chores:dirty dozen

I've been struggling to keep up with the housework lately. B's been on uni holidays and I think, in my head, my justification was that if I'm going to work 40hours a week and he has zero commitments, then he could be responsible for washing up, cooking dinner and sweeping the floors. Whether this is a reasonable expectation or not, he's back at uni now and in our house that counts as a full time job - if you treat it like one. We're back on even footing and somehow I have to start fitting in chores again.

Browsing Pinterest the other day, something I seem to be doing less of lately, I found a link to this post from the Backwoods Housewife. She explains that sometimes it all just falls apart and that to stay on top of things she has what she calls the "dirty dozen." A list of 12 things that if she gets done in a day, the household is less likely to spontaneously combust leaving, behind traces of dirty washing, dishes and floors. When I found her list I immediately got up from the computer and started at the top. Somehow, not knowing what was coming next was the motivation to get through the chore I was completing. That and an audiobook playing on my iPod. I was almost (I'm not quite that weird!) excited to find out which part of my house I would be tackling next. Given that I have no kids and had no interruptions - within an hour this list had made a massive difference.

I've made up my own list, with a few changes (no kids here!) and plan to print it out, slip it into a plastic sleeve and use a whiteboard marker to work my way through the week. Maybe I'll even get B to participate. Although it's more than likely that he'll knock back my 57th attempt at motivating myself and tell me instead to just clean the house. We're living proof that opposites attract.

You should be able to right click and "save image as" (or the Mac equivalent) then print for your own use.

Day twenty-three : make it easy to see progress