To do list - routines or ad hoc?

[bluebelltippytoes]

I posted this in Chat but no one has responded...

I have my to do list in an app on my iPhone (Remember the Milk). Lots of tasks repeat (i.e. clean bathroom weekly, wipe cat flap daily, change sheets weekly, etc.). Sometimes I make good progress but most of the time I never feel like I am on top of stuff.

I wonder if it would be best to go back to pen and paper and write things down as I see them (rather than daily, weekly, monthly, etc.).

What does everyone else do and, most importantly, does it work?!

I have a pen and paper in the kitchen for one offs so I can write them down as they occur to me. I usually remember to ring the hairdresser after they've closed and forget about it by the next day unless it's staring me in the face on a list.

The routine stuff is set up in Ticktick, everyone's birthdays are in there with the first reminder three weeks before the date and I have reminders for things that happen once a year like the boiler service. I have a list of daily jobs and then various chores that repeat less often. It's been running for long enough now that I have the repeats set about right. The things that were tripping me up were the less frequent jobs, I was on top of the daily and weekly chores but those things that come along less often were the ones that I managed to overlook until they reached the stage of total neglect.

Sometimes I look at the thing I'm supposed to be doing and I'll decide that it doesn't really need it and I'll tick it off anyway. I don't usually get too far behind because the big jobs are split into smaller jobs so if I don't have time for "clean bathroom" then I can knock off "polish mirror" and "empty wastebin".

DH does routine & I do ad hoc. Routine depresses me & he doesn't see any problems to fix without routine.

Does it work? Feck knows. We don't live in a filthy hovel, at least.

I use my iPhone calendar and also reminders.

I keep it simple like do different rooms different days.

Mondays I will clean the kitchen, laundry and playroom throughly.
Tuesday I will clean the lounge, porch, WC, hallway, cloakroom & sweep up downstairs.
Wednesday I will do the washing, drying ironing & putting away
Thursday I will clean bathroom and bedrooms and landing
Friday vacuum and mop
Saturday I will sort out filing, odds and sods baskets, any other cleaning or windows, bleaching cloths, etc
Sunday, meal planning, meal prepping & shopping list & washing clothes and drying and putting away

Wipe cat flap DAILY??? Why?

Anything else I will put in my calendar for about midday - I try to keep it to one thing to do everyday so I can keep on top of stuff and not overwhelmed. I.e. Researching stuff on internet or phoning somebody or going out and about. Just anything that is not housework

I have two little children so keep it as one thing a day or two at the most and the calendar reminders come up on my fitbit so helps me when my phone is not on me around the house

Reminders I use for shopping list so I will ask Siri to add to shopping list and it will on my shopping reminder. I also have a reminder set for at specific locations like my parents house or my in laws house or LO's nursery. When you get to the postcode set the reminders will pop up on your mobile

Try and keep housework to 30 minutes max and if you have not done it throughly then there is always next week

My dd decided to arrive super early, we were right in the middle of a full kitchen refit, just had the the 3 downstairs rooms replastered, my home was a building site!! We've nicknamed dd little velcro, because she is truly a velcro baby (still is at 11 months, even when she's playing, she likes to crawl over every few minutes for a little cuddle, so chores can be insanely tough at times) I felt a little lost with maintaining the house, clutter had starting piling in each room, it really got to me. (I have to point out that I have 2 older children too, the school run takes 2 hours a day, they have clubs every day apart from Fridays and Sundays - until rehearsals for dance shows or football matches then it's just bedlam haha). Time is very limited, I like to go to playgroups aswell and volunteer as a breastfeeding peer supporter as well as working. Phew it's exhausting just typing it all!! Anyways, I was chatting to a client whilst I was pregnant about the state of the house with the decorating and how much I had to do before dd arrived and she gave me the book '30 days to a clean and organised home' said she follows it to the letter, with the thought that I'd complete it on my mat leave. So In desperation a few months back, I had a look and thought I'd give it a go. It gives you a daily routine, which now I've got into it takes around 40 mins or so, a cleaning task and an organising task for each day. Now I've been doing it for a while and I'm only on day 5, but just doing the daily keeps the home straight, so when I do have a day at home and dd is in a happy mood, I can attack the cleaning / organising task. It has printable checklists aswell so you can tick it off if you need to physically see what you've achieved to keep you motivated. It's not for everyone, but I'm quite enjoying it.

That sounds like a good book to get people organised and on top of things.

Are you able to post some of the checklists please

I have a day scheduled for housework and I have one organising task around time the eldest son goes to sleep.

It would be interesting to see what the book says

I'm out at the moment, but will post links when I'm home :) I've found it really helpful.

Thanks lovely x

housewifehowtos.com/clean/cleaning-routine-daily-whole-house-tidy/

This is the link to the daily. I recommend you read the text before printing off the daily, otherwise you end up doing too much of a 'clean' that will take too long rather than a once over and doing specific cleaning & organising tasks. E.g. If you kitchen counters are really cluttered, you just get it into a neat pile to sort through on a day when you have time, rather than trying to deep clean every room, then feeling disheartened when it doesn't get completed, which was my issue. Let me know what you think / how you get on. (It took me about 4 days just to get it to the daily routine standard when I started ooopppss, now it takes 30-40 mins!)

Great link and ideas thank you

I try and keep on top of stuff .

Why does the lady say wet sponge and put in microwave for 5 mins, is that to clean it? I usually just throw mine out and use another one lol

its to kill germs I suppose , I added onto the end of my routine to put dry clothes away - I used to end up with piles of clothes everywhere, still do sometimes, when the kids are off school and we've been out most of the time, or on holiday , but it's the main thing that made the house untidy. Good luck!! I hope it works for you !!

I don't keep any lists except for food. The house gets a once over on a weekly basis which includes bedding, towels, vacuum, dust, bathrooms, and lately a ceiling hoover for those annoying wispy spider webs of which we seem to get a gazillion. When doing the once over if I have time I as in a special job like tidying a coat closet or oven or some such. I find maintaining a list becomes another job and a little bit of a minor torment!

Thanks lovely beans and dudsville.

I will put in microwave as stated to kill the germs haha

Yes having lists is a job in itself but I have my calendar on repeat weekly so I don't have to put it on my calendar every week.

My brain is crap since having kids so I will put an organising task on daily on my calendar when DS1 has his nap which i will do anytime throughout the day. The calendar reminders are purely to give me a kick up the ass and a reminder.

If it is not on a list or calendar I forget. But then I would prefer putting stuff on calendar which will alert me rather than constantly have to think about think to do which ultimately can stress you out.