Operation: Get It Together {episode two}

I have decided that Operation: Get It Together will continue. Clearly it is not going to take me one day to truly "get it together" so why pretend that it happened in one post? It is going to take me weeks and maybe even months until my new practices become habits and routines. Anyone else out there want to play along and control their chaos too??

Since Niki and I alternate posting days, this is what I did on Tuesday evening. We can't just go skipping days because I don't post everyday. Gotta have accountability right?

Yesterday's tasks were pretty easy and I managed to get them all accomplished. Woo-hoo! On the list for day was dusting the house (apartment in my case). This is a pretty simple task for me but since it hadn't been done for awhile I tried to make extra sure that everything got a good cleaning. I use a regular wood spray and a multi-surface spray depending on which room I am in. In the living room where we have have a wood and glass coffee table and the TV sitting on the "entertainment center", I use the multi-surface spray so that I can just do the whole thing at once rather than using different sprays for the glass, wood, and TV. For other places that are just wood, I just use the regular wood spray. I have also recently started using microfiber rags for my cleaning. So far they are working out great!

Then for my everyday tasks I did a load of laundry and put away some of the overflow (clean laundry built up from my dryer hiatus). I wiped down all the counters with my favorite Method spray. I have a separate one for the kitchen and bathroom. Each one stays in the cabinet under the sink in their respective rooms. I swept and washed the kitchen floor yesterday because well it needed to be done. So I didn't mess with that floor today. The bathroom floor wasn't bad and today (Wednesday) is sweeping day so it can wait until tonight. I also watered the plants, not sure why that only made it on the list on a few days, but at least they aren't completely forgotten then. I also worked quite a bit on conquering my clutter.

These are the method cleaners that I use for the kitchen and bathroom. 

We have a lot of junk things that just haven't gotten put away or have never really found a proper home. So since I didn't have to work and "we" are on break from darts for a month, we tried to get things cleaned and tidied up. I feel like this is the hardest part of the routine. With three jobs, in three different towns, I do a lot of running home, dropping things and maybe changing clothes or grabbing a snack and running back out again. But with the end of school coming soon (everyone cheers wildly!) I'm hoping that I can get settled in to a nice summer routine and get things really set up nicely so that I can have it together before I go to back to school in August. That's my plan anyway. I know it sounds like a long time, but when I say "have it together" I mean that I want things to be habits and routines that I just do almost automatically so that it doesn't become a disaster that I have to try to recover from. I know things happen- prom, being in weddings, going out of town.....those can all lead to big messes when you come home.

In an unrelated Get It Together task, I jotted down the few things that I needed from the grocery store on my cute memo board that I made from a frame from Goodwill.  (read how I made that here) I tend to lose the tiny lists that I make throughout the week so this is a safe place to store them. I realize that I will have to re-write the list before I go to the store, but at least I will not be missing the items that were on some random post-it that got shoved to the bottom of my purse.

Read about my first day here and my original cleaning plan here. What are you doing to control your chaos at home? What are you routines? I'm open to suggestions here...what has worked or hasn't worked for you? How do you keep your lives streamlined?