Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Keeping up with life

Steph mentioned doing a keeping up with life post, as in how she does it, and given that that's something that interests me, I thought I'd do the same and straight up stole her idea. See her part two post here. It also interests a lot of you: I frequently get comments on how does so much get done, how do I stay on top of things, etc. The short answer is the best I can. LOL The easiest way to explain how is to show a typical week. The only thing that's not really typical here is that I wouldn't return from the shore on Sunday.

Since I'm at the shore every weekend, most of my to dos happen on weeknights and the majority of each weekend aside from Saturday between 10 and noon is spent relaxing. Productivity is absent for most of the weekend. Since buying the shore house, I've shifted my approach to life. It's not all as tidy as it used to be or run as smoothly and I'm okay with that.

I should also note that Linda, our cleaning lady, came on June 9. She comes every two weeks so I have stopped doing the heavy lifting there. I used to do all of my cleaning on weekends. Then I interspersed it throughout the week. Then I got resentful because I felt like I was doing all of it so MFD agreed to pay for a cleaning lady in lieu of hearing me bitch about chore inequity. And this is what works for us now. I used to clean more the weeks Linda didn't come, but I've dropped back to basic maintenance.  I just don't have the energy and dust or dog hair is not going to kill me. 

In the hour or hour and a half that I'm "doing things" every night, I'm mostly puttering. So while I'm doing those tasks in that time span, I am not working diligently. I enjoy doing that - being in the kitchen, putting things in order, walking around my house. I like to sit on the couch and all, but if I sat on the couch for three hours every night I'd go nuts. I'm a doer, I like doing things. I'm so used to doing what I call my daily dos that I barely even realize I do them anymore. I had to legitimately take notes to do this post.

This exercise also made me realize just how little TV I watch these days and how I am sorely lacking in a little actual exercise every day aside from walking.
I made special note of letting the dogs out this morning because I do not let them out in the morning unless MFD is not home. He is the morning guy. Also not included on these is that as soon as I get home each day, they go out back. As soon as they're done, they eat. Then I go about my business. They are always tended to first. 

Aside from going to a farm market, Aldi, or Sam's, I purchase as much as I can online and have it delivered so I'm not wasting my time running errands. Time is money and I will pay shipping or a higher price online than I would in store if it saves me time and aggravation at night. At the shore, I typically walk to do errands, which makes it less aggravating.

In regards to laundry, MFD does his. I do mine and household laundry, which is our sheets from home and shore, our towels from home and shore, towels we leave for renters at the shore, any blankets, etc.

I can absolutely always get myself moving by setting my timer for 20 or 30 minutes. Shit on bad days I'll set it for 10. I usually always go beyond that timer because I'm like ah I can just finish this off. And I do and feel better. Accomplishing what I set out to do, no matter how small, is satisfying to me.  It's hard for me to relax if what I wanted to get done is not done.
I fucking hate when I forget my lunch.
I maybe should have explained my commute - I give myself 15 minutes to get to the train station, parked, and to the platform. It's a park & ride so I either have a few minute walk or a short shuttle ride to my car. The walk is longer at the end of the day because we pull in on the other side. My train ride is 35-45 minutes depending on how long we sit at various spots waiting for signals. I emerge from the train station, hit Dunkin Donuts, and walk a short block to my office.
We also have a cleaning crew at the shore, because I don't work all week to spend two hours on Saturday cleaning up after someone else's vacation. I have my things I check and address during turnover, but Karen and team do a great job for us and I feel better having a professional come in to present new guests with a clean home to relax in. 


And repeat. I try to make it a point to have one very productive night a week and one mildly productive night. I figure one night is going to be lazy and one night I'll probably have to be somewhere outside of my house. And on the fifth night I do what I can and then head to the shore later. I have a loose schedule of each week ready to go on Sunday. I feel like I'm starting it off right. 

How about you? Do you do most of your life maintenance during the week or on weekends? 

Happy birthday to my brother-in-law Marcus Aurelius today!

27 comments:

  1. I am INCREDIBLY impressed with how productive you are when you get home from work. Commuting wipes me out and I want to do nothing but hit the couch. Truth be told, I need to find some umph and get it together because putting off errands and my to-dos every night because I'm being lazy has to stop.

    I think I'm going to take this post idea as inspiration. Typing "arrive home - feed cats - hop on couch" for 5 days isn't very interesting to read :)

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  2. Wow that's awesome!! I definitely feel like you pack a ton in during the day. I love being able to get things done during the work day or during lunch because everything is just right there!! xo, Biana -BlovedBoston

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  3. Now that I've been happily home and now that we are empty nesters, I am reveling in getting things done better and not being in a hurry. Finally instituted one hour of dedicated exercise every day since 6-19. Thanks to the universe I only have one house❣️ I bake according to the temps, so today is a baking day. Choc chips for one chicken's road trip and mint squares for the other. I will back the cookies for your road trip next week regardless of the weather. Continued Goddess speed to my beautiful and brilliant girl.
    Love. Your. Momma.

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  4. I'm trying to get back into the swing of keeping up with all the things. Nap times are packed with runnin around the house like a mad woman but I get distracted and I will be taking something to the trash in the kitchen and see something in the kitchen that needs done then I'm walking a dish towel to the laundry basket and I stop five times on the way to do other things I see. Cleaning ADD over here!!! I love how much you pack in to your days!

