Lesson 6: Cleaning checklist

If I attempt to live without lists and charts, I tend to either procrastinate or panic.  Generally both. As a means of controlling my panic when I returned home from a week-long trip, I created a chore chart for myself. It sounded more productive than drowning myself in cookie dough.

I used to do this in Microsoft Outlook, and I may return to that in the future.  I got annoyed at the software continually reminding me that I was three weeks behind on cleaning the windows, so I erased my recurring tasks from my calendar & went old-school. If you'd like more info on my Outlook method, please leave me a comment.

Check out the chart!

How to use the chart:

Mark the starting date of each week above the columns. Under the present week, mark the tasks as complete once you've done them. I know, most months don't have 5 full weeks, but I included it so the weekly items can be done in the event that there is an extra week in the month. What a lovely excuse to take a week off from the monthly duties!

The "N" means "no, you don't have to worry about that this week! Take a break, and rest assured that it will get done again soon."

You may giggle at my "minutes to do" column.  I did this for two reasons: 1) my nerdy math-loving self could figure out how much time I spend, on average, doing these household tasks (10 hours/week, not including daily activities like cooking), and 2) I can easily see when I have a task that can be done in the block of time that I have available.

For the weekly tasks, I'll write what day I did them.  This will prevent me from cleaning the bathrooms on both Friday and Monday, when I really could have waited a few more days.

You may need to modify this list, but I hope it serves as a good starting point for you!