Household Chore Charts

I think I originally read about this idea somewhere else, but it has been a wonderful help to me and is reusable which is always great!  I wanted to share with you what I personally use at home to keep up with regular household chores that need to be done.  You can easily make one of these yourself and use it to help keep your home organized and stay on top of your chores.  Here are the two charts I have:

There are several steps to take in making up lists such as these.  You may find that it works better for you to keep such a list in a household notebook, but I have mine up in the kitchen so I see it regularly.  I took my list and laminated it so that I can use a dry-erase marker on it and use the same copy over and over.

1. Make a list of every room in your house, as well as a category for "whole house" and "outside."  (As you can see from my chart, I also added a "finance" category for going over expenses and paying bills).
2. Write down cleaning and general household tasks that need to be done related to each room or area.
3. Mark beside each one how often it would ideally need to be done (daily, weekly, monthly, seasonally).  
4. Prioritize the tasks.  It would be an excellent idea to ask your husband what things on your list are most important to him in keeping up with the household.  You need to mark each task as "necessary" or "desirable."  
5. Transfer all this information to tables in MS Word document.  Use bold print to distinguish the "necessary" tasks from the "desirable" ones. 
6. Print it off, laminate it and put it up somewhere where you will regularly see it.  You could also skip the laminating and plan to print new copies as needed.

As you can see from my lists above, I added some things unique to our household, such as fish tank maintenance and chicken pen cleaning.  You can certainly customize your own list to include any tasks required regularly in your home. 

This list doesn't mean you have to take care of all of these tasks yourself.  I use this list to keep up with the tasks our family has accomplished for the week, month, etc.  My children also help out with some of these chores as they are able, but at the moment my oldest is 5, so they don't do a large amount of chores.  My daughter helped create a chore chart for herself which includes some personal care as well as some household responsibilities she helps with.  We simply make new copies of hers, as it is not laminated.  Here is her chart:

The "necessary" versus "desirable" task differentiation is really helpful, especially during certain seasons of life (such as a new baby in the house) or when you just have "one of those days."  This chart provides for some flexibility as it doesn't designate a specific day for the weekly chores or a specific time for the daily chores.  If  you require more structure, you can certainly work that in.  I personally find it helpful to allow for the flexibility as I find that some days I have more time to devote to household chores than others.

If you're having difficulty keeping up with things or are simply in need of more structure in keeping your household, I'd encourage you to try out making your own charts and see how it could work for you and your family.  Also, if you have any great ideas related to home organization and management, please share them here.  Leave me a link and/or your comment!