I never thought I’d be someone to write these words, but here it is, the honest truth: I have a schedule for big household chores (and a subset for laundry), and I LOVE it. Seriously, I have never felt more free as a stay at home mom than I have since I made a chore schedule.
Once upon a time I was totally overwhelmed by everything that needed to get done to run a house. I mean holy cow, how many messes can little people make, right? And who ever actually manages to dust? Not me! And every evening, I would look at my house, and think to myself, I feel like I spent all day cleaning, and the house looks messier than it did this morning.
My very wise mother reminds me regularly, that what matters most is that everyone is clothed, fed, and happy, and sometimes that really is the only bar I aim to cross. Last night by the way, was one of those nights. Mark was on his second 30hr shift of the week (and has another on Friday), and I was tired with a capital T. So my kiddos ate grilled pizza and “milkshakes” with broccoli in them, and I left the kitchen a mess. But most of the time, I try my best to keep the house clean and everything (mostly) held together.
Full disclosure: I have a lot of help from my mom, who is the most industrious, kind, and generous person you will ever meet. My house would not be nearly as clean, cozy, or full of thriving plants, without her loving touch.
But mom-help aside, scheduling chores has helped me put aside the never-ending to-do list of household tasks in favor of other priorities, like writing my book or having quality time with my kiddos, while still maintaining the discipline running a home takes. Here’s how I did it:
1. Make Your Lists
First, I sat down and made a list of the big chores that were important to me. These were: vacuuming, cleaning the bathrooms, sweeping and mopping the tile and wood floors, and cleaning the sunroom (aka the kids’ play room).
I didn’t include the daily tasks, like wiping down counters and picking up toys, and the like, because those happen throughout the day, and there are already places in our various routines for those. I also didn’t include cleaning the kitchen, because that happens 3x a day, every day, if not more.
And assumed in the chores listed are the components that make it possible to accomplish them. In order for the vacuuming to happen, things need to be picked up, so vacuuming day is the day the kids clean their rooms. If I’m going to mop and sweep their playroom, they need to have the toys on the shelf.
Then I made a second list- the dreaded laundry list. We are a family of 3 adults and 3 kids, one of whom wears cloth diapers, and we choose to use cloth napkins and dishtowels over paper, which means there is A LOT of laundry that needs doing.
2. Look At Your Schedule
Then I took those lists and put them next to our weekly schedule. I looked at what days of the week we have recurring events (like our standing Tuesday playdate or our homeschool co-op). I knew I didn’t want to schedule lots of chores on days when we had lots of other things going on. I also knew that I didn’t want a laundry-heavy day to coincide with a chore-heavy day.
3. Make Your Chore Schedule Plan
For us, this ended up being 4 days of regularly scheduled chores, with Tuesdays left open for that odd project that always shows up in a week (yesterday I trimmed the hedges), and Saturdays left open for the possibility of Mark being home and getting some honey-do items checked off.
Our chore schedule looks like this:
- Sunday: Day of Rest!
- Monday: Sweep and Mop Wood and Tile Floors
- Tuesday: Project of Choice
- Wednesday: Sweep and Mop Sunroom
- Thursday: Vacuum Downstairs and Run Robi Upstairs
- Friday: Clean Bathrooms
- Saturday: Project of Choice/Mark Honey Do List
Our laundry schedule looks like this:
- Sunday: No Laundry
- Monday: Diapers and Kitchen Laundry
- Tuesday: Gram and Will
- Wednesday: Diapers and Kitchen Laundry/Towels
- Thursday: Gianna and Charlotte
- Friday: Colleen
- Saturday: Mark
Laundry is done every day but Sunday, but is limited to no more than 2 loads a day. Having a laundry room off of the kitchen has allowed the kids to become more involved in the laundry process, and I’m aiming to work myself out of a job. Diaper laundry and kitchen laundry are super easy to combine, which is awesome. And as it is summer and Michigan is actually sunny, G is great at helping me take the clean ones outside to sun them.
Exceptions to the Rules
Now obviously, there are exceptions to the chore schedule. If the living room is full of crumbs on a Monday, and we have people coming over, I’m going to run a vacuum. If something spills all over the kitchen floor, but it’s Tuesday, I definitely don’t leave it. But, having chores scheduled, makes me so much freer to enjoy the rest of the day. I can look at an undone task and say, “it’s not your turn yet” because I know it’s in the schedule for tomorrow or the next day. And it also helps me feel that I have accomplished something, even on a day when everything else has gone off the rails- I got the big chore done.
Does anyone else have a chore schedule that works for them? I’d love to hear how you do it in your house! Leave a comment or send me an email!