The Chore & Cleaning System that’s working for us

Finally! I’ve heard from many of you, asking if I’d share the simple chore and cleaning system that’s been working for us. I’m sorry it’s taken me forever to get to this, here we go:

It’s also taken me forever, it seems, to find a good system that works. When the kids were little I used Chore Cards and a Picture Plan, but now that they’re older I needed something that I could change daily as needed, something where I could incorporate school and chores, along with a sort of schedule so they could see the plan for the day.

On top of that, I desperately needed a Cleaning Schedule that would work for me. I’ve tried the Once a Month cleaning (which is great!) but it was hard for me to carve out an entire day for cleaning, and we host a lot of people and gatherings around here, so once a month just was not enough. Plus, I’m not at all wired for frequent cleaning, unless I force myself to do it regularly, I just won’t. I’m naturally tidy, but I don’t love cleaning. So I needed a system in order to get disciplined in this area.

Plus, our living space is almost double what our old house was (although it’s actually fewer rooms, they are big rooms), plus we now have property to maintain, so I knew I needed a solid system or I would easily get overwhelmed and fall hopelessly behind.

So, I prayed. I prayed that God would lead me a system that worked. A simple something that I could actually keep up with. Normally with prayers I would pray and open my Bible, but this time:

I prayed … and opened Pinterest. 

I prayed God would direct me to a editable cleaning schedule that would work for me. This was the one that struck me right away, and I loved how clean and simple the design was, and that I could edit it to make it tailor-made for me.

At the same time, the idea struck me that I needed a sort of focus of theme for each day of the week. As you may know, I love systems that simplify life and decrease decision fatigue (a killer for me, I feel like I’m often exhausted just from leading various spheres and having to make decisions). Basically, the more things I can have as a HABIT, the more things that are simplified into a system, the more I can turn my attention to other areas and devote my brain-space to leadership, parenting, writing, creativity, etc.

What this means for us:

::FOCUS::

For the week, I had the idea to create a sort of theme for each day, basically the overarching focus for the day.

MASTER THE CHOAS MONDAY: (Here I tackle all the messes from the weekend, sort through items, unload or unpack, clean up any particular messes if we’ve had company.)

TASTY TUESDAY: (Here I do my bulk cooking: 3 loaves of bread, granola, Oregon Trail bars, and any roasted veggies or soups that need to be made. I also prep veggies like peel carrots, etc. for the rest of the week.) 

WE WORK TOGETHER WEDNESDAY: (This is Jeff’s day off so after I tackle the basic living room chores, we do house or property projects together.)

THOUGHTFUL THURSDAY: (This is my fasting day where we never have company or go anywhere, we stay home and I do laundry and we just enjoy a quiet, calm day of contemplation and regrouping.)

FUN w/ FRIENDS AND FAMILY FRIDAY: (This is the day we schedule play-dates, go see family, or get ready for weekend plans. We don’t do much school these days–or skip it altogether–so it makes for a fun flexible day.) 

SABBATH SATURDAY: (Often this is our Sabbath rest day, since Sundays are so busy. But that’s flexible. Mostly we try to have rest and renewal on this day, which might also include outdoor projects since we enjoy those so much.)

SUNDAY SERVE: (Here we focus on serving God and others. Sundays are super busy for us, so they aren’t necessarily a time for rest, but we focus on giving ourselves to serve on this day, and also enjoy an occasional afternoon nap. 🙂

::CLEANING::

Here is the printable that I edited, downloaded, and love. It’s been several months now and I’m still loving it. I love that it’s so detailed it keeps me focused and helps keep me from cheating and getting lazy. I’m including a picture of my version so you can see how it works for me.

::FOOD::

I have a simple Weekly Menu Plan (yes, like, where we actually eat roughly the same thing each week. Sounds boring, it isn’t. It’s glorious.) Weekends are usually flexible because we have company, or go to people’s houses, or have our church Community Group. Or, we just eat pancakes or whatever random things are in the fridge. It’s not fancy, but it works!

MONDAY: Mexican (Burritos or taco salads, or just beans and rice)

TUESDAY: Italian (Homemade pizza, or pasta)

WEDNESDAY: American (Alaskan cod, or BBQ chicken in the crock pot)

THURSDAY: Indian (Chickpea curry with jasmine or Basmati rice)

FRIDAY: Leftovers

Nothing earth-shattering, but it simplifies cooking, shopping, budgeting, and makes me smile. The kids love it too.

::KIDS CHORES::

For the kids’ chores, school, and schedule, I decided to try Sarah Mackenzie’s Notebook System. I love it! My handwriting isn’t as pretty, and their notebooks aren’t cute, but the system definitely works. Here’s a sample from one of our days:

So that’s it. Not super impressive, but let me just tell you I am one happy mama to finally feel like we have some sense of order and organization to the details of our days. Plus, it’s their responsibility to complete these tasks, so it eliminates (mostly 😉 nagging and reminding.

For overall organization, I just ordered my dream-come-true paper Planner for next year, and it arrives on Friday, so I’ll share more of my process for planning ahead, after I do it. 😉

Hope this can be helpful! Thanks for reading.