Part 5 – Every Mom’s Guide to Getting Organized – Save time cleaning your house with LOTS of free printables!

Part 5 – I'm excited about this one! Today I have printables for organizing your cleaning schedule…and Erin Condren Life Planner contest details! This is a big post, packed full of awesome free printables, so please make sure you check everything out!

All of the posts in this series are recapped below, so for Part 5 of our organizing series let's talk about Cleaning Day. Dun dun duuunnnnnnn! OK, just kidding. But I hate cleaning. H..A..T..E it. But don't tell my kids that. I can hardly tell them to clean with a good attitude if I don't have one, right? So they actually think I like cleaning. And I'm sure I'll pay for that someday. I can see them as teenagers saying, “Hey, mom, can you come clean my room? You know, since you like it so much?”

So these are my tools to make cleaning a little easier. 

• First, we stay on top of regular household chores by using chore cards. Each kid has a small stack that I laminated and keep in a plastic baggie with their name on it. We use a reward system, where they can earn fake money that they use to buy movie nights on the weekends, a toy from the dollar section, special desserts, stuff like that. I keep track of accomplished tasks on the back of each card with a wet erase marker, but they don't get credit for accomplishing anything unless I check it first. Because if I don't…sheesh. You wouldn't believe some of the jobs they've tried to pass off as “finished.” I'm sharing my printable chore cards with you. I print four to a page for smaller cards, and you'll notice there are blank spaces to fill in assignments for each kid. I always assign the littlest kids to work with the biggest kids, too, so they can learn new chores. These cards also include our “Routines.” They earn our pretend currency for following their routines, also. There's a morning routine, noon routine, evening routine, bedtime routine…and most importantly, an After Meal routine. We fill in their names, and once a task is “mastered” they get to switch jobs with someone else. I also put my routines in, also, to show how we get things done. 

          Here are my chore  & routine cards: Download

          Here's a blank version of the chore & routine cards: Download

And here is one of my tools to keep my kids working hard…books! One of our favorites was given to us years ago. It's called Halfway Herbert, and to this day if I mention the word “Herbert” while the kids are working, they step it up and double-check their own work! *Please note that the following contains Affiliate links for thriftbooks.com. When you click to purchase from thriftbooks.com at this link, I may receive a small commission (at no extra cost to you whatsoever!)  that allows me to keep this website up and running!  Thriftbooks.com is great, because the books are used and inexpensive, and there's no extra cost for shipping. I've never gotten a book that wasn't in great condition, and they ship fast!

Halfway Herbert by: Francis Chan $6.97

We also love this one:

The Berenstain Bears and the Trouble with Chores by: Stan Berenstain, Jan Berenstain $2.99

• Once I got into a basic daily routine (as you can see in the cards above), we started adding bigger cleaning projects on Friday, our cleaning day. On Friday morning I wash sheets and towels, and in the afternoon the kids and I do some additional jobs. We always clean the bathrooms, and sweep and mop (like we haven't already done that a million times throughout the week, but we make extra sure we also get it done on Friday, too).
• If you need some inspiration,  here is what I do to deep clean on Fridays. When you click the download, first you'll see a blank page that you can fill in on your own, then the second page is my cleaning   schedule, with a list of tasks for each week of the month: Download
•  I also love the cleaning resources at A Bowl Full of Lemons blog. She has great printables and cleaning schedules!
•  Now for my favorite part: Pretty, printable Bible verses that I like go over with the kids before we clean. I love looking at these – they are great motivation! Cleaning time is a great time to play some music, listen to an audiobook, and work as a team. My littlest ones definitely need to be assigned to a cleaning buddy, so I keep the youngest with me and assign jobs to the others in pairs. We usually work in one area of the house at a time so I can keep an eye on everyone. These are our favorite verses to stay inspired and motivated: 

I have really enjoyed going through this series with you, and I've gotten some amazing feed back! We've already gone through tons of material, and tons of free printables! So…”Let me ‘splain…No, there is too much. Let me sum up.”

As there is too much to explain in detail, let's do this Inigo Montoya-style and sum up.

The Every Mom's Guide to Getting Organized Series: 

Part 1 – We talked about organizing your week, scheduling tasks one day at a time, and I showed you how we get things done at my house. Monday is our laundry day, so I also recently added a free printable schedule for laundry: Download

Part 2 -Part 2 was for Tuesday, which is Office Day. It's when I pay bills, plan meals, cut coupons, sort paperwork, etc. The meal planning downloads on this post were CRAZY, and I was so excited to get such a positive response! This post included a free printable 2-week Trim Healthy Mama menu, along with a free printable shopping list…and a free printable blank menu to make your own!  I also included tons of meal ideas.

Part 3 – In Part 3 we talked about Wednesday, which is our errand day, and the most efficient way to run errands…using the shopping lists we made in Part 2! I also threw in this shopping list with my favorite Trader Joe's foods, in case you happen to be shopping there. 

Part 4 – Part 4 includes a printable menu and and shopping list for freezer cooking (THM style!) where we talked about our Kitchen Day (Thursday). Sometimes I make freezer meals (check out the post for recipes!), but I always make yummy snacks to last us through the week! 

Part 4 (Continued) – I forgot to include my free printable kitchen checklist, which will keep you on track for an organized kitchen, pantry, and refrigerator! I finally remembered to share it, so you can click THIS LINK to download it. 

Part 5 is outlined above, and Part 6 will be the giveaway for the amazing Erin Condren Life Planner…so you can keep your daily, weekly, and monthly tasks organized! Keep watching, next week will be great! 

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