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Book Ideas:  Household routines and organization  |
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Camy
Farmgirl at Heart
3 Posts
3 Posts |
 Posted - Apr 28 2006 : 10:36:50 AM
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After reading Mary Jane's book, it struck me that she has a flair for simplifying difficult, complex things. I have had a struggle with homemaking due to the fact that not only am I a random and buys mom, but that life itself is filled with many distractions.
I appreciated the "Laundry Day" list in Mary Jane's book. It was written a long time ago for a new bride. The systematic steps written down in a clear matter, appeals to my predominately right-brained self.
Kitchen organization, cleaning routines, laundry ideas...these are all a few topics that would interest me.
Blessings,
Camy |
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sonflowergurl
True Blue Farmgirl
349 Posts
Katee
Tampa 'Burbs
FL
USA
349 Posts |
Posted - Apr 28 2006 : 12:49:16 PM
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Sounds like some great info....I need to get the book SOON!!! LOL
Katee
The end will justify the pain it took to get us here.
"Looking Toward the Son"---- http://sonflowergirl731.blogspot.com
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Libbie
Farmgirl Connection Cultivator
3579 Posts
Anne E.
Elsinore
Utah
USA
3579 Posts |
Posted - Apr 28 2006 : 7:47:48 PM
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I agree, Camy - wouldn't it be nice to find a "washday on Monday, ironing on Tuesday..." schedule that WORKS for farmgirls?
XOXO, Libbie
"Nothing is worth more than this day." - Goethe |
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frontierlady
True Blue Farmgirl
57 Posts
KY
57 Posts |
Posted - Apr 29 2006 : 05:41:45 AM
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This may not work for everyone but if I stay on track it works for
me. 
Monday - only do laundry. Washing, drying, ironing, putting away
everything that needs to be done only with laundry.
Tuesday - Dusting and cleaning mirrors and glass surfaces
Wednesday - Cleaning my bedroom.
Thursday - Menues and grocery list
Friday - Errand Day.
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sonflowergurl
True Blue Farmgirl
349 Posts
Katee
Tampa 'Burbs
FL
USA
349 Posts |
Posted - Apr 29 2006 : 05:51:01 AM
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I need a "working mom" schedule for doing everything. Of course, by the time I get home most evenings, there's only a few hours to get things done....anyone have any good routines for keeping up with laundry and everything when you only have a few hours in the evenings and only a few evenings each week? (I'm drowning in laundry today! LOL)
Katee
The end will justify the pain it took to get us here.
"Looking Toward the Son"---- http://sonflowergirl731.blogspot.com
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Juliekay
True Blue Farmgirl
237 Posts
237 Posts |
Posted - Apr 29 2006 : 07:20:04 AM
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I don't know if anyone here has checked out flylady.net. She has routines that are great. You don't even have to subscribe to her daily emails, you can read all about how to do it in sections on the internet. She divides the house into zones and you concentrate on the deep cleaning of those zones for one week each month. Every week there are basic chores such as vacuuming around the middle (edges are saved for that zone week), quick mop with water, 5 minutes of dusting around the house as quick as you can etc. Her philosopphy is that you can do anything for 15 minutes, just set a timer. She also says that before you can really clean, you have to declutter. I have found her systems to be really good. And I don't necessarily do everything every week for sure.
Hope this helps |
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HiDez Gal
True Blue Farmgirl
122 Posts
Roberta
Joshua Tree,
CA
USA
122 Posts |
Posted - Apr 29 2006 : 4:39:12 PM
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I agree Juliekay - a most practical system for busy women. The decluttering seems to be very difficult for some though - they have problems letting go of "stuff". Yet, it is an important part because as she says "you can't organize clutter" and there is a big difference between things you truly love and stuff that a person is hanging on to "because.....". I find getting dressed and fixing my hair and face, plus the shining my sink and swish and swipe in the bathroon helps things to look presentable all of the time. I am not fond of cleaning but with this system and a little self discipline I can stay on top of things no matter how hectic life gets. Even subscribing to the emails is no biggy - just assign them to separate folder in the email program so they go there instead of the In Box and if there is no time to read them then delete, delete, delete. Fly Lady doesn't expect people to read them all - the subject line can serve as a reminder once you have read one reminder you don't need to read the entire thing the next time.
