Chore Chart Week: Friday and Summary

It's now Sunday morning, and I have a few minutes (mostly) to myself while Espen plays and Nick gets a rare chance to sleep in, so I thought I'd tell you about how my week went.

On Friday it was time to do the kitchen and living room again. The living room only took about 10 minutes to pick up and dust, which is absolutely an exciting development. Unsurprisingly, the kitchen took a lot longer, and is probably the only room that hasn't gotten faster or easier to clean. Still, I managed to get it presentable in about half an hour, and that was with a grumpy baby in tow. Said grumpy baby is also the reason why I didn't vacuum the living room, because every time I tried to do it, Espen would burst into the world's saddest tears, and after about the third attempt, I decided I would rather snuggle my baby than clean.

Then, when the opportunity arose, we both decided that we would much rather go out to dinner with Nick than mop the kitchen floor, so there.

All in all, I actually really liked assigning different jobs to different days, and felt like it worked quite well for me. I loved how it helped me to not feel so overwhelmed by everything that needs to be done, that I give up before I start. Similarly, knowing that everything had its own day to be done, helped me to not feel guilty about not having done something yet. Yes, I might see that the bathroom could use cleaning on Monday, but that's OK, because I'm going to clean it on Tuesday.

What didn't seem to work so well for me were the days that were less structured. When I was supposed to be cleaning bedrooms, I felt like I was just meandering around between the rooms without actually accomplishing much of what I set out to do. And on the day I had set aside to take care of something "off the list" that needed doing, I did the same vague dabbling. Still, in all fairness to myself, I wasn't feeling too good on either of those days (all better now, thanks!), so getting anything done at all should be counted as a bit of an accomplishment.

I also have to learn to be OK with not getting everything to an absolutely flawless state the first time around. I didn't get our bedroom to where I wanted this time, but I was able to make some pretty significant improvements. If I spend a similar amount of time on it next week, I should be able to make things even better. Progression, not perfection, right?

I have decided to try to keep this schedule up for a while, and see how it works long term. I love that every room in the house has been somewhat improved in the past week, and that it has happened without any major effort on my part. I've only spent up to an hour a day cleaning (and sometimes much less), and that works really, really well when you have a small child to take care of. Or just a busy schedule. Honestly, I could see this being the way to go when we were both working full-time. Testify!

And now I'm going to make pancakes for our breakfast.

Image borrowed here. I wish my cleaning supplies were that pretty!