Now that you have your list made as you continue on, you may think about a few extras that you had forgotten and that is great, just keep adding them.

I want you to gather up all your daily chores and place them on a new list.  These are all things that you feel is important to do each and every day.  In our home these things include:

• picking up master bedroom and making bed
• picking up boys room and making beds
• picking up girls room and making beds
• quick wipe of the bathrooms
• sweep of the kitchen and dining room floors
• washing one load of laundry
• feeding cat and dog
• feeding the chickens
• empty the big trash can
• wash dishes/put away after breakfast
• wash dishes/ put away after lunch
• wash dishes/put away after dinner
• wiping the counters and table after each meals

Yours may be different depending upon the needs of your family and that is great.  You just want to give yourself something in writing of things that NEED to be accomplished each and every day.

A quick tip…..as you write down your daily chores on the following page, scratch it off from your original list to prevent missing anything during transferring.

Another tip…..You may want to delegate a different child for each meal.  For example Jadyn washes the dishes at breakfast while Brooklyn puts them away.  Autumn washes lunch dishes while Madelyn puts them away.  Dinner Mom washes, while Evan puts them away.  You can get however specific you would like to get.

For our family, we choose a day for each child to do dishes.  Monday and Thursday Jadyn puts them away after every meal.  Tuesday  and Friday Brooklyn puts them away. Wednesday and Saturday Evan puts them away.  On Sunday, I typically just put them away.  The children that do not have to put dishes away then helps with clean up after each meal.  Every family is different that is just how we choose to do it.  It is much easier for me to look at my chart and know who is supposed to do dishes for the day instead of for every individual day.

Daily Chore Lis1

 

Now looking over your list, do you feel confident that these are things you need done each and everyday?  If not take some off and put them back on your other list.  Maybe you feel that you only need to vacuum once per week instead of everyday.  Then again maybe you will decide that you need to do that two times per week to keep your home clean.  If that is the case then leave that in the weekly category.

Any successful manager will know the fine art of delegating to help their job be successful.  That goes in home management as well.  If you only have little children, know that the workload will only be on you.  But a positive, is that with little ones, your home doesn’t get as dirty as it would with many “mobile” children.   As your children grow and the work demands increase, you should be able to give them some tasks and they can contribute to your family structure.

With all that said, place the initial of the child that can help with that chore for the day.  It is okay if all of the tasks are completed by children.  I promise, you as the Mom will have many more opportunities for jobs throughout  the day.

Now you are going to get to work.  Look back on your list from yesterday and work on today’s daily list.  Keep this aside for some extra time today while your children are doing something on their own.  Once you have your list all finished you can start implementing it.

Take note, you may notice things that you forgot to add to your list, go ahead and add them and delegate them to someone.  For the next few days you will have to reference this list quite frequently and help remind your children until you can get them something just for them to look at.  This is just a temporary list.  Place it in an area that you can see it.  On the refrigerator or by your work station is a good place to be able to reference it throughout the day.

Keep working, I am praying for you as a mother to rise up and help conquer the messes and chaos in your household!  Be blessed!

part 3

The number one complaint that I hear from moms is that they don’t know how to keep their homes clean. Their children’s rooms are always a mess.  Their closets are jammed pack.   There is always clutter sitting on the tables.  They can never find what they need.   Clothing sits in piles with no where to go.  Food gets wasted because they didn’t realize what they had already in the refrigerator or pantry.  The list of complaints goes on and on.

With a little organization and planning you can create a successful plan on how to keep your home running smoothly and remove the clutter and things that fill your life with too much stuff.

A general rule to remember is

Less Stuff = More Life

If we can simplify our lives and get rid of the “clutter” and the inefficient plans for doing things we can start experience more of life.  This includes more time for yourself and more time with your family.  More peace in your soul because your life is not so crazy.

What’s the first task you do?  You start with a cleaning system, routine, something that becomes a “way of life” for you.  It needs to be flexible enough to be resistant to change and interruptions in our lives, but efficient enough that we don’t overlook things that need to be done in our homes.

How did I do it in our life?  I started out by making a list  of all the chores that I had to do in my home.  Yes, it seems that my list was very long and took me a few days to complete.  I had many little ones and it was hard to concentrate at times.  I suggest you take time for each of your areas in your home that need cleaning.  Write down everything from wiping the walls, cleaning carpets, to organizing the food pantry.  Work on it for a few days.  Look back at it and see if there is something that you think you missed.  Walk into that room and get a visual of all the things that you need to do and write them down.  I’m including plenty of space for you to write down everything that needs to be cleaned.  Areas of suggestion:  living room, family room, kitchen, dining room, hallways, bathrooms, master bedroom, girls room, boys room, laundry room, basement, play room, garage, outside areas, etc.

Here is a list of some of the jobs that I know I had overlooked while writing out my first chore list:

• watering plants
• wiping walls which includes  switch plates, moldings, and door knobs
• cleaning carpets
• wipe overhead fan blades
• scrub the oven hood
• washing the blinds
• cleaning out the pets food and water bowls
• wiping down the washer and dryer

Next to the job that you have written down, write whether you think you should do that task (D) daily,( W) weekly,( M)  monthly, or (A) annually.

Get specific about each and every chore that needs to be done in your home.  Your list will be long.  We will be working on it over the next few days to help you create a chore system that becomes a “way of life” for you.

It is okay if you forget some things. I will help give some reminders of things that you might have forgotten.

cleaning tasks needing to be done

Print off enough charts for each area of your home.

If any of you have been struggling with keeping your homes clean and keeping down on the clutter in your homes, I pray you will implement this system into your own lives to create a more peaceful haven of a home.  All of it is FREE of charge, it just requires some time on your part.  I’ve been a homemaker for 20 years, this system has worked effectively for our large family of 12 for most of those years.  (The earlier years I was still learning and messing up:)

Have a blessed day and work on your list.  I will do part 2 in this series next.