Simplifying Chores and our Morning Routine.

This post is in response to a friend who asked me "please blog about how you have simplified your chores!"  Here you go:

For me chores in our family come down to three things:
Excellence not perfection.
Orderliness.
Simplicity.

Say more about this?  I have lowered my standards of cleanliness in some areas and increased my consistency of getting around to things more often.  When there are less things around this house, it's easier to get things clean.  Keeping lots of open spaces make it easier to dust and find "lost" things.

Last August when school "started" I made new plan to for our weekly chores.  In the past we had cleaned one day a week and it was overwhelming for me and the kids to keep focused for a whole day.

Our daily responsibilities include keeping some type of organization in our rooms.  This happens before we come down in the morning.  We get dressed, tidy our rooms, etc.  Then come down for breakfast.  (Mom must take part in this too!)  Gone are the days of me "REQUIRING" beds to be made.  Excellence looks like room to move and not military corners on a bed.

After Lectio Divina or Mass, we have our "morning chores".  In August, I took an inventory of what I liked to have done in the house on a weekly basis.  Here's what my list included:  clean both toilets and sinks, dust all the rooms, water the flowers, mop the kitchen and bathrooms, clean all the mirrors, empty all the garbages, wash the sheets (every other week), trim all the nails in the family, wipe down the kitchen cabinets and fridge, clean the mud room.

I also have a monthly list: mop the wood floors, wipe out the stove, etc. and much more.

Then I took my list and compared it to our weekly schedule.  On the days that I knew we had a heavy schedule outside the house, I made our daily duties lighter.  In anticipation of the days we had company (bible study) I made sure the toilets and sinks were cleaned.  I also tried to only include things that would take about 15 minutes of work per chore.  I assigned four chores a day (one for each child).

For the first few weeks I accompanied some of the children on their work to help encourage excellence.  Cleaning the sink means cleaning behind the faucet, emptying the garbage means the bag gets outside to the can, vacuuming means moving furniture....

Each morning as we are finishing our Lectio or Mass, I use a dry erase marker board.  On it I write expectations for the children such as IP (Instrument Practice), CW (copy work), etc.  I then name the chores that are available to be done that day and each child takes one.  This I also write on the marker board.
We set the timer for 15 minutes and all make a mad scramble to get that chore done.  It amazes me that if I choose to collect the mail from the post office or take a walk, they seem to achieve their chores FASTER!

For myself I have made up lists of the things I'd like to have done in each section of the house on a monthly basis.  I keep my list in a simple folder in the kitchen.  My list includes deeper cleaning in each room and I assign a week/month to achieve these things.  1st week of the month is the kitchen, 2nd week is the bathrooms, 3rd week is bedrooms, 4th week is library and dining room, 5th week is school room.  (needless to say the school room need MAJOR HELP!  I need more 5 week months! )

Now that excellence is the norm while the children are cleaning our weekly things, I attend to the monthly things.  Each day I take only 15 minutes to deeper clean an area.  For example the kitchen week, I wipe out each drawer.  I can usually accomplish 2 to 3 drawers in a day.  I like to wipe down the kick boards and vacuum under the stove and fridge.  The deeper cleaning lists were completed as "inventory" of each room when we first moved here.

So we've been doing this routine for about 10 months now.  I'd like to add more of my monthly chores to the list as well as laundry.  I currently am washing all the laundry, but have help with the sorting, hanging on the line, folding and putting away.  I suspect I have at least two good helpers that could easily take over this job.  

What sorts of things have you found helpful to getting chores done family style around your house?