House Cleaning Schedule - An Update

If you recall this previous post, House Cleaning Schedule - An Experiment, you'll remember that I designed a schedule for cleaning the house so that the task did not become overwhelming.  I promised a one-month update, but never followed up (I need to be better about posting).  Well, better late than never, and I have a 6-almost-7-month update for you here.  It actually turned out better that I waited for a few months of running the experiment to show how the results turned out over time:

• Sunday: Bedroom. Porch day.
• Update: The bedroom was cleaned each Sunday.  The porch was cleaned about once per month, as long as the weather allowed.
• Monday: Office. Organize papers day.
• This day failed!  Perhaps we would have been better about Office Day if it was later in the week, but in the hecticness of Monday, it was not the best time for a tedious organization day.  Lesson learned.  We organized the papers twice in the last seven months!
• Tuesday: Living room. Water the plants day.
• The living room was cleaned fairly regularly on Tuesdays after dinner.  I'm actually quite pleased with how this worked.
• Wednesday: Bathroom 1. Organize dishes and silverware day.
• The larger of the two bathrooms stayed fairly clean throughout the process.  Dishes and silverware were actually organized on an ongoing basis and were not relegated to Wednesday.
• Thursday: Hall, closets, laundry room. Polish shoes day.
• I polished the shoes on Saturday nights so that they would be ready for church on Sunday.  The hall, closets, and laundry room stayed neat, organized, and clean.
• Friday: Kitchen. Clean out the fridge/pantry day.
• Friday was an overall success!  We cleaned out the fridge on Fridays regularly and attempted to make it into Trash Day, but this was sometimes delayed by snow.
• Saturday: Bathroom 2. Laundry day.
• The smaller of the two bathrooms in our apartment is usually used only for washing hands, so it stayed fairly clean.  Saturday was a good day for laundry, but we sometimes had to move the last load to early Sunday.
• Other chores to be completed as needed: wash dishes, take out the trash, organize toys, make bed, and anything else pertinent that comes up.
• Success

Conclusion: having a regular house cleaning schedule helps so that the chores doesn't get too out of hand.  It may be useful to try a few different schedules to see what works best before settling on a more strict cleaning regiment.

29. It's ok to read several books at the same time.

28. Keep a spare band-aid in your wallet.

27. It is worth learning the proper way to bridge shuffle a deck of cards.

26. At least once per year, clear the snow off of the windshield on the car parked next to you.

25. It is better to prepare and not need it than to not prepare and need it.

Rosetta Stone Korean - 1 Month Update

So, I am a month into studying the Rosetta Stone Korea method and I can already say that my language skills have improved.  What I especially like about this software is how it not only teaches new vocabulary and phrases, but it quizzes you on grammar, too, to ensure that you are retaining all of what you are learning.  I spend about 30 minutes per day and I find the pace easy to follow.  There have been a couple of times when I got a bit overwhelmed with a day's lesson, so I reviewed the same section the following day to make sure I wasn't going too fast.

I finished Level I - Part I with a 96%!

Since there are no accompanying books to go along with it, I am also keeping a notebook.  I bought a small Mead 5-Star 2 subject notebook.  In the front half of the notebook, I take notes on the new words and phrases that are introduced.  After the day's lesson is complete, I go into the back half and make vocabulary charts based on the new material that I have learned.  At the top of the page, I write the topic, then I list the words in Hangul on the left with the English words on the right.  I have a page for family members, colors, verbs, foods, clothing, etc.  Then, the next day, I review my vocabulary and the previous day's notes before I begin.

My only frustration is that the software does not explain the special suffixes that Korean uses.  Luckily, I can ask my wife what they mean, and sometimes we look them up in the Korean/English dictionary so it is all clear to me.  I would recommend anyone using Rosetta Stone Korean to have a dictionary, too, to help with this.

I plan to provide updates once per month on my progress- watch for more in April.

See also:
Rosetta Stone Korean
Best Method for Learning Korean