There are two types of cleanliness I want to work on: Personal Cleanliness and Environmental Cleanliness.
The easier of the two is going to be Environmental. I already know what I want to accomplish, and it has a pretty well laid-out path for me to follow.
- Declutter: Throw out, give away, sell, or otherwise remove items from my home that I no longer use, have never used, or I'm keeping for no reason.
- Organize: With what belongings I decide to keep - find a home for them. No more free-floaters (Yes: This means I might be spending more on housewares and the like this month than before. It will be worth it).
- Everything Has A Home
- Maintain: Each day I have a specific chore to attend to, and I've had such a system in place for months now. I need to make certain that I do these chores on their assigned days, as well as spending 15-30 minutes each night making a run-through of the apartment and cleaning up. Maintenance is easier than pure cleaning - if the apartment is maintained, deep cleaning will take, at most, an hour.
- Schedule: My Daily Domestic Schedule (Chore Chart) is as follows:
- Monday: Errands - bank runs, food shopping, pay bills, etc. Inventory fridge.
- Tuesday: Laundry
- Although there is one day for laundry I plan on it being an ongoing task (much like I won't only do dishes on Friday, when I do a deep cleaning of the kitchen). Tuesday is for the more awkward laundry to be done - laundry that I have to leave home to do (drycleaning, things that should be taken to a laundromat) or that are a bit more time consuming (handwashing).
- Wednesday: Bedroom and work room need to be cleaned - vacuumed and picked up as necessary. Also deep cleaning the cage.
- Thursday: Bathrooms need to be cleaned.
- Friday: Kitchen needs to be cleaned.
- Saturday: Menu planned for the coming week, any outstanding tasks completed. Light cleaning of the cage.
- Sunday: Down day.
- Make Habits: Make a habit of basic grooming. Shower every day or every other day, brush and floss teeth every morning and night and use mouthwash at night, brush through hair and try to style it most days.
- Declutter: When something comes to mind, write it down as soon as possible. Spend as long as needed to empty out everything that's been weighing me down - all the "I need to .... " and "I should ... " type thoughts that have a tendency to creep up on me in the middle of the night. Write down everything.
- Track My Time: Keep a daily track of what I do and when I do it. Try to cut down on time spent idle when I have something to do - time spent procrastinating or avoiding work.
- Work When Working, Relax When Relaxing: When I'm working, then focus on my work. When I'm relaxing - unless it's to write down or record something that comes to mind - then I should focus on relaxing. No more cross contamination.
