Household chores list

Was it this? I have a whole page I copied and pasted. :)

The Daily 7 for a Highly Successful Household
February 24, 2009 by Stephanie
Ah, chores. They are such a necessary evil. As I mentioned in my Clean Less, Play More post: I don’t like to clean. Instead, I choose to do a tiny bit each day to ensure that I never waste a day cleaning house when I could be out conquering the world.
Or answering email.
Our family has a list of chores that we try our best to accomplish daily. Now that the kids are old enough to help, they do. When I am sick or am away from the house, the kids and Adam step up and help maintain order in the house.
Sort of.
We’re still real people, and we don’t live in a museum. I’m not going to lead you astray and say that I make sure the following tasks occur each and every day no matter what. I might burst into flames.
and the smoke detector started beeping last week and I haven’t replaced the batteries yet…
I came up with this Daily 7 after reading the Stephen Covey books. (I told you I liked to read personal development books!) I like how Covey breaks down complex tasks into 7 steps—not too many to get overwhelmed, but not too few that nothing gets accomplished.

Number 1: Make Beds Right Away
Number 2: Do One Complete Load of Laundry
Number 3: Empty All Garbage Cans
Number 4: Keep Your Kitchen Sink Empty
Number 5: Clean Up After Yourself and Help Children Do the Same
Number 6: Bathroom Wipe-Down
Number 7: Before Bed 10-Minute Clean Up

I have outlined all of these steps in the Totally Together Book in detail, but really they are quite self-explanatory.

Make Beds Right Away
The second you climb out of bed in the morning, make it. It’s such a wonderful feeling to have accomplished something at 6am. Teach your children to do the same—if beds are made daily, they don’t get destroyed as easily, and it really takes less than a minute to pull a sheet taught and straighten the comforter. If you haven’t already done so, streamline your bed linen to the bare essentials. There’s no need for 50 decorative pillows or an elaborate stuffed animal collection. Really.

Do One Complete Load of Laundry
A complete load means one that is washed, dried, folded, and put away. I’m not trying to be mean; I’m trying to be realistic. It is no fun to save all the laundry for one day a week and not be able to leave the house. Do a little each day, and you will no longer waste away a beautiful afternoon because you are stuck inside tackling a mountain of clothing. I hate ironing, but have found that if I iron clothes while slightly damp I save a ton of time.

Empty All Garbage Cans
On our honeymoon, Adam promised he would empty the garbage cans every single day without being asked. This hasn’t happened. It actually kind of pisses me off. Instead, the kids help with the wastebaskets in the bathrooms and their bedroom, and I take out the kitchen garbage every morning after emptying the dishwasher. If I fill it again during the day, I put it right in the middle of the kitchen with the recycleables and hope Adam trips over it. I’m kind of mean like that.

Keep Your Kitchen Sink Empty
I don’t know what it is, but if you put something, anything, into the sink, other pieces of flatware are magically drawn to it and all of a sudden the sink is completely filled and rendered useless. Instead, take the time to put your dirty items into the dishwasher right away, or wash the item quickly by hand. It really doesn’t take that long. Just do it.

Clean Up After Yourself and Help Children Do The Same
My friend Alison homeschools her nine children. I love Alison. I met her before having children of my own, and she is hands-down my mommy idol. She shared with me once that the secret to parenting is to remember that your goal is to raise capable adults. Chores are not only okay, they are necessary. Model good behavior for your children. Take the time to put your shoes all the way into the closet and hang up your coat. Once you are putting your own things away, your children will be more likely to follow suit.

Bathroom Wipe-Down
This is my favorite. I keep a container of disinfectant wipes in the bathroom, and wipe down the toilet (inside and out) every day. If it’s been a particularly um, busy day—I will do it twice. This keeps me from never having to scrub out the toilet with one of those scrubber brush things that I find beyond disgusting. I also quickly wipe down the shower stall and bathroom floor. After showering, use an item from the dirty clothes pile to dry the shower walls and door. This will keep mold and soap scum from accruing. Now use your damp item to quickly mop up the bathroom floor. Dust and hair will disappear and will keep you from needing to mop.

