Motivated Moms chore list - Page 15

[blizzard_babe]

Originally Posted by PoetryLover

It does seem geared to WAHMs. A couple of ideas: maybe you could split the chores up between 7 days, instead of 5? The weekends seems to be relatively free as is. Also, could you delegate some chores to a partner or older child?

Well... older child is 2 1/2. He's great for helping get laundry out of our low-to-the-ground front-loading machine and that's about it . Well, he likes to "help" a lot, but it's not really as helpful as he seems to think it is .

DH and I share SAH/WOH duties (we work opposite shifts). He does a lot around the house, but is NOT a follow-a-schedule person. He does more of the ongoing tasks, like dishes and laundry. I want to do better at the stuff that's more *MY* thing, but last time around MMs became an exercise in futility if I wanted any one-on-one non-cleaning time with my kid.

I kind of want to e-mail and ask about a "lite" version... like same tasks, only more spread out over the entire week and perhaps the tasks come along a little less often so that there are fewer (assuming this will lead to a slightly decreased level of cleanliness, but still, consistent) each week, but the site strikes me as very... um... what's the word... I don't know, exactly. Like a WOHM wouldn't be well-received. Or maybe I'm just paranoid .

[PoetryLover]

Originally Posted by blizzard_babe

Well... older child is 2 1/2. He's great for helping get laundry out of our low-to-the-ground front-loading machine and that's about it . Well, he likes to "help" a lot, but it's not really as helpful as he seems to think it is .

DH and I share SAH/WOH duties (we work opposite shifts). He does a lot around the house, but is NOT a follow-a-schedule person. He does more of the ongoing tasks, like dishes and laundry. I want to do better at the stuff that's more *MY* thing, but last time around MMs became an exercise in futility if I wanted any one-on-one non-cleaning time with my kid.

I kind of want to e-mail and ask about a "lite" version... like same tasks, only more spread out over the entire week and perhaps the tasks come along a little less often so that there are fewer (assuming this will lead to a slightly decreased level of cleanliness, but still, consistent) each week, but the site strikes me as very... um... what's the word... I don't know, exactly. Like a WOHM wouldn't be well-received. Or maybe I'm just paranoid .

Another thought is that you could skip some chores that you don't have time to do and kind of create a lighter version yourself. Also, maybe you could specifically ask your partner if he will do a particular chore that you don't think he'll mind doing, such as vacuuming the living room or dusting the desk, etc. That way he doesn't have to follow a list, but he is helping accomplish the tasks somewhat.

ETA: There's also HouseHoncho.com. They send an email with a selection of things to do at various levels of difficulty and you are supposed to select 3 items on the list and forget about the rest. That might work for you. I like Motivated Moms, personally, but House Honchos is an option.

[blizzard_babe]

Originally Posted by PoetryLover

ETA: There's also HouseHoncho.com. They send an email with a selection of things to do at various levels of difficulty and you are supposed to select 3 items on the list and forget about the rest. That might work for you. I like Motivated Moms, personally, but House Honchos is an option.

Ooh, I'll check into it. I like the PDF print-it-out-ahead-of-time aspect of MMs, because if I sit down to check my e-mail, I get sucked into the internets . Might be a good option, though, thanks!

[Gray's Mommy]

I printed out the entire year at a time & am planning to make my own version as an example & making changes along the way to suit my house. Overkill, I know.

Anyways, I am a WAHM (part time) and have found that the MM list helps me manange my time better. I know I have to do work, then housework & spend time with the kids. I just need to cut back on my goof off time to get stuff done. I don't always do what is on the list, but use it as a general guideline & reminders. For example: we don't have a garage, but we do have a laundry niche. I cleaned that instead & marked it down for the next year.

I think the goal is just get something done in your house & make it as nice as you want. I know that by getting rid of clutter, it has made my house easier to maintain & clean. I don't have to spend 45 minutes cleaning up to clean the house like I was.

[clutterwarrior]

I just feel so weary today, still not feeling well, even after a week on antibiotics I feel like crap.

I think I am getting tired of both MM and decluttering, just feel like I have hit a brick wall today.

I have been doing the chores pretty religiously till this week, but now I am just picking out the ones I feel like doing....oops.

[IsaFrench]

... your body is telling you that you need a break ! ... take it, do other stuff instead of MM list since "a change is as good as a rest"

.... maybe, other stuff could just be rest anyway ?

that way, you'll come back to it refreshed later on (I suppose you can afford it if you've been doing MM lists for a while, your house must be looking much better by now ....)

sit down and enjoy contemplating what you've accomplished so far !

