Taking Back My House

Despite my deepest wishes, I do NOT have a million dollars. As a direct result, I am unlikely to get a housekeeper anytime soon.

I do, however, have three perfectly capable children.

What I don’t have is a good system. I have floundered and fumbled my way through trying to work out a rhythm, and I just tend to end up frustrated.

I also have an X-Box that my aforementioned children are driving me nuts over. It becomes a battle and a half every day to make sure they do SOMETHING useful before they play. Once we’ve hit a point where they get to play, then we’re going to argue about how LONG they get to play.

I’m sure this is not just my house. (I hope. Please, tell me it’s not just my house. Even if you have to lie, dang it, tell me it’s not just my house.)

So, I spent half the day today playing around on Pinterest, where I found some cool chore charts. And I downloaded printables. I read instructions. And finally? I decided that none of what I was finding was really going to work for me.

We have some “static” chores – the everyday things that the kids need to do. Then we have some household chores that I’m more relaxed about – they need to be done, but I don’t care who does them.

So? They’re worth points. And the points can be exchanged for playing time. The kids have to do the “static” chores to earn any points, but once those are done, nothing is holding them back! Each point is worth 10 minutes of playing time, and some chores are worth more points than others. Easy chores, like dust off the TV, those are 1 point chores. Wiping down the bathroom sink is 2 points, sweeping the floor is 3 points.

We’re going to see how this goes, but to get things started, here are a couple of quick photos of what I put together :

Keep your fingers crossed that this works! If When it does, I’ll give you more details on how I put my chore system together!