I don't know about you, but I am not a huge fan of cleaning. Don't get me wrong, I love a clean house, I just hate being the one who has to do it. I will, however, admit that vacuuming has a calming effect on me and I get a certain satisfaction when I see lines in freshly vacuumed carpet. Yes, I do have a touch of OCD what makes you ask?
Though I dislike the process of cleaning, I love the end product: the smell of fake lemons and bleach, having everything all picked up and put away, not a dog hair in sight...ahhh, bliss. But even with a baby who naps like a champ and a house that's on the small side, I don't have time (or frankly the motivation) to clean it all in one day. Even the idea of it is overwhelming. So, every few months I dedicate a week to cleaning (ideally, I would do it once a month but whatever). I call them "zone weeks." Each zone takes about an hour to clean, and I only do one zone each day. By the end of the week I have (in theory) a really clean house!
Here are my zones:
Zone 1: Bathrooms (get the grossest out of the way first!)
Zone 2: Kitchen
Zone 3: Living Room
Zone 4: Baby's room & office
Zone 5: Master bedroom
Zone 6: Stairs/hallway & dining room
Zone 7: Vacuum whole house, tidy up rooms
Each room gets a deep cleaning: I do the baseboards, wipe down doors, do mirrors/windows, pull out the appliances in the kitchen, dust, clean light fixtures, and I even vacuum the ceiling and walls (dog hair ends up in some pretty crazy places!)
I find this to be the least painful way for my house to get really clean. Well, the least painful way would actually be for me to shout directions to the live-in maid while I lounge on the couch, but I don't see that happening any time soon.
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
New Year, New Blog
I may be a little late to the whole blog thing, but I am usually a little late to most things in my life. You might say I am a bit of a late bloomer. Choosing a career, becoming a mom, starting a blog. All way behind my peers. Okay, maybe not too behind. I am more of a "middle of the pack" kinda girl. I like to blend. Not stick out too much. I feel safer never taking risks. Weighing my options. Taking my time. I dip my toe in the water before jumping in the pool. The fact that I married at age 23 still astounds me. How the heck did that happen? Very unlike me to be a trendsetter, but thank goodness for that uncharacteristic plunge I took at such a young age. I jumped right out off the cliff and haven't looked back.
So, why yoga pants and ponytails? Well, that's my new uniform. Yes, the stereotype is true. I had a baby last year and decided that rather than loving other people's children all day (and being exhausted by them) I would rather quit my job and love on mine all day. We may have lost 40% of our income in a shaky economy, but he is only going to be a baby once. He already isn't much of a baby anymore (gulp). So, now I am home and rockin' the stay-at-home mom look 24/7. I never thought I would, but here I am and truthfully I've never been happier.
We were on the way to a friend's house about a month ago (playdates are an essential part of my life now, never mind the fact that baby hardly interacts with his peers yet. Playdates are for mommy. Mommy needs friends so that she doesn't go crazy). My friend texted me "Be warned. Haven't showered yet and still in p.j.s" I was only one step ahead of her in that I was "dressed" in what else? Yoga pants and my hair was in a ponytail. No, I had not just taken a yoga class at the overpriced gym we joined so that I could bounce back after baby. I wanted to text back "that's what yoga pants and ponytails are for" but truth be told, I hate texting so I just said it out loud and waited for the light to turn. (Yes, shameful confession: I read a text while driving with my baby in the car. I was at a long red light. Don't judge.)
So, with the closing of the craziest year of my life (good-bye 2012, you were a total time warp for me and I don't remember huge chunks of time because I was sleep deprived and my hormones were a bit wonky but you were also so good to me and my new little family and you went by astonishingly fast and I am not really sure how that happened) I thought that I would ring in 2013 by starting something that I have only been meaning to do since early 2008. So, here we go...
Happy New Year!
So, why yoga pants and ponytails? Well, that's my new uniform. Yes, the stereotype is true. I had a baby last year and decided that rather than loving other people's children all day (and being exhausted by them) I would rather quit my job and love on mine all day. We may have lost 40% of our income in a shaky economy, but he is only going to be a baby once. He already isn't much of a baby anymore (gulp). So, now I am home and rockin' the stay-at-home mom look 24/7. I never thought I would, but here I am and truthfully I've never been happier.
We were on the way to a friend's house about a month ago (playdates are an essential part of my life now, never mind the fact that baby hardly interacts with his peers yet. Playdates are for mommy. Mommy needs friends so that she doesn't go crazy). My friend texted me "Be warned. Haven't showered yet and still in p.j.s" I was only one step ahead of her in that I was "dressed" in what else? Yoga pants and my hair was in a ponytail. No, I had not just taken a yoga class at the overpriced gym we joined so that I could bounce back after baby. I wanted to text back "that's what yoga pants and ponytails are for" but truth be told, I hate texting so I just said it out loud and waited for the light to turn. (Yes, shameful confession: I read a text while driving with my baby in the car. I was at a long red light. Don't judge.)
So, with the closing of the craziest year of my life (good-bye 2012, you were a total time warp for me and I don't remember huge chunks of time because I was sleep deprived and my hormones were a bit wonky but you were also so good to me and my new little family and you went by astonishingly fast and I am not really sure how that happened) I thought that I would ring in 2013 by starting something that I have only been meaning to do since early 2008. So, here we go...
Happy New Year!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)