Creating routines

OK – so if you’ve been following my programme for the last few weeks you should by now have Christmas well and truly put away and you should have at least started, if not completed auditing your house for clutter spots and listed all of the areas that need attention and all your possessions that need a new home allocating with thoughts towards where that home will be.

So far we’ve not really done a great deal, it’s been a slow gradual start. We’ve taken down some decorations, we’ve had a walk around the house with a clip board and pencil, we’ve made some list, perhaps taken some photos but we’ve not really rolled up our sleeves yet have we.

Well before that starts we need more little administrative task and then we’re off.

It’s all too easy when looking at a cluttered home to not know where to start. Every room is a mess, every cupboard is crammed, every item of laundry needs ironing and you’re already tired from looking at it before starting it. Well the truth is you have started it. When you signed up for this programme you started it so well done so far.

What every well run home needs is a routine, think of your home as you would a little business, because your home is your business. Run it as you might a little hotel, with systems and timetables, allocated days to do allocated jobs and lists of what is required to be in stock at all times.

Yes, during the coming year we’re going to do lots of de-cluttering, lots of heavy duty cleaning, lots or organising but there’s also maintenance. For example in April we’re focussing on the bathroom but this by no means means that you don’t need to clean your bathroom between now and April, and once you’ve done it in April you don’t need to do it again until next April. This will need doing at least once per week if you live alone, more often I’d say if you co-habit.

Later this month we’re focusing on the kitchen but of course you still need to do other chores around the home at the same time whilst focussing on the kitchen.

The first year is the hardest – but bare with me and you’ll be on top of things in no time. Once you have the clutter banished and the systems in place the home is a much simpler place to run.

This week as well as your audit you’re going to be coming up with a timetable for your daily, weekly and monthly maintenance programme. This is where an electronic diary is especially useful but if you don’t have access to one you can register for web-based one such as “Google calendar” or you can simply make a timetable similar to the kind you made at school with two columns: the days of the week down one side and the chore to the other.

If I give you an example of my daily, weekly and monthly chores it may help you to get a better understanding of what I mean. Remember, I like most of you, work full time, so all of my home chores are completed in the morning before going to work or in the evening when I get home before I settle down for the evening.

DAILY:

• 0730: Empty dishwasher (if started the previous evening)
• 0800: Make the bed before leaving for work
• 1800: Prepare dinner and tomorrow’s lunch
• 1900 > 2000: Clear away kitchen and load dishwasher and complete allocated chore depending on which day of the week it is (see below)
• 2300: Before going to bed straighten living room, fluff cushions, return any cups to the dishwasher and activate if full. Plan tomorrow’s outfit for work

WEEKLY:

• Monday: Iron all aired laundry and return to wardrobes, cupboards, drawers as necessary. Vacuum throughout
• Tuesday: Home filing and shredding, write any necessary cheques, sort recycling for tomorrow’s collection
• Wednesday: Clean kitchen, clean bathroom, mop all hard floors
• Thursday: Clear superficial clutter in living room and bedroom. Vacuum throughout
• Friday: An easy one as it’s Friday night (at least one load of laundry) then either fold ready to go on washing line tomorrow or spread out on clothes horse and place in spare bedroom to dry (ready for ironing on Monday)
  and so we repeat…
• Monday: Iron all aired laundry and return to wardrobes, cupboards, drawers as necessary. Vacuum throughout…

I know it seems like a lot but it’s only one hour per evening. I personally don’t watch any soaps, I get my chores done. I don’t know what time Eastenders/Corrie is on 1900/1930ish isn’t it but next time you’re home and you hear the theme music marking its end you’ll know that I’m just finishing for the evening now and I’m now relaxing for the rest of the evening knowing all my chores are done and the rest of the evening is mine to enjoy.

There are some chores that need to be done less regularly. For example:

• Every other Sunday I change my bed linen. I take it off on Sunday mornings and wash it, I replace it on Sunday afternoon after the bed has had a good airing and I add the clean linen to the ironing basket for Monday.
• The first Saturday of every month I clean my fridge (so twelve times per year)
• The second Saturday of every other month I clean my oven (so six times per year)
• The first Sunday in March, June, September and December I clean my windows inside and out (so only four times per year)

I don’t have to remember all of these things as they are diarised and I’m not constantly updating my diary either as I have them in auto repeat. Make full use of the repeat functions in your diary. I can help you with this if you get stuck.

