Do you use lists/daily schedules for chores?

[PavlovtheCat]

DH and I are not organised people. We try, but it's not natural. We have always managed, but we waste so many hours that I think don't need to be wasted on chores and never seem to make headway. DH has been off work for a short while and spends most of his time tidying but never really getting anywhere and I have been working til late so too tired to do much (along with bad back that floors me by home time). Before that, he worked long hours and haphazard shifts so we had no real plans for how we managed the house. He is about to start a new job with set working week, and I am hoping to change my hours to manage childcare and my disability a bit better. It means we will have more time to organise - not more time, better placed time. DH has always been dead against a rota or a schedule but is now warming to it. I have said once we get the hang of it, we will be less reliant on a physical written down one but that actually the most organised people have plans for their daily chores.

Is that actually true? Do you have a list that you follow for each day? I feel that if we did this, we would streamline our time more and waste less of it cleaning, AND end up with a tidier more organised house, more free time/with the children doing productive things. I would like for the most part to do the build of the housework when the children are at school, so mostly we will cook/clean from dinner, tidy bedrooms etc when the children are about.

How do you do it? How do you split with your partner if you have one, and how to get your partner on board if you have one?

If all goes to plan we will be working something like AM me at work, PM him at work (some overlap in the day) evenings together (he will work weekends too). So generally, he will do AM school run, I will do PM school run and we will both have around 1.5hrs to do chores in the school hours (him in the morning, me in the afternoon).

Hi this is what keeps us running if it helps! Evening one wash in ,wash pots clear kitchen . Shine sink.sweep kitchen floor . Put clothes away. Morning . Dry washing. Breakfast pots. Wipe bathroom down. Tea time : cookt tea . Wash up as much as poss as go along. Fold laundry . Put away. Do one job such as clean fridge out wipe kitchen . On thur do all cleaning for the week . Have no cook day fri such as pizza.sunday ; cook chicken ; whilst do this iron and drink wine! At same time do a soup and a curry sauce ; then you gave tea ready for Monday and tue so don't cook again till we'd. It sounds boring but house smells lovely and the wine goes down well!

Ps partner does bins and washes up . He does dd and des mornings I do tea times .

Another thing that helps us I menu plan for the month and do big shop as much as posts at once such as four chickens , x4,mince , so I go to shop
Once not four tiimes then just get the fresh stuff each week. This does not take long then.

sugar I do the sink shine I find, no matter how terrible the rest of the kitchen is, if the sink has been cleaned and shined, it all feels much better

We do a similar thing with the sunday dinner, but at the moment we do a roast, then DH makes a risotto with the leftovers - he boils down the chicken on Sunday, and uses that to make risotto on Monday, and then a soup with the rest on tuesday. A good idea to make some of it on the sunday like the soup and some curry sauce for leftover chicken. I will mention that to him.

I would love to buy for the month, but we are limited in space for things like chickens and frozen stuff. We have enough for a couple of weeks at a time though so will meal plan around that. It has been nice having roast/risotto/soup though without much effort after the roast. DH is the cook here though, so it's down to him largely, and he makes a huge mess!

I get so tired in the evenings, sometimes I simply cannot do the dishes. but I am forcing myself to do so, as in the mornings it's so much nicer to start the day with a clean kitchen and I can put a wash on.

Do you write your schedule down, or if you know perfectly now, did you start with a list or are you naturally an organised mind?

Pav I used to write my list down, and gradually it has become habit and a lot of the basics get done now with no thought.

I still write a list for a busy day or week though, helps me marshall my thoughts.

DH works v.long hours, he is out of the house roughly 6.30am-7.30pm most days. He is upstairs working now.
I'm a SAHM so most of the 'extra' stuff falls to me simply because I am here to deal with it and have the time. DH does his share of the cooking/tidying/dishes/laundry in the evenings, again he used to say 'er what needs doing' quite a lot, now he just gets on with whatever there is to be done.

The joint agreement that there needs to be more organisation is absolutely key to this, so you are 50% of the way there I think if you both agree that this is a desirable thing!

yes, we both need more organisation, slowly DH is recognising that we can't just wing it like we used to. He has also taken a lot of the slack with looking after the children while I have had a bad back and then recovered from surgery, including doing pretty much the whole school run, and he has gone from being quite chaotic with it, to much much more organised, he sorts out DDs school clothes the night before on a hanger, gets DSs clothes ready, packs their bags before he goes to bed, which used to be unheard of in this family

Just got to write the damn list !

Yes I write the list s tho I do remember it and then forget after a while as not naturally organised! I am dreamer! So I make pretty lists and thus sort of motivates! Sometimes have been known to write list and forget ! We can but try ! I have noticed the routine can be quite soothing and it frees up time as not feeling that am having to wade thro masses! Good luck and get sum nice pens for list making. Clean momma web site gas free printable s !

I have some nice pens and a lovely little notebook. I love lists! I am just no good at doing much with them...

I actually use lists at work, to start my day so I know where I am at, and on a friday before I go so I start Mondays with a clear idea of what needs doing. but. I don't always return to those lists. and. my administrator reminds me of what I forget to do, or that I have actually written a list to look at! It's like I am someone else outside of work, any little organisation I have at work disappears at home!

I have a chart with tick boxes in my diary. Mainly it's for weekly chores, so I have a column per week.

For some reason my week starts on a Thursday, and I try and limit my tv watching, internet-browsing, general slobbing about until I've ticked all the boxes. That motivates me to get mos of them done by the weekend.

Then I also have a separate list for monthly chores and quarterly ones.

I got a new phone recently and have converted to apps to motivate me for the chores. They are brilliant. I have a free one called, I think chorelist where you set how often you want to do things e.g. change beds, mow lawn, and they turn red/orange/green depending how overdue you are. Also Astrid for my to do list for non-routine things. Somehow having something to tick off makes it feel someone is noticing