It’s almost summer!!! Wahoooooo!!!
(For some of you, it already is!)
If you’ve been around here for previous summers, you know it’s my favorite time of year. I might want to improve my housekeeping skills and make my home more welcoming and blah blah blah and yadda yadda yadda . . . but I lo-ooo-ove basking in the crazy lack-of-a-routine we call summer.
Like last year, I’m taking the summer off from blogging to be with my family. (Did y’all know this is a full-time job?)
This doesn’t mean I won’t post at all, it just means I won’t feel like I have to write thoughtful and/or hilarious posts every single day.
What I will be posting is my daily checklist, boiled down to the most ultra-basic. Those four, mind-bogglingly simple habits can bring a home out of disaster or keep it out.
I’ll also share what cleaning task we did that day. (If any!) These will be the things I’ve spent previous summers teaching my kids. If you want to teach your kids basic cleaning skills this summer, check out my e-book, Teaching Kids to Clean.
And that’s my goal. That my house will survive summer.
Here’s how it will work:
- Most days, I’ll create a blog post that will simply be these four habits, with the ones I actually did crossed off. (I’ll likely expound a little sometimes. I’m wordy like that.)
- You can leave a comment here on the blog and/or a comment AND photo of your own crossed-off checklist over on Facebook.
And that’s it!
How do you get your own printable version of this checklist? (A printable that I personally think is super-cute and summery.)
With your first email (after the opt-in one), you’ll get access to the printable checklist. AND you won’t miss a thing when I DO post over the summer. You can choose from the daily email (it comes once a day IF I put up a new post) or the weekly summary.
Use your printable checklist everyday without re-printing!
The image on the printable can be trimmed to fit in an 8×10 frame. Hang it on your wall, mark off the checklist with a dry-erase marker, take a photo to post on Facebook . . . then wipe it off and repeat the next day!
I made it colorful, but you can print it in Black and White. (I did! And on green recycled paper!)
Go here to sign up as an email subscriber. (If you’re already one, click on the link within the email to access the printable.)
What should you do if those four tasks make you hyperventilate and feel overwhelmed? For detailed guides, check out my books: How to Manage Your Home Without Losing Your Mind and Decluttering at the Speed of Life. They talk you through the development of habits and help you work through the stumbling blocks you’ll face.
This is going to be fun!!
Be sure to follow me on Instagram where I’ll share in real time. Use the hashtag #survivesummer to play along!
--Nony
I have been following you since the second year of this blog… I love it, I too have slob vision… I just don’t see stuff right in front of me… but I felt it! So much stuff. I’m not a hoarder, but after moving our grandmother and ourselves into a new home along with both households of stuff so we could care for her…this big house had a lot of STUFF! I struggled and struggled over the years to get rid of stuff and keep some kind of routine to keep things reasonably tidy…your blog helped…and then… we decided we needed to sell our home.
The realtor came in and said “Wow, you have a lot of stuff! Get it all out of here. Everything. Everything off the shelves, off the counters, off the walls, extra furniture out… it was totally overwhelming but we did it… I got rid of van loads of book and clothes and homeschool stuff from when the kids were little and scout stuff from years ago… and we rented a storage unit for things I felt I couldn’t get rid of…our house is mostly empty but freshly painted and carpeted, with new counter tops in the kitchen. We put half of our dishes, containers, casserole dishes, glasses and cups in storage so the toaster, can opener and coffee pot fits in the cabinet…
It is the most amazing thing…we don’t need any of the stuff we got out of here. I don’t need any of the dished we stored away. I don’t need all the stuff on the shelves that I thought I would miss. I thought I would hate having the toaster, can opener and coffee pot in a cabinet instead of easily accessible on the counter… but I don’t… it’s really nice seeing all that clean space and so easy to clean up. Best of all slob vision is gone…stuff left out stands out like a sore thumb against all the clean space. Crumbs on the cabinet, or spots on the floor are so obvious. We make our beds first thing in the morning, even the kids, just because it is so easy and looks so nice now!
Best of all, when we get a call that someone wants to come see the house…we can have the whole place swept, vacuumed, spot mopped, swished and swiped, and picked up in 40 minutes… and it is a huge house! What a great feeling!
