Conquering Weekly Chores

When I was working outside of the home, weekly chores were an issue.  You work all day, come home, and can barely handle dinner and laundry and dishes.  How in the heck are you supposed to get chores done?

Solution: stay at home.  After all, I'd have all day.  Drop the kids off at school (about a three hour process, including feeding them breakfast, getting them ready, and driving) and I would have six hours left to do whatever needs to be done.

Right?

Right?

Wrong.

I live out of my planner and tend to do all the things that are listed in my planner for today.  But repetitive, weekly chores only get done sometimes, when I think about it. Laundry occurs to me when I get dressed.  I cook everyday, pretty much, plus my menu is on my monthly planner.  So that gets done.  But lots of other stuff, like vacuuming, is getting neglected.

I tried a list of chores, divided up by days.  But it was hidden and I never looked at it.

I tried a checklist, but I hated printing and rewriting it.

I tried putting chores on my weekly tasks lists, but in addition to constant recopying, it hid important, MUST DO tasks in all the clutter on the page.  And it made it hard to use a personal (Filofax) or compact (Franklin Covey) sized planner.

I think I've found a solution:

I used a clear business card divider to place between the week-on-two-pages sheets with recurring tasks written on slips of paper inside of the card holder.  I use my new (and exciting!) Frixion erasable pens to check off each task as it gets done:

I now have a checklist that is reusable, in a place where I can see it, but not in the way.

Note that there is no Tuesday paper.  That is because I grocery shop and run errands on Tuesdays, so I am barely home.  And when I am, I am unloading groceries, cutting veggies, or portioning out and freezing foods.  I am good about doing this every week, plus I have an entry on my weekly pages to grocery shop.

Also, the week is front-loaded.  By Sunday, I am only in charge of making sure on hallway is free of clutter.  This means that if something comes up on Wednesday, I still have plenty of catch-up time!

I decided to put the chores in three ways.

1. Most days have an area of the house listed, like the kitchen or the kids' bathroom. 
On that day, I make sure nothing is out of place and straighten, plus clean any obvious spills.

If we are disciplined about erasing the evidence as we go about our day, this chore takes less than five minutes.  These areas include all parts of the house.  (You might also add something like the garage or garden, if those things are a problem for you.)

2. Next, I have a catch-up task.

For example, I make my grocery list as we run low on particular items that we use all the time, supplementing with what is on sale.  Today, when I put my Honey Sesame Chicken in the crockpot, I used the last or almost the last of the onions, garlic, and ginger.  Those things went on the list today for next Tuesday.  I did not run out of chicken breasts, so those won't go on the list unless they are on sale this week.

Other catch-up tasks: planner review (in case I haven't looked at it in a while, so I don't miss anything; happens twice a week), putting away ALL DISHES (a continuous task in my house, but at least once a week they are all done and put away), and putting away ALL LAUNDRY (same problem as dishes).

3. Finally, I have actual chores: dust (all porous surfaces), laundry, vacuum (all carpets), clean floors, clean tubs/toilets, and counters (all nonporous surfaces, including in kitchen and bathrooms).  These chores don't take very long each day, as long I the house is orderly.

Etcetera.