Ditch the Weekly Chore Chart & Simplify Household Tasks
Working full time while keeping a (mostly) tidy home seems like a unicorn for most women who work outside the home and don’t want to hire a cleaning service. If you do a Google search, you’ll find that many blogs and websites give some pretty sage advice: don’t ruin your weekend by doing all of your household chores on Saturday and Sunday. Those are two days that are meant for you. But, that’s easier said than done.
Weekday Chore Charts Can Be Overwhelming.
As I noted in a prior post, my goal is always to do some chores throughout the week to keep the housecleaning down to a minimum on the weekends, but I wasn’t doing a very good job with it. You can try the FlyLady method that I mentioned in that post or some of the various housecleaning scheduling apps that are on the market right now. If you search for weekly chores on Pinterest, you will see a ton of weekly chore charts, each with its own laundry list of chores for each day of the week. Some are broken down by the room or “zones”- Monday is the living room, Tuesday is the kitchen, and so on. Others break it down by chores: Monday is for laundry, Tuesday is for vacuuming, Wednesday is for decluttering. Each day can have as many as five or more tasks to complete, which is why, after a couple of weeks, I usually become discouraged and give up on the chore chart.
When we bought our first home, a 1400 square foot starter house, the FlyLady method worked well. I divided the little house into the recommended zones, synced it with the family calendar and did a little housework each day. Because our space was so small, it took no time to clean it up and there was not much space for clutter. Fast forward 13 years later. We moved into a bigger house and had our second child, which means we have more to clean and accumulated more stuff. I have tried all manner of methods for trying to keep the house in order, and I have by no means succeeded in having a perfect home. Our home is definitely a work in progress, and living with other people means that tidying it up is a never-ending process. But I think I’ve stumbled upon a helpful system.
Why I Ditched the Chore Charts
Weekly chore charts are overwhelming, but they still intrigue me. Why? They’re pretty! Those glossy, well-designed, info-graphic-looking chore charts people circulating the internet make you want to print them out and hang them in a prominent place in your home. It seems like if you display this chart, it will magically create a clean and organized space around it. But, that’s not how chore charts work. You have to actually do all the things that are on that list. And, because they are printed out and not meant to be reordered, those of us who like to cross off completed tasks on our to do list can get easily frustrated when we cannot cross everything off the list. This is why most of us give up on using these charts – they are inflexible and, even if you design one for yourself, they don’t allow for fluctuations in your weekly schedule.
Planning out your chores during your weekly planning
I was getting pretty frustrated with my inability to keep up with any of the chore charts I tried. I was also getting overwhelmed on the weekends since everything that needed to get done was added to the ever-growing weekend to do list. No matter how I tried, I had too little time after work to get all of those checklists completed while trying to be there for my family and finish up some of my work at home. I also found I had more energy for chores at the beginning of the week than I did toward the end. The solution came to me while scrolling through my Instagram feed: plan out my chores week-by week! Plenty of planner users out there have household chores on their daily or weekly planner spreads. Some even have entire household planners or binders. But, before you can add chores to your planner, you need to give a little thought to the tasks you plan to get done on the weekdays.
Action Plan: How to Plan Out a Weekly Chore Schedule
1. Brainstorm– The first thing you must decide is what you actually need to get done around the house. Check each room and decide what sorts of chores are needed to keep up your home. Also search online- some of those pretty chore charts can be a great place to start when deciding what household tasks should be part of your home routine. There are plenty of resources out there. Also, ask yourself- how do you clean the house to get it company-ready? That is a great way to identify those areas that should probably be maintained on a more regular basis.
2. Prioritize– Very few chores need to be done every day. At this point, I do laundry nearly every weekday, check to make sure the sinks in the kitchen and bathrooms are not getting yucky, and try to keep clutter from accumulating in piles. Aside from those, some chores can be done once a week or even monthly. I recommend saving more time-demanding chores for the weekends (just one per weekend to make sure you have a weekend left). Also, figure out which chores are the most crucial and prepare to list them first. For example, clean bathrooms are often more important than a dust-free dashboard.
