Another Geste!

Geste at Home #2:\par
How do you currently divide, organize, and perform your chores each week? Do you like your current system or are you revamping or planning to revamp it?\par
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\’c3\’82\’c2\~My path toward my home-management system is rather like a spiritual journey. I read books, I make changes, I talk to people, I make changes, I get frustrated, I make changes… always traveling, never arriving. When I told Mystie about my then-current system a couple of years ago, she asked me if it worked. I told her that it did, if I did. That’s generally true. It seems like most of my housekeeping failures come not from a fault in “the system” but from a fault in “the housekeeper.” When Michael complains, I refer him to the maid. (just kidding…)\par
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That said, in February of last year I read “Get Your Act Together” by the Slob Sisters and re-read “Sidetracked Home Executives.” My friend Lydia and I made a compact to get our acts together.. together, and we dutifully printed out note cards and set up a filing system to remind us what chores and tasks to do on what days. I still have all the note cards. But I seldom look at them. Sometimes I don’t look because I have the tasks for the day memorized – I know what basic cleaning things to do on my Friday housecleaning day, and what minor tasks I have on Tuesdays, so why look at the card? That’s fine… but I’ve completely fallen down on the less frequent cards – say the bi-weekly, monthly, and yearly tasks. When I get motivated again though, I suppose I’ll probably go through and decided again how frequently I want to do those tasks and try to get started on that path again.\par
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What I do use is the concept of the weekly schedule – although the only day that doesn’t frequently get switched around is Monday, Laundry Day.\’c3\’82\’c2\~ Tuesday is light cleaning and odd jobs (yard-work, minor errands, “when I get time” things), Wednesday is visit Grandma and desk day, Thursday is Errand Day, and Friday is housecleaning day. I mostly do that, although Tuesday and Thursday end up being rather interchangeable and miscellaneous and I tend to spread housecleaning over Friday and Saturday during Tax Season, when Saturday is just like every other work day.\par
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But after I got my card system rolling I read a couple Don Aslett books (Notably “The 48 Hour Day”) which made me realize that if I dutifully did something because it was on my card, even though it didn’t actually need to be done I was wasting my time. Also, his philosophy was to let tasks arrange themselves based on their logical order – if you planned on doing yard-work on Wednesday and an indoor thing on Tuesday, but Tuesday was a beautiful day outside, you would be justified in switching it – after all it might rain Wednesday. So I try to keep that in mind and not do things that I don’t feel really need to be done.\par
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And finally, Flylady – I’ve been reading her site recently (though not much this last month) and sometimes enjoying it. I’ve even used the timer 2 or 3 times. I like her idea of forcing yourself to do things for 15 minutes, because it’s less intimidating than thinking you have to finish the whole project all at once and never starting. I also like her concept of routines and hope to work those into the whole grand scheme in the future. Her influence has made me pay more attention to clutter accumulatings spots and the nights that I actually do my planned evening routine tend to be followed by productive days.\par
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Also, I wonder – is it only young wives who talk about their housekeeping systems among themselves? It doesn’t seem like it’s quite as big of a topic with women who’ve been at it for longer, but maybe that’s an incorrect perception?