Welcome to the second article in my new series on Organization. Last time we talked about getting your lists made so you could begin creating routines. I mentioned that in today’s article I’d be teaching you about P.M.S. and how to use it with your lists.

If you missed the first article, here’s the link for it.
https://fordragonfliesandme.com/2013/10/29/organization-series-day-1-creating-and-maintaining-routines/

Some of you may be thinking you already know all about PMS and want nothing to do with it. But I guarantee by the time you’re done reading this, you’ll be wishing for it!

First, get your notebook out with the lists you made the other day….
Now I’m going to teach you how to P.M.S. them… but first, I thought it’d be interesting to share with you how I developed this concept and explain what P.M.S is.

I created this concept from a good friends over-zealous list making and the frustrations the uncompleted tasks created for her. You see, my friend consistently made lists that were well over and above anyone’s ability to accomplish in a week, much less a day. Don’t get me wrong, her motives were beautiful… she’s an energetic, vibrant woman, but she continually tried to over extend herself.

One day while we were talking on the phone, I asked her what was on her agenda for the day!  I should have known… off my dear friend began to rattle a list that scared me! I knew her and I knew she’d never get it all done and she would feel like she’d failed.

Now I don’t have any problems with lists… as I mentioned in the first article, I’m all about lists. After all, you’re probably thinking, “That’s what she told us to do… make a list!”  You’re correct… but I also said to start small.

Later that day as I was looking over my own list of to-do’s, I realized I’d done something with my list… I P.M.S.’ed it.

P.M.S. simply is an abbreviation for: Prioritize, Minimize and Simplify.

So now it’s time to implement P.M.S. on your lists, and don’t worry if you forget something, you can add it later.

First you’re going to look over the lists you made the other day and prioritize the jobs in order of importance for each one.  This may take a few attempts and that’s OK, take your time and think the tasks over clearly as have to-do, need to-do and  want to-do.

Next, you’ll minimize the tasks as to how often and when the job gets done.  Again think have to, need to and want to!

Finally, simplify your life by writing your lists down in a journal or calendar. By documenting the tasks you’ll be able to have a visual help to keep you organized.  Keep posted for the next article where I’ll touch on helpful tips to create your own journal and calendars.

From these lists you’ll create your routines. As mentioned in the previous post, routines are combined into daily, weekly, monthly and seasonal tasks that need to be accomplished in and around our homes. Having a routine for each part of the day, as well as for each day of the week is important.

Here are two samples of my routines. The first is a Monthly Breakdown of Daily Household Tasks. I designed these on an excel spread sheet that can easily be adjusted as things change.

Monthly Breakdown of Daily Household Tasks:

TASK:  Household Chores

CHORE DESCRIPTION      DAILY       WEEKLY      MONTHLY    SEASON

Sweep Floors                       X

Vacuum                                X

Clean Bathroom                                     M W F

Laundry                                                   M W F

Clean Back Entry                                    T R Sat

Sweep Basement Stairs                        T R Sat

Strip all bedding                                     Tues

Clean out fridge/ wash appliances     Sat

New foil on stove elements                 Sat

Wash windows                                       Sat

Shop vac stairs                                       Thurs

Clean upstairs hallway                          Thurs

Vacuum under furniture                                                X

Wash down all kitchen cupboards                               X

Clean/organize dining room closet                              X

Wash all curtains                                                             X

Clean Garage                                                                                         Spr Fall

Once your routines for the basic household tasks are set, you can create a more detailed Room by Room task list that can be printed off as a check list. Notice on this bathroom chart, I have the jobs in a logical order of cleaning top to bottom, as opposed to frequency schedule like my weekly task list.

Room: Bathroom
Task Days: M W F

Job Description:                                                   each day      weekly      monthly

Wash curtains- week you do the rest                                                           XX

Dust all around ceilings                                                                XX

dust window ledges, wash windows                                          XX

wash down walls do the week of
month curtains are washed                                                                            XX

clean: bathtub/shower                                             XX

sink                                                                              XX

toilet                                                                            XX

change garbage                                                                              XX

dust/clean soap dishes/ lotions, etc.                                           XX

tidy linen closets/ lines                                                                  XX

clean & organize vanities, cupboards, shelves                                              XX

sweep floor                                                                 XX

No matter how organized we think we are, without a routine based schedule, disorganization can get to the best of us. The goal in using my P.M.S. program is to create and maintain routines through lists that will aid you in organizing your home life.

After you’ve designed all your routines, you’ll start to build positive habits helping you to remain focused and organized.  We all want to provide a peaceful, relaxed home environment for our families… and with P.M.S. we can!

Stay tuned for the next article in the series: How-to Create and Use a Journal and Day Planner

Happy Day,
Jean