3. Divide– If you live alone, you are probably able to keep your space tidy without much fuss (as long as you clean up after yourself and don’t let messes get out of control). But, if you live with anyone else, you all should have a conversation about who can handle which tasks. Even when my kids were little, they could still help move wet laundry into the dryer or put groceries or utensils away. Try dividing up tasks by using paper plates. One family meeting we brainstormed all of the household chores and determined on whose plate they were. Turns out, my husband and I had most of the chores “on our plates.” We then each redistributed the chores and stapled them to our own plates so it looked more even. It was a powerful visual for the kids who saw how much they could be helping. You don’t have to do it on you own- have others do their share.
4. Set Limits– make sure your weekday chores are not ones that take a long time. Weeknights should not be when you decide to clean out the garage all at once. And, vacuuming should be a quick run around the exposed parts of your carpets, not moving furniture to get to every square foot of flooring in your home. The goal is to keep things maintained in your home. If you go the complicated, perfectionist route, you will end up exhausted and will give up on this plan. Another tip I took from FlyLady was to set a timer and stop working when it goes off. Limit your time to just a few minutes per task- this should not take all night.
5. Use Your Planner– When you do your weekly planning (like I do on Sundays), add household chores to evenings where you have time for them. The reason this works better than a weekly chore list is that you shift things around from week to week depending on what is going on that week. So, on my monthly book club night, I do not schedule as many tasks as I do on the Mondays that I have a full evening free. Take a look at what you have going on during the week, including things that might leave you too tired to do a bunch of chores after work. So, a full day of travel might mean that you only plan to fold clothes after dinner that night. If your kids have a concert that night and you’ll be getting home late, perhaps you take the night off of chores. But, if you plan to come home early one day and everyone will be home late- plan a few extra chores to be done that evening.
6. Be Flexible– One thing about planning is that you cannot be rigid with the plans you make. Remember, life is unpredictable, and family is often more so. In order to roll with the punches, we have to use our planners as a guidebook and treat ourselves kindly when our plans do not work out the way we hoped. So, be prepared to let something go one week if you are unable to get to it. No one has ever died because the side tables went without dusting one week. Try to approach yourself, your family, and your schedules with a little grace. As long as you prioritize your chores, you should be able to triage and address the most important tasks on those days that your plans fall apart.
How I Use A Vertical Layout Planner to Simplify Household Chore Schedules
You do not need a fancy planner to plan out when to do your chores. Just take your chore list, look at your weekly schedule and see where you can fit in 10 minutes of a chore, here or there. They can be done in the morning before your family gets up or while dinner is cooking. Although I had previously tried adding chores to my weekly planners, I found that I didn’t really take them out of my briefcase when I got home. I needed something that would stay at home and be opened when I got back from work. So, I got a 17-month Happy Planner (#Ad) that was on sale at Michael’s and have been using it for over a month with pretty great results. And, because it is a vertical planner, there are so many ways to decorate and just have fun with it.
What I like about using a vertical planner is that it is basically compartmentalized planning. You have three vertical boxes per day, which can be divided any way you like. Many people use this layout to plan out their morning, afternoon, and evening schedules. Others use the boxes to represent different obligations: personal, kids, and work are a common breakdown. I decided that I would use the planner to help keep me on task with household chores, my kids, and my wellness.
For the household chores, I try to do a load of laundry every day, since it’s pretty easy to put a load in the morning, transfer it to the dryer before dinner, and then fold it while watching a little TV before bed. For the remaining household chores, I tend to leave the dusting and vacuuming to the kids while I handle the bathrooms and tidying up the first floor rooms. I also make my bedroom and master bathroom a single night’s chore. My husband does a great job with the kitchen upkeep, car maintenance, and landscaping. Some nights, dealing with paperwork is a full evening’s task, and it takes two of us to get it done. Remember, we try to remain flexible. 😊
I am not perfect, and I don’t expect to get everything done exactly as planned. This system has been helpful because I get to use a fun planner that stays out in my kitchen, so I see it when I get home. The important thing is that I am being more mindful about my home, and the house now feels like a more inviting space because we are regularly maintaining it.
Do you do your own housework? What’s your system? Leave a comment below!
* As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. If you click a link and make a purchase on Amazon, I may receive a small commission at no charge to you which will help maintain this website. 😊
