Manage the House Chores

You know what’s hard? Balancing kids and house work.

If I spend time playing with the kids, I feel guilty about all the chores I’m not getting done. If I’m cleaning I feel guilty about not spending time with my kids. (Not to mention they are in the other room undoing whatever it was I just cleaned anyway.)

About 5 months ago, after years of struggling with staying on top of household chores, I made a Year ‘Round House Cleaning Chart.

The idea behind it is that every day certain chores need to be done. I can do them all myself, or they can be divided up among the family. The list is kept short so that my to-do list does not stretch to the moon and back. And once the jobs on the list are done, I’m done for the day!

This is how I made it.

First, I listed every chore I could think of in one of four categories: Chores to be done Daily, Chores to be done Weekly, Chores to be done Monthly, Chores to be done Yearly.

Chores to be done Daily are all those things that need to be done everyday, i.e. washing dishes, making the bed, tidying, etc…

Chores to be done Weekly are any chores that do not need to be done every day, but still on a regular basis, i.e. cleaning toilets, washing mirrors, vacuuming, etc…

Chores to be done Monthly are things like cleaning out the car, changing bed sheets, etc…

Chores to be done Yearly only need to be done once a year. They include wiping off window blinds, dusting fan blades, washing outside windows, etc…

People’s opinion on how often things need to be done differ. I’ve found that we are not a very dirty family, but we are a very untidy family. So we need to tidy up and put things away everyday, but the bathroom sinks, for example, don’t need to be cleaned as often.

Second, I grouped similar chores together and gave them a more general name. For example, sweeping kitchen and bathroom floors, mopping kitchen and bathroom floors, and vacuuming the front room, TV room, and bedrooms were grouped together and named “Floors”. Washing mirrors, sinks, toilet, and bathtubs were dubbed “Clean Bathrooms”. It seems less overwhelming when I group similar chores together and do them all at once.

Third, I assigned every chore a place on the calendar. The weekly chores were each assigned to a specific week day, the monthly chores were assigned to a certain week of the month, and the yearly chores were assigned to a specific month.

Fourth, I wrote it all out: in table form, and in calendar form.

I’ve been using this for almost half a year and I love it!

The first month it took me a while to get through my list of chores each day. I had fallen pretty behind on things.

The next month, chores went a lot faster. Things had not had time to get super dirty.

Five months later it’s to the point that if I do all the chores by myself it takes about an hour, 2 at the most. Then the rest of my day is guilt free!

I have included each of the formats of my Year ‘Round Chore Cleaning Chart below. If you give it a try let me know how it goes. If you make your own, I would love to hear about it!

Happy Cleaning!

Year ‘Round House Cleaning Chart

Year Round House Cleaning Calendar