+ change of season tired-ness ? I know that our seasons are reversed ... but at this time of the year, since I've past 40 years of age, I just "need" to stop doing sports etc for about 3 weeks ... & usually a visit to the chiropractor is on the cards to re-align everything in my neck and back and legs, after which I'm not allowed to do much for 3 days
and it is weather related, when I lived somewhere else in the world where the seasons where not quite aligned to where I'm now, it was quite striking how my usual yearly trouble didn't happen "at the usual time from the calendar" but just when the weather changed later in the season ....

[clutterwarrior]

Originally Posted by IsaFrench

... your body is telling you that you need a break ! ... take it, do other stuff instead of MM list since "a change is as good as a rest"

.... maybe, other stuff could just be rest anyway ?

that way, you'll come back to it refreshed later on (I suppose you can afford it if you've been doing MM lists for a while, your house must be looking much better by now ....)

sit down and enjoy contemplating what you've accomplished so far !

+ change of season tired-ness ? I know that our seasons are reversed ... but at this time of the year, since I've past 40 years of age, I just "need" to stop doing sports etc for about 3 weeks ... & usually a visit to the chiropractor is on the cards to re-align everything in my neck and back and legs, after which I'm not allowed to do much for 3 days
and it is weather related, when I lived somewhere else in the world where the seasons where not quite aligned to where I'm now, it was quite striking how my usual yearly trouble didn't happen "at the usual time from the calendar" but just when the weather changed later in the season ....

Thank you, I think that is just what I needed, a bit of motherly advice to slow down. As I don't have my mother around, I tend to forget that is what I need.

The change of season yes that could be true...our weather has been quite wacky, hot then cold, then hot again, and we just changed to daylight savings, heck why didn't I think of that...

[wombatclay]

We're all sick right now and I'm just focusing on the "self care/family care" portions of MM. So making sure we all have our vitamins and 10 minutes of "quiet time" but not worrying about mopping the floor.

[MamaRuga]

MM and the working mom

Originally Posted by blizzard_babe

Are there any full-time WOHMs out there doing MMs? I tried last year and got completely overwhelmed. There just isn't time between when dinner's finished and I start putting DS to bed.

I'm thinking of trying again... just starting on a random page on last year's calendar and working through it. Might involve getting up at like 6 to do some before I go to work. I'm not sure how long that'll last, but I guess it's worth a shot.

I wish they made a "lite" version for WOHMs.

I was just revisiting this thread with the same question in mind. I LOVE MM because it gives me guidelines for getting things clean around here. I'm not a full time WOHM but I do work part time in our family business and am very involved in our community. Add a toddler into the mix and there is NO-WAY that I can get to everything on the list.

Right now I just select the things that are most important to me: daily stuff is only dishes, beds and feeding the cat (DH's job), vacuuming and toilets on Monday, and then I try to do any of the "bigger" projects that aren't going to roll around again in another week or two. I usually don't get to mopping the floor or dusting. Even then, I feel like I am spending all of my waking hours with DD doing chores and we never get to just have one on one time together without me trying to clean a bathroom sink or fold laundry at the same time.

One thing that I've just started doing is highlighting the things that I want to make a priority for the week. Then I just try to get those things done. And on Saturday I try to finish up any of those that I didn't get to on the day it was listed for.

But I do have to say that I am hard on myself for the fact that I can never get it all done. I long SO MUCH to be as organized and on top of things that it could be possible to finish the list and still hold an outside job. I had been wondering if I was the only one who couldn't keep up with MM and everything else that life requires.

[Comtessa]

I'm with you! When I was a full-time WAHM, I could mostly manage to keep on top of the MM list, most of the time. IF I didn't plan too much other stuff during the week. And IF I didn't spend any time goofing off (like on MDC ). But I picked up a college class part-time this fall, and now I'm spending every spare minute grading papers or prepping lectures. I even fell off the wagon about printing the MM list for a couple of weeks, because I just felt too guilty about all the un-checked little boxes. I have to haul myself back on somehow, though, because I feel overwhelmed by the house again and I need to feel like I have some control over my environment.

MamaRuga, I love your idea of highlighting the stuff you really want to get done and letting the rest go. I honestly haven't mopped the kitchen floor in several months, because I can't figure out how to do it without making it a hazard for my toddler (who simply will run in there and fall on her face as soon as I'm done). But other things really need doing and I can't figure out how to get to them and make it work. I'm going to pull out a highlighter right now and try it out.

