Getting it together

I think all of you out there can agree when I say that nothing disrupts your household more than having a baby.

You suddenly go from a neat freak who use to mop her floors with bleach to deciding once a month is often enough for clean sheets on your bed.

Time is a luxury you don't have, then you blink and months have passed, clutter has taken over your household and you feel like you are suffocating.

People try to help and only make it worse. Now your house looks clean on the surface but everything is in the wrong place and you end up having to tear the house apart looking for things. Or someone decides to do your laundry for you but uses the wrong detergent and fabric softener on it to boot and you are stuck rewashing it all lest your precious bambino be allergic to it.

Sigh. It can get overwhelming.

I know - up until a few weeks ago thats exactly where we were. Our house felt like a mess constantly. It seemed we could never get caught up and I finally had enough one day.

So I created this -

 

Yup, a good old fashioned chore chart. For two adults. It works for us though.

The chart doesn't get followed to a T and not everything gets done. There are also things that don't make it on that need to get done. Like last weekend when I cleaned everything out from under our bed, vacuumed under it and reorganized our closets.

Its a starting point for us though. There are so many times where I feel like there is SO much I need to do that I don't know where to get started. That chart gives me a jumping off point. Its broken down into daily, weekly and monthly chores. I love to be able to cross things off my list so with the chart I can glance up at the fridge, pick some chores and tick them off one by one. I love that sense of accomplishment. When I don't get through something I just write myself a note and stick it up next to the list so I can make sure I do it the next day. I made it as a simple word document so if anyone would like a version for themselves I can email it.

The other thing that has been a challenge for us is meal time. Evenings are a mad dash at our home. We both work full time and now Jellybean eats dinner too. EEEK. Dinners use to be elaborate but now I've changed to lots of crockpot or one dish meals. For example, a dinner last week was super simple. I threw chicken breasts in the crock pot with stewed tomatoes, garlic, italian seasoning, a bag of stir fry peppers, a cup of pearled barley and a half cup of water. When I came home I put some rolls in the oven and viola - we had dinner. We try to take turns feeding Jellybean while we eat. That way he is a part of our meal and we too get to eat. He occasionally yells at us for being to slow though. Then after dinner Jellybean gets a bath while someone else cleans up the kitchen.

We also have picked up some tricks along the way that make life easier on us. I use to have a shelf in my closet for shoes. Our shoes ended up everywhere but on that shelf so I moved it. This now sits right by the front door -

and our shoes make it on there every time. We take turns with chores on weekends too. There is no way to get everything done and watch Jellybean too so the hubby may take Jellybean to the store with him while I sweep and mop. That way everyone wins. Plus Jellybean gets new people telling him how cute he is!

Our method is anything but foolproof and I'm sure many of you have so many more tricks for making life easier. Like how do you keep the laundry from reproducing faster than rabbits? Or is there a way to get the hubby to actually put dirty clothes in the hamper? Feel free to tell me what works for you.

And all you new moms out there - It does get easier. I know how overwhelming it is. Trust me you can go back and read a million blogs I wrote about it. Slowly though, you start to adjust. You discover the new freedom putting baby in the exersaucer gives you. You even come to a point where you aren't ashamed to invite company over. 

I swear - it will come one day!