From my favorite coffee cup:
"A gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do." Minnie Cody, 1901 |
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theoanne
True Blue Farmgirl
282 Posts
teddie
CARROLLTON
GA
282 Posts |
Posted - May 07 2006 : 8:00:40 PM
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Katee I have a working schedule You might try. I do a little each evening when I get home. Also used this method when my kids were small. I just sat down and made a list of what needed done each week and divided it evenly by 5 days. The other 2 days are for family or yourself For example Mon is living room, Tues is bedroom day, wed bathrooms, thurs kitchen , Fri is general pick up. usually tues and thurs also include a load or 2 of laundry. of course everyones is different due to your household. I'm gonna check flylady.net too that sounds cool.
Teddie |
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mommom
True Blue Farmgirl
854 Posts
Susan
Lancaster
Pennsylvania
USA
854 Posts |
Posted - Aug 17 2006 : 06:18:29 AM
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| I am a very organized woman. When you have a house full of children, pets, husband, etc., you have to get everyone else on the bandwagon as well. I don't allow anything on the kitchen and dining room tables except the candle and doily that sits in the middle. When I bring the laundry in from outside and fold it, I put it right away. The one thing I have a problem with is the baseboards. Haven't found a day to say I'll actually wipe them all down. What about spring and fall housecleaning. Does anyone still do this besides me? mommom |
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mellaisbella
True Blue Farmgirl
1862 Posts
melanie
living on Anne of Green
Gables land
Canada
1862 Posts |
Posted - Aug 17 2006 : 07:15:40 AM
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oh girls.....I want to be organized...I long to be a neat person...but..Alas..I am a SLOB!!!! I spend hours doing nothing...i will sit my butt on the couch and watch TV for hours and then think of all of the things I should be doing (In my defense, i do keep up with the laundry , although it never gets put away and my dishes are always done, let in the dish rack though) any advice to get this slob converted to a somewhat neat person? Thanks, Mella
mellaisbella "I wanna touch the earth, I want to break it in my hands, I want to grow something wild and unruly" |
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HiDez Gal
True Blue Farmgirl
122 Posts
Roberta
Joshua Tree,
CA
USA
122 Posts |
Posted - Aug 17 2006 : 12:08:16 PM
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Mellaisbella~
Try Fly Lady's website to see if she can't get you movin' & groovin". Some of us aren't born organized and need some help getting there.
http://flylady.com/
From my favorite coffee cup:
"A gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do." Minnie Cody, 1901 |
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Mumof3
True Blue Farmgirl
3890 Posts
Karin
Ellenwood
GA
USA
3890 Posts |
Posted - Aug 17 2006 : 12:23:40 PM
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Susan- I am a Spring and Autumn housecleaner as well. I love to deep clean everything and, for the 2 minutes that it stays that way, take a deep breath and say "AH!, It's done!" For some reason, right after Christmas is when I do most of my organizing. I guess it's because I have a clean slate to work with and I usually am in the mood to redistribute things around my house. Anything extra gets sent to the yard sale box! This year, I had 4 boxes. I may have gone to the extreme!! :)
Karin |
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Linda Houston
True Blue Farmgirl
538 Posts
Linda
Lake Charles
Louisiana
USA
538 Posts |
Posted - Aug 17 2006 : 3:10:04 PM
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Tell us about your spring cleaning----I , too, would love to be organized and my home "clean and together " all the time. My sister is the most organized person I know. she has a cleaning schedule and her home shines. basically, I begin cleaning one room, take something to another room, see something to do there and on and on and on. I am dead at the end of the day and my house looks like I have done little, when in reality, I have tried to get all rooms done and pretty.
she told me to clean one room at the time, then go to the next. If there was one thing I would change, that would be it.....to be organized and delighted to keep things up.
