His Home, Our Castle - 31 Days of Loving That Man

We've lived in multiple homes during our marriage.  Starting out in a one bedroom apartment, moving to a condo, to a town home, to a house. We have enjoyed each of our homes for various reasons, like the emotional closeness found living in close physical proximity with each other. The calming moments of  living in a small community surrounded by trees and parks. Most recently we have loved filling our home with laughter and love as we have more space to entertain our family and friends.

Our home is important to both of us! In our early years of marriage I had wonderful plans of domestic superiority, and was lost in a trance of becoming a Mini Martha Stewart with freshly baked scones and 1000 thread count sheets on all beds. Planning dinners and events, decorating our home with home made goodness, and baking delicious desserts from scratch,  I found myself in a viscous cycle of busyness that called for crash cleaning our home before any event.

I have since realized that I cannot keep pace with this crazy cycle for three reasons:
1. I am Human
2. I want a home that people can pop in and say Hi, and not cause an emotional tidal wave of anxiety.
3. Ryan loves a clean house. His world view is dramatically improved when everything is in its place and toilets and clean. (Not including that one room in our house that looks like a tornado came threw a world of unpacked boxes...its on my goals for new years, New Years 2015 that is).

As demands on my time increase as my career grows and passions change, I have been been changing my tactical planning for keeping our home. This process still isn't perfect, I'm not perfect, but it's getting better.

Some areas I've made changes in are:
1. Scheduling a night mid week to clean house and do laundry. I find it hard to get chores done on the weekends, as we are too busy resting or having fun!
2. I've created a house keeping routine. Depending on our calendars and any special events coming this may include some larger chores or maintenance. I write it out on 3X5 Cards, Post it Notes, Excel, Word, what ever tool works as a check list.
3. We pickup up the house before we go to bed. Yes I said we, Ryan is such an awesome guy!

What ideas have you tried to help with keeping house?