Cleaning Calendar

I know I'm not the only person who's seen this printable by NessaMakes:

It's made the Pinterest rounds, and if you haven't seen it in full, you should check it out. It's really cute and the inspiration it provided me to try to organize my own chores will hopefully lead to a much more guest-ready house in the future.

I however, am a technophile and a lover of all things Google, so it was inevitable that my own personal chore chart would end up as a Google calendar.

Here's the thing: I was going to have to make my own anyway. Every house has its own needs, and every household has its own patterns. I can't do anything in the morning before work because I am barely human when I leave the house. I roll out of bed, put reasonable clothes on, try to make my hair do something, give up and put it in a ponytail, then head out of the house. On a good day I remember to take some coffee with me.

All of my daily chores are definitely happening in the evenings.

And getting organized about all of this is completely necessary. I work full time as a teacher, I am a grad school student, mother, wife, and have decided not only to fix up a house but also to remake furniture because I felt like I didn't have enough to do. It's easy for me to get caught up in anything other than cleaning my house.

Which is a mistake, because a sad house makes me sad.

So, time to organize! It's taken me 36 years, but thanks to this pin and a little brainstorming, I think I have a plan that keeps me from feeling overwhelmed. And hopefully sharing it here will give you a chance to do the same for your own housework.

First, I made a Google Document so I could figure out what really needs to be done on a regular basis in my home. I looked at the printable above to give myself guidance and a starting place, then left the document open for a few days so I could add to it.

I divided the document into four categories: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, and Semi-Annually. The Daily chores are basic and based on keeping the kitchen from getting gross and some junk hotspots (you know, the places you stick things like junk mail and books and headphones and paintbrushes and other such things you don't feel like putting away or throwing away) from getting crowded. And keeping laundry under control. The Weekly chores are things that really need to be done once a week, like cleaning bathrooms and sweeping each of the rooms (I have the house sectioned off so a different area is swept each day and it never becomes too much). The Monthly chores are bigger, like waxing floors (again broken up between weeks) and deep-cleaning the stove. Semi-Annual are spring cleaning items like curtains and pillows and the oven.

Once I made this list, I started assigning things. I divided the weekly chores into basically even workloads and then divided them between Monday-Friday (I left the weekend for the larger Monthly jobs). It's important when you do this step to keep in mind any normal weekly activities--I made Friday's chores the lightest set because my son has archery on Friday nights, so we are out most of the evening.

I did my best to similarly balance the Monthly set of chores into four items, and then assigned them each to one Saturday a month.

Then I programmed my calendar!

Google Calendars allow you to create "events" that repeat, and it's as simple as writing out how often you want them to repeat.

I programmed my daily tasks by typing "Every Day" and then the tasks I want myself to do each day. To program weekly tasks, I typed "Every Monday" or "Every Tuesday" and it populated all the Mondays with that chore. I was even able to program monthly tasks by typing "Every 1st Saturday" etc. I had to manually enter the semi-annual tasks, but that was because I am really particular about where those end up.

When I was done entering all of these, I ended up with a calendar that looks a lot like this:

Which is very full.

Next I went into the events and scheduled notifications for the day before each task so I could be reminded. Thanks to that I get little reminders on the side of my computer screen and on my phone about the chores I need to be contemplating. They look like this:

Pretty cool. I was working on something else when they popped up, and I got a preview of my expectations for the day.

And if your Google calendar looks too full once you've filled it with your chores, you can actually turn off the view of that calendar, and as long as you've turned on notifications, you will still get the reminders about what you should be doing each day.

It's exciting. I love the fact I was able to tie my needs in with technology that I love and with which I am capable.