So I am deep into day three of my return to my zone organization/cleaning plan. Yesterday I kept Matthew home from daycare because he had a doctor's appointment, so after we dropped off Alex we hit up Target to stock up on the few cleaning supplies needed to keep the plan running smoothly. I would say I have been about 80% successful so far.
Monday was zone 1, which is the master bedroom and walk in closet, the upstairs hall and both boys' rooms. I thought, however, that it was just our bedroom and hall, so the boys' rooms were ignored. Sadly, I have my family journal up to date and sitting on the kitchen counter. In this journal is my list of zones. I thought I knew what I was doing though, so I didn't bother to even open the binder. Turns out, I didn't know what I was doing, so now today I have to add the boys' rooms to today's zone. Sigh. For about a day, however, I was quite proud of myself for spending less than fifteen minutes and managing to hang up stray clothes, dust, Windex mirror and windows, vacuum and change the sheets. Stuffed into that fifteen minutes was also vacuuming the hall and dusting the shelves and pictures on the walls. So proud.
Yesterday I tackled zone 2, the master bath. Because of Matthew's long doctors appointment and then our family dinner out I didn't actually start on this zone until about 7:45pm. OK, I could have hopped right on it the minute we got home from dinner but sitting on the floor crashing matchbox cars with the boys seemed like more fun, and after all, isn't that why I have this whole system in place in the first place- to be able to spend more time with the boys? (Side note: large, hard cover books make great ramps for these little cars and monster trucks and then when the "giant baby" shows up and sits on the ramp you can simply pull the book out from under him and read it to the kids.)
So while my husband had the boys in the bathtub I tackled zone 2. I forgot to bring up the broom and the wet jet, so the floor didn't get done, but everything else was cleaned in well under fifteen minutes.
Today's zone is the boy's bathroom, which shouldn't be too hard thanks to the work Matthew did yesterday before his bath. I provided him with one of those dish scrubbies that has the well for the soap and he spent quite some time carefully scrubbing his tub, both inside and out. I am sure the day will come when he no longer thinks it fun to scrub his own tub, so I should enjoy it while it lasts. Maybe I should invite him and his new scrubbie into our shower... The whole mental picture of my son, ready for his bath, bent over the tub, scrubbing, does have somewhat of a Cinderella quality to it...
I have managed to complete the daily tasks very quickly as well, which means no laundry is piling up and the dishes are always either in the dishwasher or clean and in the cupboard. Tops, 25 minutes a day to clean my daily zone and complete my small list of daily chores. And it should only get easier, right? My next goal will be to get most of this stuff completed immediately after the boys leave for work and daycare, instead of scattered throughout the day. With as much done as possible before I sit down in my home office to begin my work day I will have even more reason to smile. And even more time to sit on the floor with my boys and build ramps for crashing cars!
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