track dirt all over the place, so cleaning the floors is needed multiple times a week!
Alden: This column just lists out which days are bath days, If he has a doctors appointment, and if I run out of time to wash his clothes on laundry day, then I'll pick a day to do that and write it down.
Other: This column is just there to remind me to pay the bills, show me who gets paid on what days,and to remind of any other random info that doesn't fit into the other categories.
I hope you guys enjoy this post. I am counting on you guys to be my accountability buddies! I may do a follow up post in a few months, just to let everyone know how it is going. Maybe this will be a good inspiration for you. If you have any organization tips or tricks let me know! I might end up using them!
Thank you guys for reading!
