Our new chore set-up

I've decided recently to encourage and engage the kids in the running of our household. I've decided they are willing and finally ABLE to contribute to some of the cleaning around the house daily. I have pinned several "chore boards" the last while, but none of them seemed to fit our style or suit what I wanted. Most of them were focused on earning money, or reward tickets that after a certain amount they got a toy or prize. This was not the approach I wanted to take with our kids. I find, that despite our best efforts, the "Entitlement Generation" as I like to call it, is creeping into our home as well. I don't want my kids to help around the house with a monetary goal in mind because that is only encouraging selfishness, which in elementary/preschoolers is ever-present and something we are trying to teach them out of. I want them to help around the house because they want to be contributing members of our family and because they feel more confident in themselves as a result. We need to start young, so that by the time they are ready to start their own homes, they have all the skills necessary to run and manage their own homes.....and don't need to call and ask how to make scrambled eggs (Seriously, my sister has done this twice!!!). My goal for my kids (boys and girl) is for them to be able to do all the homemaking skills, I want to be able to say "your welcome" to my sons wives one day, beacause we have trained them to be thoughtful, helpful men!

Anyway, back to the "chores", I hate that word! It brings negative thoughts when you say it, or when completing them. If my own mantra in completing household tasks is Colossians 3:23 - "Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people", than calling them "chores" just doesn't suit me well. I've been wracking my brain the last while trying to come up with an alternative, and finally it came to me....Contributions! That's what my goal is, to have them contribute to the running of the family, so it just makes sense.

Next, I had to come up with a system...Boards, and because my kids can't read yet, pictures it was! I went around the house taking pictures of things that they could do everyday. Everything was ready to create, so I went to Dollarama last night and browsed for supplies I could use....

This is what I found:

These cork tiles came in a 2-pack and they are thin, so I was able to attach them to the wall with pushpins in the corners.

Next I found these:

4-pack of self adhesive clips (I forgot to take the pic before opening). I stuck these clips onto the cork tiles:

Next, I printed a few copies of the pictures I took the other day:

Then, I busted out the Cricut to make the name labels and title area for the boards:

I stuck the names and title onto a piece of black paper, I used my paper trimmer (couldn't live without this). This is mine:

I was really happy with how they looked.

Now it was time to laminate everything. I couldn't imagine my life without my laminator. I have a constant wall file of "to be laminated" stuff...as you can see, I was laminating more then just the stuff for this project. This is the one I have here.

After cutting everything out, it was time to assemble the area. Here is the finished product:

I added a couple of boxes. One for the kids to put completed pictures into, and another for me to store the pictures in. Now, to see if our new system works......

Organization....it's my thing!

I have a confession, I'm an organization junky. I love to organize and find new ways to organize. I am actually known among my friends circle for being extremely organized. They have even asked many times for me to organize their houses, haha.

I like things neat, I like things minimal and would prefer my rooms nearly bare, both of these I have had to give up since having kids. Today, however, I thought I would give some of my organization tips and tricks ;)

First, I love tea. I was introduced to loose leaf tea a couple of years ago. Now, loose leaf entails more then just a box in the cupboard. So, the best I could come up with was to use my turntable cupboard in the corner. I moved the spices that were in there to a drawer, and it was now the perfect cupboard for tea tins!(note: the tins are 2 rows deep)

We don't have a lot of movies/CDs compared to a lot of people, but instead of spending more money on a DVD or CD shelf, we just bought a $50 bookshelf from Walmart and use that.

I had a really stressful time dealing with our front entry way. Coats everywhere, hats, mitts, sunglasses, raincoats, etc. I started with a coat stand, but the kids couldn't reach and they only hold so many. Then, tried hooks on the wall, but there was always too many items and snowpants hung too far and fell off because they were resting on the floor, and there was no place for hats or mitts. This past winter, I finally came up with a solution:

They just throw their stuff in and I put the lid on! Another tip: if your house is like ours, you can never find one of the mitts, they misplace them constantly, so, this past winter I went to Dollarama and bought a bunch of their mitts/gloves (not for playing in the snow) and threw them in the bin - this worked because my kids hands are close enough in size. There were always mitts/gloves to go out! The inside of the bin is a disaster chaos not pretty, but I can handle it because there is a lid and because the kids can access it themselves to get and put away their own stuff. The inside:

Books!!! Books get everywhere! The shelves never stay put together, the kids pull one book off and 6 others come with it. My solution that is working, so far, is book bins. I sorted the books by category, made laminated pics and labelled the bins and put the bins on the bookshelf and it stays organized! The kids take a book and return it to the bin, it works great! Our bookshelf (I should mention, the green bin in front is for our church library books):

Hats! My husband is a hat man. He always wears a hat and has several hats, I couldn't figure out what to do with them....My solution was an over-the-door hook "thingy" haha. It is on the outside of the laundry room door, right by our side door and his wallet and keys. It's hard to see in this pic but there are 4-5 hats per hook.

