Cleaning Routine: Tuesday (Dusting)

I like waking up to a clean kitchen and bathroom on Tuesday morning!  It makes my routine so much easier by getting these two tasks done first thing in the week.  Today, I will show you my Tuesday routine.

Morning Routine

(I have an hour and a half from the time I wake up until the time I have to leave for work in the mornings.)

• Laundry (3-4 days/week)
• Make the Bed (3 days/wk)
• Dishes: If the dishes were done the night before, I unload them in the morning.  Otherwise, I put the dishes from breakfast into the dishwasher.

 

The bed was made!!

Evening Routine

• Dusting*
• Bedroom
• Family Room
• Dining Room
• Kitchen
• Wipe down dining room table
• Dishes either washed or put into dishwasher to wait for a full load
• Put everything on the counter-tops in its proper place
• Wipe down counters
• Empty recycle bin (if needed)
• Take out the trash (if needed)
• Clean the top of the stove
• Laundry
• Put away clean clothes 

*We have a living room that is currently under construction.  We also have a spare bedroom that is in complete disarray right now.  When these two rooms get put back together, they will be added to my dusting routine.

Time to complete dusting: 20

Time to complete kitchen: 10

Time to clear miscellaneous surfaces: 20 minutes

Do you see how much dust accumulates in our house after just 1 week?!?
(I dusted the edge of the amoire to show you.)

The first few weeks, I focused on just the flat surfaces to dust.  After getting into a routine, I was able to blow through these rooms in no time.  I then started to dust the tchotchkes, picture frames, lamp-shades and getting cobwebs out of the corners of the ceiling!  I cannot believe how much dust accumulates in our home within a week!  Because dusting does not take that long, I use this time to try to pick up the rooms a little bit and put items in their proper places.

On this particular cleaning day, I dusted the air intake vent which has needed dusted for a long time (as you can see).  I also cleaned up the table next to the couch where I sit and the fireplace.  I have been trying to get our important paperwork filed, but everything just sat there by the fireplace for weeks!  

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Cleaning Routine: Monday (Bathroom)

Cleaning Routine: Monday (Bathroom)

Over the past month and a half, for the first time in my adult life I have been able to keep up with the (basic) cleaning around the house!  This includes keeping up with the dishes, laundry, bathroom, dusting, sweeping and mopping.  I cannot say that I enjoy cleaning but I can say that I really like the results after I’m done!

I will be posting my list along with before and after pictures of what my cleaning routine looks like each day of the week and how long it takes each day to complete.  Your times may vary depending on how many rooms you have to complete.  For me, I focus on the main living areas that we use.

Morning Routine

I have an hour and a half from the time I wake up until the time I have to leave for work in the mornings.  That being said, my morning routine is extremely laid back.

• Laundry: I throw in a load of laundry 3-4 times a week within 15 minutes of waking so that it will be ready to be hung on the line, drying racks or put into the dryer before work (hubby’s clothes only).
• Make the Bed: I would be lying if I told you that the bed is made daily.  I would say a fair number of days the bed is made per week would be 3 days.
• Dishes: If the dishes were done the night before, I unload them in the morning.  Otherwise, I put the dishes from breakfast into the dishwasher.

Because we didn't clean up at all throughout the weekend, this is what Monday morning looked like.  It took 20 minutes to clean up the kitchen a little bit before work and load the dishwasher to run before I left for work.  (There were so many dishes, there were some left in the sink for later in the evening.)

Evening Routine

• Bathroom
• Wipe down mirror, light fixture and pictures
• Clean counter-top
• Wipe down soap dish, q-tip holder, and toothbrush holders
• Wipe down walls
• Clean toilet
• Wipe down baseboards
• Sweep the floor
• Shower (Confession #1: this gets done once every 2-3 weeks! Confession#2: by Todd!)
• Kitchen
• Wipe down dining room table
• Dishes either washed or put into dishwasher to wait for a full load
• Put everything on the counter-tops in its proper place
• My purse and lunchbox goes into the baker’s rack
• Books go into the bedroom
• Sale flyers get put onto the fridge with a magnet
• Hubby’s wallet is put away
• Wipe down counters
• Clean the top of the stove
• Empty recycle bin (if needed)
• Take out the trash (if needed)
• Sweep the floor (it usually needs it after the weekend!)
• Laundry
• Put away clean clothes

Time to complete bathroom: 10 minutes

Time to complete kitchen: 40 minutes
Time to fold clothing and put away: 5 minutes

Oh, you don't have dog bones all over the place in your bathroom?
Hmmm.  That's odd...

The bathroom surfaces didn't need much work this week - just wiped down.

Phew!

For me, Mondays take some time but I also see the biggest difference on this day and it makes the rest of the cleaning schedule easy-peasy for the next 3 days!

