With my post the other day about toy clutter and clutter in general, I wonder what routines other parents (and non-parents) have.

There are way too many times that the weekends are for cleaning and we don’t have much time to do family stuff or get beyond the normal housework. I have never liked to clean and used to have a lot of trouble letting go of stuff. When I finally decided to make a change, and started to get rid of clutter I realized how much easier it was to take care of the house and how much better I felt.

I used to have a great routine at keeping on top of things but things happened, pregnancy, change of routine etc and that routine went out the window and the house became messy again. Of course, the more messy the house is, the less motivated I become and the cycle continues…

Now I am getting back into a routine…

I never got into Flylady (she lost me at wearing shoes in the house… to me that is a great insult) but one thing that I do think helps in keeping up a good routine is for the sink to be clean. When the sink is clean, the rest of the kitchen naturally follows. I hate to get the sink dirty again so I keep on top of things and the more I do so, the less daunting the task becomes and it only takes a few minutes to get things back in order. Because the kitchen is so central to the home, when that is done it feels easier to do the rest and it too naturally follows. Then I have time to do some of the “extras”…

Having kids in the house all the time of course can make thing harder because mess gets created often faster then it can be cleaned up. But they are also a great help and when they work together it goes quite quickly. We don’t do “chores” per say, but, everyday the kids have the job of cleaning up the stuff on the floor, and I follow behind with the broom, sweeper or mop. After eating, they put their dishes away and then all I need to do is clean up the table. I also ask them to help clean off the counters, put things back where they belong etc. I have also been asking them to head downstairs before supper and clean up the playroom/their room before we eat. I don’t see these things as “chores” and they don’t see the as chores… it is just part of being a family and having so many people live together.

Though I don’t put housework above the family, I do realize that when the housework is done, we are more inclined to just do stuff together.  I also feel that when it is all done there is just less choas in general (or maybe I am just more patient) and that makes things just run more smoothly.

It takes time and effort to keep a routine in place but I really think that it is worth it…

What is your routine? How do you get it all done? Do your kids help out? Have chores? I want to know!