Mediocre Housekeeping

I find it very hard to motivate myself to clean much beyond what's absolutely necessary, but on the other hand, I feel so much better when the house is not a cluttered, toy-strewn, dusty place.  We have always made the boys responsible for at least cleaning up their toys and dirty laundry.  At times they have also earned privileges or wages for doing other jobs around the house.

As they get older, one of them in particular is difficult to motivate.  My strong-willed-child.  It's so weird that from age 2-4, he was fairly compliant and made messes out of toddlerhood's carelessness.  I might be remembering it wrong, but it seems like all of a sudden he started deliberately leaving things around.  Walk in the door?  Drop my coat and bag directly in front of it while I pull off my shoes, then leave it all there.  Finish eating?  Walk away, leaving my plate and cup on the table even though the counter/sink is just a 180 degree swivel from my seat.  I don't know what happened.

But I digress.  As the kids have gotten older, the house is messier.  Add a soon-to-be-walking little sister to the mix and you've got me panicking about what to do before I go crazy.

I find it very hard to start new habits and stick with them.  I can do really well for a few days, maybe even a couple of weeks, but then... Miss a day here, miss two days there, and I'm back to square one.

So this is going to be an on-going experiment.  Will I stick with it?  God willing!  I hope that not only will my efforts be more coordinated and efficient, but that maybe, just maybe, leading by example will give the kids a little motivation as well.

To that end, I am using Money Saving Mom's customizable Daily Cleaning Checklist.  I got most of the items for it from her own version of the checklist, which includes items to do every day, then specific items for each day of the week, as well as monthly and biannual items.  The customizable version also has an area for items to do every 3 months.  I am a major fan of lists, because I am a major forgetter.  I also don't enjoy the heck out of cleaning, so this could be a good thing for me.  I am really tired of never being able to catch up to the mess.

If I make it to 3 months, I'll let you know.  I have 2 items on my Thursday list.  Starting small!