Last week I was getting a little overwhelmed cleaning and with Christmas coming up, making gifts, treats and balancing everything else, it made sense why. I thought about why I was feeling so overwhelmed, and noticed my life seemed to have no structure, and sometimes I had little unimportant things taking up most of my time so I ended up having little time to do the things that mattered most. This reminded me of the Rocks in a Jar theory that states that when you fill your life first with the most important things, everything else will fall into place and you’ll find time to do the other small and less important things. *if you’re interested, this is a great video that illustrates the theory.
I decided to apply this to my hectic life and see if it would help me get everything structured and keep my life stress free (by keeping everything clean and neat). I have to say that it works. Now, I’m obviously not perfect, and sometimes I put the small things first and miss the more important things and have to make up for them later, but it really does work- as long as you keep going. 
So I decided to be a little more like a “Pinterest Blogger Mom” and make a cleaning schedule. While putting this together, I rearranged several different times until I found the schedule that really worked for me. I started having my laundry day (the most dreaded day to me) on Saturday. I figured that would be the best because I didn’t have work, and thats usually a day we don’t have a ton to do. It worked out perfectly on paper, until we were out of town. Nate’s family lives a few hours away so we tend to visit them at least one a month. It makes it hard to do laundry on Saturday when we are gone.
So, I ended up making Monday my laundry day. Tuesdays I clean the kitchen and fold the rest of the laundry from Monday. Wednesday I clean the bathrooms, Thursdays I clean the floors and take out the garbage. Friday I dust and make sure everything else is picked up. This is the day that we normally entertain.
Below is the sample of my week. This includes the cleaning schedule, planning for dinners, and the daily activities that sometimes need be to written in so you know when things need to be done. I hope this is helpful- at least to inspire you to try and do the same. It really has helped me keep my house “ship-shape” and stress free.
Wishing you happiness,
Madi
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