Summertime organizing: Summer schedule

Like I told you a few days ago, our summer has begun. I like having a simple schedule to follow during the summer. I continue to do my 15-20 minutes a day of cleaning, as usual. It's a simple way of always keeping my home clean...even though it's not perfect. Here is a free printable of my summer schedule, should you want to print one up to keep on your fridge, also. I know some of you do your laundry everyday, but I it all once a week.

Click here to link to printable

The first week "off" from school {which for us is the week right after Memorial Day}, I like to take it easy and do pretty much nothing - no schedule! It's good for me to go from the craziness of school schedules and end of school year madness to pretty much nothing. After a week of having no schedule at all, I'm pretty much ready to get myself back into business and have some type of organized schedule to feel like I'm accomplishing something again.

So, my main goal this summer is to try and tackle several areas of my home. I'm only going to spend a couple of hours on each small area at a time. Re-organize and clean it out - then stop and put it back nicely and call it done! I don't really do the whole "spring cleaning" thing. Spring cleaning comes at a bad time for me - I'm so knee deep in spring break, kids year end projects, cab-driver for my kids, piano teaching, etc. So summer is my chance to "spring clean" my house - summer cleaning!

I've had a hard few months these last few months. I've had my mom in and out of the hospital in chronic pain and rushed to be by her side for days {or a week} at a time. I've had two kids to figure out what to do with while I left {when hubby was at work}, and find a house sitter to care for the house and dog. Plus, I went away with my hubby on a conference for a week - the problems of being gone so much and people still living in my home is that it was being used and no one has been here to keep up the cleaning! So, as you might guess, getting caught up has been hard for me - I sympathize with my many readers who have emailed me about getting caught up when things happen. Remember, I also work 30+ hours a week from home - running my blog {20+ hours per week} and as a piano teacher {to 15 students}. I don't teach piano lessons during the summer and not having to get to school to pick up kids makes my life a breeze! My kids are going to be helping me out a bunch, too!

Here is my list of areas/projects I want to tackle - one each week {in no particular order}:

• Clean oven {big task} thoroughly
• Clean inside of cupboards near kitchen sink area and re-organize
• Clean cupboards on other side of kitchen and re-organize
• Linen closet needs tweaking and a few things re-organized
• Find an organized place for wine glass set hubby got for Christmas! 
• {After construction} Wash all 31 windows inside and outside! This is such a big task!
• Work on organizing and cute-ifying my craft cupboard in the family room.
• Thoroughly clean fridge, pull everything out, wash down, re-organize and throw out bad stuff.
• Go through kitchen pantry and clean out unused food and wipe everything down
• Clean extra stuff accumulated under my bed from office re-do. 

Wow! I have more....but there are *only* ten weeks in our summer to do all this! If I tackle one a week for a few hours that will help the house get into shape. I'm still keeping up my 15 minutes a day of cleaning {in my sized house it's more like 25 minutes for some cleaning areas} and my yard has suffered greatly from all our roof and outdoor construction. Plus, I have this other big project coming this summer that I will be revealing to you soon! I'm certainly busy!

There's one more thing I want  you to know, as I have been learning this throughout these last few months: Don't be afraid to ask for help when trying to get caught up with housework/organizing. Hire someone to do your windows or whole house cleaning, see if a teenager needs money for camp and have them help with yard work, get your kids to do more, ask a friend who's good with organizing to come over {maybe swap something you're good at with her}...there is no shame in hiring someone to help you get caught up or, if you just can't afford it, asking a friend to help you with it. We can't do it all - I can't, that's for sure! 

What are your "organizing plans" for this summer? Would you like more summer fun? See my post on summer schedules and kids!

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