"Cleanup, Cleanup, Everybody, Everywhere"

I tried to snap a candid picture of Max unloading the dishwasher. He wanted to "pose" instead.

Normally I am the one who scours mommy blogs for answers to parenting questions, but today I feel as if I have some wisdom to impart. You'll be shocked to hear that my wisdom is in the area of... wait for it... housekeeping! What?! Yeah, you know, that thing that I'm no good at, that invisible monster that follows three steps behind me and undoes everything I do? Don't worry, it's still wildly out of control. BUT I have discovered three ways to get my children involved in the process, and it has made a noticeable dent in the amount of work I feel the need to get done each day. Has it made a noticeable dent in the bomb explosion that is our house? Well... no. But my sanity is worth something, and maybe... just maybe... these changes will free me up to clean some otherwise-ignored areas of the house. Or maybe I'll just read a book instead.

So I want to introduce you to our cleaning plan. After years of trying and failing to implement a plan that sticks, I think I'm finally onto something. It's not perfect, and it's not complete. It is probably not right for your family. But maybe if you've been struggling to think of ways to get your kids involved, this can be a jumping-off point for some ideas.

1. The Chore Chart: I've tried assigning chores in the past, but I've never been consistent enough to enforce them. We have a hard time scheduling in a time to do chores, but when I ask the boys to do certain things they are usually pretty receptive. I decided to capitalize on their favorite chores and let them create a chart that they thought was fair. The key was that they were involved in the entire process. They chose the chores that would be included (with a bit of guidance), they designed the chart and chose the clip art, they even named it. "Chores for Boys"- not what I would have chosen, but hey!

The other important thing about our chore chart is this- although they refer to them as chores, I refer to them as "helping Mommy".  It's amazing how their attitude changed when I framed their work as helpful to me rather than just required hard labor for them. Plus, the chores that they chose are completely within their ability to do well. They are actually helpful to me, and I don't ever have to redo what they've already done. Right now they each have two chores (alternating) each day. One one day, one is in charge of unloading the dishwasher (stacking on the counter top everything they can't reach to put away) and switching laundry from washer to dryer. The other wipes down the sink in the bathroom, empties the bathroom garbage and puts a clean bag in the downstairs garbage if need be. I'm realizing that the kid with dish/laundry duty has a much heavier load each day, so I'm thinking about amending our plan slightly.

2. Sweeping: For all of the housework that I slack on, sweeping is the one thing that I am slightly obsessive compulsive about. I hate the feeling of dirt and crumbs under my feet, and I hate the look of toys and crayon pieces strewn under the dining room table. At this point in my life, the thought of handing sweeping duties over to one of my children is unthinkable to me... but my belly dictates that trying to sort through all of the "keepers" from the trash on the floor is close to physically impossible at this point! I tried to get the boys to pick up all the toys on the floor before I sweep, but it never happened quick enough or completely enough.

Then Paul introduced his genius plan. When sweeping, I now sweep everything on the floor into a big pile. This means books, toys, crayons, pencils, trash, dirt, junk, everything. Then when I'm done, I call the boys over to "save" anything they want to keep away from the garbage. It works like a charm! They will drop everything to collect a stray Lego head that ended up in my trash pile. I wish I could say that less stuff ends up on the floor now, but that's not true at all. However, my back is in much better shape, and sweeping takes about one-tenth of the time that it used to. Score!

3. After Dinner Cleanup: This one is the most in-flux still. We have a hard and fast rule that all toys need to be picked up before bed. But exactly when it happens differs depending on the night. My favorite nights are the ones when we split up duties between kitchen cleaning (Mom and Dad) and living room cleaning (Max and Lucian). If we make it into a race it's usually pretty successful. The problem with this method is that things don't necessarily get picked up and organized... mostly just thrown into a corner. Sometimes that's fine with me, as long as the rug is clear and the couch cushions are uncluttered. But sometimes I really want things organized, and then it's usually a supervised cleanup before prayer time. Either way, it's amazing the difference it makes to my mental state when I can walk from the stairs to the couch in the morning without stepping on a Lego.

And that's all she wrote! I still don't have a good system for folding laundry, every room besides the living room and kitchen gets completely neglected most days, and I don't even want to mention how far behind I am on organizing the kids' clothes in the basement. But I am taking baby steps in the right direction, and these few simple changes make me feel like I have some semblance of control over my home! So I just had to share, partially because someone might benefit from something I have to say, but mostly because I want it in writing. What we are doing as a family right now, I don't want to forget about it. When we inevitably get off track again, I want to be able to reference this and realize how slight changes can make a world of difference.