As far as dusting goes, DH hadn't dusted the house once in the seven years he'd lived here before I moved in, so I doubt he'll notice for a while if I let that one go.

[wombatclay]

Mopping... this may not work for you, but...

I put water and some Dr bronner's peppermint soap in a squirt bottle. If dd1 and dd2 are crazy high energy I give them each a towel and then spray a small portion of the floor (or have the girls take turns spraying). Then they scrub that portion of the floor with the towels. If they're a bit lower energy I might spray the floor and scrub it with the sponge mop, then have them "dry" the floor with their towels.

This keeps them from running/slipping on the wet floor and keeps the portion that is wet fairly small... ds loves to lick the floor (ick ick ick!) if it's wet so I need to either have him in his high chair or keep the wet portions really small and the quirt bottle/towel thing seems to work pretty well.

Of course, this wouldn't work for a real deep cleaning but it holds the line.

(oh, and since we only have the one kitchen/dining/living space it has to get mopped more or less every day or it becomes a biohazard of "I don't want to touch that with my bare feet" proportions)

[journeymom]

Subscribed!

I have been a member with MDC for eight-ish year now and have never "subscribed" to a thread before.

Still contemplating a schedule, what I can handle, trying to psych myself up.

[kerc]

re WOHM list.

I'm a WOHM -- I just started a full time, professor job.My life is totally crazy right now. I just printed a few more MM pages though, my house was chaos...


One thing I keep in mind: some of my house doesn't get used as much when myself + kids + husband are all out of the house during the day. For instance, sure we all use the toilet, sink, shower in the morning but utilize other bathrooms in the daytime. I don't need to scrub down the bowl every day (as long as the toothpaste gets washed down). Every other suffices.

Vacuuming: same deal. We just don't bring as much dirt in in the winter + when everyone's gone all day.

[wallabi]

Originally Posted by MamaRuga

One thing that I've just started doing is highlighting the things that I want to make a priority for the week. Then I just try to get those things done. And on Saturday I try to finish up any of those that I didn't get to on the day it was listed for.
.

I love this idea! And I will be trying it, if I can locate a highlighter and keep it out of dd`s reach

Wed. is my WOH day, and I got nothing at all done yesterday b/c dh had to go out of town for a funeral, his first overnight away from dd, so I spent the evening, from dinner onward, lugging around a very heavy, very sleepy, very persistent 4 year old who wanted to stay up long enough to say goodbye to dh at 10 pm.

Anyway, I work a combo of WOH, WAH hours, and what I have decided on as a solution when I can`t possibly do it all is to do some of the jobs in a really half-arsed, something-is-better-than-nothing way. The kitchen floor really could use a good scrubbing, but I haven`t gotten to it a few weeks, but wiping it down is at least keeping it un-disgusting

I like seeing them boxes checked (I rarely see them all checked, but oh well), so I set the bar pretty low some days

[Greenmama2]

No MM for me today. I don't print it out, just open it on my netbook but DH took that with him today instead of his laptop Oh well, have done almost everything on the everyday list anyway with the exception of sweeping the kitchen. Toddler is napping now though and 4 year old is entertaining herself (weird!!!!!!) so I am sitting
Anyone else here combine MM with House Honcho? I signed up to HH a few weeks ago but then we went on a big road trip so yesterday was the first day I managed to do both. I felt very self-righteous!

[PoetryLover]

I fell off the wagon. Actually, I'm purposely focusing on decluttering and doing minimal cleaning for the short term and am making lots of progress that I expect will help me maintain a cleaner and more orderly home in the future.

I'm not sure if any of you homeschool. I'm wondering if anyone delegates some of the jobs on the list. For instance, I will have a very hard time homeschooling 11 year old DSD, cooking from scratch, caring for infant DS, as well as making a small amount of time for myself and completing all the chores on the list myself. I'm not wanting to be a martyr and so I am considering delegating some tasks because I deserve to relax, too, and desire to avoid burnout.

DH usually takes out the trash. We cook dinner as a family (meaning I get as much of the meal prepared before DH gets home as possible and he jumps in when he arrives home) and then we quickly do after dinner clean up as a family. No one person is stuck washing all the dishes and cleaning up after everyone else. I usually delegate cleaning out the car to DH and anything to do with electronic files. I was thinking of delegating to DSD something small from the daily chores list and something from the list for the day. For example, either feed the pets and vacuum the living room or clean the bathroom sink and dust the desk. Her only other chores are to make her bed in the morning, pick up after herself and fold/put away her laundry.