Before Bed 10-Minute Clean Up
Before retiring for the night, do a super quick once over the living spaces of your house. Recycle the magazine left on the coffee table, and stack leftover drinking glasses in the dishwasher. Put the couch cushions in order, and fold the blanket. You will wake up much happier each morning if you aren’t greeted to last night’s mess.

AandCsmum wrote: The clean sink one is such a hard habit to break! Trick is to make sure dishwasher is empty or filling with dirty dishes

This is my problem too And I dont usually empty it till late afternoon when I start dinner

Now i was all for making the bed as soon as you get out of it but then i read that bed bugs bread in the warmth of morning made beds and that you should leave your covers pulled back until afternoon and then make the bed so it airs as well    I love useless information that means i can justify being lazy hehehe although in saying that most days i do have the bed made early

ok what are bedbugs??? Now im paranoid. I hate bugs and spiders etc too

Im loving the bathroom one, its so hard to keep ours clean. Especially the sink etc because of DPs grubby hands the sink always gets dirty.

Reading that actually made me want to rush off and clean my house. Wow crazy

Babe wrote: I just keep microfibre cloths in the bathroom to wipe everything down with. I also use a toilet brush but it sits in disinfectant.

Same!

I have different jobs for different days that way it dosen't end up all needing to be done at once. Then I'm only spending half an hour tops doing something per day (apart from the ususaly day to day)

Oh and I soo reccomend bying a good quaility euro cloth, cleaning is so much easier with one, especially windows, it takes literally seconds to wipe windows clean of dog nose and kid prints and leaves them streak free. Eliminates the need for a billion different types of spray and wipes, too.
Euro cloths are also great for wiping down joinery and light coloured ktichen cupboards etc that show up marks quickly but are hard to clean.

I also reccomend that if you don't want to do the natural products thing (and I don't) Ditch all those stupid spary and wipe things, they are a waste of time and aren't really that good. Althogh I do use the pine o clean apple one cos I love the smell, I use it on my bench daily, but thats all.

Jif (less than $3) or any other creme cleaner may require a bit more "elbow grease" (and if you have a silver lady scourer thats not a scourer it isn't that hard) but the results are so much better, you get rid of that film that you get from sprays, works really well on soap scum and build up and shines up your sinks and taps really well. I do have shower power that I use sometimes, but really, at $10 a pop, its very expensive when I find the results from Jif might take a bit longer but look just as good if not better. I also clean the shower while I am in there, scrubbing it etc, saves time then I also get a longer hot shower.
I use nothing but my euro cloth on my windows, glass surfaces and kitchen cabinets. They all get a wipe down daily. Bins get santised weekly.
I use Ajax or dininfectant or whatever you would clean your floor with (but not when I am doing the floor or have doen or about to, I use it seperatly) to do the loo or other surfaces (once again negating the need for spray and wipe) just a little bit in hot water and a cloth and away you go.

I use ceramic oven top protectant on my shower doors, this keeps the soap build up away for longer

usually I do a vaccuum on monday and sheet change
Tuesday I mop the floor and do bathroom/loo
Wed vaccuum and tidy elves bedrooms
Thurs grocery day so nothing tidy/wipe out pantry and fridge
Friday vaccuum
Sat noting
Sunday ironing

Um Im not sure its a micro fibre colth, I have one of those too, but it's different material. I got it at noel leemings for cleaning my stainless fridge, oven dishwaser etc as it gets rid of fingerprints etc and is streak free. Cost me about $25, but well worth it. The brand is actualyl called eruo cloth but I know briscoes sells a similar one called magic cloth mitre 10 might do it too. Sooo worth it, I cannot tell you how good it is!

THANKS!!
That was the list!
I've been making my bed everyday (apart from today - it was full of folded up washing!) since I first read this!

Gonna print it out and stick it up now so I can remember the other things!