So what I need you to do is come up with a simple daily (morning and evening) routine that will work for you and a simple weekly routine so that each evening you spend approximately one hour on domestic chores. Areas you will need to include are: the kitchen – the bathroom – vacuuming/mopping – home paperwork – laundry. Once you’ve done this start it with whichever chore you’ve allocated yourself for Tuesday. For example my recycling is collected on Wednesday mornings so I like to do my home paperwork and sort out my bins and recycling on Tuesdays so I can throw away all of the envelopes and shredded paper straight away.

The more sporadic chores like cleaning windows/ovens/fridges you can leave for now and we’ll return to those later.

Come up with a plan that works for you.

Good luck and remember – NO WIRE HANGERS!

Richard

The home audit

In this session you will have a good look at your home room by room and assess your clutter, storage solutions and routine.

Working around your house in an orderly fashion visit each room individually (including hallways, stairs and landing areas) and locate your dumping grounds or hot spots. Do you always keep things on top of your microwave that don’t belong there? Is your hall table always covered in a pile of post? Is there a pile of pizza/takeaway menus beside the front door? Do you have a pile of shoes at the foot of the bed? Do you have eleven half started bottles of shampoo/conditioner/body wash on the side of the bath.

Once you’ve found all of your clutter and listed it and it’s location you need to decide whether those items actually have a “home”.

Is the pile of towels on the bottom of the guest bed simply because you’ve not yet put them in the ottoman/airing cupboard, or is there no such home for them? Is there a box of light bulbs on top of the microwave because you replaced one last week and you’re yet to put the remainder from the packet away or do you not have an allocated drawer/cupboard/box for light bulbs, torches, batteries, fuses and such like?

Working around your home you’ll end up with a list. I prefer to divide the paper into four columns, the first is the room, the second names the clutter, the third states why and the fourth states the solution.

EG:

• spare bedroom > big pile of clean towels > dumped in there in hurried panic tidy up when niece came to visit > return to airing cupboard
• kitchen > half box of light bulbs on top of microwave > they have no allocated home > solution to be found (perhaps in the cupboard under the sink)
• bedroom > eleven pairs of shoes in a pile at the foot of the bed > the bottom of the wardrobe is currently full of shoes > can I loose a few pairs to make room for these?
• bathroom > nine started bottles of shampoo/conditioner/wash on the side of the bath > keep starting new > can I decant into a shampoo cocktail then buy NO MORE until these are used?
• hallway > big pile of pizza/Indian restaurant/kebab menus on hall table that I never use > they keep coming through the door > bin them and as they arrive continue to bin them
• hallway > big pile of pizza/Indian restaurant/kebab menus on hall table that I do use > first dumping ground as they arrive through the door > purge any you don’t use then find a home for them – how about hole punching them and keeping in a tiny ring binder next to the recipe books?
• living room > basket of laundry to be ironed > procrastination > get it ironed and put it away or put it away and iron as you wear it.

Continue like this until you have a full list. Once this is done you’ll discover not only the areas in your home that are cluttered but you’ll start thinking about why those items are out, where you’d like them to go and then the hidden areas (cupboards, shelves, units etc) that you need to clear out or purchase in order to allocate those items a home.

If your vacuum is always out on display in the hallway because there’s no room in your under-stairs cupboard, you need to find out what’s in the under-stairs cupboard. I helped a friend recently to clear out theirs and they found tins of sour paint, the wheels off of an old bike, an old TV stand, crates full of old paperwork and about 200 Sainsbury’s carrier bags. Once we’d sorted this out and about 80% of it went to the dump. there was room for not only their vacuum, but also their clothes horse, and mop and bucket that they used to constantly have out on display in their kitchen.

Now – get to it. I’m not saying you have to find all of these things homes instantly, this week, but by knowing what needs a home it’ll inspire you to throw away some of the clutter you are storing in cupboards to make room for what you do need.

That’s your home audit sorted, later this week we’ll be drafting timetables and establishing routines for the general maintenance of your home so you’ll need a diary, access to Outlook, iCal, a telephone/blackberry/PDA calendar or something like Google calendar.

Now get to it and remember - NO WIRE HANGERS.