The Tool I Started With

So, saying I went from Chaos to Clean is great and all.  It's ok to recount the way I felt in the past and the ideas I found from websites out there to help get organized and get clean.  BUT, were there actual tools I used to make the change, to help me mentally get to where I am today?

I know I said FlyLady is too routinized for me.  The daily planners that dictate what I do when are not for me.  I can't schedule every little thing I do.  What about "life" - you know, that messy thing that interrupts the best laid plans?  "Life" seems to happen every day for me!  So, I knew from looking and trying it out, that the daily "every minute accounted for" planner was not for me.

I did find a routine though.  I found it because I found cleaning dockets.  If you're like me, you thought "docket? What's a docket?"  It's just a list of things to do.  After researching lots of different dockets online, and trying a few of those examples, I finally decided to make one of my own. 

First I decided whether I wanted to clean by room or by task.  By task means washing all of the floors in one day, for example.  By room means doing everything to get the room clean from dusting to decluttering to floors.  I decided to go by room.  It seemed less overwhelming to me than trying to get all of the floors in the house done in a day.

Then I went to each room and made a list of the things I'd like done in each room.  I didn't stress over specifics, except in the bathroom.  In the bathroom, I wanted to be sure I had each small task listed from cleaning the toilet to replacing the stash of toilet paper in the room.  Why?

Well, by listing each task out, it gave me the option to skip tasks if I didn't have the time or energy in a day.  It let me quickly see which tasks had the highest priority so that I could do those first.  Some things, the sanitary things, are more important to get done in the bathroom, let's face it.

I usually find that if I do nothing else, I clean the floors.  It makes me happy to have clean floors, even if they only last until a cat or dog drops a furball. What makes the house feel clean to you?  That's the task you want to have the highest priority.

So, with the docket made, I began to work on my house.  I knew that any given task on the list could be skipped, as long as I did something on the list that day.  And in the beginning, each task was laborious because of the clutter around the house, so I didn't always make it beyond picking stuff up from the floor.  But the next week, when I got to that room again, it was a little easier to pick up the clutter and I got a little further in the cleaning.

The biggest thing the docket did was help me set a weekly routine.  Now I know that on Mondays, I clean bathrooms.  On Wednesdays, I clean the kitchen. And so on.  I tend to take the weekends off - from Friday to Sunday - because I work Fridays and Sundays, and I like to spend time with my family on Saturdays.  But I still have tasks listed on Friday and Saturday in case I feel the urge to clean something.

So, the biggest tool that shifted the way I clean, was the cleaning docket.  From reading online, I know that each one is as individual as the person that makes it.  So, you can try using someone else's but I highly recommend making your own.