Lazy Mom Tip #52

I don't know about y'all, but we are forever trying to find a cleaning/chore "system" that works in our home.

Keeping the house picked up, much less clean, when you have kids is a constant battle.  And I mean, CON. STANT.

Can I get a witness?

You all have seen pictures of what my house usually looks like. It's not like I stage those pictures I post on here.  It's the real deal, folks.

The very shocking and sad real deal.

The embarrassing and humiliating real deal.

But the real deal nonetheless.

Anyway, Saturday night as I was lamenting over the state of the house for the 500th 29 millionth time in our married life, Lazy Dad suggested a new system for us.  Each person in the family is assigned a room that they are in charge of "overseeing" for the week.  Then at the end of the week we rotate room assignments.

As soon as the idea rolled out of that beautiful head of his, I was game. In fact, I think I even said, and I quote, "That's a really good idea."

So SEE? I CAN give Lazy Dad props. It just doesn't happen often on my blog for some reason, but I promise it happens often in real life. Promise.

I quickly grabbed some chalk and made out the following chart on our Chalk Wall:

Each room and the person's first initial of who's in charge of it. (We do initials a lot around here).

Every night the person in charge of that room has to do a "room check."  Pick up, straighten, clean, whatever it may be... it's their job for the week.

And just because someone else is in charge of the room doesn't mean you can go in that room and make a big ol' mess and expect that person to clean it up.

Nuh, uh. No way. No how.

That's grounds for punishment.  And not the cute little kind of punishment, the big ol' government kind of punishment -- waterboarding comes to mind.

I'm joking!!!

I think.

Now, we only started this new system Saturday night.  So far it's going really well.  The house has definitely looked better than it did before.  It's still not all clean and sparkly as I'd like it to be, but it's better.  And that's a step in the right direction.

And how many moms out there know that a step in the right direction toward clean house sanity is good, hmm?

Your kids may not be old enough to do this type of chore system yet, but hang on to this idea! It may be just what you need one day.  And I'll be sure and report back how it goes at our house.  At this point it's still up in the air, but I think it's very promising!!

UPDATE on 6/30/2012 (original post on 3/15/2011): We've been using this chore system for well over a year now and it WORKS! It cuts down on arguments, everyone knows what their job is, it's fabulous!

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Posted in: Lazy Mom Tips