Guidelines for a Stay-Homer's Sanity - Part 3

-Disclaimer:  These are *Geoffrey Rush's Barbosa voice* "more guidelines than actual rules" and they are what I think will work best for our family.  Every family is different and so take these with a proverbial grain of salt.  To each mommy their own!-

I can hear the boos and hisses already, but hear me out!  When you spend most of your time in your home, the state of the place can have serious repercussions on your mood and your sanity.  I keep comparing homemaking to jobs out in the office world because it is a career just as much as accounting, or engineering, or whatever else you can think of, and don't let anyone tell you differently.  That being said, imagine what you would feel like if your office or other place of work was chaotic, dirty and, let's admit it, a little stinky sometimes.  Maybe it's just me, but I don't think I would be very productive and I definitely would not be happy or excited to go to or be at work.  Now imagine that you couldn't get away from that place at the end of the day and go home.  Sounds miserable and exhausting, right?

That's about the effect a messy house has on a stay-home mommy (or daddy, let's not forget that men can be homemakers too!).  It seems logical (Ha! Me! Using logic!) then that a clean, well-organized home would have the opposite effect, right?  Keep in mind, I'm not talking about Home and Garden photo-ready, all-day, every-day, only a comfortably tidiness.  Only bummer is you're the janitorial staff right along with all the other jobs you juggle at home.

Believe it or not, this isn't really as bad as it sounds.  I've said it before and I'll say it again, sticking to a schedule makes all the difference!  (It's Rule #1 for a reason, isn't it?!)  Admittedly, I'm a little bit insane about my list making, but it helps keep me on track with what I want to accomplish day to day, week to week.*  Breaking all your cleaning tasks down into specific days and times keeps you from feeling like all you do is clean and keeps away that horrible feeling of defeat when dealing with dishes and laundry, which are never done (my personal pet peeve!).

At our place, the living room floor is Baby J's play mat all day, and maintains a state of controlled  (usually) chaos while I go about my pre-planned chores around the rest of the house.  But once he goes to bed for the night, I pick up his toys and blankie and put them on a shelf, sit back and listen to the hum of the dishwasher while I read (or write a blog post!) until Mr. J gets home.  Trust me when I say there is a sense of peace that washes over you when your home is in cleanly harmony and you can truly relax!

*As promised, here's an example of said schedule (daily and weekly)!