Does Your Family Need A Home Maintenance Chart?
Keeping a home clean and tidy requires regular maintenance.
But with multiple people in the family, this shouldn’t be all on one person.
Increase cleanliness and decrease stress by creating a family chore chart (and you can try these house swoops!)
When everyone in the family has dedicated jobs and a role in cleaning the home, maintenance will be much easier.
The home will be clean, everyone will know how to clean it, and it daily tasks become less dreaded and more of a family event.
Plus, you can finally wave goodbye to nagging your kids and spouse!
Starting a Chore Chart
First things first, get a chart. Here’s one you can get on Amazon.
Some people like to use whiteboards or blackboards, while others find printable sheets online.
Choose your favorite chart and hang it up in a busy room where everyone will see it daily.
Plan, Plan, Plan
Before you write anything on the chore chart, it’s important to sit down as a family and plan.
Nobody likes to have a list of chores sprung on them completely out of the blue!
So sit down with your spouse and kids, and discuss this new route to home maintenance.
It’s a good idea to ask everybody what jobs they like doing and what jobs they absolutely hate doing.
You might find your son actually loves vacuuming but isn’t up for cleaning a bathroom.
That’s okay!
Try and find a plan that suits everybody.
Write Your Chore Chart
Now it’s time to start penciling in those chores.
I recommend having easy jobs during the week.
Think 30 minutes maximum of chores.
Bigger jobs, like mowing the lawn or vacuuming the house, can wait until the weekend when everybody has a bit more time.
Daily Chores
Start by penciling in daily chores, ensuring you’re delegating the chores equally.
Yes, that includes making sure that you aren’t doing the most cleaning!
Daily Cleaning Chore #1: Make your bed.
This should be on everyone’s list.
Daily Cleaning Chore #2: Dishes.
Have someone on dish duty for every meal, whether that means loading or unloading the dishwasher.
You can also try cleaning the dishes by hand.
Daily Cleaning Chore #3: Trash and recycling.
These should be sorted, taken out, or at least checked on every day.
Daily Cleaning Chore #4: Counters.
Have somebody on counter duty.
This includes wiping down kitchen and bathroom counters.
Daily Cleaning Chore #5: Room by room tidy.
Delegate one person to each room every day.
If you clean daily, there shouldn’t be a ton of mess.
It may only take only one or two minutes to tidy!
Weekly Chores
Now it’s time to think about the jobs that need to be done weekly.
Each person could be responsible for one or two of these jobs.
This depends on how many there are and how many people are in your family.
Weekly Chore #1: Laundry.
Learning how to do laundry is a valuable skill.
If each person has one load of laundry per week, have them do it themselves.
Here is one of our favorite family laundry hacks!
Weekly Chore #2: Vacuuming.
You may need to vacuum more than once a week, especially if you have pets.
But delegate this job to meticulous volunteer every week.
Weekly Chore #3: Mopping.
After vacuuming, it’s important to mop or steam the floors.
We prefer to use a Swiffer (in lavender scent!) to make it super easy! Even our 10 year old can Swiffer the floors!
Weekly Chore #4: Dust.
Once a week, have a family member dust the surfaces in your home.
You could split this up room by room or have somebody quickly dust the whole house.
If you’re conquering this task weekly, it shouldn’t take too long.
Weekly Chore #5: Bathrooms.
I know, you’re probably all going to argue over who gets this job.
But if you have multiple bathrooms, a few of you could get this chore!
Weekly Chore #6: Fridge.
Get rid of bad, rotting, or out-of-date food.
Wipe down the surfaces in the fridge.
Don’t forget the exterior of the fridge, too!
Monthly Chores
Now it’s time for the monthly chores.
These are bigger tasks, but thankfully, they don’t come up as often!
Top tip: It’s a good idea to have a chore chart that resembles a calendar so you can easily schedule these in.
If you are using a weekly chore chart, just remember when you last did the monthly tasks, so you don’t forget.
Monthly Chore #1: Clean appliances.
Dishwashers, washing machines, and dryers need cleaning once a month.
These aren’t hard tasks, but they are important.
Give one appliance out per person, so it’s not too overwhelming.
Monthly Chore #2: Clean the oven.
Once a month, give your oven a deep clean.
Monthly Chore #3:Clean furniture:
Vacuum furniture and clean it.
This includes couches, chairs, beds, bookshelves, wooden furniture, and bedside tables.
Monthly Chore #4: Trimmings:
Clean the baseboards, door frames, doors, and other trimmings around the house.
Don’t forget light switches and door handles.
This is a task that everyone can easily forget, so it’s clever to schedule it in!
Monthly Chore #5: Lights and fans.
Have someone tall attend to this job!
Miscellaneous Chores
Other chores might crop up randomly.
These are chores that don’t need doing too often, but it can seem pretty urgent when they do.
Schedule these as necessary.
As Needed Chores #1: Organizing closets.
Every few months, everyone should go through their closet and dressers.
Get rid of clothes you don’t wear anymore (donate them!) and organize clothes that are laying in piles.
Here’s a great post on how to tackle your closet!
As Needed Chores #2: Wash windows.
We wash the inside of our windows every week but don’t forget the outside of the windows.
As Needed Chores #3: Rugs.
This is a big old boring task, but you should do it occasionally.
As Needed Chores #4: Bedding.
We’re not talking about pillowcases and sheets.
Those should be done regularly.
We’re talking about the actual bedding.
Deep clean your pillows and duvets twice a year.
Chore Chart to the Rescue
It might seem a little industrial having a chore chart at home, but it can make all the difference.
Not only does it keep everything organized and take some of the pressure off you, but it also teaches responsibility to the entire family!
Now your kids know exactly what to clean, so they’ll know how to keep a home when they move out.