Make it Do

I have a favorite quote that I’ve heard stated two ways:

1.)    “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, do without.”

2.)    “Buy it used, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

I like the second version best and this mantra is always going through my head every time my husband wants to purchase a new item.

As I walk around our home, I am constantly reminded about how we “make it do” from room to room.

For instance, our house needs the electricity rewired.  I cannot run the dishwasher and the bedroom air conditioning at the same time without blowing a circuit.  Nor can I use our small convection oven (I use this in the warmer months so that we don’t heat up the whole kitchen using the oven!) and the microwave at the same time due to this same reason.  We have plans to fix the wiring, but it is not high priority right now.  These are just minor inconveniences in my view.

Todd has wanted a king size bed for a little over a year now as our fur-family has grown.  We share our bed with 150 lbs of dogs and sometimes three 6+lb cats!  Add to that two overweight adults and I will admit it gets a bit cramped.  Please note that all the animals tend to take over my side of the bed – which leaves Todd able to sleep with his legs outstretched as I wake up curled in a ball most mornings trying to dodge animals (if you are contemplating letting an animal sleep in your bed – please keep this visual in mind!)    I keep trying to put off the purchase of a king sized bed because we purchased a nice locally made mattress just 4 ½ years ago.  I really like our sleigh-bed that Todd brought into the marriage and the mattress we have is extremely comfortable!  No matter how many times he shows me California king sized beds on Craigslist and how inexpensive they are, I am not budging on this issue until it is time for us to get a new mattress.

Case in point: Hubby is all sprawled out while I'm in the corner with 2 large dogs on my side of the bed!

We came to a compromise recently when we purchased a {used} ottoman from Craigslist for $35.  The ottoman is 48” long by 27” wide: plenty of room for a pup (or both!) and a few cats if they so choose to snuggle up with the dogs.  We realized within an hour of owning the ottoman that the color choice was not the best (beige) for animals, so we are using a camo throw on top of it to hide black dog hair and dirty paw-prints!  Voila.  Hubby is happy that he gets even more space in bed, and he has his precious Lana right there next to him at all times during the night.  Buddy, on the other hand, still chooses to sprawl out on my side of the bed, but luckily he likes to sleep at the foot of the bed, so it’s not too much of a bother.

I have a laptop that is 3 years old.  It’s big and clunky compared to what is out there in the market (and what everyone else seems to be using right now) but it does what I need it to do.  I asked Todd to do something on it for me (yes, I’m the one with a degree in Computers & Information Systems but I have to ask my husband to fix my computer!) and he said, “I don’t know how you work on that thing! We can go and get you another one.”  No, thank you.  I cannot justify getting a new one until this one dies on us.  Let is also be known that I don’t do well with change and I finally figured out how to use this laptop!

I believe we (mainly me) will always have a “make it do” mentality, but we will definitely be replacing the breaker-box in the near future as well as getting a new bed in the next 5-7 years.  We are strategically putting purchases of little importance off to continue our focus on paying down the mortgage.  Right now, we are on track to have the mortgage paid in full by October 2014!!  This goal helps us to keep our spending in line because we can only imagine the freedom we will have in one short year when we own our home free and clear.

Do you “make it do” around your home?

I’d love to hear about it!

  

Updating the Kitchen for $125

My husband and I purchased our home in 2007 at auction fully aware that it was a complete fixer-upper.  We liked the fact that we could make the home into what we wanted it to be and were prepared for it take several years to complete.  We did not have a conventional mortgage: instead, we had a personal loan with a bank that was just enough to pay for the home.  Our plans were to fix up the home so that we would qualify for a conventional mortgage.  After shelling out a lot of money for a new roof, the next task was to update the kitchen and bathroom and paint all the walls so that the house would appraise for what we needed to install a new septic system that was required within 12 months of purchasing the home (side note: a new septic in our area is the price of a brand new car! Ridicules!!).  The goal was to complete these renovations as quickly and as inexpensively as possible. 

This is a photo of the original kitchen and cabinets (please note: that is carpet on the kitchen floor!):

This is the kitchen with some extra cabinets installed, new appliances, and a buffet area that now houses our microwave and gives us great storage!

We had these beautiful new cabinets, but we needed counter-tops for them.  To save money, we used stick-on tiles that appeared fancy schmancy, stripped the grey exterior paint from the disgusting cabinets and replaced the doors with more modern cabinet doors from a salvage home improvement store.  We found out after year 2 or 3 that the stick-on tiles were not the best option because they warped and started to turn up at the edges. Unfortunately, I do not have a photo of what the kitchen has looked like for the past 5 years.

