Cleaning With The Organized Mum Method

Saw this video from The Awkward Mom who test drove this cleaning system. The philosophy behind it really resonated with me: smaller efforts more often—very doable for me! Fridays are reserved for rotating special jobs we don’t usually get to, and the idea of carving out time for those To Do’s really appealed to me. I got inspired to try it out and conquer my disdain for cleaning!

Curiosity has and will always conquer fear.

Karl Kristian Flores

The TOMM week starts on Monday, but I started this on a Tuesday so I’ll circle back to it 😉 I set a timer, and when time is up I’m done even if I didn’t complete all the tasks- just what I can finish in that time, so focus and work quickly. Level 1 jobs are for 15 minutes, and are the same tasks every day: make beds, 1 load of laundry, quick bathroom clean, and vacuum/mop high traffic areas. Level 2 jobs are for 30 minutes, and focus on a specified area each day Monday-Thursday. On Friday, you “deep clean” on a rotating schedule so all areas in the whole house ends up deep cleaned every 8 weeks.

Day 1 – Bedrooms

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I’m very proud of the cleaning I did today (I really hope I didn’t do too much bc I went WAYYY over my time limit- but who can vacuum, clean a bathroom, make a bed, AND tidy spaces for a total of less than 15mins??)… All the bedrooms got cleared and vacuumed, kids beddings are in the wash, and I did a “quick clean” of all the bathrooms! Which means I did the toilet (huge feat for me!) and mirrors and counters. So I didn’t deep clean it or do the floor… just the urgent spots.

I stopped doing the timer. Yeah, I know I’m not doing this “right”.

I guess I could have done just the mirrors or just the toilet bowl. But I already had all the stuff, and I didn’t want to waste the little toilet scrubber thing bc I wasn’t going to store or save it… so I just kept going!

I was supposed to only do 30mins for the bedrooms, and less than 15mins for the bathroom. Yeah it would take me 15mins just to get my cleaning supplies ready or clear the counters bc there was so much crap on it.

Took me 36mins just to strip the beddings and semi clear the floors. I wasn’t going to NOT vacuum when it was all prepped and ready to go!

Pretty sure I’ve been cleaning for at least 2hrs—4 or 5 hours sounds right. On the bright side, what I did clean looks amazing!

Day 2 – Entryway and Stairs

Today I tackled the “area of focus” for 30mins in Entryways (and Stairs—but I didn’t do stairs haha). I did both doorways and saved the stairs for next week. I cheated and took just a few more minutes because when the timer went off I had to put away everything I had taken out… shoes and cleaner and vacuum all over the floor since I had scrubbed my heart out on those cubbies. Maybe that’s not included in the time limit? I lined them with stuff I had bought and were in unopened rolls in the Before pic. I put our extra shoes for hiking and more in a Costco box in the garage.

For the entrance, this is a major drop zone for my kids when they get home so it’s a vast improvement that things aren’t all over. I cleaned up SO much dirt under and around that rug! I beat that rug and the runner underneath, and both swept and vacuumed this area. With all the snow today, I left out the shoe tray so kiddos get the hint not to track soggy snowy shoes in the house.

I’m pretty motivated by all the progress I’m seeing and the projects I’ve been frustrated over not having time for before that I’m actually getting done!!!! Looking forward to reporting on the rest of the week 😀

I just cleaned the house from top to bottom, so now I’m going to need everybody to stop living here.

Kat and Every Mom Ever

Day 3 – Kitchen

I’m grateful that I get to test the flexibility of this Cleaning Routine already, haha! Can you miss a day? What happens when you don’t follow it exactly? When sickness and life happens, is it adaptable so you can get back on track without stressing yourself out? We’ll see…

I did the Level 1 tasks, but a barely passing on Level 2. I put it off thinking I’d get to the kitchen after dinner, but dinner wasn’t ready until like 9pm! By then I was exhausted and struggled to maintain even the normal kitchen areas like dishes and counters. I included it in my 30 minutes, and celebrated that throwing old food out of the fridge counts as a task. 😉

The best schedule is one that is adapting to change.

Tamerlan Kuzgov

Day 4 – Friday Focus Kids Rooms

Caught up on some of the Kitchen jobs from yesterday! I chose to wipe the cabinet fronts, and clean and put away some small appliances I’ve been procrastinating because I detest wiping all the nooks and crannies in a hardened buttered up waffle iron. I powered through, though, even cleaned out / decluttered and lined the cabinet before putting it all away!

This week’s Friday tasks were centered on deep cleaning the kids rooms including toys and closets. Very hard to do without input from said kids. I didn’t do it. We’ve been decluttering their clothes and stuff before this, so it didn’t feel urgent. I will try tomorrow.

Day 5?

TOMM doesn’t require cleanings on the weekends so I didn’t do it lol. Monday I started out with good intentions but it was a hard day. I told my husband that I’m frustrated that I’m frittering away on crappy sushi in an attempt to make it through my overwhelm spiraling into depression. I’m frustrated that everything is due yesterday and increasing where I can’t make progress. I’ve got to get several roadblocked things done and I’m just so behind. I don’t feel like I can manage all of this all the time, but I don’t feel like I can rely on anyone else but myself… and all that wasn’t even about the cleaning, but I guess it could apply.

Now it’s Wednesday. I’ve been in survival mode, doing Level 1 if I can but dishes since I have to. All I want is my bed. Shoot. Must have burned myself out being all gung-ho that first day that I ran out of energy, and if I’m honest lost the will to clean or organize anything.

Jer helped take over dinner and bedtime for me since he has a week off from wrestling tournaments and meets. He told me tomorrow is a new day. I would have loved to show you the other areas or days, but maybe we’ll have a follow up post.

Love, Kat