February Goal: Cleaning Schedule

Rather than make New Year's resolutions, I decided to take on a new goal every month in hopes that it would turn into a habit that would last the rest of the year. I should also mention that I'm a Taurus and live up to the whole "stubborn as a bull thing." So when I make a goal, there is pretty much no way I'm going to give up on it. Still, I was pretty impressed with myself in January when I managed to stick with my goal of making my lunch everyday. I'm also happy to report that my goal turned into a habit, as I've continued making my lunch in February. 

In February, I took on the goal of keeping a cleaning schedule. The truth is, Kris and I will never, ever be accused of being neat freaks. We do, however, have pretty different cleaning styles. Kris is of the "let it get messy and then do one big clean" camp, while I'm more in the "let's keep on top of this mess and tidy as we go" camp. Let's just say that these two styles don't work well together. While things stay tidy enough, there are other parts that are down right disgusting. For some people, seeing a year's worth of goldfish crackers mashed under a couch cushion might be the motivation they need to grab a vacuum and clean it up. In our house, such a finding would cause us to reel in disgust, and then quickly put the cushion back and maybe thrown a blanket over it just for good measure. 

So - I thought a cleaning schedule would help. As usual, I looked to pinterest for inspiration and found a few templates to work with. I decided on the "room or two a day" approach from Monday to Friday, with hopes that the weekend would be pretty free from cleaning or the chance to take on some bigger projects. 

The first week was pretty crazy. I easily spent an hour every night cleaning and considering I usually only have an hour from the time Kale goes to bed to the the time I go to bed.....well, let's just say that I wasn't a fan of the cleaning schedule that week. Week 2 was so much better. Since I'd done such a thorough job the first week, the second week was more about keeping on top of stuff. The third week was the same and I'd hit my groove and was only spending about 20-30 minutes on cleaning a night - which is waaaaay better than the hours of cleaning we used to do on the weekends. 

If you want to check out the cleaning template I used, here you are! 

The last two goals I've taken on have been pretty time consuming. They're required me to change my daily schedule quite a bit and give up a lot of "free" time. In the end, it's been worth it, but I need a bit of a break and want a March goal that is a little more laid back. At one point, music was a big part of my life. I spent most weekends driving to Toronto and Buffalo for shows, spent my entire paycheque on CD's, and had a closet full of band t-shirts. I even wrote my own music zine! Over time, other things sort of nudged my love of music out the door - new friends, grad school, a baby... I started to love the sound of silence and the only noise I could tolerate out of a speaker was CBC radio 1. I know my taste in music has changed, but I don't totally know what my taste in music is. 

So I'm dedicating the month of March to music and attempting to re-kindle my love of it. And just to make it a teeny bit more challenging, I'm committing to Canadian music. So wish me luck over the next 31 days and, please, recommendations are appreciated!