The Daily 7

This is an idea that I found on another blog and I really like it.  I feel like it will help me along the way to becoming more of a domestic goddess.  All it is is a list of 7 things that I'll make sure to do everyday. Some of the items are simple little things that will help keep our home cleaner, some will help us stay more organized, and others are on the list because they're things I love and wish I'd make time to do more of.  So here's my Daily 7:

1. Make the bed, first thing in the morning.  I have always been TERRIBLE at this (sorry, Mom!) but I've been doing it for the past 3 days and I actually really like it.  It takes such little time and it just makes everything seem so much neater.
2. Do a quick bathroom wipe-down after uses.  The white sinks in our master bath are like magnets for toothpaste and I can't stand the sight of them sometimes, but I hate having to bust out some major elbow grease to clean them.  So instead, I'm going to keep a small, old dish towel nearby and wipe down the sink and counter top after brushing my teeth or doing things that leave watermarks or other gunk.
3. Do a 5 minute pre-bed clean up.  Before bed each night, I'd love to do a fast cleaning of the apartment.  Nothing big, just folding up blankets, straightening up pillows and putting things away anything that we've used during the day. 
4. Keep the kitchen sink empty.  This one's easy.  Just making sure that all the dirty dishes are rinsed and loaded in the dishwasher at the end of every day.  Nothing's worse than a sink filled to the brim with dirty dishes.
5. Get and sort the mail.  We are surprisingly bad about getting the mail.  It's at a little mail station that's just a short distance from our front door, but still we'll go 2-3 days without checking it.  So I'm adding it to my routine.  When I get home, I'll walk from the car to the mailbox and then to the apartment.  The next challenge will be opening and sorting the mail immediately.  That'll be hard, but it will simplify things so much if we can address necessary mail right away instead of adding it to a pile.
6. Balance the checkbook, in a manner of speaking.  We don't keep physical checkbook registers, but Tyler has made a super-sophisticated Excel document with all of our financial information and he made it really easy for us to just enter our spending and keep track of how much $$$ we have to play with.  I need to get into the habit of balancing things at the end of each day.
7. Take a photo or read a book.  These are things I love to do, but so often I'll forget to do them for extended periods of time.  So I'm making a rule for myself that I need to take a photo a day, or else I'll be "punished" by "sentencing" myself to read some of a book before I go to sleep.  FUN!

So, those are the 7 things that I'm going to be trying my hardest to incorporate into my daily routine.  I think I can do it, and if I do I think it will really make a difference.  You should try making a list of your own!  It really makes you think about your little goals.