planner for the household. I call it the Household Notebook, and no home should be without one.
The Household Notebook is a simple three-ring binder It will be home to the to-do lists, the family calendar and the that contains all the information needed for daily life in an checklists that bring order to the household. The family organized home, in an easy-to-find, easy-to-use format. It’s a calendar will keep all household members on the same page family calendar, an address book, and an information resource for appointments and commitments.
all in one. The Notebook is designed to corral all the handouts Finally, give your planning tools a home by creating a and schedules, sticky notes, and slips of paper, and give back family information center, a central location for household answers: when is the soccer tournament banquet? What is the planning and information. The family information center telephone number for the choir director? How much will it works for everyone in the household, and is a valuable cost to order pizza for Friday night supper—and what’s the resource for babysitters, helpers, or extended family members.
number to call?
With a central location, it’s a simple matter for anyone to Flip it open to a listing of emergency numbers for the locate a take-out menu, call this week’s carpool parent, check babysitter. Use it to keep product manuals organized, to stay dates for upcoming events, or figure out what’s for dinner on top of sports team practices, and track each day’s checklists.
from the weekly menu plan.
76
SKILLS FOR A WELL-RUN HOME
Checklists: from daily do-its
to routine chores
Checklists exist to free the brain from “mind flies”—those little buzzing “I need to, I have to” thoughts. Whether it’s daily lists of routine chores or more long-term tasks, checklists pin down buzzing thoughts and fix them to a list, where they’re easy to convert into action.
Daily Do-Its
Do you plan your day? Or does each morning dawn in a whole Build your own checklists for planning
new world—and go downhill from there? We all have days success; these lists should get you started:
that slip through our fingers without a plan. Perhaps the alarm clock fails to wake us. Frustration and aggravation mount as Sample Morning Do-It checklist
we slide from one crisis to the next. Forgotten appointments.
▪ Check the day’s calendar and checklist
Nothing for dinner. Without a road map for the day, the smallest
▪ Exercise
distractions will lead you off the path of order and into the
▪ Shower and complexion care
checklists
quicksand of delay and disorganization.
▪ Make bed
The cure? Daily Do-Its, simple morning and evening
▪ Wake children and make breakfast
checklists designed get the family up and out, and cover the
▪ Run one load of washing
routine needs of daily life. Meals. Clean clothing. The morning
▪ Fold one load of drying
exodus to work and school. Do-Its won’t deep-clean your house,
▪ Place breakfast dishes in dishwasher
redecorate the living room, or clean out the garage for you,
▪ Clear kitchen counters
but they will cover the basics and keep the household running smoothly.
Sample Evening Do-It checklist
Daily Do-Its
To create Daily Do-It checklists, divide a sheet of paper into
▪ Empty dishwasher and set table
two columns, one for Morning, one for Evening. Next, list the for breakfast
simple chores needed to get out the door, cover meals, and
▪ Set up programmable coffee or tea makers
provide clean clothing. Slip the Do-It list into your Household for morning beverages
Notebook ( see pages 84–87), inside a plastic page protector
▪ Make lunches for next day
for easy reference.
▪ Empty kitchen trash can and clear counters
▪ Select the next day’s clothing
Morning Do-It checklist In the morning, focus on the
▪ Exercise
day ahead. List reminders to check your calendar so you won’t
▪ Pray or meditate
be surprised by unexpected meetings or missed appointments.
▪ Complexion care
Include personal care tasks such as exercise, complexion care,
▪ Review next day’s calendar and checklists
and grooming. Caring for yourself first just makes sense—and for most of us, self-care won’t stand a chance unless it’s at the
PLANNING YOUR HOME
77
top of the list! Add early-morning chores related to meals and laundry, and resolve to clear the kitchen counters before you Checklists
Long-term checklists for weekly and
leave the house. You’ll thank yourself come day’s end.
seasonal chores are home to recurring to-do
list items. Check your Master To-Do list to
Evening Do-It checklist Do-Its in the evening wrap up compile your household’s checklists.
the day and prepare for the morrow. In the kitchen, clean up from the evening meal and set the stage for the next morning.
Weekly checklist
Think ahead! Prepare what you need for the morning’s coffee
▪ Review calendar for the upcoming week
or tea, make lunches, and set the table for breakfast. Avoid for the long term
▪ Check Master To-Do list and add items to
last-minute clothing crises by planning the next day’s outfits.
the running To-Do list (see pages 80–81)
At the end of the day, list personal chores that will tuck you
▪ Plan weekly menus
into a peaceful night’s sleep: complexion care, prayer or
▪ Clip coupons
meditation, or reading. Last on the list, remind yourself to take
▪ Pay bills
a quick look at the next day’s schedule.
