Housework and how we keep on top of it!

The laundry basket was never empty, the ironing basket overflowed and the kitchen looked like a disaster area. I was drowning in a sea of housework, had miserable kids who kept getting nagged at because they weren’t doing the chores they’d been given and something needed to be done to make this home clean and happy again.

My solution?

Lists, and lots of them.
Not all for me you understand. I mean come on, I’m only one person out of the five who live here so there’s no way I’m going to do it all myself!

I turned to my trusty Microsoft Excel and created a weekly schedule for each member of the household; well all except for Daddy because he has enough work to do, at work!

Ella’s job list 🙂

Our schedule maps out the things we need to accomplish each day, including personal care like cleaning teeth, activity time and going to school as well emptying bins, loading the washer and doing the ironing. When a chore has been completed we cross it off and at the end of the day, if we’ve crossed them all off, we get a sticker. I’m happy to say, even Mummy gets one, usually picked by one of the girls 🙂
We also get to choose a special trip or activity to do together on the weekends when the kids stay home (they’re away at Aiden’s dads every 2 out of 3 weekends).

We’ve been working to the new schedules for a month now and the house has never been so clean and tidy!

KayCee likes to doodle on hers!

Sticking to the schedule and sharing the chores between the family means that we have more time to spend together; we try and do an activity each night once the kitchen has been cleaned after dinner. It’s lovely to be fully focused on the children, not rushing round trying to get everything done before the bedtime routine starts.

Of course, not everyone is as happy with the lists as I am, for example, Ella (4) had a mini rant the other day, that went something like this:

Ella: While loading the washer with a grumpy look on her face….Why do I have to fill the washer? They’re not all my clothes and if everyone stopped getting them dirty I wouldn’t have to wash them.
And if nobody got anything out, I wouldn’t have to pick up and put away so why don’t we all just stop getting our clothes dirty and stop getting things out then I won’t have to do jobs, ok?

KayCee, Aiden and I were laughing too much to answer her!

This post was written using a blogging prompt from Tots 100 and Morphy Richards