You haven’t gotten overwhelmed yet by all this new information as to how to set up a chore system have you? I promise that if you start out with the 1st step and diligently work through them all you WILL have a successful method when you are finished. We have been using this method for over 15 years and it works well. It is able to be flexible enough to incur unexpected situations yet allows you to get all of your tasks done for the week.
Lets keep going….
You have your weekly chore list complete. It has everything that you want to get done each week but not necessarily each day. Now you are going to have to make some decisions and choose which days you work on which tasks. For our family we choose a couple areas each day.
Monday we focus on floors and playroom. This means that we sweep and steam all the hard floors in our home. We also vacuum every inch of carpet. After the weekend, things tend to get dirty. We start the week out fresh by doing this. We also do a thoroughly cleaning of the play room. Things get organized properly and put away. The floors should be picked up as that is part of our daily routine. If I see an item that belongs to someone, I remind them to please pick it up.
Tuesday we focus on bathrooms. This day I deep clean and do all of the bathroom tasks that need to be done. Each day, I do a quick wipe but today, I get the tub scrubbed, mirrors polished, toilet disinfected, and trash emptied.
Wednesday is our kitchen day. We normally do extra baking this day, so I choose to deep clean it as well. As we are going about our baking, I do a scan of my cupboards and make sure that things are organized properly. I look through the drawers and see if the proper items are in each one. I straighten my pantry so that I know what foods I have to eat. I fill my sink up with some cleaner and wipe off the front of all of my cabinets when we are done baking. This removes food and finger grime. Make sure to wipe the cabinets on the bottom. Sometimes those are overlooked and they can get very dirty. I wipe the back splash to remove any splatters or grease. After all of our food is cooked and baked, I wipe down the stove and microwave and give it a good shine. I clean out the inside of the refrigerator, throwing away any old food and wiping each shelf. The outside gets a wipe as well. We also rinse and scrub out our water bottles for the week this day. We constantly keep them filled but once a week I sanitize and scrub them out. The floor gets a sweep and a spot hand wash to remove any food that we may have dropped during our baking. Our trash gets picked up tomorrow, so we make sure to empty all of the household cans and put the trash out to the road this day.
Thursday we focus on doing all of our dusting and window cleaning. We also straighten our school items. This means we straighten the books, clean out our homeschooling area—return pencils to their proper place, throw away any paper, put library books in bags, etc. I have a child that goes around and wood cleans everything in the home. Another child takes the window/mirror cleaner and goes around and cleans all the windows from the inside and wipes all the tvs, mirrors, tablets, computers, and phones.
Fridays we focus on the bedrooms and putting away all of our laundry. I don’t designate one day to wash all of our laundry because we have so much plus our septic couldn’t handle all that water. Each day I wash and dry one load of laundry. I place the dried clothing in baskets: one for girls, one for boys, and one for my husband and myself. Towels get placed in a basket on top of the washer when they are dried. If a child needs an extra chore for the day due to disobedience or I find that I am running low during the week and can’t wait till Friday, I will have them fold this basket and put them away. Everyone works at separating and putting away their own. The older children can fold and hang their own. The younger ones can put away in their proper areas once I fold them. Each bedroom gets a good cleaning. I will clean under the beds, straighten desks, shelves, and drawers. I will wipe down anything that maybe got forgotten during the dusting day. The girls wipe down their shelves. The boys organize their toys in their proper bins. Closets are checked to be in order. We thoroughly vacuum the bedrooms again this day. I also run the vacuum through the living areas again to get them cleaned for the weekend.
Saturday we focus on outside chores. We will empty and clean the van. We sweep and straighten the porches. We clean out the chicken coop. We wash the pet bowls out and clean up any dog mess. If we couldn’t get down any other weekly chores during the week, this is the day when we would catch up. Maybe you had an unexpected company on your dusting day. We would just catch up with it today.
You will have to decide which days you want to do each of your tasks. Plan your focus on area depending up your circumstances. If you have to leave the house early for church on a certain day to help with classes, don’t make that your kitchen day. It will only stress you out as you try and get everything done. Our kitchen day is a day that I know I am going to be home and not have to leave the house. On Fridays, we do our shopping and errands. The children like to go to the library, they know that once their rooms are done, we can leave. This helps them focus. Mondays are always busy after a long week, I keep my “extra weekly chores” shorter and just focus on the floors. You arrange it according to the demands of your family. If your husband gets home early on a certain day, don’t take on a lot of extra work that day. Choose things that can be done quickly.
Create your list according to your family plans. You may need to switch it up a bit. Fill out the charts and work at your daily list and then designate a time in the afternoon to work on your weekly list. If you find that you can’t get it all done in one day, that is okay. As your week goes on, you will find that you don’t have as many extra chores on another day and you can rearrange and add those chores onto another day.
This is a work in progress situation. You are going to have to implement it and then evaluate if it is working for you or not. This is what a successful manager does.
As you fill in the weekly chores designate if someone is to help you do that tasks. Place their initial next to the chore. As you do the chores throughout the week, notice if one child gets done with their work more quickly than others. You may need to add additional chores to that child if another tasks takes longer.
In our family, we try and not do extra chores on Sunday and make it a time for family and worship. It is okay if the laundry piles up this day or that there may be dirt on the floors. You will get to them. Make it a time of rest and relaxing.
Remember to post these lists along with your daily list in an area you can see. You will be making a final copy that is neat when you are finished. Right now, you will have erasures and changes made as you try and figure out what works best for your family.
Remember to cross it off your weekly chore list from step 3 when transferring so that nothing gets overlooked. Pay attention to the chores that you place a number next to. For example, if you need the trash emptied 2 times per week, make sure to write which two days you want it emptied.
Keep working!! You are almost done setting up a system that will work for your home. Be blessed today as you strive to be a good manager of your home.
