House of Order

Life gets crazy.  My life has been crazy for so long, that I stopped thinking "when things get back to normal" and instead told myself that crazy IS my normal.  I think the final straw was when I found the not-so-clean toilet that I had paid my cleaning lady to clean, the toilet that my exchange student used for 9 months, a new-ish toilet that had barely been used at all before he moved in.  I paid her to clean it (and the rest of his room) after he had left, and let's just say that she didn't do a very good job. She hadn't really been doing a very good job since we moved to this bigger house.  She just didn't have time to clean all of it each time, so I would have her clean the worst rooms, but as a result, nothing was getting done well.  And then she went to Lithuania for a month (as she does every summer) and I eventually had to clean the house myself, which was a reminder that I actually really DO like to clean my house!  And when I actually do it, I do a really good job!  So, I figured, if I do it myself, I can 1)save myself some money, 2)get my cardio in (because honestly, I don't like to work out.  I only do it because I don't like to have flabby arms.) and 3)my house will be a lot cleaner and I won't feel like I get nothing done all day!

A long, long time ago (when we lived in Utah, 8 years ago!) I found a system that I really liked and used it and then adjusted it to fit my life.  It's creator is Marie Ricks of House of Order.  I happened to actually live in the same town as her, so I emailed her and she invited me over to pick up the book and cards, asked me in, (her house is immaculate, by the way!) and was so nice!  Anyway, check out her website, I think her system is amazing!

I actually created my own cards, because the days that she had set aside for certain tasks didn't work with my life.  I set it up so that I have 2 days a week where I'm out running around, and 3 where I'm at home. (I love to be at home, if I could just have my hairdresser come to my house, and have my groceries delivered and have people bring me clothes to try on and buy, that would be awesome.  Maybe someday when I'm rich and famous I will hire someone to bring me everything I need so I never have to leave home.)

I also put together a planner using a mini binder (they're like half the size of a regular binder).  I haven't used a planner in YEARS, I kept trying to do it all on my phone/computer, but I just think I'm one of those people who needs paper and pen.  I still use google calendar because the whole family can  communicate about what's going on (at least that's the idea) but I add the dates into my paper planner each week.

I spent the last three days creating my card file box and my planner, and I've gotten more done this week than probably all summer (including blogging! ha!) I think one of the best things about it is that I don't feel that constant "I should _____" (guilt) when I look around and see something that needs to be done.  I just know that it will get done later in the week, when I pull the card for it!