Resolutions

By Chrystal: Yes again.

I did make a New Years Resolution. To get my home clean and organized, I need to create the house of order I dream about. I truly feel having our homes in order help us to be happy. I like to think of it this way. The spirit does not dwell in unclean places. And I want the spirit in my home, I want many things for my family and I need to make them happen. I am the homemaker that is my job.

So I have implemented a game to help the kids do chores. I bought pin pong balls. I wrote a bedroom chore in red on each ball and a house chore in black. Everyday, except Sunday, I have the kids randomly pick a couple pin pong balls. I set a 15min timer. If it is a room day they only do red chores if not a room day they do others. After they do the chore they pick another ball. The goal is to do as many balls as you can in 15mins. Each chore has a dollar amount written next to it. We add up the dollar amounts (the harder the chore or more time consuming the chore the more monetary value it has). They get chore bucks, fake money I got at the dollar store. Then on Friday they get to use their chore bucks to buy one of the prize I have out or they can save it to add to next weeks for a bigger prize. We didn't do real money because we don't want our kids to get paid for doing chores they are supposed to do. If they want to earn real money they need to do things we decide on for them to do, separate from regular chores. Anyway it has been a huge success. Their room was the worst it had been in a long time and they cleaned it in 15mins. Leaving them lots of time to play. Normally when we clean their room, looking like that, it takes an hour and lots of nagging. Josh even had to vacuum the floor. I will allow them to take a different ball if they don't like what they pick but haven't had to do it yet. Josh asked for the balls with the highest value that he could do the fastest...that sneaky kid! That's when we implemented the no looking rule so we don't take 15 mins just to pick a ball.

This first picture is not while doing chore balls, I think Patrick purposely made a mess with something so I had him sweep it up while I held the dust pan.

This is while doing chore balls. One of them says to sweeping under the table. My kids are only 3 and 6. Don't want them to be too hard.

I thought Josh did such a good job making the beds so I had to take pictures of them. Don't mind the hideous paint on the wall, someday soon that will be gone.

I have also wrote out different things I clean every day of the week, except Sunday. And every week a project or thing I need to focus on. Like last week of the month is paper and bill week. And the third week is Temple visit week. I am feeling really good about this because I have made them simple and my house is looking more in order all ready and easy to keep in order. I am also having everyone wash their own dishes after dinner, we do our dishes by hand. Even Patrick!

I received a text from one of my friends who I didn't even know was going to try and implement what I am doing. She loves the chore balls and told me she has never felt more in order. It makes me really happy that I ran across this idea and 2 different friends have decided to try the same thing. I really thing the time limit thing makes all the difference! It got me thinking that for even adults having a hard time getting motivated if you set aside a specific time everyday, like 10 to 1030 that you dedicate to working on something, Even that little step could get things moving. Adult chore balls...your reward? A shorter to do list, finally!!!