It's a hard knock life

It's no secret that I love a clean house. I can't help it. It was wired into my DNA. I get a bit giddy when I smell cleaning products of any kind. It's a disease that my family and friends are all well acquainted with. I hide nothing. I know who I am.

With that being said, as the kids have grown so have their responsibilities. When they were little we focused on teaching them to put their toys away when it was time to clean up and also the consequences of leaving things out or not in their place. If something gets broken or lost because it wasn't put away...bummer. Now I want to teach them that being responsible also means being helpful.

 My kids always cleaned up after play dates or when at a neighbor's house. Even now when my daughter calls to check in when she's at a friend's house I can be heard telling her, "don't forget to clean up your mess before you come home!" I'm a firm believer that if you are polite and take care of any mess you made when visiting friends, you will always be invited back. Knowing how to clean up a mess, even one you didn't make, is a required life lesson.

As kids get bigger, so do their messes and the accumulation of their garbage. I thought having endless bins of toys and blocks when the kids were small was irritating. Now the stack of notes and paper, drawings, clay, and bits of plastic seem to be oozing from my girl's room like slowly cooling lava. It's an unstoppable force of nature. They save everything, And their idea of "cleaning" consists of teetering piles of garbage on the desk or a nifty little Tetris-style stacking of books and clothes between the dresser and the wall. Ugh. And I don't even want to get started on the teenager's room which looks like a set from some horror movie--dark, dusty, stacks of random crap on every flat surface in the room, all illuminated by the glow of a computer screen. It's really rather terrifying. But I have given up those spaces in my mind. Yes, we will do the giant spring clean where we pull everything out, rearrange furniture and fill garbage bags full of donate items. And my brain is happy. But between those times I just have to let them have their space, and hope to the higher powers that one day they will want to have a tidier living area--or not. But lets hope they do.

I give them their space in their bedrooms but the rest of the house is my domain and part of living in a house is contributing to the care of it. End of story. So this last year we have created "Chore Zones" and it has worked out fantastically. I work 12 hour shifts, so when I hit a long stretch of days, it can be awhile before I get time to attack the accumulation of gross in the bathrooms and kitchen. The husband pitches in when he can but he works too and some days it's all he can do to get home, get a decent meal on the table, start the homework, and then night routine before bed. It doesn't leave much time for the housework. So, we had a family counsel, I proposed the "Chore Zones" and the kids were moderately receptive. We haggled back and forth with the actual chore responsibilities and also the timing of them (every other day, weekends, holidays).  I told them, we'll try it out, if it doesn't work, we'll try something else. I always try to give them the benefit of renegotiation. Luckily, we struck gold on our first try.

Each kid has a "zone" they are responsible for. They can trade these "zones" or trade jobs in these zones only with consent from myself. They have their "zone" for one week, having to complete the chores on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The chores should take them about 20-30 minutes to complete--if you're done in two minutes, you are mistaken. Try again.

We've been doing this for about a year now and it has been awesome. Of course, it's not "Rachel Style" by any means, but just having a little help with the toothpaste splatters (seriously, that crap gets EVERYWHERE.) and dog hair on the rug gives me the little help I need to get through the busy week. And if there's a surprise visitor, I'm not freaking that I haven't cleaned the toilet in a month.

If you have older kids I think this is a great way to provide some extra responsibility, to teach them that if we all make the mess together then we all clean up together, and help them understand that cleaning sucks, no one likes to do it (stop judging me) but it's a necessary part of life.

Each zone listed has a small reminder card that is attached out of sight in each room (behind the cabinet door or in the end table drawer). This helps keep kids on task when they ask, "what am I supposed to do again?" Check your card! They know where the cleaning products are kept and can use the duster with the extension so even the littlest one can reach the tall picture frames.

This has made so many changes for us. I feel like I have more free time when I'm not working and I think the kids are learning a lot too, especially how to make Mom happy and they all know that I bake more cookies and cakes when I'm happy...

Viva la Chores!

MAIN BATHROOM

BOTH MIRRORS

TOILET (OUTSIDE AND INSIDE)

SINK

SHELVES

SINK CABINET

EMPTY TRASH

CHANGE HAND TOWEL

SMALL BATHROOM

MIRROR

TOILET (OUTSIDE AND INSIDE)

SINK

SHELVES/CABINET

REFILL TOILET PAPER

EMPTY TRASH

CHANGE HAND TOWEL

DUSTING/RUGS

VACUUM ALL RUGS

DUST ALL SHELVES (INCLUDING DINING ROOM)

DUST TV AND STAND/SPEAKERS/RECORDS

DUST PICTURE FRAMES

WIPE DOWN COFFEE TABLE

VACUUM COUCH AND PINK CHAIR

KITCHEN

EMPTY DISHWASHER

WIPE COUNTER TOPS AND STOVE

CLEAN FRONT OF FRIDGE, DISHWASHER, OVEN, MICROWAVE

WIPE FRONT OF CABINETS (WITH WOOD CLEANER)

SWEEP FLOOR

TAKE OUT GARBAGE AND RECYCLE IF FULL

Ok, Ok, I give up!

I've tried to put this blog to the back burner but somehow, it keeps coming to the front of my brain. I think to myself, "I should really be better about keeping up with the blog." And then I don't. Kind of like when I think, "I should really go to the gym today." And then I don't. Or, "I really should stay away from those delicious homemade chocolate chip cookies." And then I don't. 

So many things have changed with our family in the last few years. The kids are growing up, we've settled into a fairly basic routine of life--work, school, cook/bake, homework, repeat.  I feel that because I don't have a little baby who is hitting a milestones every other week, or some hilarious story to tell about my toddler's cute kid shenanigans, that I really don't have anything to share with anyone anymore. Then I thought a bit more.

I started really noticing how much people were asking me about my cooking, or needed advice about something childhood related or even asking me "how do you do it?" when referring to my crazy schedule. I began to toy with the idea of starting up this blog again with a slightly different tempo and focus. I may not be able to blog about the achievements of my toddlers but I do have a little bit of insight when it comes to managing a household, while working as an ICU nurse full-time. I don't have kids who are teething or learning to crawl but that doesn't mean I'm still not learning how to take care of one teenager, one tween and the caboose kid who sometimes gets a little neglected. I'm well past the diapers and bottle stage but I do have some experience with teaching a young man the responsibilities of treating girls appropriately, talking to my little one about puberty all while baking my own bread and making cleaning products! You're riveted right?

So, this will be a little bit of work stuff (because working in an ICU has it's own story to tell) and a little family related (three kids, need I say more?) with a little sprinkle of cooking and baking thrown in. Mostly, I feel like I've missed the opportunity to take the time to coordinate my thoughts and things that are important to me and put them down on virtual paper.

So here it is.