Chores Lists

We used to have a LOT of chores around here. I have scaled back a lot, but this is what we have right now.

In 3 rooms I have a list. Bedroom, kids bathroom & kitchen. In the room is posted the list with each kids name and their chore for each day of the week.

For example:

Kid’s Bath:

Timothy:

Monday: Clean and wipe sink

Tuesday: Wipe toilet top to bottom

Wednesday: Clean and sweep floor

Thursday: Clean and wipe sink

Friday: Wipe toilet top to bottom

I have 3 kids doing this and it really helps to stay on top of that gross bathroom. In the past we have had much longer lists, but this is doable for my kids right now.

Each morning my girls (7rs, 6yrs) check off their chore charts with the following:

*get dressed

*brush teeth

*brush hair

*make bed

*pick up all clothing and put away

*pick up anything else on bedroom floor

*take dishes to sink

*each girl empties one bathroom trash can

*one sweeps kitchen, one sweeps dining

*one wipes toilet, one wipes bathroom sink

*each child wipes down table after 1 meal

My 4yr old boy does the following:

*get dressed

*brush teeth

*make bed

*put clothes away

*pick up toys on floor in bedroom

*empty trash

*feed cat

I’m struggling here. Not so much with my children doing what they’ve been doing, but organizing for the rest of the home. I thought about starting a ‘zone’ type cleaning for those things outside their existing chores. I thought a ‘zone’ type cleaning would help us focus better than my feelings of a scattered person over where to start and the frustration of not seeing improvement. I HAVE to see improvement.

My situation is that my husband is physically down right now, with seizures, back pain and recently, toxicity from his seizure meds. I am awaiting another neck surgery (as a reult of my last tumor surgery in my neck 3 yrs. ago), have chronic, umpredictable muscle spasms myself. I’m not getting any help from my hubby right now (he wants to, just can’t) and I am limited on heavy duty things and must pace myself. However, I’m getting very frustrated with the condition of our home; feels like one big storage unit, covered in clay colored dust! It’s a result of 3 years of surgery recoveries from both my husband and myself, living room floor replacement, water heater change and leaky pipes (one which destroyed my school room, it’s awful), building a shed building (so all my husband’s tools are in the house and now he doesn’t feel good to take them OUT!), and lastly, completion of his music studio (he’s an audio engineer), again causing music stuff in the house.

Plus, of course, I homeschool them 4 days a week and have a small garden and cook most everything from scratch (not complaining about that one, just that it requires more of my time; I do it for health and financial reasons). My house is hardly a home, at least not one that shows the beauty that I want to be on exhibit aesthetically. I’m not looking for sterile or perfect, just neat and orderly. 🙁

My two children, 8 1/2 boy, 8 girl, do so much already. But I need further help, but don’t know how to organize it.

I like Emilie BArnes’ 15 min. clean up rule, because I can get overwhelmed. But I need something more.

Can anyone help me? I’ve put out general requests for help, but the ladies I know HS and they too are doing the best they can in their own homes.

Rachel

Rachel, would it be possible to add a 15-30 minute segment during your day to devote to simplifying/organizing one area of your home, in addition to the 15 minute maintenance cleaning you do? For example, choose which room you want to begin in and get a vision for what you want that room to look like. Then work on it for 15-30 minutes each day until it’s the way you want it. Then move to another room and do the same thing. Your kids may even enjoy helping you with this project, especially if they know it’s just a short amount of time involved.

Rachel,

First of all…Where do you live?

My dc and I can load up the car and take a road trip. 😀

I love to organize and clean up stuff (mind you my house isn’t really clean..it is organized but not spotless clean) Clean is for when I don’t have 5 dc under the age of 8.5.

Have you thought about asking friends and family to help out. I know we as mom’s don’t like to ask for help but in your situation with surgeries and dh being out of commission..this is the time to let us be the feet and hands of Christ and to serve your family. I know you probably won’t take me serious about coming to help but I know you have friends that would be willing to drop what they are doing to come and spend a day helping to get things in order.

And shame on them if they aren’t willing to do that. Come on now isn’t that why we are homeschooling, so we can teach our children to be like Christ and to give our dc those opportunities. Sorry didn’t mean to get preachy there. BUT really.

Of course it starts with us being able to ask for help and being gracious enough to accept it.

Well, that being said..the farthest I have driven with my kiddos (without my dh) is 14 hrs..so are you within 14 hrs of Bowling Green, KY? I can be there sometime this week. 🙂

Shelly

Hi Shelly and Rachel,

BEing a servant of each other is also how we work in our family. This place runs as smoothly (relatively speaking) as it does because they do what they’re asked, rarely with an attitude, and they have many of their own chores to do.

I have no doubt that they will come and help me, no matter how long it takes. It’s not that, I just look around and it just seems so overwhelming, even with them helping. Also, I know what to do with my husband’s stuff to go in the shed, but his music stuff, I don’t know. And he thinks he needs just about everything! My view is if he needed it, it would be in the studio already, so get rid of it!!

What do I do with that? Just put it all in a box?

I also need to make a plan; schedule it. I like the idea of picking one room to work in till it’s complete, though when I move to another room of the house, I tense up!

My mom didn’t teach me good, habitual house skills. I’ve been working on a list of the things to do and when. It’s aggravating when I have a couple of down days and can’t stay in that mode, combined with medication making me tired. I have about 2 weeks out of the month of consistant feeling good enough to get the things done I need to.

I hesistate to have my surgery until the house gets to the point where I don’t mind people coming in, plus it needs to be, habits wise, at a place where things run smoothly. Not to mention, he starts feeling better. He’s still detoxing from his meds. that he was toxic on; please pray that his convulsive seizures don’t come back while he’s detoxing off of his seizure meds. Then when he seizes, he hurts his back over and over. That’s what happened this past Friday, though it wasn’t a seizure, but a toxic reaction that caused his body to ‘jerk violently’.

He has business coming at the beginning of July, a real big job; please pray that he can honor that commitment, we need the money plus he needs it to feel more “useful” in his own words; not too mention it’ll get him out of the house more! When he’s in the house, hurting this much, he’s in his chair with the tv on the whole time (which slows me down). He can’t be anywhere in the home without the tv or a movie on the computer being on.

Anyway, I got off topic (well not really, because it’s interelated). Thank you for listening and if you have any words of advice and/or books to recommend, too for housekeeping, please share.

BTW, I’m in N.Ga. But when the country goes you know where in a handbasket, Texas is where we’ll go!

Rachel

I am familiar with the Flylady, but I’ll see if I can find her book at the library. I’m not intersted in the one zone a week; that’s not going to work. However, I can see one zone a day.

The other book I haven’t heard of. I’ll look it up.

I just look around and see that EVERYTHING needs doing. So I go from thing to thing, but then I can’t FINISH, say putting away my laundry because I’m tired from doing the other things. Then there’s the things I don’t plan for that interrupt that throws off my list for the day. Do I sound like a frustrated overwhelmed basket-case? 😯

I’m trying to get more organized on our daily and weekly stuff, so I don’t get

behind on those so I can give some attention to these extras.

Rachel