I broke up with my cleaning schedule

And my house isn't suffering, instead I'm thriving. 

First things first, I just cleaned this, so no this [sadly] is not what my kitchen looks like on any given day at 10am, but I am having more days where it does look like this.

When I first got married I was no Martha, not even close to it. But I began learning slowly. Over time I started to love the clean & the accomplished feeling that followed. But eventually comparison hit hard and I started obsessing. A few years ago, I started doing the "20 Chore Tuesday" --- it was a big list [20 things] that needed to be done. I loved the game, but felt like a failure if I didn't check off all 20 items. Then I moved to trying to clean all the things all the time which left me exhausted and not wanting to clean for 2-3 days which means the house fell apart & the cycle started again. Next I moved into a cleaning schedule and it worked for me. I love my planner, so I used it for a cleaning schedule too.

And then I became a foster mom. There are days I'm lucky if I'm in the house for a few hours. I couldn't stick to the cleaning schedule anymore. A new yucky cycle started.... I couldn't check off the cleaning for that day and I felt behind and all the sudden I kept feeling so behind all the time. 

I will never have an immaculate home, it's just not in the cards.

There is everything from on Pinterest on how to keep your home clean from a "strict cleaning list" to "the lazy mom's cleaning schedule" to "wearing your shoes & an apron to motivate you" 

The new season for me, is turn on my upbeat spotify playlist & clean when I can. To pick up daily. [Also getting rid of 90% of the kids toys helps too!]

I no longer have my planner yell it's cleaning demands at me, but I feel and SEE what needs to be done & get to it when I can.

But the kids & my husband & joy & appointments & family & friends come FIRST. 

Next to accomplish is allowing myself to relax without feeling like there's always something to be done......