Homemaking Guide//Part One: Schedules-Cleaning

So Heather's first section she has in her HMG in her bible study section. I study the scriptures as well but I have a separate journal for that. So I will skip that section. The second section in her HMG is Work Schedules. She breaks it down into Daily Tasks, Weekly Work Schedules, A Breakdown of her daily Schedule for the School Year and the Summer. I will be putting my Cleaning Schedule, Weekly Schedule, and my Kids Daily Schedule in this section. These Schedules will change every now and then but if I have a copy of it, when it does need a change I won't have to start from scratch again. These schedules take a long time to complete. For mine I did a lot of research of what other people do and customized them to my needs. A lot of people do laundry once a day. I used to do it once a week because I hated the idea of laundry EVERY DAY. And that worked out fine when I only had one kid. But now that our family is growing if I only did laundry once a week it would get over whelming and literally take the whole day to wash/dry/fold/put away my laundry. So I tried switching to one type of laundry a day and that as been so much easier. Then I scoured pinterest and found some other cool ideas. Like this one that had a 'swing' day for working in the monthly tasks. And this one that broke up the weekly cleaning. This works great for me. I'm not very fast at cleaning and so I was trying to have Saturday be my day for the weekly chores, but something always seemed to be going on. So I would only get about half way done. So now each day something gets done and I don't have to worry about it till the next week. So After all my research and knowing myself I have finally compiled a daily cleaning schedule for myself. My daily chores seem like a lot but they are simple and fast. I don't spend a lot of time doing all of them.
Morning Chores-
make bed, wipe down bathroom counters, empty dishwasher, load of laundry, get mail, chore of the day
Nightly Chores-
load dishwasher, wipe down kitchen counters, take out trash, quick sweep/vacuum, spot clean floor, de-clutter living areas
I try to do this everyday. These aren't deep cleaning chores. Just things to keep the house tidy.
Weekly Chores//Chore of the Day-
Monday-
I dust and vacuum the whole house. Again I don't do a deep clean I just do a quick dust and vacuum in each room to all the surface areas. I don't move the furniture, I just quickly go around each room.
Tuesday-
I clean all the mirrors and windows. I even clean the one's I have up for decorations. This one is easy because I don't have a lot of mirrors. And for the windows I only clean the inside not the outside. I leave that for my Saturday yard work.
Wednesday-
This is the day I give the bathrooms a good cleaning. I clean the showers, tubs, toilets and sinks. I only have two bathrooms and they are small so this goes pretty fast as well. Don't forget to clean the bottom of the toilet and the wall behind it (especially if you have little boys)
Thursday-
This is when I mop all the floors. I love doing this before the weekend because then my floors are all clean for company on the weekends. I have a ton of tile so this usually takes me a bit longer. Don't forget to seal your grout every couple years to keep it from looking grungy. I found an amazing recipe for cleaning grout here.
Friday-
This is my 'swing' day. This is when I DEEP cleaning things. My monthly cleaning is broken up throughout the month so that I don't have to worry about one big monthly cleaning day. And I don't have to spend the entire day doing it. This is when I move furniture and vacuum underneath, clean my appliances, baseboards, doors and walls. These tasks take a little extra time but I have noticed that I'm getting faster at it because things are staying cleaner during the week.
Saturday-
This is when I do all my outside chores like, wash the outside of the windows, clean off the patio, pull weeds, clean up garage and shed, check the sprinklers for any problems. The kids love playing outside and get to help with some of the stuff too.
Sunday is my day of rest

My laundry is broken up into days as well. Monday thru Wednesday is when I do mine and my husbands laundry. Thursday and Friday are the kids laundry days. Saturday is when I wash all my towels and bedding that needs to be cleaned.

I created a layout on my computer and found a frame in my stock pile and found some cute scrapbook paper in my other stock pile. I hung it up in the hall with the kids chore charts. As I do each chore I mark it off with a dry erase marker. I didn't want the kids to have glass frames so I used sheet protectors and a clip board. They love getting to mark off the chores they complete. If you would like to make some of your own I found a cute free template here on pinterest. I love my new chore boards because they help keep all of us motivated to keep the house clean. I'll eventually make the wall cuter and decorate it better, but for now it is functional and being used and that's all that matters.

Homemaking Guide Project

So I have been trying to find a cleaning schedule that works well for me. I have the hardest time staying on top of my home management. I stumbled across this amazing site the other day. She has this binder called 'The Home Management Guide' and I absolutely love it. She says that she is the manager of their home and that this guide helps her keep her home 'managed.' Everything is broken down into sections. I won't be using all the sections in it, and some of my sections will be used differently, but I absolutely need to give this awesome lady credit. I already have an organized binder for my meal planning and recipes and it works great for me and helps aid me in my meal planning. So why I didn't think of a HM binder sooner is beyond me. It has great lists and ideas. I've incorporated chore charts into my children's schedules and they have been successful. I've just haven't found something that worked for me. I'm so excited about doing this binder. I'm so glad that she created this and shared it. She encourages us not to do it ALL in one sitting. And so I'm going to take her advice. I will create one section at a time and share with you what I have come up with. Also, just because this works for me doesn't mean it will work for everyone. Her HMG and mine will be different because we are different people and we have different homes. Find something that works for you. Try different things and if it doesn't work out try something different. Find out what works with your personality and home. Again this was not my idea, I'm am just sharing what my HMG contains. The 'original' creator can be found here. Also check out the rest of her site for more great ideas on budgeting, organization and more. I don't consider myself a 'manager' so to accommodate myself and my personality I will call my guide the 'Homemaking Guide.' I hope you guys can gain some inspiration from this project. Make sure you check out Heather's site, since she is the 'original' creator of this guide, for some more awesome ideas on how to manage your home.

Homemaking Guide//Part One: Schedules-Cleaning
Homemaking Guide//Part One: Schedules-Daily

Little Girl Dress Slip

So I have been looking for a little girl dress slip tutorial for like forever. I didn't have much luck. Not that many people where slips anymore I guess. But here's the thing I had sewing ruffles. They take forever. Recently I learned that you can buy a ruffler foot. But those are pretty pricey. I did some research and found out how to make a ruffle without one and I thought I would share.

First make your stitch length as long as you can

Then make the thread tension as high as it goes

Guide your fabric with one hand

Then rest your other hand on the top of your machine where the thread starts to go in

Be sure not to hold too tight, just a little pressure with your hand

Then as you sew, your fabric will start to gather

Perfectly gathered and I didn't even have to pull any strings

You might have to adjust the gathers a bit to fit correctly

To Make the slip 

I cut the bottom of a onesie off

Measure the the width of the onesie all the way around and double it for the length of the first ruffle

Then for the second ruffle double the length of the first ruffle

I just used cotton fabric and it does quite poof right So I added a ruffled tulle edge on the bottom to give it a bit more poof to it. 

To gather the tulle I sewed down the center of it using the sam technique

Ta Dah!

Perfect slip for under your little girls dresses to give them that little extra umpf!