Schedules

If you are new here you may not know I was diagnosed with ADD close to 8 years ago. It was a major life change when I started prescription meds (Ritalin). I went from being a person who could not complete simple tasks, never reading an entire book (not until I was 30) to returning to school, getting my real-estate license in less than two months and successfully working a full-time desk job and a part-time real estate gig.

Until February of this year I had been medicated for 8 years minus the 18 months I have been pregnant (with Bekah and Morgan). When I started homeschooling Shelby I noticed that my fuse was very short and for the sake of our relationship I stop Ritalin cold turkey. It was a decision that was extremely concerning because I had dealt with the withdrawal and life without meds during my pregnancy and let me tell you it was not pretty.  I’m happy to say that after finding the right balance of essential oils things are not too bad these days, but nowhere close to life before.

A few months ago this article:

http://www.tickld.com/x/if-your-friends-ever-say-they-have-adhd-just-show-them-this

made its way around Facebook. I shared it on my page because I felt it would help my family understand the condition I deal with, but I also was reminded how important schedules are to me.

Being a stay at home mom who now home schools and has no outside activities it becomes very easy for me to lose focus and find myself spending four hours watching Castle while things pile up around me. My very flexible schedule is not a good thing. I had mentioned zone cleaning and scheduling so much that Matt even offered to plan a schedule for me. So, yesterday afternoon as the girls napped I scheduled my cleaning for this week. I have done zone cleaning before and it’s proven to be very successful for me. You can read about it here: http://danaraeb.blogspot.com/2013/08/first-day-continued-and-chat-about.html

After I was done moving things around and making sure my cleaning schedule matched my laundry schedule and trash day, I printed two copies. One to go on the refrigerator and one for the laundry room upstairs. I did this so that I would remember, but I also did it for accountability. This way on any given day Matt can see what I was supposed to do and glance around to see if it was (or was not) actually done.

Here is the way the schedule looks at this moment in time.

Cleaning Schedule

Monday: Kitchen, Living Room (on this day I am not just wiping off counter tops, I’m deep cleaning the stove, cleaning out the fridge, moving the sofa to get stranded toys out). I’m cleaning like my most picky relative (not saying who) is coming to visit.

Tuesday: Bathrooms, Playroom

Wednesday: Dining Room, Craft Room, Mop

Thursday: Our Room, The Girls’ Room, The Laundry Room

Friday: Garage (the garage is something that was thrown in there due to free time and the fact that we can’t put a car in our garage due to boxes).

Saturday: Shelby cleans her room.(Shelby does her own room, I scheduled it for Saturday, but I thinks it going to be more it gets done by Saturday or you’ll do nothing all weekend).

Everyday:

Sweep, Dishes, Make Beds, Clean off tables and counters, pick up in every room

Laundry Schedule

Monday: Our Laundry

Tuesday: Sheets, Towels and Bathmats

Wednesday: Shelby’s Laundry, Little girls’ laundry

Thursday: Our Laundry

Friday: Misc Laundry

I hope I have not fully bored you with schedules, but I wanted to share what works best for me. Now, I am  off to clean the kitchen!