I want to keep our evenings and weekends as free from chores as possible, so that we can all enjoy personal and family time. Yet, I don't think it's fair to expect one person to do everything, especially when I add homeschooling to my daily responsibilities.

What are your thoughts?

[Passport Kids]

I just found this thread and love the idea! I bought the last couple of months of MM ($2!)for this year to try out. Our schedule is always different and I can never keep a weekly cleaning routine but this makes sense to me to just do whats on the list! I am already motivated and decluttered and cleaned a shelving area in the main living area!

[tanyalynn]

Originally Posted by PoetryLover

Yet, I don't think it's fair to expect one person to do everything, especially when I add homeschooling to my daily responsibilities.

What are your thoughts?

Ideally (that's an indication of how I'm matching life to my ideals right now), I'd like part of homeschooling to be integrating the running of the household into the kids' daily lives. So they both learn the skills of running a household--from the simple cleaning to the annual maintenance to the decision-making of buying new appliances and whatnot--and the habits of doing the routine stuff regularly.

Since I have poor habits regarding doing all the routine household stuff regularly (I think MM will help, but we've had a fair number of illnesses this fall and haven't gotten into the routine yet), that's an area where the kids see me struggle and slowly I am improving over time.

So ideally, I really want the kids to work with me on whatever needs to be done to maintain the house in a way that makes it a joyful, peaceful place for us. Reality? Not quite there, but getting a little closer. My kids are 4 and 6 and very much at the stage where it works best for all of us to work together--delegating is pretty hit-or-miss and they don't enjoy it at all, whereas if we work together, we can have a good time. I guess I want both help completing the chores and to build their skills and habits over time--working with me, at least at their ages, does that best.

[clutterwarrior]

Poetry I don't think one person should have to do it all. The way the MM chores are set up, it is perfect for delegating small chores to others, as long as they are willing and able that is!

I am struggling with getting others to help though. Even though my girls are teens, they are not good at helping. When I remind them to help, they make their beds for a few days then stop, so I end up doing them while they are out, because I hate them being unmade. But that annoys me because I could be using my time better than making their beds! My oldest is good at tidying the kitchen though and squeegeeing the shower, the middle DD is basically a very messy person so getting her to do anything is a struggle. Luckily she is a very good cook so she helps in that department!

I have fallen behind with the regular MM cleaning last week, as I too am focusing on decluttering. Doing a major purge of the kitchen, because I am doing the 'kitchen cure' at the moment. http://cure.apartmenttherapy.com/2010/kitchen-fall/

[rose angel]

Originally Posted by PoetryLover

I fell off the wagon. Actually, I'm purposely focusing on decluttering and doing minimal cleaning for the short term and am making lots of progress that I expect will help me maintain a cleaner and more orderly home in the future.

I'm not sure if any of you homeschool. I'm wondering if anyone delegates some of the jobs on the list. For instance, I will have a very hard time homeschooling 11 year old DSD, cooking from scratch, caring for infant DS, as well as making a small amount of time for myself and completing all the chores on the list myself. I'm not wanting to be a martyr and so I am considering delegating some tasks because I deserve to relax, too, and desire to avoid burnout.

DH usually takes out the trash. We cook dinner as a family (meaning I get as much of the meal prepared before DH gets home as possible and he jumps in when he arrives home) and then we quickly do after dinner clean up as a family. No one person is stuck washing all the dishes and cleaning up after everyone else. I usually delegate cleaning out the car to DH and anything to do with electronic files. I was thinking of delegating to DSD something small from the daily chores list and something from the list for the day. For example, either feed the pets and vacuum the living room or clean the bathroom sink and dust the desk. Her only other chores are to make her bed in the morning, pick up after herself and fold/put away her laundry.

I want to keep our evenings and weekends as free from chores as possible, so that we can all enjoy personal and family time. Yet, I don't think it's fair to expect one person to do everything, especially when I add homeschooling to my daily responsibilities.

What are your thoughts?

I homeschool 3 children, and my husband works 2 jobs and is getting his masters, so I can relate! I think it is totally appropriate to have an 11 year old take on one or two daily jobs and some of the big stuff too! My 11 and 9 year olds feed all the pets daily. I was starting to feel burned out in my caretaker role, and have them be the major caretakers of the animals helps a lot. My 11 year old doesn't mind sweeping, and I hate it, so she often helps with that too. More help for mom = more fun and free time for everyone!