Home: Beautiful and Organized

Recently I have been following several blogs about home organization and decor. I don't have a natural "eye" for decorating, nor do I currently have the money (or the car!) to go out and buy the things I need, or think I need, for organizing my house. So I am learning to work with what I have to make my house beautiful. One way to have a beautiful home is to just keep it clean! A good source for ideas on this is The Flylady.

Here is what I have started with:
Morning routine:
Get up immediately! If Nathaniel needs to be nursed, sit in the rocking chair, nursing in bed is a sure way to sleep in.
Get dressed, including doing my hair.
Make my bed
Breakfast

After breakfast:
Immediately clean up the kitchen, put dishes in dishwasher, wipe table and highchair, et cetera. If there are only a few dishes to hand wash I sometimes will set those aside for washing after lunch, but they need to be filled with water so they will be easy to clean.
If the bed wasn't made already, make it.
Wipe down the bathroom sinks and toilet.
Do the housecleaning job of the day: Vacuum, sweep, dust, laundry, et cetera.

Don't get on the computer until all the above things are done!

After lunch I clean up the kitchen again, then either take a nap or begin whatever project I am working on. I also decide what we will have for dinner.

After making dinner, if there is time before we eat, I clean up the preparation dishes. I also tidy up the house so it will look pretty when Jaired gets home. I do not do this because I don't want him to see what a mess the house is, but that he will be able to feel relaxed, and enjoy coming home even more! :)

After dinner, I clean the kitchen for the last time. Clean it BEFORE going off to play with my boys or spend time with Jaired. Since we eat very shortly after Jaired gets home, this is a good time for him to spend with Edmund.

Before going to bed, I walk through all the rooms of the house and make sure everything is where it should be. I fold and put away any laundry, put any toys Edmund did not pick up into his room, et cetera. I also pick out my clothes for the next day.

As you can see I try to do damage control by doing things right away instead of waiting for things to pile up. I also try to involve Edmund in all these chores. There is no need to wait until a child is 5, 6, or 7 to have him help, especially because he is already contributing to the mess!

So tell me, what do you do to make your day flow more smoothly and your house more beautiful?

P.S. I have many ideas of other things I would like to do, but I will talk about those as they happen. :)