Hi Girls,
Let me introduce you to how I attempt to manage my household cleaning duties.
First of all, some background. I started out with daily cleaning goals like Martha. Small things I do every day and one big task. BUT, my life is too unpredictable and nothing makes me more grumpy than ruining a checklist by not crossing off the appropriate thing at the appropriate time. So, if I missed one day I wasn't flexible like Martha who just does two the next day. No, I would throw my hands up in the air and tell myself it was just a bad week and I would try again next Monday (since this tended to happen a lot on Mondays, things were getting pretty backlogged.)
So I made myself a weekly checklist with all of the jobs I think should be done weekly. I actually have 4 versions of this and the jobs in bold are different because there are some jobs that just need to be done monthly. Some days I check off 10 things and some days none but that wiggle room is built in because it is a weekly planning sheet. I also do my meal planning there and write other random tasks for the week. (for some reason the check boxes didn't convert to google docs but each item has a check box).
This was working fine for a while but I realized I needed more structure in my day as well. So . . . my daily checklist was born. This has the tasks that really should be done every day (like scriptures, cleaning etc) as well as a tentative schedule. I also pick 3 tasks that I want to do that day but no more than 3. True some days I don't check things off, but since I threw the daily checklist away at the end of the day, the empty check marks don't make me want to give up.
And there you have it. That is what I do. And by do I mean I follow my checklists like 10% of the time. But the weeks that I do it, things seem awesome which is why I keep trying.
Oh and if you were wondering what RAK stands for it means Random Act of Kindness which is code for doing service for my husband. Oh, and "doing service for my husband" is code for sex. Ha! Someday when I am cool and the kids are older, my goal is to have 5 check boxes in front of that rather than 3. :)
If you want the word documents I am happy to email them to you, just let me know.
Bwhahahahahhaah. NICE!
ReplyDeleteI love reading about what works for other people. It's funny how mine didn't work for you and I KNOW yours wouldn't work for me. If I had that paper staring at me all day, just waiting for check marks to be put down, I would run screaming. My list of 6 things to do every day is taped inside my cupboard and I actually AVOID looking at it. And I had my "chore a day" posted for awhile on a calender inside that same cupboard and looking at it made me cringe. Something about a paper staring at me telling me I have to do something makes me feel stifled. So, in reality, for me, it does really come down to having a loose set of rules to guide me and then I end up cleaning as a burst of energy and motivation hits.
L-O-V-E it! Taylor, read the end of my post to find out what happened when I read your post. Thanks for the tips on what works for you.
ReplyDeleteWant the check lists please! LOL RAK, you always read that busy parents should schedule some special time together but no one ever admits that they do. I gotta get a regular list going at my place. Love the idea of hiding it inside a cupboard Martha.
ReplyDeleteAwesome-I want those lists. Now whether I'll do is another thing. I love had paper tell me what to do but I cringe at 'rigid' systems and love the bursts of energy (feel it) approach. It's funny how I feel a messy mix of you and martha.
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