The Organization of My Life

I've been thinking about writing up this post for a while.  I have learned over the years that I am a tad on the OCD side, as you can see from my post HERE that I can be a bit manic over organization and cleanliness.  I have perfected what works for me.  You see, I can get up, get ready, and be out the door in 15 minutes (with breakfast and lunch along for the ride) when I have to go into the office.  I plan out my cleaning schedule so I'm not doing anything crazy on the weekends but relaxing and whatever fun stuff my husband and I decide to do.

Getting Ready in 15 Minutes
This took me a while.  I work from 7:00am to 3:00pm everyday which in reality means I am in work around 6:30-6:40am every morning.  I have a 20 minute commute from Raleigh to Durham to take into consideration as well.  I get up at 6:00am.  Uh yeah, you read that right.  I love my beauty sleep.  I get up, pop my contacts in, wash my face, and brush my teeth (usually I brush my teeth and go to the bathroom at the same time).  While I am doing all of this, I start thinking about what I want to wear today.  I usually check the weather but during this time of the year I know it's just going to suck and be stupid hot out so I go with more summery stuff even though my company likes to keep the office colder than the Arctic in the middle of winter.  From there, I put on a little make up (curl my eyelashes, mascara, some under eye concealer and pimple concealer if needed, bronzer and a little blush) and depending on what I did or didn't do to my hair the night before then can vary my morning from doing nothing to it or running my flat iron through some pieces (no more than 2 minutes, I'm over my hair being perfect all the time).  Then I change into my work clothes, throw on my wedding rings, kiss my husband goodbye, feed the cat, grab my purse, pack my food for the day, and head to my car to hit the road.

Just some things to know - I work in a really casual office atmosphere so we can wear jeans and t-shirts if we like.  I usually opt for jeans, a nice top, a cardigan if needed, and a pair of nice flats/low wedges/comfy heels.

Concerning my food - I pack everything up the night before so all I have to do is grab and go.  I pack my vitamin, my banana, put together my breakfast, and pack up my lunch and stack it neatly in the fridge so it's all in one place.  I also fill up my water tumbler the night before and stick it in the fridge so it's nice and cold for when I leave in the morning (I love cold water).

Keeping the House Clean
We currently live in a 3 bedroom, 2 1/2 bathroom townhouse. It's pretty big for it's size which is nice because we have lots of space.  It also means that it's more for me to clean FML.  I used to waste my Sundays bitching up a storm while I cleaned.  I hated doing it.  I would start fights with my husband about cleaning and how I was sick of doing it.  Problem was - I don't really hate cleaning, I just hated doing it on Sundays.  So then I scaled back to doing it on Saturdays and that was fine except that if we were out of town or I had stuff going on all day with friends, it kind of threw a wrench in things.  Then I started cleaning on Fridays, which worked out really well.  I would grocery shop on my way home from work and then come home and clean.  After, if the weather was nice I would go for a run.  But I found that my husband would either work from home on Fridays and complain about me cleaning while he was playing video games working or he would come home early and beg me to stop cleaning so we could hang out that I ended up starting to clean on Wednesdays.  Since I do boot camp on Wednesdays, this gives me plenty of time from when I get home from work until I have to leave to go to boot camp to clean the house in piece and quiet.

So now every Wednesday, I vacuum at a minimum but every other Wednesday I also clean the bathrooms and wipe everything down.  Having a dog, a cat, me and my husband, I realize that we all shed a lot and the floors need to be cleaned frequently.  When the dog is shedding, I will vacuum almost every other day because I swear I will vacuum and a day later there will be black fur all over the place.  GRRRRR.

Things to know - I HATE cleaning the bathrooms.  GROSS.  So I start there first.  I will clean our bathroom usually first since it's the biggest and takes the longest amount of time and then make my way into the other bathrooms before cleaning the kitchen, dusting the rooms, and then vacuuming (including the stairs!!!).

Laundry
A lot of my friends complain about laundry, I don't seem to mind it.  I am now doing laundry twice a week (because you know I like to create more work for myself than I need to).  Actually, I work out so much and only have so many work out clothes that I enjoy wearing that I need to do laundry twice a week if I want to be able to have stuff to wear.  Thursdays I do laundry and it's normally just clothes and/or whatever is in the laundry basket.  I will do my second load of laundry on Sundays and it's normally whatever is in the laundry basket plus towels and sheets (if I remember - sometimes I am like, eff this the sheets can wait).

Things to know - whenever guests come and stay in our guest room, as soon as they leave, I strip the bed and wash all the linens and towels.  Then I put a clean set on the bed and put all the towels away when they're done. This way, I don't have to remember when a guest comes if everything is clean for them.  Or if a guest comes last minute, then we're already prepared.

Grocery Shopping
Ah grocery shopping, I loathe you so much.  I love saving money but I hate spending time in the grocery store.  I love cooking, but I hate going and trying to hunt down everything I need.  I usually do my grocery shopping on Thursdays as soon as I get off work.  I have a system down with compiling my grocery list that you can read HERE and I figure out a plan of which store to visit first based on A) how hot it is outside and B) if anything could possibly go bad sitting in the car for 20 minutes while I run into the other store.  Putting together my grocery list ahead of time ensures I am not wasting time wandering up and down the aisles or possibly forgetting something I might need.  It also helps me keep track of what I need to get from each store because certain items are only sold at certain stores (yes I like to make things difficult).

Things to know - Most people can get all their grocery shopping done at 1 store.  With my food allergy, it's not that simple.  Plus, my husband loves certain foods that I know are only sold at a particular store. What can I say, I love my husband so I make the extra stop.  Today is a good example - I really need to go to 3 stores but only stopped at 2.  I realized the items I need to get from Whole Foods can wait until Friday since I'll be on that side of town.  Whole Foods isn't terribly far from the house (maybe 4 miles) but with the way gas prices are right now, I try to knock out a round of errands when I am in one area that allows for it.  Plus, all I need to get from Whole Foods is meat (they don't put those nasty diaper looking pads under their fresh meat - which is soaked in sulfites!!) and some almond butter and I don't need those things until Saturday so I'm better off waiting.

Moving on.....

Okay so now that I have spilled my OCD organization ways and you can now properly stalk me (oh who am I kidding, I still think Tiff is the only person who reads this blog - hey girl), let's talk about today's work out.  Since I did boot camp yesterday, today was a quick HIIT time challenge from the 2009 Bodyrock.tv days.  I did Guns and Buns - 2009 and completed it in a little over 10 minutes!  Man,  I was pooped when I was done.  I was looking for something that focused on my legs but wasn't too long because boot camp last night kicked my tail.  This work out was perfect and I was drenched in sweat (sorry no pictures this time) afterwards.

What kind of organizational plans do you have to help get chores done during the week?  Do you try to get all your weekly tasks done during the week so you can enjoy the weekend or do you do them all on the weekend?