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So, as you know one of my goals ^[2] is to work on being a better housewife and all that crap goes along with that :-) I really do want to embrace my mommy and wife role in 2009 like no other time. It truly is a prayer of mine (and to my husband who sometimes reads, YES I do pray for this, so there).

With this, I wanted to find an approach to cleaning and keeping my house the haven I desire it to be, but just in my way so I know I’ll actually keep this goal (remember, all those “SMART” goals, it’s necessary here for me too). And, for all my in-real-life friends STOP your laughing RIGHT NOW! It’s an area I need to work on as you already know! Is anyone getting a sense that I get hassled about this :-)

And, of course, what did the list-maker in me do with all of the information in my head? Well, I put it in excel!

Household Cleaning Task List ^[3]

This is very broad but it covers the domestic duties for my household. I’m sure most if not all will cross over and be applicable for your household too. I welcome you to utilize this file. Here is an overview of the tabs:

Complete Task List
This is just a listing of all the tasks. If you modify this, you can re-sort it so all your Zones/Rooms are together. And, speaking of Zones. I included this because 1) I wanted to be able to create printer-friendly pages so it was easier for you to print and 2) I personally will be shuffling about doing my work by zone and I’m sure that is just more efficient this way (says me).

And, the Frequency abbreviations are: D-Daily, W-Weekly, M-Monthly, Q-Quarterly. {Yes, they are color coded and I’m very proud of that too!}

Zone Printer Friendly Tabs
I just separated the zones so they each were all printable on one page with the header at the top. I don’t know, maybe it’s the Excel OCD in me but I canNOT stand a page without a header! And, unfortunately google docs for Excel does not have the “Insert Header” function so I worked with what I had (it’s FREE – I’m not complaining).

If you choose to add new zones to your spreadsheet, you may want to simply insert a new tab or however you choose to do it, but at least this gives you a place to start.

Since this is a google doc, be sure to follow the snack I wrote, Using Google Docs ^[4], on how to save and print this file. It is “view only” file so edits cannot be made to this file, but you can definitely save it to your personal system and edit to your heart’s desire!

Finally, a great tip I got from FlyLady ^[5] was to print each page off and put them in a page protector. Then, as you go along with your work, you can mark each task off with a dry erase marker. I am a “marker offer” and I will definitely be doing this. The best part is that can just wipe clean when you’ve accomplished each task to have a fresh slate for the next day/week or whatever. And, I got myself a binder to put all my pages in. I am so excited – I even put a label on it with my new label maker!

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Interested in some great reading materials on domestication and finding your own cleaning style? Here are some great resources to help you do just that:

Simple Mom ^[6]
This is probably the coolest one I’ve seen yet! I think Tsh has just about everything you would need on here. Since the shared form is in a pdf version, you cannot edit for yourself, but there is an “other” activity section where you could manually write in those varying activities.

FlyLady ^[5]
I have looked over this site for years but I guess it took a new year to get me motivated to really learn from it! FlyLady is a very good resource for cleaning and keeping things tidy starting with shining your sink each night. While there were several ideas I got from FlyLady, they all aren’t for me but I highly encourage you to check her out because there are some great tips.

Real Simple ^[7]
But, of course :-) Actually, I saw a tweet from Crystal ^[8] on this chart ^[9] and I thought it was worth the mention since it was an interesting read as I developed my own system for cleaning.

Organized Home ^[10]
I heard about this site from Amy of MomAdvice ^[11] (who has many great organization methods herself). Just from looking briefly, I can already tell that it will be valuable as I seek new ideas for organizing my home and all that jazz. There is a really good article, “Speed Clean Tips from Cleaning Pros ^[12]” that is especially interesting and a good challenge to schedule cleaning as a job. This might help me with some much needed motivation (we shall see :-)

Organizing Your Way ^[13]
This is a new site up and running by my bloggy friend, Mandi. While it is newer, she already has some great information available and future content to surely help with your cleaning and organizational needs. Another great resource for managing my household like a royal palace – because I am striving to be that Domestic Princess, after all.

In all of this, it is my desire to love Lysol, have dreams of Clorox Wipes, and be motivated to get up each day and use all of the stuff that procure so cheaply and be glad doing it…or something like that anyway :-)