Chore Chart Woes

Something I find myself thinking/talking about a lot (especially to my hubby, Nate) is the issue of keeping our house clean.

Just last night, I was talking to Nate about how frustrated I was that I clean something, like the bathroom, and as soon as one of our boys uses the bathroom it needs to be cleaned...again.  Or, take our kitchen floor, for example.  Right after we sweep, we eat, and the floor needs to be swept again.  It's a never-ending process.  I always have laundry to do, dishes to wash, bedrooms to clean, surfaces to dust, and shoes to put away.  I get frustrated because I want everything to be organized and look like those beautifully, clean living rooms in the magazines.  You know, the ones with the perfectly stacked books and a large (very breakable) glass vase on top of the coffee table?

So, I rant and rave to my dear husband and he listens, calmly reminds me, "this is life," and then he makes us this chore chart...

This is not something that he really sees as an issue because, in his eyes, our house looks good the majority of the time (except for the tub - it gets washed every day when we take showers right??), but he hears me complaining about it enough and is enough of a systematic, analytical, engineering type that he wants to present a solution to the problem at hand:  A chore chart.  I, on the other hand, am more spontaneous.  I'm not always very systematic or analytical and therefore have always had problems following any sort of chore chart for myself or our children.

It's not that I don't enjoy these types of ideas.  On the contrary, I get all excited when I read about how to organize my life and even go so far as to type up a very pretty, colorful list of important things I should do on each day of the week.  I put that orderly list on the refrigerator or in a "Home Management" binder (something I made in a frenzy of excitement and then quickly abandoned.  ahem.) and...look at it...a lot.  Then, I find myself cleaning something else that isn't on my list of things to do that day.  I eventually realize that I am not following the chart and out it goes.

So, will this chart work?  I wonder.  Maybe it will because I didn't make it.  Or maybe I'd better realize that a chart will not work unless I work to follow the chart.  Not for following the chart's sake, but for the sake of my sanity (because what I'm doing now isn't working so well), my children (because it's important for them to learn how to do work and do it well), and Nate (because he gets kinda tired of hearing me complain about the housework).

This new, not so pretty or colorful chore chart is on our refrigerator right where the kids and I can look at it every day. 

At least today is Friday.  There's nothing on the chore chart for today, so I'm doing great so far!  

And, just because they're cute, here are some pictures of the kids.  :)