Clean up, clean up!

Many of you moms out there...and probably some of the dads, too...know the "clean up" song. Honestly, I learned the song when I was first teaching in Thailand. One of the other teachers and the kids would sing it as they were cleaning up messes. I think it's a Barney song, to be honest. It's amazing how many of those Barney songs we sing around here. Here is how the song goes:

Clean up, clean up

Everybody, everywhere

clean up, clean up

Everybody do your share

Even my little Isaac can say "een up, een up" and knows what we're supposed to do. Whether he does it or not is another story. But anyway, my constant struggle is to clean up my house. I usually just let it go and then when it gets terrible, or we know we're having company over, I do a massive two day cleaning spree. It's stressful. I'm usually exhausted and by the time I do said party or get-together, I'm so tired I can't really fully enjoy it. I know I need to change. It's hard, though. I don't have this intuition about cleaning and organizing like some of you do.

I've been talking about this with a close friend of mine. She has been praying for me, that I would experience organization in my home. Isn't that great for a friend to pray for you about that?! Well, not only is she praying for me, she's helping me. She is giving me tips and suggestions in just the right dose. She's got a gift for organization, so she knows what she's talking about. Just recently she sent me an email, giving me a suggested daily cleaning routine. This was just what I needed! I also told her that this appealed to my social side. Just knowing that I'm doing this with someone and have some accountability, I'm motivated to do it! So here's my new routine (I have to add some stuff to this, but this are the foundational things):

Monday: change sheets on my bed; do at least 2 loads of laundry
Tuesday: vacuum entire house (bedrooms, living room); do a load of laundry
Wednesday: clean bathroom, mop the entire house (bathroom, kitchen, dining room, hallway)
Thursday: deep clean kitchen (sink, counters, wipe out frig, etc)
Friday: dust, change kids' sheets; put sheets in the wash
Saturday: work on decluttering...one room/week; finish up laundry so I won't have to do any Sunday
Sunday: rest

Of course, I'm also doing dishes almost every day as well as cooking/preparing meals daily. That's kind of a given. You may also have more loads of laundry (sometimes I do, too), etc. But this is a good start for me. I'm so thankful for friends who care enough to not only pray for me, but give me tips and try to help me. I've had other friends do this in the past, and it really ministers to me! Pray for me, that God would help me grow in this area of homemaking. I not only want to do this for myself, but also be a good example to my children!