pti :: moments inked :: get clean! get organized!

Happy New Year, blog friends!  It's that time when the urge to purge, declutter, deep clean, and reorganize hits many of us. For me, the feeling came on fairly strong after Christmas and 2 weeks later, I've still got the bug.  It's so bad, in fact, that I developed an entire cleaning/organization schedule to stay on top of it all (because normally, housekeeping isn't my greatest endeavor).  In my post today, I'll share how I've used a few supplies from the Papertrey Ink Moments Inked Planner System to help me stay on task.

First off, I made a decision not to make many plans or jump back into work this January.  I've spent the last 3 or 4 years running head first into design team work and my Etsy shop business, and that leaves little time for massive organizational efforts.  What I've experienced is just the opposite of orderly and the entire year becomes cluttered and disorganized and I'm always two or three steps behind the game.  (It's usually due to the fact that my studio space is never decluttered enough so it ends up spilling over into other areas of our house, thus there is always a pile of something somewhere (and more often than not it's five or six piles) and I never know where anything is.

So this year I opted out of doing that and instead, I'm overhauling every room in the house.  We did the kids' room over the holiday break, along with their playroom.  Now it's time to tackle the master bedroom and the studio, followed by the kitchen and living area. Things will get thrown out, donated or sold if there is not a space for them, and 2017 will be the year of order, not disorder.

And while I'm at it, I decided to make a cleaning schedule so that (ideally) we don't have this much chaos in the future.  Lest you think we're just a bunch of dirty animals, I'll say that I don't really mind cleaning; finding the time to do it is the most difficult aspect of it. There is always something else that needs to be done--work, kids' activities, cooking...The cleaning is just the thing that gets put off the most because something more pressing needs attention.  But I've realized that the more often you clean, the less time it takes!  Duh, right??  I'm sure you already knew that.  Giving things a quick wipe down every week takes 20 minutes, as opposed to the 60-90 minute sessions that take place if I go 3-4 weeks between big cleans.  Twenty minutes is much easier to find than 90 in a busy schedule so this makes much more sense--and, bonus, the house will be clean!

With this in mind, I set out to create a working schedule.  As I mentioned above, my Moments Inked Planner System has all the tools I need for this.  I grabbed the Everyday Symbols stamp set, True Black Ink pad, Planner Banner die, and some White Adhesive Sheets.  Oh, and my planner, of course!

I cut 80 little banners from the adhesive paper; 80 should last several weeks and then it'll be time for another round of cutting.  My fingers are crossed that I'm still adhering to this cleaning schedule 4 months from now!

Next, I stamped different rooms on each banner.  In my case, I needed kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom.  (Living room, dining room, attic, and garage stamps can also be found in the stamp set.)  Our living room is part of our dining and kitchen area so I will be cleaning those when I do the kitchen.

There are 2 rooms I need to clean that do not have stamps, the playroom and the office.  Instead, I simply stamped clean and initialed 'O' for office and 'PR' for playroom.

The banners have the sticky backs so they're easy to attach to the planner pages.  I devised a workable schedule and placed the banner die cuts where I wanted them.  I've designated Wednesdays and weekends for the cleaning, and decided that each bathroom and the kitchen would get done every week, while the rest of the rooms will be tidied up every other week.  A quick wipe down or vacuum each week can be included as needed, but I didn't feel it was necessary to include those.

I also chose to adhere the banners on the month-at-a-glance page instead of on the weekly layout because I can get a better idea of the entire schedule this way.

Being that I've already made so much more progress on getting this crazy house in order than ever before, I'm confident I'll be able to continue on the path to get (and stay!) clean and get (and stay!) organized.  Even my planner pages look neat and tidy with this system--which oddly helps me find motivation!

**And if you have any tips or easy recipes for your favorite natural cleaning supplies, I'd love it if you shared them with me in the comments :)  Let's get off to a great start in 2017!**

Supplies used:

Papertrey Ink:

Moments Inked Planner Binder

Moments Inked Binder Pages 2017

White Adhesive Sheets

Skinny Washi Tape

Stamps:

Everyday Symbols

Dies:

Planner Banner

Ink:

True Black

The entire line of Moments Inked Planner System products can be found here.

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