Last week, as we were barely hanging on in the midst of final-week-of-rehearsals craziness, I was experiencing what you might call . . . despair. A toilet had overflowed because a child claimed there was no toilet paper left in the house and had therefore chosen to use a paper towel. Even though there was toilet paper in the …
kids chores
How to Use Reusable Cloths to Clean the Bathroom Without Being Gross
I put an Amazon affiliate link in this post. I couldn't help myself. I'm all for green cleaning. Really. Is it bad to admit, though, that my cheapness is more of a motivator than my sense of activism and earthiness? Oh. It is bad to admit? OK. Then I'm not admitting anything. I was just asking hypothetically. One of the biggest …
Chore Charts for Kids
This post contains affiliate links. As mamas settle into the school year, we also work to get our kids back on track with their own household responsibilities. Here's my philosophy on chore charts: Do whatever works. Once it stops working, do something else that works. Once that stops working, do something else that …
So So Tempting . . . (And a Family Kitchen Clean Up Report)
We've been doing our Family Kitchen Clean-Up Time for three whole weeks now. We get off track on the weekends, but during the week we're pretty much rockin' it. And . . . it's fun. I know. So strange. But really, one of my biggest excuses/reasons for not cleaning up the kitchen in the evening is that I hate missing family time. This …
Teamwork
So yesterday I spilled my Slob Guts about my personal grief over not having been the perfect mother during my kids' preschool years. Today I'm going to share how Teamwork has been going so far this year. We've been at it for one week. (Technically, we're two weeks into the year, but did anyone actually begin working on New Year's Resolutions …
How I Limit My Kids’ TV/Screen Time
It’s summer. And because it’s summer (and summer is fun), I haven’t written this post that I’ve been meaning to write . . . since summer began. A big part of success in any endeavor, especially one where I’m trying to maintain routine in the midst of a lack of routine, is preparation. A few days before summer began, I realized that I hadn’t …
My Daily Kitchen Checklist for the Kids – Printable
I’m scared to write this post. A clean kitchen . . . is everything. The smartest thing I did when I began this deslobification process was to focus on the kitchen and figure it out before I worried about anything else. I now know how to keep it clean. Not that I always do. But the thought of involving my kids in the process by using a …
Trying Not to Over-Complicate Things – A Printable Daily Bathroom Checklist
Summer vacation begins tomorrow, and I've finally finished the printable daily bathroom checklist that I was determined to have ready before the boys got out of school. It shouldn't have been this difficult. I tend to over-complicate things. For all of my loosi-goosiness, I do love making a plan. Often a long, detailed . . . complicated …
A Summer Version of My Kids’ Daily Checklist
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 …
