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Friday, July 20, 2012

As Seen on Pinterest: 10 Habits of a Well-run Home

Hello there, friends! You are joining the blog from a "Well-Run" home already in progress. Ha!!  Okay, as I mentioned in my PP, I am testing this post titled "10 Habits for a Well-Run Home" from The Stressed Mom blog. 

Up to date, I wouldn't say I have any habits that constitute a "well-run home". Most days I feel like I'm flying by the seat of my pants, throwing things in a bag (if I can find them) for the kids on our way at the door, while yelling at them to hurry up and get in the car.  On the days that we are at home, I don't have any form of structure in place for what should be done on a daily basis. I just kinda take a look around the house and decide what I should work on. The down-side of this, and anyone with ADD can tell you, is if I look around and see that there are just toooo many things I need to do, I get overwhelmed, give up, and, well, go piddle on Pinterest instead.

Enter "10 Habits".  I've been jonesing to try this one for a while. But just like any diet, I tell myself I will start on Monday. Then Monday rolls around and....see where I'm going with this?

So the OP does say not to tackle all 10 of them at the same time, to start slowly and adopt a few at a time.  Listed below is the abbreviated list. You can see the full description of each item on the OP.

1. Wake up early
2. Go to bed early
3. Evening Preparations
4. Institute meal-planning
5. Do one complete load of laundry a day
6. Do all dishes before bed
7. Daily 5-minute cleaning of bathrooms
8. Tidy Up
9. Incorporate a bedtime routine
10. Don't agree immediately to new requests

Okay, at first glance all of these look do-able, except maybe the load of laundry a day part.  I thought, 'I got this! Gimme ten, baby!'  But I gotta tell you, I failed. I failed miserably.  These may look like insignificant tasks, but to an unmedicated ADD sufferer like myself, these are, well, significant! 

I'll just go down the list. Waking/go to be early I did three of the 6 days. One was on purpose, the other two was because I had to go to work and it actually does make for a less stressful morning to get up early.

Eek. Evening prep and meal planning was a straight up no-go. My evening prep entailed thinking about what I had to do the next day. And meal planning? Well, I made sure I got enough groceries for meals for two weeks but as far as saying, "Tuesday, we're having meatloaf,"....nope. It's something about the structure of it. I feel trapped by meal planning. I like to be surprised by dinner not know two weeks in advance what I'll be eating every single day. I'm just spontaneous like that. ;)

While I knew from day 1 that daily laundry wasn't going to happen, I did make an effort to have all the dishes done before bed. Yes, it's frustrating when I'm tired and just want to plop down with a book, but the payoff is big the next day.


For the last four items on the list, the only one that I really made an effort to change was #8 - Tidy Up. In fact, the OP uses the old adage, "A place for everything, and everything in its place." Well, firstly, none of my crap has its own place. Secondly, it's like a mom overheard at the zoo last week said, "Cleaning the house while the kids are home is like brushing your teeth while eating Oreos."  Right?! Man, I wish I could give that woman credit, wherever she is, because that is the truest. statement. EVER! But it's hard to stay mad at these little darlings for long...






So while I worked on the daily habits, I also worked on some organization. I cleaned out my junk drawer (we all have one, admit it), created dedicated kids' stations in the hall storage cabinets such as an art cabinet, reading cabinet, and loose toy cabinet (no more eyesore toy bag in the living room!). I also bought a bin and hanging files for storing the kids' artwork from school. You can find the inspiration for that, as well as free printables, HERE.

 10 Habits of a Well-Run Home, yep, I bet if any woman were able to adopt all ten habits, then hell yeah it would be a "well-run home" but quite frankly, for this recovering ADD mom, I failed miserably. If I'm being really honest here, I hesitated to submit this entry because the fault of said failure lies with the author, not the OP. 

Bottom Line:  I think any 10 habits that you find makes your home run better, if done routinely as suggested, is worth the time. Just find what works for you and your family and stick with them. ;)

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