[2022-06-18] Household chores schedule

In early May, I was texting with my son to share tips for cleaning his apartment and sent him an infographic called How to keep a clean home. It provided a schedule of chores to do every day, week, month and season. I thought it was a brilliant idea.

A few weeks later, I sat down with the infographic and decided to make my own version of a Household Chores List. I identified tasks to be completed daily, weekly, biweekly (every 2 weeks), monthly, quarterly and biannually (every 6 months).

The next step was scheduling everything into my Google Calendar. I opted for Reminders (as opposed to Tasks or Events) and set all of them for 8:00 AM. The advantage of this approach is that Google Calendar groups all reminders with the same time under a single heading, which helps to keep my Calendar looking tidy and my commitments less daunting.

For each activity, I set the frequency it repeats: every 1 week (weekly), every 2 weeks (biweekly), every 4 weeks (monthly), every 12 weeks (quarterly) and the first day of July and January (biannually). I didn't add daily activities to my calendar, as these have become routine and therefore not easily forgotten. For example, the first thing I do when it's time to clean up after breakfast is grab a fresh dish cloth and sanitize my kitchen sponge.

As I complete each activity, I mark it as done, which—on my phone—is as easy as swiping the reminder away. Finished chores then appear in a group under the heading "reminders completed," which is great because I love keeping track of what I've accomplished each day. Even better, reminders that are not marked as done today automatically move to tomorrow. This is helpful because on those days that I don't get everything done, I know that these reminders will come back the next day, without my having to manually move them forward.

Why a household chores schedule works for me

It's now been three weeks since I started using my household chores list, long enough to know that it's a winning system with many advantages.

  1. I no longer need to make daily decisions on the chores I'm going to do. By doing the thinking at the time I created my household chores list, I don't have to figure out what tasks to undertake on any given day. Each morning, my calendar serves up a reasonable number of instructions, such as wash the sheets or clean one window or empty the garbage bins.
  2. I no longer get overwhelmed thinking about how much there is to do. I don't focus on the enormity of the task of cleaning my entire house. The point is not to clean the whole house over the course of a few days or weeks. That's a recipe for procrastination or burnout. Knowing that many of the tasks I want to complete have their place on the calendar, I can focus on only the few that are on the docket for today, knowing that others will get their turn eventually.
  3. I no longer panic when someone calls to say they're popping by in 15 minutes. While I never worried too much about the state of my home (as my mom says, are you coming to see me or my house?), I do prefer to have a house that's visitor-ready all the time.
  4. I no longer have to ask myself, "how long has it been since I cleaned this?" Time flies. Without a set schedule, it can be a challenge to remember when we last went through the freezer or changed the batteries in the smoke detector. Scheduling chores is a way of making sure they get done and being clear on who is responsible for what in a household.
  5. Chores that are repeated frequently get easier and easier to do. It takes less time to clean a bathroom that was washed only one week ago than one that was washed two or more weeks ago. Repetition also leads to efficiency and better ways of doing a job. For example, instead of moving everything out of the kitchen to wash the floor, I now wash half the floor, let it dry, then move the table and chairs to the clean side of the kitchen and repeat the process on the other half.
  6. Time saved can be used for deeper cleaning or organizing. On my second week of cleaning the bathroom, I decided to disassemble, wash and reassemble the light fixture, which I hadn't done on week one. And on my third week, I decided to tackle the medicine cabinet, discarding old items, setting aside expired prescription and over-the-counter medicines to be dropped off at the pharmacy, and organizing duplicate products according to their best-before date so that we can use them in the optimum order.
  7. Tidying up helps me know what I have and where it is, saving me money as I avoid unnecessary purchases. It's easy to forget what I already own when it's stored away in boxes or cupboards that I rarely open. Today, I found a purse that I had put away when I switched to a smaller handbag. The purse was perfect for my daughter, who was looking for a new bag. Win-win: she gets a free purse, and I get one less thing in storage.
  8. I waste less time looking for stuff. As I clean and organize various cupboards and drawers, I make a mental note of what I have, which makes it easier for me to find it in future. I also bring similar items together so that they're not scattered in different places across the house.
  9. Taking stock helps to avoid food waste. Regularly cleaning and organizing the fridge, freezer and pantry helps to ensure that food is used up before it spoils or surpasses its best-before date. And as excess food is used up, it's easier to see what remains in storage areas that are no longer packed.
  10. Regular cleaning reverses the Broken Windows problem. In his book The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Malcolm Gladwell explained the Broken Windows theory using the example of a neighbourhood: "If a window is broken and left unrepaired, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge. Soon, more windows will be broken, and the sense of anarchy will spread from the building to the street on which it faces, sending a signal that anything goes. In a city, relatively minor problems like graffiti, public disorder, and aggressive pandhandling...are all the equivalent of broken windows, invitations to more serious crimes." In the home, clutter has a way of expanding. But once there's a place for everything and everything is in its place, it's easier to maintain a tidy home. Similarly, when the bathroom is clean, that smudge of toothpaste in the sink looks out of place—easily solved with a quick swish of the hand.

Without a schedule, I had a tendency to either let things pile up or try to do too much in one marathon cleaning session. With a schedule, I not only have a cleaner house but also more peace, taking pride in what I've accomplished and taking comfort in knowing that I'll eventually get to all the things I want to tackle.