Daily Orginzational Helps

Last Fall I read a post on The Daily Digi about making life easier. One thing she talked about was Motivated Moms a printable e-book chore calendar/ planner. At that time my life seemed so crazy that even that didn't seem like it was going to help or simplify my life. At the end of this year I thought about it again and scoured the blog to find the link. They have a full sized and half sized sample that you can download. I used the sample for a week to see if it would fit our lives. The nice thing is that if you download both samples, you can see three sample weeks (even though it is January) to get an idea of what different things are on different weeks. What I liked about it is that it has things you may only do once a month or every couple months like cleaning your toaster or cleaning your living room windows. I have trouble doing the extra things that keep a home nice. It also separates tasks like you clean your toilet one day, clean the bathtub another (actually they only have this every other week but that doesn't work with us with kids!) and wipe out the bathroom sinks daily. Because some days I can't do the different chores listed or I add things (like mop the kitchen, entry and bathroom instead of just the kitchen), I actually use this as a weekly master list and then I use Simple Mom's pocket docket (this is two on a page-- she does have a full sized daily docket). You can read more about how she uses her daily docket here. I take my weekly chore planner each night and write on my docket what I plan to do the next day. If I didn't get something done for that day on the planner, I move it to the next day. Simple Mom advises to not have more than 10 things on your daily to-do list and to choose 1-3 Most Important Things (MITs) that if nothing else gets done those get done. I have used the chore planner for the past month and the daily docket the past couple weeks and it really helps. I'm not the type to be a slave to a to-do list, but it helps me remember what I need to do and not chase rabbits and do other things that don't HAVE to be done that moment. If it's a busy week, I only do the basics and not the extras -- but I like having the extras on there so that hopefully they'll get done the next time they are listed. It also helps Jacob if he has a free moment to check the list and choose something he can help do. I hope these little tools may help you manage your home a little easier too!