I've had a some request for cleaning tips/suggestions. There is a lot to say about cleaning, but for now I'll touch on a couple items.
Chores:
We each have 2 weekly chores that we do on Tuesdays. If the kids get their chores done by evening time they get a treat. If they don't finish their chores no treat. On the chore list there are additional jobs they can do to earn money. The job prices are not too much because my kids are young and don't do that great of job to make more money yet. Of course as the kids get older the amount of money they can make per job will go up much more. My friend gave me this idea and I like it a lot because you want to teach your children they need to help clean as a family, but then you also want them to start earning money so you can teach them about savings, spending and (for us) tithing. Here is our chore list...
Name/Weekly Chores
Jenny 1) Sweep and mop 2) Bathrooms (I get until Friday to finish my jobs.)
Danny 1) Repairs 2) Clean up front of house
Max 1) Dust 2) Empty all garbage's
Hanna 1) Vacuum 2 bedrooms and front room
Van 1) Wash walls 2) Pickup backyard toys
Extra Chores
1) Wash computer screen $0.10 2) Put away silverware $0.10
3) Wash walls $0.10 4) Wash bathroom sink $0.10
5) Shake out rugs $0.10 6) Wipe down window sills $0.10
7) Polish door knobs $0.10 8) Water plants $0.10
9) Wash window $0.30 10) Pickup yard trash $0.30
11) Blow leaves $0.30 12) Vacuum furniture $0.30
13) Clean out car $0.30 14) Wash baseboards $0.30
15) Vacuum window/door tracks $0.30
Dishes:
Start your dishwasher after it's full of course, but try and do this after dinner or if it has a little more room then after breakfast. Unload your dishes before "cooking" your next meal. Your dishwasher is then always ready to load and rarely do dishes need to sit in the sink.
Laundry:
Personally laundry must come as a strength to me. The reason I believe it's a strength is because I hear a lot of people complain about it and I don't feel I'm always doing it and I never feel my laundry is out of control. There are 7 of us that I do laundry for. Some people believe because I have younger kids it's easier, truthfully I think with younger ones the hard part is folding and so with younger kids I have less amount of clothes to "wash" but more to fold and without help. I'm not sure, because like I said I only have little ones we'll see in a few years if my opinion has changed. Anyway, I'll tell you what I do and you can try it if you'd like...
I do laundry on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. Sometimes I'll wash a load on other days if I see my basket is already full. I wash about 2 to 4 loads each of the 3 days. As soon as one load is dry I transfer clothes and I fold the load right then. I have a large enough laundry room that I just leave the folded clothes in each child's pile until I'm done with all loads and then I put them away (all the way away). I plan on having my bigger kids start putting their own clothes away soon, just haven't gotten to that yet. Doing 2-4 loads of laundry only takes about 2-4 hours and "you" don't have to do too much of the work during that time. I feel if you plan on doing your laundry then finish the job and then it won't feel like you're doing it all day nor all of the time.
Let me know if this helps at all.
