Reader Request

Hi everyone!  I hope you all are enjoying your week.  I'm super excited about today's post.  Like over the moon, couldn't wait for the day to get here, counting down the minutes like it was Christmas morning, excited.  The reason I'm so excited is because this is the beginning of a new feature here on Scattered Squirrel.  It's combining two of my all time favourite things, all of you lovely readers and more printables.

Last month when I posted about Three Months of Printables, I put it out there that I was taking requests.  I really do want to hear about what sorts of things you wish you had printables for.  I know from personal experience that there is nothing more frustrating than spending hours, days, heck even weeks, trying to find just what you're looking for.  There are so many options out there in Blogland, in Etsy stores, or even just in the big world wide web in general.  Even with all of that, it can be hard to find just what you're looking for.  It can be frustrating trying to make something work when it's not quite right.  That's why I started to make my own, and I absolutely love designing printables, and I love sharing them with all of you even more.

That brings us to the new feature here on the blog, Reader Request!  Once a month, (or more often if I get lots of requests) I will create a printable that one of you incredible people have asked for, and I'll share it here, on the blog, for all of you to enjoy.  Now, you might wondering, "What's the catch?"  Well, there is none.  Send me an email, leave me a comment on the blog, Facebook, Google+ or Twitter (I'm still learning Twitter, but I'm pretty sure you need to put @ScatterSquirrel in your tweet for me to get it, if I'm mistaken, please let me know. I'm still pretty Twitter illiterate) about what kind of printable you're looking for, and I'll see what I can come up with for you.  The only requirement is that the printable will be shared here on the blog for everyone to enjoy.  And like all the other printables here, they'll be for personal use only.,  That's it!

My first request is a special one.  The reader who wrote in has been with me from the very beginning, so when she left a message asking if I had a room by room cleaning check list, I couldn't wait to jump into creative mode and put one together for her.  After chatting back and forth a bit I discovered that what she was looking for was a Room by Room daily/weekly check list that included 3 bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths, plus basement/family room.  And here is what I cooked up:

Room By Room Weekly Cleaning

I kept it pretty simple.  A check list for each room.  I toyed with a few ideas for how to organize the rooms, and finally opted to group them by floor.  Topping the printable is the main floor rooms.  I opted to put these ones on top because our main floors tend to get the most use, they're also the first areas most visitors see and spend time in.  It just made sense to put them up top.  And even if your home is all one level, those are the rooms that company tend to see and be in the most.  That's followed by the upstairs.  Why did I put this one next and not the basement?  Well, typically doing the bedrooms shouldn't take too long, and we all need a nice clean and tidy place to rest our head.  And lastly the basement.  This box/section also contains some blank spaces in case there were items I didn't include or maybe you have a few more rooms and would like to add them.  And just for fun, I added in a simple check list of typical cleaning tools and supplies.   Ok, that's not strictly true, it wasn't just for fun.  I added in the bottom check list so that when you're planning out what room/rooms you're going to be cleaning you can quickly check to make sure you have all the supplies you need.  I thought it might be helpful.

Thank you so much to the reader who wrote in. It was so much fun to work on this for you, and I hope it was what you were looking for.  I'm truly honoured to have worked on this for you.  

So there you have it, my first Reader Request feature and the printable it inspired!  As always, click the caption to snag your own copy.  This one, and all the holiday printables will be added to the Printables tab this weekend.  

So what do you think?  What printable would you request if you were requesting one?


Linking up at:

New Nostalgia

Home Management Binder: Home Maintenance

After all the upheaval of the last week, it's great to be slowly sinking back into a semblance of normal!  I'm super excited to get back to working on the revamp of my HMB, and even more excited to be sharing it with you.

The section I'm working on this week is going to be the Home Maintenance section, I'm thinking I might call this section Home Care.  That title seems to fit better on a divider label.  Getting the house all ready for showing, and doing the first round of packing is what really spearheaded the desire to change up the old HMB, especially this section.  Often times I found myself wondering "when was the last time I did this?"  or "I could have sworn I did this recently, how did it get so dirty in such a short time?"  The not knowing when I last did those oddball tasks that are more seasonal or annual was really bugging me.

I've been toying with a system for this, one that will work with my scattered brain, and allow me to keep track and stay on top of these relatively little things.  (I say relative, because really, they don't take THAT much time to do.  If you do them often enough, they take no time at all.)

So, I'm going to start off my Home Care Section with a planner for all those tasks.  I wanted to find an easy to use system that would allow me to record and track the home maintenance tasks that only crop up every couple months or so, and after much back and forth to the drawing board, I think I finally came up with one that works for me - my Indoor Home Maintenance yearly check list.  What a mouthful!!!

Indoor Home Maintenance Check List

I started by creating boundaries for myself, or I could have made this into a much bigger job than it needed to be.  Firstly, I limited the area to the indoors.  Our outdoor maintenance needs will be changing, but most of what I need to do inside will pretty much stay the same.  Then I listed out everything that needs to be done less than once a month.  I included things like checking the smoke alarms, flipping and rotating mattresses etc...  I noted how often I felt these things needed to be done, double checked some of our owner's manuals, and created the simple little check list you see above.  When I turn a new calendar page I can easily schedule the tasks into a non-busy week.  As you can see, most of the items on there won't take too much time to do, especially if they're done often.