Linda |
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Aunt Jenny
True Blue Farmgirl
11381 Posts
Jenny
middle of
Utah
USA
11381 Posts |
Posted - Aug 17 2006 : 7:00:31 PM
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Roberta! How neat to see you here...I have missed you!!
and you are right..Flylady.com is perfect for getting me back on track and getting myself scheduled. I don't always stick to it, but when I need a kick in the pants to get myself back on track I always do flylady!
Jenny in Utah
Inside me there is a skinny woman crying to get out...but I can usually shut her up with cookies
http://www.auntjennysworld.blogspot.com/ visit my little online shop at www.auntjenny.etsy.com |
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Bluewrenn
True Blue Farmgirl
1122 Posts
Erin
Texas
USA
1122 Posts |
Posted - Aug 17 2006 : 8:40:00 PM
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I have an old book that was a primer for a new bride, or was maybe a text book for a home ec class in the 40s. It showed you how to clean your house, step by step, and in GREAT DETAIL, and it listed all of the household items you need to run your household. The lists were great and it had a section for every kind of household chore that you might ever need to do. I'll have to find it so I can tell you its title. It was much better written than most of the organizational books you see out now...
My Homesteading Journal
http://toomyvara.livejournal.com
My craft journal
http://bluewrenn.livejournal.com |
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HiDez Gal
True Blue Farmgirl
122 Posts
Roberta
Joshua Tree,
CA
USA
122 Posts |
Posted - Aug 17 2006 : 9:57:52 PM
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[quote]Originally posted by Aunt Jenny
Roberta! How neat to see you here...I have missed you!!
and you are right..Flylady.com is perfect for getting me back on track and getting myself scheduled. I don't always stick to it, but when I need a kick in the pants to get myself back on track I always do flylady!
Howdy Jenny!
Good to hear from you too. I must have been subscribed to this topic because bam all of a sudden this morning I received email notification of a reply. Had to go see what was going on of course :) It has been hectic this summer so I haven't been able to get to the board to read or post. I think Flylady has a really good system for many people.
Roberta
From my favorite coffee cup:
"A gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do." Minnie Cody, 1901 |
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jpbluesky
True Blue Farmgirl
6066 Posts
Jeannie
Florida
USA
6066 Posts |
Posted - Aug 17 2006 : 10:39:55 PM
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Linda hit on a key phrase above - "delighted to keep things up". Therein lies the secret in the art of cleaning - you have to enjoy doing it. Most often we gravitate towards doing what we enjoy, and that includes work. And if a person absolutely hates to clean, then it will get put off to the last minute. I love to clean and straighten the house, love to cook and do laundry, but I do not enjoy ironing. Guess is what is always waiting to be done? In fact, my hubby loves to iron, and he spends his Saturday afternoons doing that! What a relief for me!
Peace |
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mellaisbella
True Blue Farmgirl
1862 Posts
melanie
living on Anne of Green
Gables land
Canada
1862 Posts |
Posted - Aug 18 2006 : 07:41:14 AM
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you sure are right!!1 FLylady is amazing and I have started the 31 (?) days that she has...yesterday, I shined my sink..I'm not sure what my "job" is today, but I did subscribe to her website so everyday, there will be new "jobs" for me to do...I'm on my way to getting organized ladies....wish me luck!!!!
mellaisbella "I wanna touch the earth, I want to break it in my hands, I want to grow something wild and unruly" |
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Nancy Gartenman
True Blue Farmgirl
9093 Posts
Nancy
West Seneca
New York
USA
9093 Posts |
Posted - Aug 18 2006 : 08:00:02 AM
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Good luck Melanie, maybe you will end of loving to keep house like Jeannie and myself, or at least like it. Except I do like to iron.
