Hi ladies,

I don't post very often but am trying to re-jig my household routines and wondered if any of you can help.

I love Alison's suggestions for routine but I can't get them to work for me at the moment. I look forward to the day when I am married (July 17th 2010, countdown on!) and have children and can bring them into the sort of routines that Alison describes but for now am in work full time and struggle to apply a day to each type of task.

So I just wondered if any of you who work have any tips about how you apply Alison's suggestions to your days? Any tips gratefully received!

Best wishes to you all

Helen

Perhaps what your trying to apply doesn't take because it doesn't fit or isn't really practical for you as an individual?

Keep in mind that the lists and planners on Brocante (or any other domestic site), are guidelines only. Some things may work for you. Others not. Something else you could try is tweaking a suggestion to fit you.

For example, the ultimate for homemaking guides, in my opinion, is Cherly Mendelson's domestic A to Z, "Home Comforts". But not everything in it is germain to my situation and some stuff I've altered to suit.

Yeah I think that's my problem, I tend to try and follow these things to the letter and it never works and then I get frustrated. At the moment my routine consists of doing everything on a Saturday which invaribly fails. The growing pile of ironing is testament to that....

I love Cheryl Mendelson's book, I'm not sure how she managed to write a book on housework that feels so comforting but I love reading it. Reading I'm good at, and writing out plans, it's just the doing I have a problem with!

Helen x

PS Housebug, I love your Pumpkins on the Vine blog, autumn is my favourite time of year too.

Helen,
Maybe you could hire a housekeeper and tell her what you'd like her to do.....ha

Thanks Helen.

Barbicakes,

What a fabulous idea! I would be so good at making lists for her!

Trouble is there's the wierd side of me that likes to keep house, I just wish I could find a better way of doing it.

Helen,

I know just what you mean! I get so bogged down in the details I get nothing done, especially since I work close to 50 hours a week outside the home. I love my job, but boy is it tiring. I get home and want to do nothing and then end up feeling guilty about not doing anything at home.

I'm the wrong person to ask for advice but I'm eager to see the ideas.

I also love Cheryl Mendelson's book - I have housekeeping and laundry books both. I also like Martha Stewarts Homekeeping Handbook as well.

Hope you get things figured out - and when you do let me in on the secret of managing it all!

Karla - long time forum member who has been absent due to work.

Still haven't really figured anything out Karla. Actually that's a lie, have printed out all my planner pages, gone through endless lists from various books (Martha's is definitely going on my Christmas list) and done absolutely nothing with it!! I just can't seem to sit down an put an absolute plan to paper and meanwhile the ironing pile just grows and grows!

I find the last bit of energy I have in the day goes on cooking dinner and after that I just want bath, pjs and bed. I can never really relax though cos I keep seeing the layer of dust over the dining table and in the corners of the kitchen and knowing that once again Saturday will be dedicated to scrubbing...

Maybe its just time to face facts that Saturday should be housework day and the less taxing tasks (like laundry) should be fitted in on weekday evenings? And the lovely tasks, the puttering and baking, well they have Sunday written all over them don't they?

Helen

A group of us on another forum have been approaching housekeeping and decluttering in the way that works successfully when applied to eating healthily - very small changes that can be adopted permanently, like reducing and then stopping taking sugar in your tea, or replacing the elevenses biscuit with fruit, etc...

So... you set yourself One Small Thing (OST) which is some small-but-defined task that you must do every day which would improve things. So not "keep kitchen tidy" or "keep bedroom immaculate" because that's too big, too vague... but "quickly mop kitchen floor every night" or "make bed and plump up pillows before rushing off to work every morning".

Because the OST is SMALL and daily, it is achievable... so after a few weeks it is becoming automatic... after one or two months, you can move it to the "habit" section and come up with a new OST...
Mine is to put away yesterday's clothes in the morning - to avoid the floor becoming my clothes storage area! I didn't stick to it every day in August so it's still my OST for September, but I hope to have a new one in October!

As well as the OST, have ONE weekly task... get up 30 or 60 minutes earlier on ONE day a week specifically to do that one thing that you are too tired to do in the evening - the ironing, for example.

Antoher thing, since you are time-poor, energy-poor but earning, is to identify what task takes the most time for the least result... and then hire out that one thing - swap your ironing during the week for something weekendy from you.
Find a broke student-friend - they do your ironing during the week, and in return you make them a big casserole and a couple of lush cakes each weekend... something like that!

Worth trying?

laura

My husband keeps trying to convince me that Saturday should be cleaning day - because like you Helen, I want to do nothing but sit and relax in the evening - after all I'm absolutely exhausted and positively braindead at the end of my work day!!