How to Organize Housework

Organize your housework tasks so that everyone has a plan of action to accomplish them.

Keeping up with housework can be a challenge in a busy household. One way to relieve some of the burden of household tasks is to put together a binder with all of the household tasks and the members' weekly schedules. The binder will enable the household members to create a plan for completing the housework by the end of the week. Take the time to organize the binder and you will save time in figuring out what needs to be done and when someone will be able to accomplish it.

Things You'll Need

• Three-ring binder
• Loose-leaf notebook paper
• Pen

Instructions

1. Write down the schedule of each member of the household. Make a note of when each member would be available to work on household tasks. Incorporate this into the schedule of housework.

2. Brainstorm about all of the housework that needs to be completed on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Create a separate page for each category of daily, weekly and monthly tasks.

3. Fill in the daily, weekly and monthly task sheets with the given tasks that need to be accomplished for each sheet.

4. Delegate the housework to the members of the household based on their particular availability and abilities. Add the household member's name next to each task on the daily, weekly and monthly sheet.

5. Make a checklist for daily, weekly and monthly tasks based on the sheets. Include this in the front pocket of the binder for easy access as members complete their tasks throughout the day, week and month. Clip the rest of the pages into the three-ring binder.

Tips & Warnings

• Place the binder in a central location as a reminder to everyone to utilize it frequently.

References

• Organized Home: Household Notebook: Planner for an Organized Home
• Declutter House: Your Housework Cleaning Checklist

Resources

• "Organize Your Life"; Ronni Eisenberg, Kate Kelly; 2007