15 minute cleaning

            One of my biggest issues being a stay at home mom is probably the same issue I had while I was a working mom.  The issue is time!  I never seemed to have enough time to do anything, especially house work!  I think I have found a way that regardless of what kind of mom I am (stay at home/working), I can manage my time better.  I have read countless of blogs and this one in particular gave me an idea! 15 minutes of cleaning-Organizingmadefun  Even though I did not follow her schedule it was a way for me to come up with my own schedule (Sort of!)

            Since I did not follow her schedule, I do not expect you to follow mine.  This is just a way to show you that IT CAN BE DONE!!!  You just have to customize it in a way that works for you.  Below is a schedule that I came up with for my household:

 https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B4ADQoF0Bj6DM2d2WVRWWTRQMk0/edit

This schedule is based on just 15 minutes of cleaning (I actually have a timer set for 15 minutes).  Like Becky +Organizingmadefun.blogspot.com  mentions, “this doesn't mean if your house is right now a complete pig-stye mess that you can get it cleaned up in 15 minutes. NOPE! Nice try....this is a way of MAINTAINING your home with just 15 minutes of CLEANING each day - not picking up or putting away, CLEANING!”  You have to keep at it however, if you miss a day it is not the end of the world.  If you make this a habit your house will be at least presentable at any given moment.  I live in a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom s (1,210 sq. ft.) apartment with 3 boys (ages from 13 months, 7 yrs. & 34 yrs.).

My weekdays vary, however, I find 15 minutes (usually while the baby is taking a nap in the morning) to clean.  I also have daily chores that I call “Habitual”, I do it out of habit.  These things I do not consider cleaning because I had to condition myself to just do it at the moment, not find time to do it.

The reason I did this schedule the way I did is because I do my heavy, deep cleaning once every two weeks (at least that is the goal.) Usually on the Saturday morning when my oldest is at his fathers’ house for the weekend is the best time for us to clean.  This allows me and my partner to clean together and help with the baby at the same time.  This makes the job easier and faster.  I am lucky that I have him to actually help me but I believe that this still can be done if you didn’t have a helpful partner.  (I was a single mom for about 4 yrs.)  If you kept the daily 15 minutes cleaning your house will not be as hard to do your deep cleaning in one day.  This day I REALLY scrub the bathrooms and kitchen, top to bottom!  We clean the balcony.  Robert deep cleans (shampoos) the carpets with our Hoover® SteamVac™ Deep Cleaner with Clean Surge.  (I was not paid to advertise this, I have been using ours for over 8 yrs., I love it!!!)  Also, I usually use this day to go through the kids clothes and/or do an organizational project. 

Divide and Conquer

Divide and Conquer!


A day in the life of... us!

So in this whole idea of doing it all, like I have said before, I don’t! It may seem like I do partly because I do it little by little one day at a time but mainly I have help.  I have two wonderful men in my life that help me do it all! I have my lovely boyfriend, Robert and my amazing brother, Jr.  Robert and I live together and he helps out a great deal.  I know that I am extremely lucky to have a guy like him.  I know from past experiences that there are not many men out there who help out.  So now that I have him around I do appreciate him a lot more.
We divide and conquer every day.  My mornings start off by waking up and feeding the baby.  As I am feeding the baby he wakes up and showers.  When he gets out of the shower and gets dressed I wake up my older son, put out his clothes so he can dress himself and then put his Eggos in the toaster.  While I get dressed and put my makeup on, he changes the baby.  We split the kitchen duties by helping one another get bottles ready for the day, putting together lunches, make a quick breakfast to go and take out what is needed  for dinner.  He puts the baby into the carseat while I put all the bags that go along with the baby and a working mom into the car. My oldest is at the age that he is pretty much self sufficient with just a little direction needed.  While we are getting things done he is brushing his teeth, putting his shoes on and getting his last minute things in his book bag.   I take the baby to daycare and my boyfriend takes my oldest to school.  

After work is another divide and conquer mission however this time we have another player in the game.  In comes my older brother Jr, have I mentioned, he is amazing?  He usually picks up my oldest from school and 3 days out of the week he takes him to MMA, Jiu Jitsu and Kickboxing lessons along with his own son.  When I get out of work I either pick him up from his house, meet him at the lessons or he drops him off at home for me.  He is also there for me whenever I need him. 

Robert usually picks up the baby from day care. As you may have noticed, my schedule at work is not always  reliable to leave at a decent hour.  Whoever gets home first, which it is usually Robert now a days, he starts dinner.  When I get home, I start washing bottles the baby used at daycare and fill them for the next day ( I pump during the day at work). I do homework with Brandon while Robert is finishing up dinner.  We all eat together, usually in front of the TV.  I know, I wish we had dinners at the table more often in order to talk but since our schedules are so hectic this is usually the only time my son gets to watch TV with us, so we usually watch a recorded show of Wipe Out.  After dinner, Brandon goes to shower and I wash the dishes while Robert is with the baby, usually he puts in a load of laundry if needed at this time.  When Brandon is finished and ready for bed, I go with him to his room and we read together.  (This is our “special one on one time” which also helps with school, multitasking at its finest!) After that, I feed and bathe the baby while Robert folds laundry or relaxes. If we are lucky we usually get about half an hour to sit on the couch together and watch a show or a game. Then he gives the baby the last bottle for the night and he goes to sleep while I take a shower.  Usually, I am sleeping by midnight just to wake up intermittently throughout the night to feed the baby.

Then we do it all over again in the morning!


So we do eventually “do it all” but it is definitely a group effort.  I was a single mom for about 5 years so I know that doing it all alone is not an easy task and you just do not do it all, at all!   I read other moms blogs all the time and I take advice from the ones that also “do it all”.  I feel that whether you are a single mom, a working mom, a stay at home mom or any other combination it is a hard job and trying out things that work for others may just work for you.  There are actually some things that I do not do and I will like to figure out how to fit it into my already packed schedule, for instance, exercise.


Later on, I will talk about how I managed to get my 7 year old to do most of his things on his own.  I will also share how I do my groceries and my very laxed dinner menu plan.  If there is anything else you all would like to know about how I do things please ask away.  I would also love to know if you have any tried and tested routines that you would love to share with the rest of us moms who are trying to do it all.