Monday, April 11, 2011

the house, it is not in order


One major side effect of the past three weeks of fun events is a rather unfortunate level of cleanliness in our home.  it's not like there are other living organisms competing for our oxygen, that would be worse, but there is a TON of dirty laundry and the bathtub hasn't been scrubbed in some time.   and...I have an admittedly strange relationship with clutter where it totally doesn't bother me at all and then all of a sudden I must have a clean house, as in NOW.  

Gates and I also haven't quite figured out how to both do chores on a regular basis - I previously used the method of just picking up stuff every few days and cleaning more when company was on the way.  That worked just fine for me when I was by myself, but now that there is a whole other person in the house, it is time to get intentional.  

And that means....a chore chart is in order. I did a good bit of googling earlier today and discovered that the average chore chart :
  •  is for small children  
  • includes things like making the bed (which is not my biggest problem, frankly)  
  • ties chores to specific days (not good when your schedule varies) 
  • requires the use of gold stars or similar stickers.  (Though I wouldn't necessarily mind receiving a gold star for mundane tasks, it somehow seems wrong to award myself one for doing a load of laundry.)
So, I ended up creating my own, which is below.  I am confident that after a few weeks we will need to add some things or change the frequency of the chores.  But at least now we have something we can check off each day that reminds us of what generally needs doing.  Does anyone else have a chore chart?  Is this the saddest thing ever, that two fairly competent adults have to have a list to keep the house clean?
 
*please note that I am not even trying to pretend that we will do our own yard work.  Every single time I trim things or rake leaves or do anything in the yard, I end up with poison ivy.  And that's after poisoning all the plants I could find.  So I am done.  It wins.

6 comments:

  1. I'm seriously considering stealing your chore chart! Not exactly, I mean, there's no way in hell I'm doing laundry every day (especially without a washing machine in the apartment) but the general idea and organization is great! And let's be honest, I'm a sucker for organization of any kind.
    I'm also really impressed with the amount of cleaning you do (or even just plan to do) weekly. I consider myself a very neat person and there's no way I'm setting aside sink cleaning time twice a week (though I probably should..).

    P.S. Didn't know you had a blog, I'm quite excited about it. I've just started one myself but I'm still getting used to what I want to write about.

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  2. Yeah, laundry is def easier with the washer/dryer in the house. And I don't think that I will be doing the whole cycle every day, but keeping it going every day is a good plan.

    The sink bit is kinda ambitious - but I have hand soap that is dyed a color right now, and it the soap residue makes the sink look WAY worse than when I had the clear kind. Won't be making that mistake again.

    I am pretty new to this blog business too, but it's neat!

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  3. Once upon a time I had a list that went something like this:

    Monday - clean kitchen
    Tuesday - clean living room/dining room
    Wednesday - clean bedrooms
    Thursday - clean bathrooms
    Friday - prep for whatever is coming this weekend

    It worked fairly well ... when I wasn't also teaching & when Eliot was less mobile. These days I wing it & have company often enough to force a clean (looking) house!

    Although I'm VERY anal about the kitchen counters. Just ask Mitch!

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  4. Also - I love that header font!

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  5. Having made more than my fair share of chore charts as a counselor at summer camp, I do feel a bit like a camper, but I can't deny the thrill of checking off a job well done.

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  6. I just tend to regularly invite guests over to the house -- particularly good motivation (for all involved) to get the house clean. I think I might ultimately be so annoyed by a chart that I would burn it ...so I don't believe I subscribe to the same "checking off a job well done" camp philosophy as Gates. :)

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