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| Romeo at work |
My house is - generally - a mess.
Now, my mother is probably one of the few readers of this blog, and I would hate to make her choke to death. So, Mom, if you are reading, please do not eat or drink for a moment. Let me just make a statement.
I hate a mess.
Go ahead and laugh, Mom. You just really cannot say things like that to people who knew you when you were 13.
It is true. I hate messes, but I live in a perpetual one. And I mean "MESS". I can handle the daily mess, usually. But living with five males.....well....mess just comes with the territory.
I cannot keep up with the cleaning, and it spirals downwards periodically in the school year, with brief periods of "rescue cleaning" in between closing my eyes to dust, dirt, and ick!
I have tried Fly Lady, The Queen of Clean, Better Homes and Garden's "Clean Your House in a Year", and many more. I have not been able to make them work (admitting that it is due to ME, not to these fine programs!).
So, last week I instituted the Family Cleaning Plan.
Every day the boys have to clean their rooms in the morning, take out trash and recycling, clean the cat's litter box, and feed pets. They are used to that. Now we also have daily "special" chores. It looks like this:
Monday - dusting
Tuesday - vacuuming
Wednesday - clean bathrooms (They were already doing this one)
Thursday - misc. chores
Friday - Mom vacuums again, while boys empty trash throughout house
The aim is not "Sparkly House", but "livable, controlled chaos". I mean, the whole plan sounds great, but 13, 11, and 9 year old boys are responsible for executing the chores, so I am not exactly expecting perfection.
It was a little scary today. I cannot remember exactly, so thankfully I do not have to lie in order to avoid telling you how long it has been since my living room was dusted. I did have to convince the boys that the dust balls did NOT have teeth, and would not hurt them....I think.
Almost anything will be an improvement!
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| The Young Adult, flexing his dusting muscles. |
3 comments:
It's funny, I'm trying to implement the same sort of thing with my kids this year on a smaller scale, obviously. I feel like they are New Year resolutions that are going to be broken eventually! Good luck!
Good luck, Jana!
We already had some chores in place. They must clean their rooms every day. Change sheets on Monday, something-I-cannot-remember on Tuesday, clean bathrooms on Wed, empty trash Thursday. But it just wasn't enough. They are all older now, and I am worn out picking up after everyone! Plus, I am hoping that if THEY do the work, they will take some ownership of the house. So far, so good!
Good luck, Jana!
We already had some chores in place. They must clean their rooms every day. Change sheets on Monday, something-I-cannot-remember on Tuesday, clean bathrooms on Wed, empty trash Thursday. But it just wasn't enough. They are all older now, and I am worn out picking up after everyone! Plus, I am hoping that if THEY do the work, they will take some ownership of the house. So far, so good!
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