At the tender age of 15 I held a summer job at an Adult Family Home, caring for five elderly women as an assistant caretaker. Job duties included helping to prepare meals, making instant coffee at the ladies' request, doing laundry, and occasionally helping to bathe them. I'm not entirely sure that part was legal for me to be doing at that age, so we'll focus on the largest part of my job: helping to keep the home tidy.
We had this notebook which had checklists of daily, and weekly chores that we were to consult and sign off on when the tasks were completed. As long as we kept up on these things, the home ran beautifully, dementia-induced fits notwithstanding (one woman, our sweet Gracie, had a really bad day when she read about Elvis' death for the 4th time that week in the Enquirer, and cried loudly all afternoon, upsetting the other residents. Shortly after that, her family was asked to stop bringing her that magazine). My favorite caregiver and I would race through our daily tasks to be done in time to enjoy the 'socializing' part of our job- watching General Hospital with the ladies. Funny how some habits die hard, isn't it?
I've discovered that I need a notebook like this. I'd love to have something ready made - SimpleMom has a great set up for weekly and daily tasks - but I think I need to invest some time in making myself a home management notebook customized for our family, and similar to what we had a the AFH.
How do you manage your job as a mom, wife, housekeeper, cook, laundress.......
5 comments:
Hey I'm not sure how I came across your blog but I did. I was in your ward way back when but anyways. My most favorite website lately is flylady.net. And the best part is they help you make a personalized notebook just like you're talking about. There's "Zones" of your house that you work on for 1 week doing one simple task a day. This week is the kitchen and mine is now spotless with what has felt like little to no effort. Check it out.
hey! i'm in the same ballpark as you! i need some way to organize my daily chores and such! i think i'll check out that site left from a comment here from "jex family" if that's ok!
as for your "a little too fat" blog, HOW DARE THEY! that was SO rude! i don't like when people do that! i'm sure they're not perfect and have no right to talk about others like that. but good for you to have the willpower to exercise! if you want, we could motivate each other! i have a fitness blog: http://fitnessbyrachel.blogspot.com Check it out and help motivate me too! luv ya!
Our Relief Society just had an activity centered around this. I can email the papers they gave us if you want. There are chores for each day of the week as well as things like what to do on the 1st monday of the month(for chores that don't need to be done that often and such) - so nothing gets completely out of control. It's helped me a little. Of course I have adjusted it to fit me and dan and our little apartment and schedule. Let me know. Also, I have heard good things about flylady too.
Also, they gave us cleaning cards to post in each room of the house with a list of weekly and daily things to do.
FINALLY, if you are looking for an interesting book Cherly Mendelson wrote Home Comforts: The Art & Science of Keeping House. It may not all be totally applicable, but I have learned a lot from it and have enjoyed leaning about taking care of my home.
Wow, too long, sorry!
I just came across your blog in a series of links...hope you don't mind if I comment. :)
I used to have a little chart that I made of daily/weekly/monthly tasks that needed to be done in each room. Then I moved, and it didn't really apply to my new place. It worked well though, and I'm thinking I need to sit down and do it again. :)
I must say, that when I was signed up for flylady.net, I loved all her acronyms (Finally Loving Yourself, etc) and her good advice. The only problem is I never stuck with her program. It really helped when I did, but I just didn't do it because I'm lazy.
I also loved her timer ideas of setting a timer for 15 minutes and just cleaning for that time. Except that would often get me in the groove, so I would keep cleaning, but at least the timer got me up and started.
My biggest thing is that I really believe in her shiny sink theory. When I keep my dishes up, it just seems to make everything else easier to handle.
Hmmm, maybe I'll start Flylady again....
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