Keeping a clean house... with a baby

As far as I can remember, my mom has always cleaned the whole house every Friday.  She's really good at keeping things clean and tidy.  I, on the other hand, not so much.

Throughout college, my room was a mess with clothes all over the floor, and I would occasionally clean.  It's actually slightly disturbing to think about my college years, because I don't remember cleaning very often.

These days, it's a different story.  I love having a clean house, but it's difficult to get it that way, or keep it that way.  The culprit?

This was the first time she discovered how fun it is to pull out the DVDs, you know... back when it was still cute?  ;)

A 14 month old little girl.

It's really difficult at first to schedule your life around your baby.  Can I get an Amen??

That's what I had to do though.  After she was born, I was too exhausted to care about keeping the house clean.  What new mom has time for that?!  If she was sleeping, then I was either sleeping or doing something to make sure I stayed sane (enough).

Later on, I began to realize that I needed to make some changes if I wanted to have a clean house.  It was impossible to clean everything in one day, so I had to do some planning.

This is as tidy as it gets in this area... (on another note, do you think she has enough toys??)  ;)

Each day, I do at least one load of laundry as well as (at least) one big household chore.  This may be cleaning the bathrooms, vacuuming, dusting, mopping, whatever.  Of course, I still have to do the dishes, clean the kitchen, cook, etc. every day.  With this method, my house is never spotless, but at least it's clean!  No more of those days where I clean the house from top to bottom in a few hectic hours in preparation for visitors... that's just stressful!

If you've been around here long, you know about my planning board.  This idea has been a life-saver for me.  Now, I just write certain chores to do each day of the week, and then usually, by Friday, I have some spare time to do something fun!  :)

For example, here is my schedule for today:

• Wash Towels
• Vacuum
• Clean Dishwasher

Mommy's little 'helper'... see those cute little legs??

I've accomplished the first two things on my list, and I doubt I'll get to the last one, considering the dishwasher is full at the moment.  Since I've completed (most) of my list, I have time to do other things!  So, now I'm washing our comforter, working on a craft project, and blogging!  :)  It sure makes you feel good to accomplish the things on your to-do list at the end of the day!  

Does anybody else have some good tips??