Blitz!


You may be thinking "Blitz" is a cool bar downtown or a new ice cream flavor from Baskin Robbins...well, you'd be wrong my friends.  "Blitz" is our cleaning schedule at our house.  Now, I am NOT crazy.  But YES we do have a cleaning schedule and works great for us.  Let me explain...

We have 2 kids.  We have 2 dogs.  J and I both have full-time jobs.  We have a house with 2 stories.  We have a backyard and a front yard that need to be tended to.  Our cup runeth over.  So, we find that with our "Blitz" schedule, we can pack all our cleaning in and never be embarrassed if someone stops by expectantly...unless one of the kids is running around naked.  I can only do so much (deep sigh).

Picture this...you come home from work and the house is a mess!  Dinner is going to be on the table shortly and the kids are wired and in need of an activity.  Paetyn and Maddux love to help out around the house in short stints so we devised a plan to help everyone out...most of all: mommy.  We get stuck with everything it seems and I wanted some help.

So we sat down with the littles about a month ago and asked them what they wanted to do around the house.  If they help out great for 7 days straight, we get to have a family ice cream party with the 4 of us.  If not...well, we try again next week.  We have a "blitz" chart for each week with room for stickers.  And yes, before you ask, mommy and daddy get stickers too.  We let the kids pick out the stickers too (which is a very helpful hint for all you parents out there) and this is our chart:

*Blitz*

Day of week:
Jeremiah
Lindsay
Kiddos
Sunday
Swiffer floors
Laundry
Laundry
Monday
Kitchen overhaul
Bathrooms
Toys
Tuesday
Backyard
Dusting
Backyard
Wednesday
Vacuum
Weeds
Toys
Thursday
Dog Care
Laundry
Laundry
Friday
Patio clean
Dusting
Patio clean
Saturday
Front Lawn
Vacuum
Toys

This is how it goes...

After dinner and the kitchen is cleaned up, we sit down for one calming television show...Dora, Diego, Peppa Pig, whatever...then after the credits the kids look at us on the edge of their seats waiting for the word: "BLITZ!" and then everyone runs like crazy.  The first thing that happens is the kids strip down to their skivvies and throw their clothes in the washer and then run to their prospective jobs.  Mom and Dad go a little slower, but we get the job done :)

We set the timer on the microwave for 20 minutes and get as much done as we can.  Another helpful hint:  we have a basket at the bottom of the stairs for all the toys and knick-knacks that need to go UPSTAIRS and then we have a basket upstairs for everything that needs to go DOWNSTAIRS.  It's a life saver for eliminating a lot of trips and the kiddos can carry the baskets.

We will share our handy organizing tools next week for our linen closet and endless toys, but it makes it a lot easier if these things are organized.  Otherwise, you may never feel like its "clean" if everything is lumped together in one huge bin. 

We each have a job that we have 20 minutes to complete (which is usually enough time to finish it pretty good and some extra time to help the kiddos with their jobs).  Then the fun part…judging!  Each night, someone else gets to “judge” the jobs completed and make sure they are up to par.  If they are, that person gets a sticker.  If not, we pitch in and help and then hopefully they earn their sticker.  The best part is watching Paetyn judge and she is good!!!  She catches everything (except her own errors of course). 

After all is said and done, we either throw the kids in the bath if its bath night or into PJ’s for the evening. Spending 20 minutes a day keeps the house looking nice and the consistency is key! Nothing really gets missed and it doesn’t make any 1 person do it all. We also get to have some crazy fun before bed that makes everyone feel good about helping out!  

Now, by no means are we experts or have a perfect house any of the time, but this is what works for us!  I got a few emails about organization after we revealed that we did some "major spring cleaning" so I thought I would share.  (Thanks to Casey and Kate for the emails).

Have a great weekend!

Best wishes,
Lindsay "Ladybird" & Jeremiah "Fellow"!