Memorial Day weekend, Todd and I went out shopping for real tiles to replace our kitchen counters.  We found a great deal on neutral colored tiles at Lowe’s for $0.57/sq ft!  For $60, we purchased enough tiles to redo our counters.  We purchased mortar and grout for pennies on the dollar thanks to damaged bags at Lowe’s (original price was over $23/bag: we got for $3/bag).  The only other expense was a tool to cut the tiles that cost $50.  So for less than $125 and a lot of physical labor, this is what our kitchen looks like today.

I absolutely love the way the kitchen turned out.  Everything that used to be on the counters (convection oven, toaster, can opener, bread box, flour/sugar jars, etc.) are now housed on either the baker’s rack or in the cupboards (thanks to some major decluttering!). 

I enjoy our kitchen so much more now than I ever have before.  We have learned one very valuable lesson with this house: quality is better than trying to do something as inexpensively as possible!  Because we did not do this when we first moved into the home, we have already had to redo our bathroom (in 2010)  and now our kitchen.  We know better now for upcoming home improvements to spend a little bit more money and make improvements that will last a long time! 

It just so happens that this improvement was inexpensive to complete and we got great deals on the supplies needed!  Win-Win!

I Can Do It Myself

 I am the first to admit that I am selfish.  Always have been - Always will be. 

The problem is that I have used the last 7+ years with my husband to become more selfish and lazy at his expense.  I always thought: “He gets 15 days off a month – he can do this.”

This thought process is not fair.  My poor husband does have 15 days off each month because of his rotating schedule; however, the days he works, he works 12 hour days!  I cannot imagine leaving for work at 4AM and getting home at 6:45 in the evenings.  No wonder he is always so tired.  He needs those “extra” days to re-coop: not for me to create a never-ending honey-do list!

Even though I feel loved most when getting help from my husband (my love language is acts of service), I have been requiring too much from him.  Every week, there was a list on the white-board of things for him to accomplish.  One day, I erased them all.  Clean shower?  I guess I better get to it. (I hate cleaning the shower – I will do toilets, counter-tops and wipe down the walls every day if I have to, just don’t ask me to do the shower!)  Clip puppy nails?  I just started taking over this task about a month ago.  Come to find out, it isn’t as difficult as I thought it would be (Lana’s nails are jet black and there is no telling where the quick is so I cut her nails a little every week to keep them under control.)  Clean upthe house a little every night?  I’m on it!  The dog’s water dish needs refilled?  I’ll take care of it!  Call cell phone company for credit – I got it! (I have more patience with customer service reps than hubby does.) 

It was the menial little tasks I did not feel like doing that I put Todd in charge of.  It never occurred to me he did not enjoy doing them either!

As of late, I have been trying to take over as much of these silly little tasks as possible in an effort to keep Todd’s stress down so he can focus on chores that really need completed (and I prefer not to do) such as: mow the lawn, clean up the garage, install new flooring in the living room and cut wood for winter.

I always told myself that I didn’t need a man – I could do everything I wanted to do by myself.  That is not necessarily true.  It’s nice to have a husband who can do home improvements, cook and even clean! However, it is liberating knowing that I can do many tasks myself without his help.  The problem was that I was just too lazy and selfish to do them myself!

Summer Fun on a Dime

I am a cheapskate.  There, I said it.  It is no surprise to most of you, because you know me.  I am always looking for ways to cut our spending.  I have noticed this year that we are doing more fun things together that don’t require money.  I love me a good fair (and fair food!), but the prices are becoming outrageous at $7+/person, plus $6 for a sandwich, $3 for a bottle of water…you get the gist.  When all is said and done, a few hours at the county fair became a $50 ordeal!

Instead, we have been doing the following this summer:

Scenery

Mill Creek State Park 

Mill Creek State Park 

Nelson Ledges

Nelson Ledges

Big Creek State Park

Happy Puppies: Salt Fork State Park

Stony Brook State Park (New York)

Stony Brook State Park (New York)

Stony Brook State Park (New York)

Pool

We don’t actually own a pool, but we got out a few times with the pups to go swimming!  Our Buddy boy just loves the water!  The pups love to swim, and we get a great laugh at watching our little otters in the water having a good ‘ole time.

Big Creek State Park

Salt Fork State Park

Salt Fork State Park

Car Show and Petting Zoo at a Local Festival

(We spent $3 total to get into the petting zoo and to feed the animals – it was worth it!)

Celebrating

4th of July Fireworks 

4th of July Fireworks

Cousin's Wedding Out of State

Camping Weekend with Family

Making Memories with Niece

Exploring

I’m sad that summer is officially over; however, I look forward to the leaves changing and the cooler temperatures.  We have plans of enjoying another season (fall) on a dime by going on hikes with the pups at surrounding state parks, taking a road-trip through the county north of ours that has 18 covered bridges, and getting away to Cook Forest in western Pennsylvania the first week of November

What have you been up to this summer?