So I made a list! I’m a list maker. Whenever I feel like I need to get things figured out in my head, I always make a list.
Honestly though, this list isn’t really for me. Well, it will definitely help me, but it’s really for Chris. Or maybe it’s a little bit for me if I completely lose track of my thoughts when the baby gets here and I can’t remember what to do.
Here’s what happened: Earlier this month when I was at the Haven Conference, Chris was left alone for four whole days to look after the house. It was not pretty, people. Not pretty at all. The cat litter didn’t get changed once. Overnight bags from Kennedy’s stay at her Grandma’s didn’t get unpacked for three days. I don’t even want to know what kind of stuff they ate for dinner (or if the pets ate dinner at all). No one died, everyone was happy, but it’s not something that I personally want to live through if I can avoid it.
I thought it might help my sanity if I printed out a basic list of what kinds of things I do in the morning, afternoon, and evening. That way, if I’m all tied up with the baby, and Chris wants to know what needs to get done, I can just point him to my trusty binder with the lists in it, and he can take it from there (theoretically).
The fact that it’s cute will just make me feel super organized and on top of things even if the house is falling apart around me a little. (That binder is from the Martha Stewart Line available at Staples)
I really loved how the list turned out, so I thought it might be fun to share it with you. Of course, my own basic routines probably won’t make sense in your house, but I thought it might be fun for you to be able to look it over and get ideas for what kinds of things to add to your own list. Or if you just want to snoop. 🙂 I added a blank version of the list too, so that you can either write on it by hand, or load it into a program like picmonkey and add in your own routines in a pretty font.
Here’s the printable with my routines on it.
Here’s the blank printable that you can customize for yourself!
When you’re all done with printing it out, you can hole punch it and put it in a pretty binder like I did, if you’re so inclined.
Ready to help on a moment’s notice!
All the tasks listed are things that I do daily and have committed to memory for now, but it’s nice to know that I have something to fall back on to help us get back on track if we get ourselves a little turned around during the busy Holiday/New Baby season this year.
I have about 9 more tabs to fill with cute printables and lists now, so I’d better get to work!
Hope this comes in handy for you too!
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.