Over time, I've come to value, not only living neatly and having a beautiful tidy home, where guests feel free to drop by at any time,... but also to value the benefits of being organised, of staying on track, with a household & familiy life that runs fluidly, seemlessly, every day . Ahhh the dream is still out there!
Talking to a friend one day in our church creche, she told me about the Messie Manual (by Sandra Fenton) and loaned me several books on this topic. It was the answer I needed to help me make some dramatic changes in my erratic, cluttered and busy life. I joined the online self help group- I now get the regular email encouragements helping me to change my "stinkin thinkin" as our pastor says, and Im having a messie transformation.
Then I started practically... Ive done several clean outs at home, tackling piles of unrequired belongings, giving them away to op shops, council clean ups and the rubbish bin. I do weekly meal plans, which we all take turns in choosing the weeks dinners, and from which I write my weekly shopping list. Now I can also shop just once a week, reigning in those costly, frequent trips for incidentals.
Ive introduced my children to the new (not) concept of "chores". They always had to tidy their bedrooms and this has been a constant struggle and remains so. But I started with a single chore , each of setting or clearing the table at the night time meal. Suprisingly they've taken this on without too much trouble. We did this for several months before I introduced the next new idea that each child had to keep either their toilet or bathroom tidy as well as their shared bedroom, and the dinner routine.That was over 6mths ago. Now we are regularly getting them to tidy their areas.... with a reasonable amount of success (let the optimism shine through!) In general, the greatest problem still falls with me, and my own issues of inconsistency, slackness and the like, although, this too is improving slowly.
The latest step towards tidyness, has been introducing the kids to the idea of washing and drying their own dirty clothes once a week. (A fun chore for kids, when its sunny n warm, a miserable chore when its cold and windy)... This has been a big step, and we've only been doing it for a month with mixed success... But the process has already had some interesting lightbulb moments for all of us...
1. Putting the clean clothes away, rather than tossing them in the dirty clothes basket when tidying - is less work. WOW
2. Washing, hanging clothes, folding and putting them away takes a lot of time, Hmmm.
3. You can't put wet or damp clothes in drawers as they dont dry!, Nor does hanging clothes on top of each other on the washing lines. If you do so, you will have damp clothes to wear to school etc...
4. You need to think ahead to what they want/ need to wear through the week to make sure its clean... or they miss out. (not good when its schoolwear but anyway).
5. Kids need to be prompted to do their chores, and rereminded of all these things...every time they're meant to do them. arghhh groan!
Im sure there's much more to be learnt by doing this, and at nearly 9 and 6 yrs old, my daughters are big enough to do something towards maintaining their own clothes. I realise that as their mummy, I am leaned on heavily to remind and assist them with their chores, but this way, at least, they will hopefully ?! learn early to be responsible for their own things... and appreciate when help is given.
The offset, is now I am getting the occasional moment where, with a relatively tidy house, and food in the cupboard, and 2 energetic kids focussing on their own tidyness, and a toddler having a naptime, I can snatch some spare time to do me stuff... i.e. gardening, reading, playing guitar, study etc. Its been so long since Ive had this... (9 yrs to be precise).
The offset, is now I am getting the occasional moment where, with a relatively tidy house, and food in the cupboard, and 2 energetic kids focussing on their own tidyness, and a toddler having a naptime, I can snatch some spare time to do me stuff... i.e. gardening, reading, playing guitar, study etc. Its been so long since Ive had this... (9 yrs to be precise).
Good for you!
ReplyDeleteThis is something I've been working on more too. I plan weekly meals, try and tidy as I go, de-clutter (I've thrown out so much stuff as of late)!
It really helps.