Balance At Home

One area where I continually struggle to maintain balance is the housework. Does anyone truly enjoy housework? I enjoy the sense of accomplishment when I’ve done a big job around the house or completed my To-Do List, but most of the time the satisfaction is short-lived because either
1. No one else in my house notices the clean floors or bathrooms, or
2. Unless no one comes home that day, the clean areas are quickly dirty again.

So how do you stay on top of the housework and still enjoy the rest of your life? I am a person who enjoys making lists so I use this system of list-making to stay organized. Over the years and through the different stages of my family, I’ve modified my system, but I find that keeping some type of organized list of everything that needs to be done around the house is the only way I remember it all and the only thing that makes me accountable to the never-ending job of housework.

I use Weekly and Monthly To-Do Lists that show my family members what household chores should be done on a regular basis. I also use Annual Planners, where I assign chores to a specific month and every year, that month’s list of chores stays the same. For example, carpets get cleaned 3 times a year so that chore is listed on the January, May and September “pages” and every year I know when to schedule that chore.

Special events, such as Spring Cleaning or Pre-Holiday Cleaning, get their own list of chores and I post the list on the refrigerator so the family sees our goals. Then we check off completed items together.

I keep my master lists in a “Household Maintenance” notebook (3-ring binder) and keep it in a place (our kitchen) where any member of the family can find it. I also keep phone numbers of repair companies and useful articles I’ve found online or in magazines in that notebook too.

Making lists and schedules keeps me motivated. Deadlines work great too – our house always is the cleanest when we are throwing a party or hosting a holiday dinner. But inevitably, some To-Do Lists do not get finished on schedule. That may be because of an unexpected family crisis, a sick child, an unexpected work-related crisis….whatever the reason, if I can’t get everything done on time, I try not to feel like I “failed”. Our house is reasonably clean, everything eventually gets done and a little dirt doesn’t seem to hurt us.

I hope that as I am teaching my kids how to do the basic jobs of housework, I am also teaching them how to be (somewhat) organized, how to set and reach a goal and the sense of accomplishment that goes along with meeting that goal (even if the goal is just cleaning the windows).

As my kids have gotten older, their help with the housework has naturally increased and that helps me keep my sanity too. With my oldest going off to college this summer, I feel better knowing she has learned how to do some basic housework and (hopefully) her dust bunnies at college will be smaller than mine!

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