As I’ve been looking forward to summer, I have evaluated the success of last year’s Summer of Clean.
My kids learned valuable life skills and gained an understanding of what is required to keep a home clean. It was far more successful than any of the other quickly-abandoned-summer-housekeeping-plans we’ve tried.
Overall, it went well.
But at the end of the summer, the house was teetering on the edge of chaos. Even though the television was dust-free, my daily checklist was oft neglected.
As I’ve worked in the boys’ room for small slivers of time over the past week, I’ve been thinking.
Summer is routine-free. Summer is fun. Summer is a naturally a little chaotic.
All of my slob-struggles are amplified by these wonderful qualities of summer.
The more I’ve thought about it, I’ve realized I need to go back to the basics. The beginning-of-the-blog basics.
When I began this deslobification process, I had no idea where to start. I just had to do something. I focused completely on daily habits and didn’t even worry about weekly cleaning tasks for the first six months.
And it worked. The house was under control for the first time. Ever.
I realized that my goal for the summer is just that . . . to keep the house under control. To be able to have the kids’ friends over and pack for vacations and host an occasional impromptu cookout.
My advantage now over the beginning-of-the-blog is that I know what the basics are. I’ve created a list for my kids to check before they ask to watch TV or play the Wii. The list has four questions.
- Is your bathroom clean?
- Is your room clean?
- Is the kitchen clean?
- Is the living room clean?
Those are the basics. Before our summer officially starts next week, I’ll create instructions to print out for each of these tasks.
I’m not saying that we will completely throw out our designated cleaning days. Clothes have to be laundered, and if there’s dusting to be done, we’ll do it together.
But I know from experience that if all the fun stuff happens to fall on Bathroom Cleaning Tuesdays, we’ll be a lot better off if we’ve been concentrating on our basic daily tasks.
And, as always around here, I’ll keep you posted on how it goes.
I’ve also created a totally un-fancy printable version.
So Nony, are you *keeping* your kids' chore charts? Are you saying your are focusing more on daily maintenance/pickup than deep cleaning of bathroom, etc? I read you're LAST summer's posts and was all set to follow what you did! LOL Seriously, was just sitting down to print a copy of your chore charts. 🙂 I'm still going to and we're having a family meeting later where I'll explain them. We've got to start with *some* kind of structure. My husband is a teacher and a slob, combined w/ myself a slob and 3 slobs in training…well…bad goes to worse quickly during the summer here. Thanks, Nony, love the blog, feels so good to have found a kindred spirit.
It is very iportant for children to help their parents. There are a lot of activities that kids can do helping their parents at home – cleaning bathroom, living and kitchen room for example. In fact the list can be continued more and more.
Stopping by from WFMW. Great post! It's so easy to thrw out all routines in favor of a carefree summer. But when that happens, chaos ensues. SOME routines must remain. And it can be done WHILE still having LOADS of fun. You may enjoy my latest post at http://www.ourtaylormadehome.com. Definitely following you!
I just have to say how glad I was to come across your blog. I can relate to so much, and I hate to say that I had really never acknowledged that what I was doing (or not doing) was being a slob. My husband is a clean freak and can attempt the same task that I do and finish it in 1/4 of the time it takes me 🙁 I have three small children, and want them to learn good cleaning habits. This past weekend I set out to clean my whole house but really only accomplished the living room and kitchen. If I could manage my time better and get more organized with a routine I think things would flow much better, but I am stuck!