How I manage... most days.

When Christian and I first met, I had a one bedroom apartment and lived alone.  I had been living alone for about five years at that point.  I had one roommate, my brother, for a brief time but living alone was my thing.  I loved it.  I think one thing I loved most about it was the fact that I didn't have to answer to anyone else about the pile of clothes next to my bed or the stray dishes in the sink.  I was a young twenty-something who went to school full time, worked full time and had quite the social life.  Ain't nobody got time to clean when all that stuff is happening!

Then, Christian and I decided to move in together.  Well, technically, I moved into his house.  He was a thirty-something, type-A Navy Pilot.  He screams order and cleanliness.  The military just effs with people like that.  Needless to say, that transition was quite tough.  Seven years later, it's still tough.  He's still nitpicky and particular.  But, I've figured out ways to get my shit together and maintain a relatively neat and orderly home.  I no longer go to school full time, I no longer work full time and I certainly don't have much of a social life.  So, I should have all the time in the world to maintain a clean house, right?  Well, there are these two little tornados I live with.  One is named Max and the other is named Lydia.  They take just about 95 percent of my time and the other five percent, I try to have a cup of hot tea and re-freakin'-lax for a damn minute.  So, here's what I've done.  I became all Pinterest Princess and made a cleaning schedule.  I know, I know... what a crazy person.  But, it helps.  Big time.  I've been following it for about two years now and it really helps me stay on top of those mundane tasks such as cleaning the bathroom floors or dusting the living room.  Our sheets are always clean, laundry has it's day and there are no rotting vegetables in the bottom drawer of the fridge.  So, as we ease into the school year and we're all on that organization bandwagon, I figured I'd share how we do things 'round here.  Here's my most recent cleaning schedule that is tacked up on my little bulletin board right now.

So, you'll notice on Sunday, I have "meal plan" as one of my tasks.  Meal planning is another thing that makes our life easier and really saves time and money.  And frankly, it makes me feel like I've got my shit together.  Every Sunday, I sit down with my planner (I have the Simplified Planner by Emily Ley and love it!) and write down what we'll have for dinner each night that coming week and then I make my grocery list accordingly, adding any additional items like snacks, condiments that we've run out of, etc.  Having just moved to a new town, I'm not super familiar with the layout of all of the grocery stores we have so I've just recently created a grocery list template that allows me to separate my needed items by section of the store so I'm not bebopping around trying to find stuff and taking forever.  Here's my grocery list template that I print off and write in each Sunday.   It's simple but it helps!                               

             

Well, I hope someone enjoys this little tidbit.  Enjoy the woooosaaahhhh and maybe a glass (or bottle) of wine using the time this saves you.  ;-)