Saturday chores

We've been trying something new here on the weekends, prompted by our eldest starting kindergarten at home: Saturday chores.

I used to try to get all the housework done during the week, but there are some jobs (e.g., cleaning the upstairs bathroom) which are almost impossible to do with twin toddlers underfoot. Then I remembered that when I was a kid, we'd all have some housework to do on the weekends. We'd spend a couple of house doing it and then, hey-presto, we were done, and could get on with whatever it was we wanted to do that Saturday.

So Adam and I decided to try that, and we've been doing it for several weeks now.

It's GREAT.

After breakfast, we write down our list of chores on mirrored closet doors in our dining room (with a dry erase marker) and illustrate them with stick figures so the non-readers can figure them out. Then we take turns doing the adult-only chores (e.g., the impossible upstairs bathroom) and supervising the kids-help chores (e.g., watering the patio plants).

Here are the benefits:
1) The housework gets done. All of it. Every week.
2) The kids are learning how to work. May it be a blessing to them for the rest of their lives. (I know I'm glad my parents taught me how to work!)
3) The chores that take an hour with the kids' help (upstairs bathroom!) now only take 20 minutes, 'cause one of us adults can now whip through them while the kids are otherwise occupied.
4) We now have a time scheduled for getting those extra things done - you know, the monthly or yearly or one-off tasks - things like cleaning the fridge or hanging pictures. Once the regular chores are done, if we have some time left, we tackle one or two extras.
5) We don't waste our Saturdays. I don't know about you, but we used to sort of blob around on Saturday mornings - and some of that is fine, but it sort of sets the tone for the whole weekend. We've actually been having more relaxing weekends now that we work for a couple of hours in the morning. We get that nice accomplished feeling, and end up doing relaxing things we really like (like taking family walks) rather than relaxing things that are kind of lame (you know, liking watching too much TV).

This week, our extras included hanging some pictures and mirrors and electronics (the phone is now on the wall!). I also cleaned the fridge and even pulled it out and cleaned the floor underneath it (hey, that's where those magnets went!). We also cleaned up and organized a couple "hot spots": the sewing desk, a side table in the living room, and the bar between the kitchen and dining room. There's now a lot more clear surface area downstairs, which makes it feel so much bigger and more open.

I also like it, because it makes such a nice prequel to the Lord's Day. There's that great feeling of finishing off the week's work, and the clean feeling that the whole house is ready for Sunday. Doing the chores on Saturday means that the day the house is cleanest is also the day we celebrate the Lord's resurrection. That just seems fitting somehow.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

p.s. btw, when I say "housework" in this post, I mean weekly chores. Not daily stuff like dishes and pick-up and wiping up spills. Here's our basic weekly list:

-bathrooms, upstairs and down
-dusting
-mirrors
-vacuuming
-kitchen floor
-sweep patio

Of course, some of these things have to be partly done during the week - spot vacuuming crumbs, wiping down the bathroom, etc. But we do them methodically once a week.