the never ending quest for an organized house

My goal this week is to get the house back to a functioning level. I pulled out my old control journal and found some impressively organized--but seriously outdated--stuff! Most of the electronics were replaced or broken some time ago, the info on the appliances were from the last house, my routines included nap-times, and diapers/wipes were on the grocery list.

Still, I was glad to find my detailed cleaning lists by zones. Joy of joys, right?

It's becoming clear that i'm not going to get this all together in one week. So we will focus on our morning and evening routines and will be working in one zone: the bedrooms! The upstairs was the first area to lose my attention as they usually aren't seen by the public and it is in sorry shape. So that's where we will focus our attention during our afternoon chores: declutter, wash sheets, clean under beds, empty out the closets, etc. etc.

I'm working slowly on my control journal. Today I reinstated our daily routine sheets for each of us, myself included. They look something like this for the kids:

I'm being purposely vague on the times. I find when I post a schedule that is to-the-minute specific we don't stick with it for long. I can always hand-write the times if we need them. I plan one week at a time. I hand-write appointments or things we have planned in the appropriate day and I add things I want them to focus on in the notes section. Goals for the week can also be listed here. This doesn't have to be perfect. When I focus on perfection I don't get anywhere because, well, I'm not perfect. Scratch things out, hand-write items in, get over it and get to work.

Each child has a clip board and the routine sheet goes on their clipboard. I print several of these at once but only write in specifics for one week at a time. This list keeps us focused and on track when we get distracted. After Bible on Monday we discuss our lists and the plan for the week so we all understand the expectations. (It drives me nuts that the hanging clipboards don't line up. But we're not going for perfection, here. Just trying to get to a place where we function!)

This is my daily routine plan. I hand-write any extras we'll be doing each day. For example, on Saturday we usually go to the grocery but some weeks that changes. This week I have it written on the Friday square. I'm also adjusting my hours to resemble my second-shifter husband and the times are a bit up in the air right now. This is my starting point and I'll adjust and fine-tune it as time goes on, which I can easily do cause I'm only doing one week at a time right now. I write my goals for the week in the notes section. These sheets go in the calendar section of my control journal which sits on my hutch in my kitchen, open to the week in question.