While we're by the laundry room, I have a few tips for organizing in there. The laundry room is where I keep my cleaning stuff. Long before Pinterest came around I had a few things in place. My most used cleaning bottles are hanging on a towel bar, really accessible to me.

Behind my door in the laundry room is a shoe pocket hanging organizer with all my other cleaning supplies.

Lost socks. I will never understand this phenomenon, but there are many. My solution? A "wanted" board beside the dryer:

Lego, Dude has TONS of Lego. We use the Trofast system from Ikea. It was sorted by colour at one point.

Clothing, don't you find that if you don't see it, you don't wear it? I do. I put our clothes in the drawers so that everything can be seen when you open the drawer. Everyone's drawers in our house are like this:

I also find the best way to store my pants is hanging in the closet, otherwise they take up too much space in my drawers.

With 3 boys, I store a lot of clothes for the next boy to wear. I have tried many ways...bins, but some sizes have more then others, bags but they were hard to stack... Finally, I found an idea that worked! I went to Dollarama and loaded a basket with "under the bed storage bags" they are cheap and some have ripped a bit, but even ripped a little they work great. They stack great in the closet!

A little tip (not life changing at all) I found worked in my bathroom was that rolled towels took up much less space then folded towels:

Lastly, I just want to be clear, I owned this before Pinterest (actually surprised people didn't realize this before Pinterest) I store bed sheets in the pillowcase for that set. Just grab and go! (middle shelf)

Just some of my little notebook tips, enjoy!




For His Glory!

I'm linked up with:

Laundry, Dishes and Mopping....oh my!

I was one of those people who's house was spotless before having my children. I enjoyed cleaning, and my house was so clean I would have to make a mess on purpose or invent something just so I could clean it. Fast forward 6 years and I can barely keep up! My house is "clean" but keeping it "tidy" is a different story. I am constantly picking up toys, books, socks and pieces of food all over the house. I needed to come up with something to keep me on task or I would spend everyday doing this repetitive motion without ever getting to the real cleaning that needed to be done.

A couple of weeks ago there was an e-bundle that a group of homemaking bloggers put together and had on sale for a couple of days. As soon as it was advertised, I was sold. I wanted it! Well, the day came and it was available. The price was really good, but I hesitated for a few minutes....I had to resolve within myself that I couldn't just purchase and download and read this bundle, but that I would actually implement it. I decided that I was going to get more productive with my time, I had too, I was falling behind.

During the beginning of skimming this e-bundle, I also discovered an alternative to the Home Management Binder. This was exciting to me because I have tried more then once to start and use a Home Management Binder and it never worked for me. This new system was perfect for me! It is the File Crate System and I love it! I didn't set up the file folders exactly like she does, but fairly similar with what I wanted to include each week. I found enough free printables online to use and it was very easy to pull together. It works so well for my day-to-day cleaning and homemaking, but also will be very beneficial to our homeschooling scheduling. I am a list person, so this setup is exactly what I needed.

I am able to list what I want to accomplish each day, keep track of it all, have my weekly meal plan, weekly calendar and my weekly blogging schedule (that should keep me regular finally) all in one place. Aaaahhh, I feel functional again!

Housekeeping comes easy to me, I love it, so that is not a huge problem. My problem comes when I just bounce around doing a little bit here and there and not actually finishing anything. Now, though, I have a plan everyday and I make it my mission to check off those little boxes.

I have found the key for me is all about the laundry. I hate laundry! I mean, I do it because I have to, but I would prefer not to have to :) I have to stay on top of the laundry to be successful. I am not the person who can do it all in 1-2 days and be done. I have to do 1-2 loads everyday or I won't bother. I start the load as soon as I come downstairs in the morning, then fold while the kids are playing together. Once they are occupied at the table for lunch, I head upstairs and put it all away. I have tried other methods such as assigning each person a day and doing all their clothes on that day, but if we are not home on one of the days, I am behind and can't catch up easily. This way I just wash everyone's together and your clothes are back in your drawer 12-15 hours after wearing them.

It's funny, but the laundry sets my cleaning *mood* for the day. If I get the laundry done first thing, I just feel more productive. So, the key to it all......is laundry? really? I guess for me, it is.

Since downloading the Homemaking e-bundle I have cleaned and purged my entire kitchen, the junk closet, the downstairs bathroom and what will be our new Schoolroom (I'll share about that tomorrow). I feel good, there is no clutter on our main floor where we spend most of our time, and that takes a lot of the stress away.

A key to completeing these mundane tasks for me is this verse Colossians 3:23 - "Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people." (NLT) I keep this in my head all day and keep thinking it when I get frustrated with doing these tasks. I have a friend/mentor who actually has a white glove that she puts in her pocket whenever she has the wrong attitude as a way to remind herself of who she is serving. I may steal this idea from her, just so I keep remembering why I am doing this.

Well, have to get back to my list and check some more things off.....Colossians 3:23......Colossians 3:23.....Colossians 3:23

For His Glory!