One of my friends recently asked how I stay on top of household chores. Though my initial response was a delayed “um, I don’t know? I just do it? Do I even have a system?” I realized, over the course of our conversation, that I do have some fairly fine-tuned strategies for staying on top of household chores, and a lot of it has to do with grouping tasks at specific points of the day (or week) and doing them repetitively, religiously, such that it would feel strange not to do it.
+ We make our bed first thing in the morning — it’s the first thing we accomplish in the day and gives us a small sense of pride and encourages us to do another task. It reinforces the fact that the little things in life matter. If you can’t do the little things right, you’ll never be able to do the big things right? Millie and Welles aren’t responsible for making their beds (yet), but it’s part of my “morning tidy” checklist because I want them to enjoy the benefits of starting the day with a clean room — even though they are too young to really understand it.
+ Every morning, we empty the dishwasher. Kyle either does it while he makes coffee, or I’ll do it while the kids eat breakfast (we run it nightly after dinner).
+ While the kids are playing before school, I clean up breakfast, open the blinds, and tidy the kid’s room. I like that the kids SEE what it takes to run the house — instead of just assuming it happens magically while they are at school.
+ I do laundry every day — or every other day. And I know that probably gets A LOT of eye-rolls, but hear me out. It makes the task of doing laundry a 5-10 minute MAX exercise every day – and it’s always part of the day’s rhythm. Versus waiting until Saturday — which I used to do — and it feels like this huge effort of sorting, pushing laundry through, folding, putting away, etc. When I do it every day, it’s such a quick “to-do.” I put a load in before I take the kids to school and then move it to the dryer when I get home. My key to making sure it always gets folded and put away is bringing it up from the dryer and putting it on our island in the kitchen. This way, I SEE it and know I need to fold it before dinner. I usually fold it while making dinner, and the kids are responsible for putting their laundry away in the correct drawers before bedtime. Doing laundry every day also means I have way more luck getting out tough stains because they don’t sit in the hamper for 5+ days! I know this doesn’t work for everyone, but if you stay at home with your kids or you work from home, I challenge you to give this a try, and I swear you’ll be converted like I have been once I tried this “hack.”
+ I wash the sheets every other Wednesday. This is when our housekeeper comes, so I strip all our beds right when we wake up and wash the sheets in time for Denuta (our housekeeper) to make the beds. She’s a godsend and helps us do the deeper cleaning every other week. I recognize how much of a luxury having her help is, and she is a big reason we are able to keep our house as clean as it is.
+ I strive to keep all the paper on the countertops to a minimum. When the mail comes, I (almost immediately) stand over the trash and throw out the junk. What we need to deal with I’ll put on my desk or KCD’s desk. For the kid’s artwork and school papers that come home, I have a storage container in our front closet (so it’s easy to access) that we refer to as the “stuff that happened to us” box. I put all the kid’s artwork and other creations they make. Each bin usually lasts us a year, and it’s an easy way to have a time capsule for that year. Once that bin gets full (maybe 2-3 times a year), we’ll go through the bin and edit what to toss and what to keep. This helps prevent those meltdowns related to “you threw out my artwork!” For any paperwork that comes home from school that I need to deal with, I try to handle it that night and put it right back into their bags, so I don’t have to remember it or think about it again. It’s just ready for the next next day. It avoids having the paper lying around and potentially forgetting or missing the deadline.
+ When I pick the kids up from school, they are responsible for hanging their coats and putting their shoes in the right spot right away. I bring their bags up and aim to go through them right away. I put their lunchboxes in the dishwasher and go through their papers. Then I put their bags in the closet so they are ready to go for the next day.
+ We are a “no shoes” house. It’s something that was a change for me since in the islands, inside and outside of the house flows so ubiquitously, but now that we’ve adopted how my husband grew up, I can’t imagine wearing shoes in the house. Everyone takes their shoes off before coming into the house itself, and I feel like this really helps cut down on the level of dirt, etc., that gets tracked into the house.
+ Throughout the day, I have a general rule for myself — if it takes less than 1 minute, I do it right away. If I noticed the kid’s pajamas in the kitchen, I put them in the kid’s room right away. If there is a box that needs to go to recycling, I do it right away. If I noticed the wastebasket needs to be emptied, I do it right away. If a toy needs to be returned to its home, I do it. If the trash needs to be taken down, I do it. These mini-tasks throughout the day make a huge dent in keeping the house tidy. And just to be clear, I don’t usually feel like doing it right then, but I do it because it’s these small tasks that really make a huge difference in keeping the house tidy.
+ When the kids and I are playing, our rule is we have to clean up the game or project before we start the next things. While I don’t enforce this 100% of the time, it still really helps keep everything organized and helps prevent us from losing pieces, etc.
+ After dinner, the kids clear their plates and “help” clean up dinner and the house before we start our bedtime routine. We make this fun — we always turn on music, so it’s clean-up time with a side of dance party. Some nights the kids complain, but they know it’s part of the rhythm, so it always happens and it’s actually turned into one of our most cherished times of the day. I wash the dishes — putting most things in the dishwasher but washing and drying the pots/pans and putting them away that night. I don’t like coming into the kitchen in the morning with dishes on the countertops. While I finish the dishes and wipe down the countertops and table, KCD and the kids are responsible for cleaning up the living spaces and their bedrooms. Having the kids involved really has helped cut down on the size of the messes they make. My goal is always to have the house clean before the kids go to bed since once they are down, I want to be able to relax and not have to start cleaning up the day after their bedtime.
+ Once we clean the kitchen, we start the robot vacuum, and it cleans the house while we do bathtime and read the kid’s books. I LOVE our robot. It means our house gets a good vacuum daily, but I don’t have to be the one going the work. Now that we’ve had it for a few years, I can’t imagine having to pull out the vacuum or sweep the floor every night. This way, I just push a button, and my house gets cleaned while we enjoy spending time with the kids. IT’S GOLD.
+ We always put our clothes away as soon as we take them off. They either get folded or hung up and then put away or put in the laundry. We didn’t use to do this, and we’d each end up with “a pile” that we’d have to go through every weekend. It took a couple of weeks of being extra intentional, and now I can’t imagine having a pile again. It’s improving in little ways that really add up over time, and I feel like it helps us take better care of our clothes, allowing them to last longer.
+ Groceries — We meal plan and order groceries for pick up once a week — on Sundays. This saves so much time and energy and means we have a full fridge all week. We used to go the grocery delivery route, but then when I added up all the fees and tips, I realized how much more we were spending, so now I only do grocery pick up. It still saves us all the time of shopping, but now we save money too. Luckily our grocery stores aren’t far away, so the task of picking them up doesn’t disrupt our day.
+ In terms of the bigger, more seasonal house maintenance, I’ve created calendar reminders that help us stay on top of changing the HVAC filters regularly, when to call to book our gutter and window cleanings, when to clean our closets/swap seasonal clothing, etc. This way, I don’t have to carry the mental load; I just know when I get the reminder to add it to my to-do list that week, it gets done.
How about you? What strategies keep your house in motion? How do you stay on top of household chores?
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