Here is another post in the series titled – Family Organization. This simple series emphasises organizing for families. Whether you have one or 10 kids you will find easy to implement solutions that will help to keep your family humming along! If you haven’t seen a post on this topic yet, you can go to this page and look at the others posts.
So, we have had a really calm fall so far, and one of the biggest reasons is due to our new family focus that we lovingly refer to as “The Blitz”. This simple solution has transformed our weekends, and consequently our weeks too.
I’m a happy momma.
Let me explain…
I used to have different chores that were assigned to each of my kids on different afternoons during the weekdays. As much as I tried to work around all of the after school activities and sports, not to mention the half days and no school days, it seemed that we never had a very solid week where all of the chores would actually get completed. It worked OK, but I felt like the cleaning list was never really getting checked off, especially before a new week would start.
The other part that was causing me stress, was the fact that over the weekends our home turned into a party house. Every room I would go into tended to have a lot of chaos. It was as if everyone finished their week and then let their hair down (or in this case all their “stuff” down). It really made me not really enjoy the two days with everyone home – of course I enjoyed “them” just not all of their STUFF and MESS! 🙂
It felt very unsettled, and frankly it just wasn’t working for us…
Enter in the solution!!!
The kids now only have two chores to do during the week. They pack their lunches daily and do their laundry on their designated weekday. Then everything else (chore wise) is taken care of during our Family Hour of Power! OR what we refer to as “The Blitz”. We now do a one hour blitz on either Saturday or Sunday every weekend (just depending on what the weekend has in store).
It works great!
We bring out all of the cleaning supplies and we start upstairs and move on from there. Everyone is responsible for cleaning their own bathroom and bedroom. Then they pitch in and help in other rooms as needed and as directed. It’s amazing how much five people can get done in an hour! Truly, many hands make light work!
I don’t know why we didn’t do this sooner. I highly recommend this approach. It could even be as simple as a 30 minute sweep where everyone drops what they’re doing to help tidy and put things away. (That can often be what takes just as much time as cleaning.) The more you pull together as a family team the more you can stay on top of the chaos.
I can attest to this first hand and can now say I REALLY enjoy the weekends, there is not so much “stuff” lying around! So use your weekends for an occasional or regular blitz and you’ll be a happy too!
*KISS – Many hands make light work!
TELL ME: What is the best tip you have for getting your family to team clean?
