Organized Spontaneity

My mom is amazing. She keeps her house so clean, thanks to the specific tasks she has scheduled for every weekday.

I'd love for my house to look like hers, but I'll be honest with you--that level of organization is just stressful to me. What happens when something comes up and I miss a day? Do I have to reschedule everything, or just skip the task altogether, or double up the next day?

So I don't even try to be as organized as she is when it comes to keeping a clean house. And I'll be honest with you--my house has never been, and may never be, nearly as clean as hers.

But I've realized a couple of things in the last couple of years:

• I'm happier with a clean house, and if I don't have some sort of plan, it doesn't get done. And that's just plain gross.
• I like to cook, but if I don't go to the grocery store with a plan and a list, I spend too much money, don't buy the things we really need, and end up stumped on what to make for dinner.

So I have my own methods of organizing my cleaning and meal planning--methods that let me stay sorta kinda caught up, while allowing me to keep my spontaneous side alive. Here's how I do it.

Cleaning:

I've broken up the basic cleaning in my house into five categories:

1. Clean tile floors (vacuum/mop)
2. Dust
3. Vacuum carpets
4. Clean bathrooms
5. Clean kitchen (inside of microwave, outside of appliances, sink, etc.)

On days when I have the time and motivation to clean, I do one of those tasks. I don't do them in a regular order. I end up cleaning the tile more often than anything else (because my kids make so many messes,) and cleaning the kitchen less often than anything else (since I already do light cleaning when I do dishes.)

But in general I try to get most of my cleaning done every 1 1/2 to 2 weeks. It's not as often as I "should," but it's often enough to keep us from living in squalor. And if I get behind, I'm only a week or so away from being caught up.

Now, I recognize that if you are the type to keep your house really clean, every 1 1/2 to 2 weeks probably sounds dreadful. (And you'd really be horrified when I let it go longer than that.) But it works well enough, and when my kids are a little bigger, hopefully I'll get things done more often.

Cooking:

I have a meal plan, but I don't assign meals to specific days. I sit down and pick several main dishes (usually five or six) that I want to make, and I type the titles into a Word document. When a recipe is online (as most of mine are), I link to it in the document so I can easily get to it. Then I use the recipes I've chosen, and my refrigerator shopping list, to make a typed list, organized by category. Here's a portion of my current meal plan/shopping list:



When I'm at the store I usually remember some other things we need, and there are items I nearly always buy but don't always have on the list, like fresh fruit. I don't do coupons, and I don't use the print ads. That would save us money, but I've tried it, and the time it took just wasn't worth it to me.

By the way, I don't do much planning when it comes to side dishes, unless I've found a recipe that just looks great. I usually just keep a variety of the basics around--veggies, salad, bread, etc.

Over the course of a couple of weeks or so, on a night I plan to cook, I open the meal plan document, decide which recipe I want to use, and make it. I only make a big meal every two or three days; we eat leftovers and simpler meals (such as bean and cheese burritos) on most of the other days. In between major shopping trips, I make grocery store runs with shorter, handwritten lists.

There you have it--my organized spontaneity. It's not perfect, but it's a pretty good fit for imperfect me.