Maintaining a home is no easy task. It sometimes leaves me with the feeling I am living Bill Murray’s life in the movie, “Groundhog Day.” So, how does it all get done? I am of the current belief that a system must be put in place. Perhaps it is part of my German heritage, but I love organization, rules, and systems. Although, you probably wouldn’t know that if you came to my home. One example of this was a time we had a trespasser on our property. It was late one night and my husband Ryan and I were in bed watching a movie on our computer. I just happened to glance at the French doors to my right, and noticed a man’s hand in the window. I saw his wristwatch and my eye followed to a phone in his hand. In an instant I saw a little pop of bright light and realized he had taken a photo. Then his hand and the phone disappeared just as quickly as it had appeared. I wondered if I had imagined it or if I was seeing a reflection of the movie in the glass of the window. My husband and I spent several minutes trying to recreate the scene by positioning the computer as we rewound the movie and watched it from different locations. Nothing we saw in the movie was similar to what I saw in the window. I knew that we had to do something, so we contacted the police and they arranged for an officer to come out to the house. After he looked around the property with his flashlight, he began to ask us several questions. He motioned to the back porch, where the French doors lead, and waved his flashlight around asking, “Did it look like this before he got here?” I was somewhat mortified that my back porch looked as if it had been burglarized. “Well…We have a nearly two year old, boy.” I replied. There was an upturned baby pool, several items scattered in the grass and an explosion of sidewalk chalk and toys. He reported to us there was no evidence of anyone having been there. And, whoever was there was on foot, a scary thought considering we live out in the middle of nowhere. So, we were burglar free, and had an official police report to document the untidiness.
Well, it has been almost a year since that happened and I now have two boys. One who is nearly three (Barrett) and the other will turn one (Emerson) next week. Above is a picture of Barrett painting on the outside of the French door at his 2nd birthday party.
I am just beginning to feel competent when it comes to maintaining a home. I think there may be a chance for me. My first attempt at this in an idea I heard on a radio program about a French woman whose home was always immaculate. Knowing that this would be a far reality for me I was skeptical. My fingers retracted back to the steering wheel and I continued to listen, curious. She wrote down a task on index cards and referred to them daily. Her cards contained chores like, “Wash baseboards, dust moldings, dust chandeliers, etc.” I chuckled to myself about the chandelier part, too. But, there has got to be something here for me I thought! One chore a day. I can do that. No decisions about what must get done each day, just complete the daily chore and move it to the back of the stack.
I couldn’t find our index cards. So maybe I still need some organizational help. But, I found some pieces of paper and began to write the days of the week at the top of each. Then, each night before I went to bed I wrote down one necessary chore for that day. It might have been one that I completed, but mostly it was one that I wished I could have gotten to. After I had written one chore on each card, like Wash Towels and Sheets, Wash off sinks and clean toilets, etc. I began to look at the daily card. So, if it was Monday morning, I turned to “Monday” and read my chore. Throughout the entire day, I would think about it, but at the end of the day that chore remained undone. This went on for about three weeks. I would move the little papers around each day. Faithfully, I looked at my daily chore, yet I did not do what was on the card. I allowed myself the permission not to complete it if it was too hard. I didn’t beat myself up about it. Then, the chores seemed doable after about 3 weeks of looking at them. On Monday night when I was supposed to clean the toilets, I actually did it! While Ryan was brushing teeth with the kids and getting them ready for bed, I took about 5 minutes and cleaned the toilet in the boys bathroom and cleaned the sink. I didn’t get to my own bathroom, but I have hope that eventually it will be doable.
I’d love to hear your comments about any aspect of home management you have found helpful, funny, or even disastrous.
