Chore Chart

So my husband and I have recently switched places, with me returning to work and him staying home with the kids. We're having a hard time finding our footing as far as keeping the house clean, and who's doing what job. He told me the other day that he wants to clean during the day, he just gets overwhelmed and doesn't know what to start with. Well, you all know I love schedules and lists, so he didn't have to ask me twice! When I stayed home, I always did better with a daily chronological schedule, and I've missed having one.

This is made on a whiteboard with strips of laminated paper - purple for me, green for him, and striped for both of us. I need to put these on magnet tape, but right now they're just taped on there with Scotch tape.

Each day we have a room to focus on for 15 minutes, either together or separately, whatever works better in our schedule, and then we'll try to do a deep-clean on one room on Saturday. I'd really like to do our daily room cleaning between 7 and 8pm, after our baby goes to bed but before our other kids go to bed, so that they can be involved, and we haven't yet done our nightly "tired flop," but so far we've done it at 10pm, after we turn off the TV and internet (see below). Then at the top, there's a spot for which load of laundry I start in the morning. My husband flips it to dry, and then we try to both spend time putting it away at the end of the day. And then I left a place for our weekly menu. Made sure to get our exercise in there too, so it's not a nightly decision of who gets to go.

Once you add daily clutter/toy pick-up, this works for us. We've got a small home and neither of us are super-obsessed with cleanliness. I find that if I set my mind to it and work fast, 15 minutes a week in each room is enough to get my chores done and do some decluttering. Adding an additional 15 minutes from my husband and we're good! I know others like to clean more, but if you're having trouble getting started, try one batch of laundry a day, and cleaning/decluttering in one room for 15 minutes a day - you'll be amazed at how much progress you can make!