I’ve written before about my disinclination to do housework. I’m sure that 90% of people probably feel similarly disinclined. The others? Well, I’d probably like to be them, and my house would probably like it too.
I’ve found that the best approach to getting the housework done is routine. It might be boring, but having a pattern to the housework means that it gets done – or that I at least feel a twinge of guilt if it doesn’t get done.
My pattern is one that allocates certain tasks to certain days. I also have a general cleanup day to do what is more traditionally thought of as housework.
One the weekends, I do big tasks such as canning food or baking. The tasks vary according to the season, of course. These tasks are ones that my daughter can get involved in, and then she can go and play if she’s not interested any more.
On the weekdays, I have a morning routine. I get up, do basic animal care for all of our animals, and put in a load of laundry. I get the next day’s dinner out of the freezer to defrost if it’s a meal that I’ve pre frozen, and I get breakfast going. My husband unloads the dishwasher before he goes to work. After my daughter gets up, we make her bed.
On weekday evenings, I make the lunches if required so that I don’t need to do this in the morning. We also put all of the assorted toys into boxes, and the laundry goes into the hamper.
This year I’ll have a couple of days a month to focus on errands and housework. As fellow parents, I’m sure that you understand how much delight this brings me. When I first set up shop in my own house, I would never have considered a time when I’d relish free time to do housework. Now, it’s a treat. Ah, two hours of uninterrupted housework.
I get odd satisfaction from this simple routine. It’s nice knowing that things will get done at a certain time each day. Ok, most of the time. What is your housework schedule?
Image courtesy of veke at Stock Exchange.