Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Organized Families

~Cleaning Secret to Organize our Families~

Between work, and children's activities you might not have enough to get everything done at home. There's a solution for busy times. Just as your body needs a "minimum daily allowance" of vitamins and minerals, an organized home needs a minimum of maintenance and attention to keep running smoothly.

Think of this as a short list of essential household tasks. It's a bottom-line list of chores and activities necessary to keep things running at a basic level.

With a working plan, the household stays afloat, even when time is short.

What's on the list? Every family has slightly different needs, but most checklists provide for these functions:
basic accounting chores: bank deposits and bill-paying
meals and menus: clean dishes, grocery shopping
laundry: necessary clean clothing
home management: once-a-day pick-up, weekly cleaning of bathrooms and kitchen
To make your own plan, list the rock-bottom essential maintenance chores necessary to keep the household clean, fed and on time.
A sample checklist might look like this:
Every day:
Load and run dishwasher
Tidy kitchen
Run one load of laundry, fold and put away
Family pick-up time
Every week:
Review checkbook and pay bills
Shop for groceries
Clean bathrooms
Next step: delegate! Assign one or more minimum chores to each family member. Every family member has a stake in keeping the household functioning, so everyone should be expected to help with the chores. Working together, everyone will be free fun time.

Another time-honored choice is the refrigerator door, but use whatever area is central to your family. The written list aids accountability, because everyone knows what must be done before anyone can do extra stuff...
Give your household a Magic Minimum to maximize your family's opportunities for summer fun!

1 comment:

Nadine said...

Very handy tips. When the kids were younger and living at home, we did this. It helped a lot.

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