Trying something new...

I'm trying something new this week. One of the Ds blogs I read mentioned a chore chart that was customizable. I clicked the link, and although I wasn't interested in an actual chore chart for the kids (or myself) I did like the idea of what I saw. So I made myself something to see if it might help me to keep up better with things around the house.

In the past I've tried several things- assigning a certain task to a day of the week (you know the song...LOL) or setting one day aside for 'house stuff' but neither of those worked very well- or very long anyway- for me. So... I made myself a chart that I'm going to try for a few weeks and it will probably be an on-again off-again thing, but worth trying out anyway!

I made an 8 column sheet with 36 rows. Across the top I wrote in (well, I made it on the computer, so it's typed in) the days of the week. Down the rows I wrote on the top two School/therapy and Meetings. Then I went ahead and typed in the kids' school/therapy for each day since it doesn't change each week. I wrote in the two meetings I have this week on the day they happen.

The next 33 rows (the top row was the header) I wrote in simple and 'incomplete' tasks. One line says "kids' laundry" and the next "kids' laundry away." I know I don't usually get to do them at the same time, so breaking up the task on paper makes sense too! I put pretty much everything on there that I could think of that needs to be done regularly around the house... some more and some less specific depending on what 'size' the job is. For instance I have some rooms written in like "Living room" and then I have "vacuum LR". So when it just says living room it's general picking up and straightening, cleaning whatever needs cleaned. But then vacuum might happen separately. Same with the porch- I have the porch written down as one thing, but then there's vacuum porch and mop porch seperately. Those are big jobs sometimes! :)

From there I put an X on each day that I want to work on that thing. Monday I wanted to load the dishes (thanks grandma ;) ), empty the diaper pail, clean the porch living room and family room, work on the guest room (another post about that coming soon :) ), and the pool equipment needed to be messed with. Today the dishes need to be put away (and maybe loaded again, but put away at least!), the trash needed to go out, and I want to make sure to clear off all the counters, straighten the kids' bedrooms, and grocery shop. Emma wet her entire bed so tomorrow's girls' sheets are already in process :)

Here's my list in case this is something you'd like to try out: School/therapy, Meetings, kids' baths, kids' laundry, kids' laundry away, adult laundry, adult laundry away, load dishes, dishes away, trash, diaper pail, porch, vacuum porch, mop porch (the porch is our big playroom in case you're wondering...), counters, mop kitchen, family room, living room, vacuum living/family rooms, kids' bathroom, guest bath, master bath, kids' bedrooms, master bedroom, mop foyer, guest room, adult sheets, boys' sheets, girls' sheets, grocery shop, pool equipment, weeds/garden, lawn, pay bills, clean out van

I'll let you know how it works out- I just made it yesterday and so far so good-- can you tell I'm starting to have some better-feeling days (or at least parts of days?) :)