Domestic Goddess Status

... Not reaching it.  There just aren't enough hours in the day. 

I suppose this was a bad week to judge myself on--Jimmy had his wisdom teeth removed on Wednesday, so that day was spent split between the waiting room (where they didn't allow coffee at seven in the morning...) and then taking care of a semi-high husband.  The rest of the week was pretty much hanging out taking care of him.  Yesterday we managed to get out and see a movie (Olympus has fallen, which was awesome by the way), and today we took the dogs out down by the Riverwalk. And I swept the downstairs for the third time this week.  But that was really all. 

Have I mentioned that I really can't handle all this dirt?  I literally have to sweep every day or it just becomes unmanageable.  I tried going to once or twice a week, a week, but by the end of the week we look like the filthiest people ever, and I look like a terrible housekeeper.  The only solution I can come up with is getting area rugs for the living room and front hall (in front of the two doors), but Jimmy is for some reason diametrically opposed.  I feel (and Caitlyn has confirmed that it worked for her) that it would cut down on the visible and tangible dirt--my hope would be that I could vacuum once a week instead of sweeping seven times... But I digress.

In any event, I made a chore list.  Tomorrow I'm going to print it and have it laminated at Kinko's and then stick it on the fridge.  It's broken down into Daily, Weekly and Bi-Weekly columns.  The daily column includes: dishes, sweep first floor, water plants, feed fish, feed dogs, feed cat, and cook dinner.  The weekly column is the longest and includes: empty trash, check bill folder, clean out fridge, clean yard of dog "presents", clean the litter box, dust living room, clean kitchen appliances, laundry, sweep second floor, and mop.  Then the bi-weekly column (because if it's a monthly column it'll never get done) includes: meal plan, grocery shop, wash bedding, scrub bathrooms, mow lawn, and clean the fish tank.

The plan is to put it on the fridge with two different colored highlighter, so items can be highlighted as they're done.  Then, at the end of the pay period, whoever's done the most chores gets to pick the takeout menu for the night.  This way, we both know exactly what needs to get done, and when, so there will be no excuses about not getting things done when we have a little spare time.

Please God it works. Because otherwise I'm going to have to hire a maid, or the mess is just going to make me go apeshit.

I can't afford a maid.