NANCY JO |
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HiDez Gal
True Blue Farmgirl
122 Posts
Roberta
Joshua Tree,
CA
USA
122 Posts |
Posted - Aug 18 2006 : 08:28:53 AM
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mellaisbella,
I really like having a neat, clean house BUT I love being out of doors with the critters more. Flylady's routines help me get done quickly and effectively and then I can go out and play. When things in the house are under control life flows - that said, if I had to make a choice and couldn't have both. being outdoors would win hands down. My husband is retired so he often helps out with the house although it's not his favorite thing either. I know if you stick with the program you will succeed, just don't get discouraged if there are times when you fall off the wagon - happens to most everyone.
Roberta
From my favorite coffee cup:
"A gal's gotta do what a gal's gotta do." Minnie Cody, 1901 |
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mommom
True Blue Farmgirl
854 Posts
Susan
Lancaster
Pennsylvania
USA
854 Posts |
Posted - Aug 21 2006 : 11:06:46 AM
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| This may sound kind of strange, but I make lists for spring/fall housecleaning. First, there is the list for the entire downstairs. When a job is done, someone has to put an X by it so no-one does it again. I always get one of my boys or my husband to do the windows inside and out. When the downstairs dirty jobs are done, I send everyone upstairs to their rooms with another list for them. I stay downstairs and vacuum and mop. Each person is responsible for their own bedrooms and still have to check the list off after each completed chore. They were moaning and groaning about the lengths of the lists last year, but before I knew it, they were all moving the furniture around in their bedrooms and said that this was a good idea. It was like they were going to sleep in a new, clean room! That was in March 2006. I've already started compiling new lists for next months fall housecleaning. I do realize that some people do not like to clean...and I have never gone into someones house and judged it. But my philosophy is, if God has given me all of these things, second handed though they all may be, then it's my job to take good care of them! Happy cleaning! |
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Libbie
Farmgirl Connection Cultivator
3579 Posts
Anne E.
Elsinore
Utah
USA
3579 Posts |
Posted - Aug 29 2006 : 2:35:52 PM
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I'm a big "listmaker," too. I have lists for EVERYTHING imaginable - even thought I never seem to get through all of them!
One thing that I've done, in addition to adapting the "routine" routine to fit our farm, is over the past week or so, to internalize the "delighted to keep things up" attitude mentioned above. Wow, does that make a difference! When I think of how satisfied it makes me to look out over a well-kept farm and to look into a well-kept (by my own standards, of course ) home, I've realized that it really IS a delight to do. It seems like another version of what my grandmother has always told me: "Make your work your play."
XOXO, Libbie
"Nothing is worth more than this day." - Goethe |
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bohemiangel
True Blue Farmgirl
2087 Posts
Bridget
Ligonier
pa
USA
2087 Posts |
Posted - Nov 09 2006 : 11:49:11 AM
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Oh JulieKay you got it right...flylady.....she simplifies stuff so you can ENJOY life with getting the necessary crappola done;) I fly and fall off the flywagon and hop right back on...no guilt. I do love the simplicity of Mary Jane and the emphasis on what is a gift in life and what is just boom society pushing. If that makes any sense;)
"... to thine ownself be true." |
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beckels
True Blue Farmgirl
237 Posts
becky
warrington
pa
USA
237 Posts |
Posted - Nov 09 2006 : 8:46:25 PM
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I have a friend that moved to the country from the city and she called one day in a panic because one of her older neighbors came over and told her Mondays are wash days and you cant be burning those wood piles and getting smoke all over everyone laundry on the wash line. (and dont burn on sunday unless its a picnic - because it is a day of rest). I told her it made sense and go with the flow of the neighborhood instead of arguing about it and one day you will be best friends with all the older farmer ladies (now 10 years later that is true). I personally like the fly lady way of orgainizing (just have to keep doing it)
becky |
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MagnoliaWhisper
True Blue Farmgirl
2817 Posts
Heather
Haysville
Kansas
USA
2817 Posts |
Posted - Nov 10 2006 : 12:17:15 PM
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I agree I love fly lady, my home is not perfect, but I can now walk through it with out trails. (my husband is a paper junky!).
