How I Refocused my Cleaning List + Freebie

A while ago I published this post on how to make your perfect cleaning list after I felt I'd found the perfect way to clean my house.  I pretty much broke it down by section per day of the week.  Monday was the living room and office area, tuesday was the bathrooms upstairs & downstairs, Wednesday was kitchen and dining area, and Thursday was the bedrooms upstairs and downstairs.  Friday wasn't anything and the weekend was for laundry.  I also tried to tidy the bathrooms, tidy the kitchen (dishes, counters etc) and put away one item when I left a room.  However, we've recently started the remodel upstairs and with everything all jumbled up I feel like instead of cleaning I am just putting shit from one room into another room.

Because there are things not residing in their homes and everything is all jumbled up, I was just getting stressed out so I was not cleaning the house.  Honestly - my friends and my family will think I'm insane for saying this because I'm such a messy person - I was enjoying keeping the house clean.  I think I've said this before but I will say it again the thing that has made me less messy is having a place for everything.  And that has become even more evident by squishing a lot of shit into a small space during our remodel.  When everything has a place, thats where it goes (duh) but when I had a just a room with room mates or just a dorm in college, I was trying to stuff tooooooooo much into a small space.  So, enough blabbering - here is the way I refocused my cleaning schedule.

I made a list

In my filofax I just made a list of the things that needed to be done.  When I was doing the previous schedule - which I think I'll go back to after the remodel - it was pretty generic.  I knew that on Monday I would dust, tidy, vacuum the living room and the dust and swiffer the office floor.  But because things ended up being piled in places the didn't belong I got in the mind set of it's just going to be cluttered any way so I didn't do anything about it.  And then shit got even more cluttered.

On this list was a literal breakdown of everything so I could cross it off.  Not just do laundry but also fold laundry because it would just sit in the baskets fresh out of the dryer.  The biggest thing for me with lists is crossing things off.  If I break down things to the extreme I can then see exactly what is important and then I can group things and get them done.  It's helped me so far, I think.  Things aren't perfect but I'm getting something done.  Something is better than nothing.

I wanted to share with you a new insert that I'm using in my filofax to help me out with this.  I made a week on one page insert with a list column as well.  I like week on one page inserts because I don't have too, too much I need to write out so the sizing is perfect for me.  I also found that in my weekly spreads I will have multiple list pad inserts, sticky notes, etc and I really wanted to tame the bulk in my planner.  I realized that I was wasting a lot of the page by using weekly inserts with a full width box for each day.  

So go ahead and click here if you want to download this freebie!  It prints 8.5 x 5.5 inches so trim your pages before you run them through your printer.  Remember this freebie is free for personal use but go ahead and share this blog post with your friends!

xoxo, Moe