Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Organizing is Just Another Chore

A trip to the store with the upscale cardboard boxes and frilly coat hangers was supposed to inspire me to get organized. It didn’t work. Not even the expandable spice rack tempted me.

We do at least have a way of dealing with dreaded household chores. Eight of the chores that ought to be done weekly in a civilized household get divvied up. Two chores per week shouldn’t be too much to gripe about. We rotate, so no one gets stuck scrubbing toilets more than once a month.


To help keep track of whose turn it is to do what, we write the tasks on a dry erase board. Sure, it sounds a little stringent, but it helps keep peace. Under each of our names is plenty of leftover space to indicate whether we’ve done our chores for the week.


There’s been some evolution in how we mark off our completed chores. In the beginning, a checkmark or a simple ‘x’ sufficed. Things have changed. Let’s take a look at this week’s chart.


Here’s how my husband filled in his space:



Two little piggies…one for each chore! Don’t they look jaunty? I’ll bet that’s because they don’t have to live in a pig sty.

Now here’s my entry:


Oh, yes, you can tell who the artist is in this house. Those are supposed to be mice. I think the cleaning fumes got to me.

Moving on to my daughter’s space:


Wait a minute. I know she did her chores – I saw her sashaying about with a bottle of window cleaner. I hope she put more effort into the chores then she did in checking them off.

And finally, my son’s input:


I think he has some issues he’d like to take up with the management.

21 comments:

Rebecca Ramsey said...

Hilarious!
You all are a creative bunch! I love the whiteboard chore chart idea. I may have to try that.
Thanks!

LW said...

What a fun family…
I bet your family keeps you laughing all of the time.

I am very impressed that you can get your son to scrub the toilet…
I would have to resort to that last sketch to get my son to do that chore.

Louise

ICQB said...

How funny! I'm going to put our old whiteboard to use again...

PJ Hoover said...

You are cracking me up!
The piggies are adorable. I think even I could draw those now that I see how!

Anonymous said...

Your son has a fantastic sense of humor! Holy organization!

Brenda said...

LOL...If he didn't have toilets this week, I would hate to see what he would draw for finishing that chore...grin...Hugs...

Helen said...

Absolutely gorgeous! I love kids' sense of humour. Looks like something my son would do. I see your daughter already knows the "art of looking like your busy". The ol' spray bottle and cloth works every time!!!!
I also love the quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr - such wisdom!

Kelly Polark said...

Funny, funny, funny!!!!
We have a whiteboard too for chores, but the adults write a tally down for each point the kids get. (But it actually hasn't been in use for a while, we've been using this system for a year and a half, so the kids just tell me what they did and count up the points. I should now let my kids make silly pics on the whiteboard!

Adrienne said...

Becky - Those white boards are great! I have another one that's a calendar. It's supposed to help keep me sane, but everyone draws all over that one, too...

Louise - We do laugh a lot! Sometimes it surprises me, considering all the squabbling I hear - but I consider myself lucky for having a good laugh every day!

ICQB - Yes, dust off that white board! I really should use them more - in case it's not obvious, I'm not that organized... :D

PJ - Aren't the piggies great? He draws some awesome doggies, too! :)

Green Girl - Yep, he's pretty funny - and often too irreverant. He might have a future as a shock jock.

Brenda - Believe it or not, he doesn't mind that chore! (With enough cleanser and the right tools, I guess it's pretty easy).

Helen - Oh, yes - the art of looking busy! How funny. I've known people who know just how to stay in constant motion, and never really accomplish anything... :D

Kelly - It's definitely changed over time - we used to have more of a point/reward system when the kids were little. Now it's more like, do it because I said so! The least I can do it let them express themselves!

Ara Burklund said...

Too cute! Thanks for the giggle! : )

Lily Cate said...

Ha!
Very nice.
Us grown ups still get stuck doing too many chores around here- the five year old tires out too quickly ;)

Unknown said...

A family that works together - at least evident on the chalk board! real arty too:))

Angela said...

yeah like he has to scrub the floor and she the windows?

love the art and I could tell they were mice.

Now I know why our chores are neglected. 2 per week seems easier to work with. We have ours listed on our screen saver with everyone's name - dog walking / animal feeding / study & practice schedules....

...and we mostly ignore it...

sigh...life is too busy sometimes!

sruble said...

Ha! Hahahahahahaha! I LOVE it!

Maybe if we had a chore board, things would get done around here, so we could be civilized too. Me thinks that DH would be ignoring the chart like your daughter by the first week, but hey, we did get laundry done the other night!

Your son's response is excellent, and I like the piggies and mice!

Adrienne said...

Ara - :)

Lily - At that age they usually like helping, but the chores wind up taking even longer...

Keats - We don't exactly whistle while we work, but at least we try to have fun.

Angela - We all forget to look at the calendar with the all the schedules and appointments on it. Yeah, it kind of defeats the purpose...

Stephanie - It'd be easier if we all had the exact same tolerance for mess. :)

MG Higgins said...

These are great! You have a very talented (and hard-working) family. And I love the idea of a chores board--it really helps keep things organized.

AudreyO said...

When I read the title "organizing" I had to read the post. My daughter's friend came over last week. He hated how my cabinet looked. He organized the whole thing. The next day when I saw it, I was blown away. He did an awesome job. For some reason he hasn't been back since LOL

Adrienne said...

MG - I wouldn't go as far as to say our house is organized - more like bearable, anyway!

Audrey - That's a funny story. I wish someone would pop in and reorganize my cabinets!

Rena Jones said...

OMG -- LMAO!

Mary Witzl said...

Hang on: you walked past an EXPANDABLE SPICE RACK? I've never seen one of these and now I just know I have to have one! I'm the only one in the family who tries to keep the spices in any kind of order. I'll bet one of those would keep my cardamom from getting swallowed up by cocoa and balsamic vinegar.

Love the pigs and mice. And I'm trying to guess what your son's beef was: too much vacuuming? He'd fit right in here.

Adrienne said...

Hi, Rena!

Mary - I've never held any hope of getting my spices in order, but now you've got me thinking...

Before you get too excited, I think it was more of an expandable tiered shelf for spices. I think I need one that holds them in - they have a way of wandering off.