Now we are working on cleaning out that storage unit getting rid of a whole lot more stuff we now know we don’t need!
Go you!!! You have made so much progress!!!
Deeann, your comment inspires me. I’ve been asking myself “what would happen if we decided to sell and move?” cue anxiety attack! love hearing how it was a positive thing in the end, and worth the hard work. thank you!
Wow! What an inspiring story. I have a long ways to go. Thanks for sharing!
THANK YOU! I have just started this blog. This reply has been extremely helpful. My excuse is that I have all that and I am alone. (Because of my husband’s sudden death the battle against depression and hopelessness seemed overwhelming. A request for help has gone out to my local VA clinic.) I will start with the 4 rules. Laundry is done. Dishes are done and 1 minute of the 5 minutes is done. Baby steps. Pray for me to be able to do at least these little steps and that my realtor will take me back on contract! Thanks again!
I’ve subscribed to your newsletter – LOVE everything you write! – but have not figured out the timing between the newsletter and the fb posting. Which comes first? Will I always get be email what was posted?
Thanks in advance!
Emails (the daily version) go out at 9 a.m. and send any posts written in the 24 hours before that. I usually post to FB around noon.
Yes, you’ll always get the email. (Unless your email filters it for some reason.) Email is more reliable than FB since FB tends to not show everyone all that’s on the pages they’ve liked.
I thought I proofread… Will I always get by email what was posted on fb?
Anything that is new content on the blog goes to email. But on FB I sometimes post links to OLD content. That wouldn’t be in the email. Hope that helps!
I think i will take you up on your #survivesummer instagram
this is a fabulous summer plan, Dana 🙂 kind of like the old days when you shared your daily checklist. thanks for helping us suvive the summer – enjoy yours!
Great tips…
I have found that life (with my 6 little grand-kids here so often) GOT SO MUCH easier when I followed your advice about making sure my dish drainer was emptied every morning. (I don’t have a dishwasher) …but wow! what a difference that one change has made for my days!
Pat
Love hearing this!!
Oh yeah your newest follower on IG now!
Gaining access to a printer and I’m printing this bad boy off! I need all the help my menopausal -Oma-self can get!
What an inspiring story! We have had to do this numerous time because of employment-related moves, so I know what you went through. Our last move was for our retirement.
Now that we are in our retirement location, I have discovered that I can live quite nicely with the few things that we brought with us. Our mission now is to NOT build up huge “collection” of things and create a clutter mess all over again. We are at ten years here and “So far, so good!”
It is never easy to let go of the “familiar”, but, in the end, the lack of clutter is a huge blessing.
Thanks for this list! I just found your site a few days ago, and I’ve been obsessed. Today has been my laundry day…with two three-year-olds, it’s been a bit tough. But it will be an awesome feeling to have it all done! Off to the dryer I go!
Yay for Laundry Day!! Welcome, Kate!
Thank you! 🙂
Awesome info. What am I doing wrong? I get your blog info per email but have not been successful finding the printable so I can print it out.
a handwritten sign will work but was looking forward to your printed version.
Have a great summer.
We had last day of kindergarten today and are looking forward to fun days with some household projects thrown in for good measure.
thanks!
Can you reply to one of the emails? Just so I can be sure you’re getting what you’re supposed to?
Signed up earlier today…
I clicked the weekly email I think… I think I should have clicked daily to get the printable faster???
Ugh! True!
I just found you! Getting ready to get ur books & get the decluttering process started. I’ve put it off too long. Thanx for a great blog!
I love the picture frame idea. I don’t have space on my walls in a handy place, so I’ll put the printable in a plastic sheet protector and tape it to my fridge because dry erase markers work well on them, too. Thanks!
At the beginning of each summer I prepare a new M-F morning schedule based on my projected upcoming fall bus schedule, which includes getting ready for the day, a 10-minute family breakfast, and an ordered list for who is next in line for instrument practice. These must be done before moving on to playing. (Most kids practice instruments after school, but in the summer, that gets bumped up to the morning. VBS, swim lessons, etc. drive me crazy for what interruptions do to our schedule! 😩)
Getting extras done beyond brushing teth, etc. is hard.