It’s another Snow Day.

Last week, that sent the house into chaos.  (See how good I am at blaming the weather instead of myself?)

But today has been different.  I’ve consciously done my daily checklist.

The goal of the daily checklist is to establish habits.  And it has established many.  It actually feels “normal” to me to have a kitchen that’s usable.  Not piled in dishes and requiring the pushing around/balancing of pots and pans . . . in order to make supper . . . on any given day.

But, even though I still hold on to the dream that eventually my house will stay in order without me ever realizing that I’ve had to work at it, I know that is just a dream.

No matter how much better I get at this housekeeping thing, it will always be work.  

And I’ll always struggle with my Slob Vision.  While keeping the kitchen clean is, in my opinion, the thing that makes or breaks the house, more than that needs to be done.  Which is why I created the Daily Checklist.

But, as seems to happen with me, I’ve been letting some things slide.

I can’t afford to do that.

If I don’t consciously take 5 minutes to pick up the house every day, clutter magically begins to spread over all of its flat surfaces.  If I don’t consciously check the bathrooms for towels and undies on the floor, I can walk right over them and never notice . . . for weeks.

Last week, after we had our Family Cleaning Day to recover from Snow Week, my husband remarked that “It just feels like we’re in control again.”

He said this not once, but twice.

He’s so right.  When I ignore the Daily Checklist, the house slips out of my control.

And then, Carlyn commented yesterday that it would be nice if I shared my daily checklist every day the way I used to.  I quit doing that a while back, because I was afraid that it got monotonous for my readers.

Not to be selfish here, but I have to be selfish.

I need the daily accountability of writing that post.  So, though I’m not saying Imgonna (since that rarely works for me), I’m warning you that I may be posting my daily checklists again more often.  In addition to my highly-hilarious, tear-jerking, thought-provoking, screen-riveting posts, of course.

I had already decided this, and then Julie commented today on this very old post where I was talking about how frustrated I was with myself for rationalizing away some very important daily tasks.

Mmmm hmmmm.  I’m thinking I need to re-focus.

This is a process.  But it’s not one that will ever be over.  Unless I make it really big, and can hire full-time help to pick up after me, I’m going to have to keep up this daily checklist thing for the rest of my life.

(And I totally would hire full-time help.)

So here goes, my daily checklist for a completely-reasonable-to-sit-on-the-couch-and-let-the-clutter-pile-up-kind-of-day:

Made bed.

Emptied dishwasher.

Cleaned kitchen after hubby made pancakes.

Wiped down kitchen.

Swept kitchen.

Checked bathrooms for clutter (and found some).

Did a five-minute pick-up.  (Oh. My. Goodness.  Five minute pick-ups make such an incredible difference.  It’s almost unreal.)

Lounged on my made-bed and read for a while.

Snuggled on the couch and had popcorn, nachos, and hot chocolate (for the kids, decaf coffee for me since I’m allergic to chocolate).

And the house feels good.  And we feel in control.  Even on a Snow Day.

Aaaaahhhhh.

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Two additional things:

First, for those of you reading backwards, let me just say that I LOVE comments on very old posts.  Seriously.  It’s like when someone compliments your child who isn’t out front getting the attention, but is sitting so well in the audience, and you’re tickled pink that someone appreciates him/her.

Second, if it would help you, please feel free to share the things you’ve checked off of your daily checklist in the comments.  Every day if you need to.  There’s something about writing it down that helps.  You can comment as anonymous, or type your name where it says “name/url.”  You don’t have to have a website to put something there.

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