LTD Cleaning

I'm not a good housekeeper. I'd think that would be obvious from the blog title, but if not, there you go. I've tried FlyLady, which I found kind of love bomb-y, and various, 'One Month To Organized!'-type ebooks, and cleaning lists, and I typically end up overwhelmed, and playing The Sims instead of being useful after my son's gone to bed. So, at one point I just stopped, looked around, and decided what areas of housework make the place most Hoarders-like when neglected, and decided to worry about them, and nothing else. Oddly enough, it seems to be working.

My nightly routine is:

Laundry - Put dirty stuff in the machine, or a basket, if you'd rather, and run the machine when it's full. I wash everything together on cold, so no color-bleeding, and let the husband wash his own shirts and undies. Run the machine if it's full, dry it if it's done, fold and put away clothes (or leave a basket of folded clothes outside a sleeping kid's room). When we were still using cloth diapers, I'd put them on the drying rack outside at night, so they could get some sun, and bring them in the next night, since I'm not around during the day.

Trash - Pick up whatever half eaten muffins, bits of frozen vegetable bags, and junk mail might be lying around, and toss them. Take the trash out if it's the right night, take the bin back from the curb if it's just been picked up.

Dishes - Put them in the dishwasher and run when full, or wash by hand. Empty the dishwasher or rack.

If you have the energy, wipe down the counters, clean the toilet, or do whatever else needs doing. I find that when I only commit to bare-minimum cleaning I'm more likely to keep going on other tasks, so I try not to put too much on my list, or the little computer people start calling to me again.