Routines Rule

I am such a creature of habit. I drive the kids to school the same route every day. I clean bathrooms the same way I have for over 20 years (meaning not very well!). I know this about myself: I function better with routines.

So, in an effort to get on top of some of my goals, I set up two new routines today.

I have a routine for laundry. It goes like this:

Mon: Master bedroom & bathroom
Tues: little girls
Wed: little boys (although they really aren't that little)
Thur: Judson
Fri: Master bedroom & bathroom
Sat: Mikalah (technically so she can do her own, but...)
Sun: delicate/hand washables

It works for me. I used to have a day where I did 20 loads of laundry. Now I do two loads every day in between everything else. It really seems like I am never doing laundry.

However, that has been the only area where I had a specific routine and somehow the only area I felt like I had some control over. So, new routine:

Cleaning:
Mon: Master bedroom
Tues: Girls & boys room
Wed: Living/dining/kitchen (these are lumped together because of the flooring)
Thur: Bathrooms - deep clean
Fri: basement
Sat: garage/outside
Sun: relax!

So the idea is that on that day I will spend time in that room cleaning/straightening something. Some days I will have a few hours and it will be amazing. Other days I may only have 30 min and will manage to straighten things up or just dust. So, we will try this for four weeks and I will check back with you at the beginning of April (lordy how does the year go by!) and let you know how it is going.

Another routine developed - kitchen duties.

Three chores: helping with food, clearing the table, and the dishwasher.
Rotate children through so they help every other day.

Example:
Mon: child 6 helps with food, child 5 clears the table, child 4 loads the dishwasher
Tues: child 3 helps with food, child 2 clears the table, child 1 loads the dishwasher
Wed: child 4 helps with food, child 6 clears the table, child 5 loads the dishwasher
and so on...

Again, we will try this for the rest of the week and see how it goes.