Any way, I used to have tons of clothes I hated. BUT, my mom or some one important gave them to me so I thought I had to keep them. I finally got over it and was able little by little to get rid of them. (I had grown up with the mentality that if it was cheap get it even if it wasn't something you liked and you could wear it around the house! UHG, then what happens you hate wearing the ugly 50 cent rag you bought it makes you feel frumpy and you try to avoid having to wear it, and it just takes up room in your closet and dresser!) I quit counting after donating 50 bags of my clothes! (grocery bags not trash bags!) I still routinely go through my 3 dresser drawers that I now have left and my little 1/8 of a closet full of clothes and get rid of a bag or two.
What really made this soooo much better for me, was in March a friend came to visit, I took every thing from the coat closet to my bedroom closet for her to use the coat closet (we live in a one bedroom apt in NYC she needed a little room!). Any way...even though my closet was still by far not full it made it feel so disorganized and over full it was hard to get dressed each day! I couldn't wait to get the coats back where they belonged, and it affirmed to me to never let my closet get as packed as it was before!!!!!! ever again!!!!!!!!
Believe me at first it will be hard because it's against every thing we were raised to believe about waste not, want not. But, believe me, as Flylady says, have faith in God, bless others with what you don't need, and when you need something God will bless you with what you need! So far I have not needed one thing, that I "blessed" others with.
My clothes I either take to my church or put in the collection bins down the block (big brothers and sisters). But, other things, I have been putting down stairs in the lobby of my apt building (there is 550 apts in this building so around 1,500 or more people live here) beleive me the stuff is usually taken with in a hour!
However, going back through my kitchen just the other day because I got a new side board, I noticed once again I have a lot of bakeware I don't need. Then going through my linen closet once again I have a bunch of lotion sets people gave me I never will use. I almost bagged them up to take downstairs (and if your home is a diseaster do that any way!, but right now mine isn't as bad as before so it's ok to wait a little bit) I remembered my TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) group that I am the leader of had been trying to think of some fund raisers for our group. So just last week I said hey girls the last week of every month let's have a flea market. Each month we will have a theme. No one needs to buy anything to bring to the flea market, go through your home and what you don't want or need any more you bring it to the flea market (tops meeting) and we will sell all the items for 50 cents to 2 dollars each depending on the worth of the items (big items like say a cast iron grill pan which are normally worth like 60 dollars would not be sold for 50 cents, it would be a 2 dollar item!). This month will be bakeware, with all the holidays coming up every one will be going through their kitchen and you know that stuff that is just in the way and you never use, at the same time, there always comes up the stuff that you are lacking and need to go buy. So we can all win at the bakeware, in fact, every one right away started saying what they were looking for bakeware wise, I told them I wanted a cast iron grill pan, a lady already said she had 3 and would bring them she never uses them! Others were putting in their orders and saying what they didn't want any more! So this will be GREAT! Next month will be books/magazines, and so on. This I think will bring a lot of money to our group with out any of us being out a dime, except for buying things that we needed or wanted already! And we get to clean up the clutter at the same time! |
Edited by - MagnoliaWhisper on Nov 10 2006 12:24:16 PM |
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Libbie
Farmgirl Connection Cultivator
3579 Posts
Anne E.
Elsinore
Utah
USA
3579 Posts |
Posted - Nov 12 2006 : 7:30:55 PM
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Heather - what a great way to "share the wealth," so to speak!!!
XOXO, Libbie
"Nothing is worth more than this day." - Goethe |
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Book Ideas: Household routines and organization |
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Household routines and organization
