Managing Chores in Your Home

There are endless ideas and methods to prioritize and maintain the chores in your home. The problem is fitting the method to your personality so you actually USE the method and get the work DONE.

I suggest that you write down on paper all the big jobs that need to be done each week, and then spread these chores over the week. Getting them done is another task....

• Put the chores in order of importance.
• Make a simple chart with the days of the week on top. If you have to, buy a one. There are tons of them out there.
• Put your daily tasks in order per day, including the days that you work away from home.
• Make several copies of your blank weekly chart or use a write-on/erase wall calendar. For some women, a week at a time makes everything look less overwhelming than seeing a whole month in front of you with tons of things to be done.
• See what works for you and if a task doesn't fit on one day, put it on another day that might work better. It will take time to work out a schedule. But if you DO schedule in your weekly tasks like you also schedule your work days, doctors appointments and so on, then you will find that you have more time to schedule in FUN!
• There are chores that only need to be done every two weeks or so. Those can be alternated every other week.
• A HUGE chart on the wall certainly helps many type B personality woman, who is often flexible and thus easily sidetracked. I put chores and appointments on my wall chart that I can see from the kitchen.
• For the smaller weekly jobs, try setting a timer to 5 minutes so that you know there is a clock to beat. This is helpful to many people. In fact, we recently timed many of the family chores to see how long they took. Most took 5 minutes or less, even when our youngest child did them. It took 5 minutes to load the dishwasher and literally under 2 minutes to take out the trash. Unloading the dishwasher took about 6 minutes.

Here are some suggestions on prioritizing...

For example, the dreaded laundry is a big priority because it overflows if you don't do it. That is a tough one. Laundry issues are different with every family. If you know you have a lot of laundry that needs to be done every day, then put up a load first thing in the morning and get it to the dryer before you walk out the door for work. When you get home, try to take it out of the dryer before you do anything else. Then when you finally get to sit in front of TV {yeah, right :::::chuckle:::::} or talk with your family, you can fold at the same time. The point here is that you can spread the laundry chores over the whole week, and also be doing many other things while you fold laundry.

As another example, most of the time in our house is spent in the kitchen doing school work, preparing meals, eating meals, or cleaning up after meals. If you don't keep the kitchen free from dirty dishes, there could be residual smells or possibly ants. (It's ant season out here in California.) So kitchen chores are way up there on our priority list.

Unfortunately I can't determine for YOU what is most important. What I can tell you is that if you can put one cleaning job on the chart at least every other day, it will help get those undesirable tasks done with the least bit of anguish. To me, making beds is NOT a major priority, although it makes me FEEL good to have them made. What I consider a major priority is getting food in the house!

Monday
I wouldn't put any chores on Monday if you are a type B. At work there is usually much to be taken care of as you start your new work week. I am married and have three children, so we delegate tasks even though it gets brutally overwhelming at times for everyone. That's when it's time for a short trip somewhere. Back to our topic...

Tuesday
Tuesday could be empty trash and load/wash dishes day. If you have more than two people living in your home like we do, then these two things become an everyday task.

Wednesday
Wednesday could be the day you vacuum. Since dirt does build up on the floors and carpets, this chore should probably be done at least once a week. Now here again, it all depends on your personalities and priorities. Sometimes we just don't have time for it or it isn't a priority in the scheme of things.

Thursday
Thursday could be empty trash and load/wash dishes again day.

Friday
Friday might be a clean bathrooms day. If you aren't home most of the week, then cleaning the bathrooms every two weeks might be fine. Or just do regular quickie wipe downs of the bathroom during the week when you get out of the shower. If you have children and are home most of the time, well, then you'll need to take this into account. And that is all I have to say about THAT.

Saturday
Saturday could be grocery shopping day. Most people have Saturdays off so you wouldn't need to rush. Ask your family for some dinner ideas.

I pick three different meals for the week and usually cook enough for 2 or 3 days. Sometimes I prepare chicken and vegetables in advance and freeze them in bags. This way I can quickly throw some fajitas together during the week.

Our lives are too filled with things to do. So now it's up to YOU to decide how you are going to RUN those things and not let them run YOU.

Some things I try to do often: Get up and take care of ME in the morning, shower, dress, eat and pray... Get the kitchen cleaned... Take charge of my day!

Copyright © 1999 Susie Glennan

Bio: Susie Glennan is the President of The Busy Woman, Inc. - DBA: The Busy Woman's Daily Planner®. She has been featured in Smart Money Magazine, The Washington Post, and others. Her products have been featured in Real Simple and Parenting Magazines, CBS Early Show, San Antonio Living Show and many more!

Susie has been happily married since 1982. She is mom to 3, Homeschool Teacher, Toastmaster, Speaker and is Author of numerous articles that have been published in magazines, across the web and at www.thebusywoman.com