My Chore Calendar

Ever since I had Lea and stopped working 2.5 years ago I decided that it was time to get my house in order. It’s not really dirty, just a little cluttered and unorganized. My friend Heather has the same goal and for a long time we would encourage each other to declutter and keep up with our cleaning etc. We both seemed to spend a whole day scrubbing and making the house shine only to be dead tired at the end and not looking forward to doing it again the next week (or whenever we had company coming over!!!). Add to that the 5 or 6 loads of laundry that we would do in a day and housework became a chore, something we dreaded and hated.

I am not going to be poetic and say that housework is now something that I enjoy, that I look forward to, that is the highlight of my day. Quite the opposite. I still dread it, BUT I like how my house looks and feels when I am on top of things. Heather, in her quest for schedules and calendars (gotta love ya!) found this great site that offers a daily chore planner. This planner includes daily chores (emptying dishwasher, making beds, emptying trash, cleaning counters, making dinner etc.) but also includes a few random chores every day. These are the things that often get overlooked or just plain forgotten. In the few short months that I have been using the planner, I have cleaned the shelves under my bathroom sinks (I’d never done that before???), all the doorknobs (I mean really, who thinks to clean doorknobs?) and other various tasks. The planner also breaks down the big chores that I so easily brush aside, even though I know they need to be done. For example, over the last couple of weeks we have been cleaning the fridge, one shelf at a time! How great is that! I can’t commit to cleaning out the entire fridge but I can take the 5 or 10 mins that it takes to clean the top shelf!

This planner also requires me to sit down and make a menu plan and shopping list and I am 100% positive that that has saved us money. I am not wondering what to make at 5pm when the girls are hungry and fussy and everything I have is frozen solid in the freezer.

The laundry part still suck. Laundry falls under the daily category which means I should be doing a load every day. I don’t mind sorting, washing, drying or folding, it’s the putting away that seems to never get done! Still, I now always have clean towels and sheets and the girls always have clean clothes, and I am not spending hours on the laundry. That’s definitely a bonus, even if it is sitting in my bedroom in the hampers lol…

There are quite a few things that have changed since I started using this chore chart. Bee has started to pitch in more (may I just say, AWESOME!) He likes to ask what my chores for the day are most times will pick one! (recently he cleaned out the microwave and the toaster). I am amazed that he is pitching in and am so very thankful to have some help. I think because there’s a plan, it’s easier for him to do stuff. He always admits to not being able to read my mind and not knowing what cleaning needs to be done so the planner solves that problem. The other perk of my new cleaning routine is that I feel that my house is always presentable. It may not always be spotless and totally organized (I do have 2 very young kids with lots and lots of toys!) but I am never embarrassed to have people just stop by. I know that there are always clean hand towels in the bathroom, the toilet is clean, there is toilet paper under the sink and my kitchen is clean. It has been so freeing to just do what the chart says and not have to decide what to do (which usually meant picking the easiest thing!).

I want to say a big thank you to Heather for sharing this Chore planner with me and for keeping me in check. We often motivate each other to stick with it and to get up and get cleaning. I don’t think the chart would be as successful if it wasn’t for her! So, thanks Heather!

And to everyone else, please feel free to come over, I know my house is clean! J