Thursday, February 18, 2010

Chore Chart-ing

"cleanliness may not be next
to godliness but it sure feels
good"

- Nikki Giovanni

I have got to clean the apartment tonight. After lots of postponing and telling myself I'd do a little here and there, I'm back in my usual situation: I've gotten nothing done and everything needs to be done. Even mopping. (Bad snow. Bad.)
maid
When I reach this point every 3-4 weeks, I reflect on how if I broke things down and did a little every night the apartment could be really clean, all the time, without entire panicked evenings devoted to the situation.

So to prevent future nights like tonight, I've made a chore chart. (You can actually view it here.)


I feel very dorky about it and like I need to pick up some gold stars on my way home from work. Maybe some poster board too. But I feel dorky about a lot of things (the magnitude of my love for Jane, romantic comedies and Glee) and scheduling things out is a generally effective way for getting me to do stuff.

The chore chart, in addition to being delightfully alliterative, runs Monday through Thursday on a four-week cycle. I still need to do a big cleaning tonight, but if I start the schedule on Monday, hopefully I won't have to do any big cleanings in the future and I can easily transition into cleaning twice the square footage once we buy a house. 

(And yes, Lee often helps around the house, but since he's generally pretty busy with working and schooling full-time, I do must of this and he helps with the dish drying, dishwasher unloading, trash disposal, kitty litter emptying and Zoey's evening potty trip.)


Is anyone else this crazy about cleanliness? Am I the only childless chore-charter (ooh...alliterations!)?


image: unusualimage

9 comments:

Caitlin said...

Yay for charts and gold stars. I seem to remember a gold star charting project in college that never accumulated many stars...

Have you heard of the FlyLady? Go to Flylady.net I think. Or google it. It's pretty handy.

thegamerswife said...

The gamer and I have a "daily" "weekly" and "monthly" chore list on our fridge. I'm a freak about organization and cleaning so we pretty much don't ever have to look at the lists anymore. I'm sure some time with you using your chart and it will start to become more of a habit for you!

Stef said...

That's not dorky at all! I think it's genius. I should be inspired and do the same.

Katie said...

Cait -- I have heard of FlyLady! I think you introduced us!

I'm glad everyone likes the chart!

stefanie said...

I love the chart! I promised myself to clean a little bit every day throughout the week but I have miserably failed. I just feel so tired after work/school/working-out.

You should let us know how your cleaning schedule works out for you!

Katie said...

I will definitely keep you guys posted!

Ashley Colagross said...

Love it. I'm trying to get into a routine myself.

Sarah said...

I am that way too! I do some 'Fly -ing' off and on - I have to get better about it... but I may or may not have been online searching for spring cleaning checklists last night...

Seriously though - Flylady is awesome for incrimental cleaning, and while I feel like my house is a disaster - it's usually within 30minutes of 'company condition' :D

Katie said...

Sarah, I'm pretty sure Real Simple has some good cleaning check lists.