Organized Chaos

So awhile back I posted my blog Cinde-who? about how I go about keeping my house in a more organized chaos. I’ve updated my cleaning list recently and prettied it up a bit.

I found that with my health issues, I had let my home fall to the way side. Not really the smartest way to go in order to keep my chaos manageable. My fainting spells seem to becoming less frequent and thus more manageable. Because of that, I decided it was time to whip out the old trusty cleaning list and start making my home a little more manageable as well.

Each day, I complete all the tasks on the daily cleaning list and then follow it up by completing the corresponding days tasks on the weekly cleaning list. I’ve created multiple cleaning lists over the years and with the help of one of my number one besties, I combined her list and my lists to create one master list, using her formatting.

You can snag your free copy of this cleaning list – here – so that you can tweak it to work for your home.

I know that most of the items on this list are no brainers. Wipe the counters. Sweep the floor. Take out the trash. But for me having the list to cross off seems to hold me accountable for the items I should be doing.

Another thing that I’m beginning to implement in my home is a chore/routine chart for my little ones and an earn it chore chart for my bigs. I scoured the internet for a photo chore chart that was easy to use, functional and actually looked good. What I found after a long time of searching was that I loved the one I found on the blog A Mother Far From Home. They cost a minimal amount and all I had to do was print them off. I’m sure that I could have found some on Amazon to use that were already printed, cut and laminated but why not support fellow mom bloggers instead? Am I right?

I created both a chore chart and a daily task chart for Gabe – Oliver will be using this bit by bit as he understands as well. I attached it to a magnetic board and glued magnets to the back of task cards to make it almost like a game. As the tasks get completed we match the cards to each task.

For the older kids the work for pay chore chart that I found on Living Well Spending Less seemed like the easiest route to go. I bought a decent looking cork board, some clips to attach chores and money to and hung it up. If the kids want to earn money, they choose a chore and once complete they can take the corresponding cash. Win, win.

As far as chores go, I looked up numerous “age appropriate chore lists” on the internet and found a handful for both the littles and the bigs. For the littles, I pay them a dollar per year old. So Gabe earns $3/week and Oliver earns $1/week. The older boys can earn as much as they want depending on what chores they decide they want to do. Their rooms must be in order and their beds made before completing any of the “for pay” items and each item must be mom/dad approved before being paid.

For the little ones:

put dirty clothes down laundry chute
match clean socks
sort silverware
put toys away
clean doorknobs

For the big kids:

mow the lawn – $5
shovel the sidewalk – $4
take out trash – $1
wash laundry – $2
clean bathroom – $3
de-clutter toy room – $1
put dishes away – $2
walk the dogs – $2
vacuum/sweep a room – $1
babysit siblings – $5

So far, Gabe seems to love having some structure and asks what’s next a lot. Still waiting to see what the boys end up doing with their chart. I’ll keep you posted. How do you think this could work for you?

Author: Brixanne

mom, step mom, wife... all the $#!+ they don't tell you about motherhood View all posts by Brixanne