”Evan housework done incorrectly blesses your family.” -Flylady
Work is love made visible.
What do you do when you are tired, DO NOT want to work anymore yet you have piles of dirty dishes to get through? How do you set a good example for your children of serving with love and most importantly, peace? How do you teach your children and motivate them to help around the house? How do you avoid the trap of being a martyred, nagging wife to your spouse?
Quite a while ago I sought the answers to how to keep house effectively and efficiently while working and raising children. I found a lot of answers with the flylady 🙂 but still struggled with motivation and attitude. Well, who am I kidding. I still struggle with this. But I found a way that really, really helps and I know a lot of other people found it too, but maybe you need some ideas. So here we go!
As soon as you can start to implement things that can help you be proactive not reactive. I find that this is the way to peace. Have a plan. Let’s get started!
-Keep a physical family calendar on your fridge where everyone can see it. EVERYTHING goes on here from sports stuff to conferences to what you planned for dinner for each night. This is your brain, let it remember stuff! We use a different color for each member of the family. We use Amy Knapp’s Family calendar on Amazon. Its cheap and big enough for everything!
-Keep a shopping list on the fridge too. As soon as you run low on anything in the house write it down. When its time to go to the store snap a pic with your phone!
-Pick a day to make lunches or meals ahead of time. Buy containers so you have enough for lunches through the week. We rotate through family favorites for lunches. I typically cook on Sunday. They are stored in the fridge and take so much stress out of the week. They can even be dinner in a pinch.
-Every day make it one child’s job to unload the dishwasher and dish drainer and one child’s job to load it.
-Have children help with meal prep and cooking. They will enjoy this! My husband is an amazing cook and he has been teaching our kids since they were about 10-12 years old how to cook. I am very blessed to have him. He usually cooks dinner while I clean the kitchen and wash up.
-Make it someone’s big family chore to mop the kitchen floor once a week. (I call doing bathrooms, vacuuming upstairs and down main areas, and sweeping and mopping the kitchen and bathroom floors my three big family chores. They are rotated through so that each child learns to do these things well. And each child does only 1 big chore per week and I do the other. Daddy is in charge of the yard and vehicle chores.)
-Everyone helps run the ship. You no work, you no eat! It truly does take everyone’s help! You should never shoulder it all. If you are, stop and teach, even if you think they know it, then hold them accountable.
-Try, as hard as you can to go to bed with your sink clean and the dishes done. There will be days when you can’t but try for more than you think you can. Its a gift to yourself when you get home from work and can start dinner without having to clean up the kitchen first!
-Clean as you go when cooking!
-As soon as dinner is done everyone helps clean up.
-Once you turn 12 you do your own laundry. I don’t mind helping in a pinch, and sometimes I’ll do it as a surprise, but my kids are gonna know how to take care of themselves!
Alrighty. That is the nitty gritty. Now the HARDEST part. My attitude. Ugh. Caffeine helps. Music and podcasts really help. Depending on the mood I’m in is what I pick! If I’m quietly washing through the pots and pans at the end of the evening its a podcast. If the entire kitchen is a disaster its music! I don’t want to be angry about cleaning I want to have fun! Music and dancing while I work are the key! Here’s my spotify playlist for “Dancing in the Kitchen” its VERY varied! Lol Hubs and I joke that we have the playlists of a serial killer. We love most music so there it is!
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1B5u8Hyb21P8whXK0DUoHc?si=5YCnOfeYRZ6uq5EBNW-L9Q
I have a set of old but good computer speakers on top of my fridge and I plug my phone into the headphone jack with an adapter and then its dancing time!
Here’s the catch about getting your family to help. Make it fun! Reward them if you have to. Have fun doing chores together. Model for them how you take care of your own attitude with music or podcasts or maybe a movie or tv show to help get through. Play a game of doing the work and DO NOT be a perfectionist ever! If its good enough its good enough. It will get cleaned again next time!
What works in my home right now is planning for movie night every weekend (we’ve done this since before Covid). The kids know we need to get all the laundry and big chores done (and whomever’s turn it is needs to get their dessert cooked) before we can start. This is a very big motivator for my older kids! They know as soon as everything is done we will have a snack/dessert dinner get some pop to drink and settle down with our pjs to watch a movie together. Its great!
Cool Mint Le Creuset!
With Kitchen dances to you from Kansas Street,
-Jaime
Life on Kansas Street 