And there you have it, my Indoor Home Maintenance yearly check list.  And, as always, simply click the caption below the picture to snag a copy of your own!

Sorry for the lateness of the hour, but I really wanted to get this posted today.  I hope you all had a wonderful day, a fantastic evening night, and a great morning (if you're reading this tomorrow)

How do you keep from having a "When did I last do this?" moment?  Do you have a system for keeping track of all the once in a while things that can sometimes get overlooked in our day to day lives?

Staying On Top of the Little Things and 2 More Printables

Anyone who knows me well, knows I struggle with maintaining our home.  It's been a long struggle to pull myself out of the chaos and into some semblance of order.  I could probably write a million posts on this topic, and maybe one day, I'll delve a little deeper into this and share it with you all.  For now though, I think it's enough to say, that the difference from 6 years ago to now is almost night and day.  Or, it was.

A year ago, I had maintaining the house down to a science.  It wasn't perfect 100% of the time, but really, who has time for perfect?  I was ok with it the way it was.  Everything on my list got done each week, and seriously, in around an hour a day Monday-Friday, I was able to keep the house clean and tidy.  The only times I slipped were when I was in the middle of an organizing projects, and even those times weren't too bad.  Careful planning and the regular upkeep meant that I didn't have a messy home before I started messing it up.  (Let's face it, when it comes to organizing, things tend to get messier before they find themselves all neatened up and in order)  Now though, it's a different story.  Somewhere along the way I lost track of the routine that was working.  And you know what?  I did it to myself!  Talk about self defeating.  The simple explanation is that I got bored.  The more complex reason is that I either read, heard, or saw something about house cleaning, and decided that I was doing it all wrong, that I needed to change how I did things.  Silly?  Yep!  Stupid?  Quite possibly!

I got it into my head to change things up to do better, get closer to perfect, and the result.... well it didn't work so well for me.  It was taking longer each day to do what I needed to do, and it left me with no desire to tackle organizing projects.   I just didn't want to have anything more to do in a day.  I could kick myself for making that change, because getting back into a routine isn't as easy as it seemed in my head.  Another part of the problem is that for the last 6 years, our home has been my number 3 focus (outside Travis and our boys)  I needed that time to really explore the problem, to wrestle with it, and find my solution.  When I did have my solution, when all was going good, I didn't have anything left to focus on.  That was a big mistake.  I won't make that one again.  You could say that after sharing stuff with family and friends, this blog is part of keeping myself on track.  It's giving me something else to focus on.  

With the possible move, and getting the house ready for sale, it's more important than ever that I get myself back on track.  Once I'm back on track, I can get the kids back on track, and our little home will run and feel so much better.  So how am I going to do that?  Well first, I'm pulling my old clean schedule out of my HMB (Home Management Binder)  and redoing it.  I plan to hang it on the fridge where it will mock remind me all day that there are things to do.  I'm tweaking it a little, but not much.  I figure it worked well for me before, I don't want to mess with it too much.  And the end result is this:

Cleaning Schedule 

I broke my daily tasks into morning, afternoon, and evening.  This way, I can stay more on top of things as the days goes on, and avoid adding to the madness of the 4pm - 8pm rush.  Next up, is my weekly tasks.  I have them scheduled by day, because that is what works best for me.  I don't always stick to it, some days I may tackle more so I can free up another day.   Under that is the non-housework stuff that I want to keep better track of.  They're usually weekly tasks, (aside from the budgeting)  but most times I meal plan and grocery shop twice a month.  The monthly section is just stuff that I need to remember to do each month.  Under that is my projects list, which is all about regular decluttering, something I found to be extremely helpful in our little home.  These are not things I need to do each month, but I try to get to two or three each month.  I find the more I stay on top of it, the easier it is to maintain.

Most of you will notice that I don't have any quarterly, seasonal, or yearly tasks on this list.  That's because I have those ones in a separate area.  Right now, I have those jobs scheduled by month, and I'm hoping to put them together into a printable as soon.  The main purpose of the above list is to to keep me focused during the day.  

I realize that my list won't work for everyone, maybe not even anyone, so I also put together a blank one. 

Cleaning Schedule Blank

I hope you enjoy!  Just click the links below the pictures to get your own copy!  Please let me know what you think.  Are there ways you think the form could better?  Other headings that would work better than the ones I've used?  Leave me a comment and let me know!

Well, now that I've gotten my new schedule done up, I guess there is no more excuse for not getting things done.  So, I'm going to run.  Not only do I have some house work to catch up on, I've also got a pile of office and craft supplies waiting to be sorted and organized.  Hopefully I'll be able to get that done and pop back on here later and share it with you!  Until then, I wish you a fabulous day!!!!