Chore Chart update,,,

Well, its been a month since the implemenation of our detailed chore chart. And I'm cautiously optimistic that it is working. Well. For the most part.

Its new home on the wall between the living room and the hallway.

Sure there are some gaps. For my own part, I have never managed to make it through all of my "daily" tasks. Or my weekly tasks. I, in fact, haven't dusted a thing since I put the chore chart up last month. And my "zones" are sadly lacking in movement, too. For the two weeks that I had the Kitchen card hanging up, I managed to move the stove and fridge out and wash the floor underneath them. That's it. I still haven't cleaned the oven. And the living room card has now been hanging for two weeks. I steamcleaned the carpets (with our cheap Bissell... it's not great but it's better than nothing). And that's it. So the detailed cleaning tasks are not really working too well. But the day to day stuff that I used to have to nag and plead with people to do, well, those things appear to be getting better.

Here's how I know this.

• I have washed three loads of laundry this weekend. That is it! I'm not sure where the rest of it is. I looked under the beds and on the bathroom floor but it's not there. The kids have been putting their laundry in the hamper before bed every night as one of their chores. And I've been emptying those into the washer whenever they get full, rather than letting it all pile up for Saturday. For some reason, it seems to have kept the amount of laundry at bay. I guess it's true that a load or two every day or two, keeps the pile under control.
  
  


• The last time I was in the boys' room picking up toys was three weeks ago. I walked in there in the dark last night and I didn't step on anything sharp and painful. I didn't step on any laundry, either! The room looks great! Yes, it's colourful, crowded, and haphazard. But it is also tidy! As tidy as one can expect a 6-year old and a 4-year old with differing abilities to keep it.




(Kirstin's room still looks like a tornado hit it. She's not so good at putting her toys away. Although I suspect that the boys might be contributing to that, as they seem to be playing more in her room, in order to maintain order in theirs.)





• I vacuumed the carpet yesterday. I didn't have to spend an hour picking stuff up before doing so. I just plugged in the vacuum and started vacuuming.

There are definitely some surface areas that need organizing (my catch-all-the-crap-that-comes-into-the-house desk in the far corner, and the piano that's covered in Alex's school papers) and you can clearly see the two loads of CLEAN laundry that have yet to be folded, but really, this is totally a liveable living room!




• 
  
  I swept the floor yesterday, too. Same thing. Didn't take me an hour to pick up crayons, paper, half-eaten food... laundry. I just swept it.

There's still a long way to go, of course. I'm not claiming this house is spotless. I will probably never be able to claim that. As I sit at this computer I'm facing all the dust (I hate dusting) that has settled on the desk, I can see evidence that we are never going to live in a show home. I see the pile of recycling on the kitchen floor that has yet to make it out to the carport. There is a pair of pyjamas discarded on the floor where Connor got dressed just a few minutes ago. There are crayon marks on the walls and the water cooler. There are cobwebs, scuffs, and fingerprints on almost every surface of this house. There's a stuffed dog in the middle of the kitchen table. A pair of shoes on the carpet and not on the shoe rack. Et cetera, et cetera.

But this weekend, for some reason, I don't care. I feel much more relaxed this weekend than I have in a while. I've decided to meet this family halfway, and accept liveable. We have clean underwear and clean dishes. Our house definitely looks lived in. I'd probably still run around with a bottle of lemon cleanser and a rag if someone called me up and said, "We're coming for a visit, we'll be there in an hour". (And a laundry hamper to stash all the clutter in our bedroom). But it doesn't look like a pigsty. And three days into this lacklustre (wet!!!) Canada Day weekend, I can probably calculate that I've spent about 3 hours doing housework (that's over 3 days). So whether this is a fluke or not, I have not spent 2 days busting my butt trying to clean this place up so that I can go back to work.

I'd say that's progress!