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  5. I'm going to have really sit down and concentrate reading this post. Why you ask? Because I thought in Tuesday you wrote wine and shower. Lol

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  6. awesome; I'm lucky if I get one productive thing done each day LOL

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  7. I feel like the key is in meal prepping. On the nights I made dinner, just doing that and dishes is all of the productivity I have in me. Last night, we had leftovers and I was able to do the backlog of handwash-only dishes (Andrew did BBQ stuff this weekend and they pile up since they are all huge) and finish a scrapbook for his dad. Any other night, I wouldn't have done a thing. Also, I think it is time for me to negotiate for a cleaning lady...

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  8. Well I'm glad you stole the idea because I really love reading it too. LOL a million times at 'eat sandwich and scowl.' Commuting is the worst. But legit there's no choice and I'm sure Philly is the same - jobs (and in my case, my courthouse) are in the city, and to have a house with a yard like John wanted, that's NOT near the courthouse at all. Can't win.
    We definitely do some things similarly. The key is really is staying on top of stuff. When people question how I get it all done, it's the people who do 17 loads of laundry in 1 day and clean the kitchen once a week. yeah, it's going to take you way longer than it takes me!

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  9. You are a busy woman! So glad you have the shore to unwind at. And a cleaning lady!! :)

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  10. Im with you - not a morning person. I get most done after work. You are so productive!

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  11. I think it's great that you let the weekends be just for relaxing. We all run ourselves ragged throughout the week to get things done, so when the weekends get here we need that extra down-time. And yes to having a cleaning lady lol

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  12. I'm so glad you & Stephanie did this. I might steal the idea, too. I told her that the city life commuting and what not is interesting to me. I like a VERY rural life. We have no forms of public transportation here. It's fun to see how others live their lives!

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  13. I'm so nosy so I LOVE this post. I love learning how people go about their day and what they do and don't do. I like the idea of a timer, gonna do that this week because I have a bazillion things to do and no motivation.

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  14. At night, I don't tend to do much and should set aside an hour to putter around do some basic cleaning tasks. It would make my life so much easier. Unlike you, at night I'm on my sofa for an extended period of time, which I really don't need to do. Some downtime - absolutely but I can putter around and tidy up a bit too. I always love seeing how people spend their day. Mine would mostly be sit at computer. Yell at cat. Snuggle with cat. :D

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  15. What if I say my life maintenance, I'm still trying to find any time to get it in... sigh...
    I'm impressed you got all of this documented. That's a job in itself

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  16. being an adult is so hard, you do it well. I try to get little things done during the week and do bigger things like heavy cleaning and laundry on the weekends. Speaking of, off to a lunchtime grocery run!

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  17. Damn girl, you're like Superwoman I swear. I'm always in awe of how you seem to do so much socially and work-wise and yet update your blog every single day. And you're married! In my mind you don't even sleep, but it seems like you just utilize every minute of your day which is really admirable.

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  18. I love that you have switched your focus on weekends to mostly relaxation and living. I need to start being more productive during the week and adapt your weekend approach <3

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  19. Well, when both Steph's do something, I like to join the party too. Plus, I love writing this stuff down and then rolling my eyes at my ridiculousness. I'm so impressed that you're able to manage two households. Thank goodness for cleaning help!

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  20. I love these types of posts, I might have to do one next month. I do laundry on the weeknights, straighten the kitchen, wipe down the bathrooms. But on weekends I do the deep cleaning of bathrooms, vacuum, dust, meal prep. How do you get daily blog posts written?! You must be a speed blogger. I am the world's slowest and my posts aren't even that involved!

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  21. With your busy work and life schedule, it's nice to find the sweet spot! I wash and dry all the laundry but there's no way in hell I'm folding his shit. I hate putting laundry away so to each it's own.

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  22. I love the idea of keeping a diary of what you do in a day! It would be really cool to see how you actually spend your time. And, I read an article on 'outsourcing' things like cleaning. Sometimes you just have to delegate things, so you have time for what matters to you. And if you view it like outsourcing, you don't have to feel guilty about it!
    -Kristen from pugsandpearls.com

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  23. Oh my gosh, we had the same "do your share of the chore argument" before hiring a housekeeper to come every few weeks. Now we'll never go back. We also have the same laundry arrangement as you guys do because why the hell would I wash someone else's clothes who is perfectly capable of doing so (and did so before I came long)!

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  24. This was really interesting to read, and makes me think about how I spend my 'free' time. We're both really bad about getting things done during the week, but it's a habit I want to break because so much of weekend time gets spent having to do chores or errands vs more fun things or just relaxing.

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  25. I do most life maintenance on weekends. I try and knock out laundry every weekend so I can change the sheets on Sundays. That's the best way to start the week for me. I'm (still) trying to get into meal prep and menu planning... I prefer to order things online, too. Much less stressful.

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  26. This is awesome. I do all my maintenance on the weekdays so weekends can be spent out and about or doing absolutely nothing and not feeling like something has to get done. On Sunday night I divide all my chores/errands throughout the weekdays so I don't get burned out. I'm a lot like you too. If I say I'm going to do it, I do it. If it's on the list, I have to cross it off!

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