Manic Monday – The Chore Chart

Alternate title for this post: The Experiment

So, admittedly, I am not a naturally tidy/organized person. This isn’t for lack of trying on my mother’s part. She taught and trained us well. It’s just I let my lazy, selfish nature take over more often than not. That, however, is not what I want to teach my kids.

Also, we have a lot of people drop over unannounced. A lot. And I love it! Our open door policy with our friends and neighbors is something I relish. However, I have been embarrassed mortified on more than one occasion when a friend called over only to find my house in utter disarray.

So, in an effort to keep us all more organized, and to help us all get in the habit of keeping things tidy, I’ve made a chore chart. I’ve seen copious amounts and styles of chores charts all over the interwebs, but I decided to keep it as simple as possible.

I sat down with my girls and we talked about all that needs to get done around the house in a week, and how many times in the week it needs done. Then we picked what we each would be willing to do. Flower Girl (my 6 year old) wants to Hoover, clean the bathroom sinks, empty the bathroom trash and wipe down the kitchen counters. Butterfly Girl (age 4) wants to dust the windowsills and tv stand, wipe down the outside of the toilets, change the bathroom towels, and wipe the kitchen table. There are also daily tasks such as making beds and house check before bed.

I then printed up a page for each day, listing what needs to get done, with the name of the person responsible. So far, it’s working well. And Flower Girl, my uber type-A rule keeper, made sure mommy and daddy’s bed got made as well. 🙂 This is only our first day, but i have high hopes for our little system, and hope that the idea of one or two tasks a day will be much less overwhelming for us all than long, massive, clean the chaos days every couple of weeks.

Do you use a chore system? What works for your family?

I’ve linked up with