▪ Shop for groceries
Daily Do-It checklists are your personal road map out of
▪ Run errands: visit the cleaners, the bank,
the aimless disorder of an unplanned day. Morning and evening, the photo developers
they’ll remind you to do those basic, necessary minimums that keep life humming along.
Monthly checklist
▪ Review calendar for the upcoming month
“Daily Do-It checklists are
▪ Check Master To-Do list and add items to
the running To-Do list
your personal road map out
▪ Reconcile bank accounts
▪ Check pantry and freezer inventories;
of the aimless disorder of an
rotate foods
unplanned day.”
▪ Change air conditioning or furnace filters
Seasonal checklist
Weekly, monthly, and seasonal planning
▪ Review calendar for the upcoming season
checklists
▪ Check Master To-Do list and add items to
If Daily Do-Its keep each day running smoothly, weekly, monthly, the running To-Do list
and seasonal checklists get the big jobs done. What’s on the
▪ Make medical appointments
checklist? Everything! From scheduled cleaning chores to menu
▪ Change out seasonal clothing and review
planning to volunteer work. If you have to do it routinely, it family clothing needs
belongs on your checklist.
▪ Note vacation or travel plans and make
Like the Daily Do-It, file your weekly, monthly, and seasonal travel arrangements, if needed
checklists in plastic page protectors in your Household N
otebook.
▪ Arrange for air conditioning, furnace
Each week, month, and season, check the appropriate checklist maintenance
to stay on-task and organized.
▪ Check smoke and carbon-monoxide
Use the sample checklists in the box ( see right), as a guide detectors
to create your own checklists for routine chores to be done each week, month, and season.
High-tech
Smartphones, tablets and desktops are
making quick inroads into the paper pileup.
Ready to take your household management
system to a virtual level? Try these resources
to organize home life online:
▪ Family calendars Web apps like Cozi.com help or Google Calendar offer full-featured
information management for electronically
inclined families.
▪ Banking portals and apps Check the
full range of services offered by your bank
to supercharge financial chores. Reminders,
and apps that track recent charges and
payments are among free services that may
be offered by your bank.
▪ Home management apps To-do
lists, and cleaning and chore checklists
are the focus of home management apps
like RememberTheMilk.com and HoneyDo.
Look for an app that shares tasks among
household members. Dare to delegate!
80
SKILLS FOR A WELL-RUN HOME
Beyond the routine:
to-do
lists
If checklists are a road map for the predictable activities of daily life, to-do lists organize the unexpected: one-time chores, extraneous jobs that must be done around the house, or ongoing projects. Working together with checklists, they’ll make sure you tackle those jobs that don’t show up on lists of routine chores.
For example, routine kitchen chores—clean refrigerator or scrub the sink—are daily or weekly checklist items ( see pages 76–77). “Install wallpaper border in kitchen” is a to-do item, a single job broken down from a larger goal: “redecorate kitchen.” You’ll use to-do lists to identify these one-timers and Date
Item:
Date
assigned:
completed:
schedule them into an organized life, and to break down and schedule bigger projects.
June 15 Return
overdue
June
17
There are two kinds of to-do lists: a running to-do list for library
books
daily reference, and a Master To-Do list. The running list sets out a list of high-priority to-do items that must be done in the June 29
Repair floor in
short term. The master list is the source: it’s the place where children’s
bathroom
you dump, sort, organize, and carry out the to-dos.
July 1 Make
vet
appointment
The Master To-Do list
for
Duff
To start a Master To-Do list, grab a sheet of lined paper and make three columns: assigned date, item, and completed date.
July 10 Call
about
July
14
dance
team
Move to the middle column and list it all—and I do mean costumes
all—every must-do, should-do, want-to-do thought that crosses your mind.
July 14 Buy
glitter
trim
A good Master To-Do list is a mix of goals and aspirations, for
costumes
errands and minutiae. It’s a place to put those “oh yeah!”
August 1 Finish
status
report
reminders circling your brain into concrete form. Don’t worry for
event
committee
if your list stretches for pages and pages. Better to put down buzzing thoughts on paper, than to carry them around with you. Better still, the Master To-Do list shows progress at a glance. You’ll see what jobs you’ve completed, what tasks you’re working on, and which items remain to be done.
▲ Power planner. The Master To-Do list holds it all, big or small.
You’ll use the Master To-Do list to make frequent, short By putting “gotta-do” jobs down on paper, it’s easy to assign dates running to-do lists. As you add an item to the running to-do and translate them into action.
PLANNING YOUR HOME
81
list, write the date in the “date assigned” column; when a job T
is completed, note the completion date. As time passes, you’ll Time is a democratic asset; everyone is
ime-saving tips for
have a record of the good work you’ve accomplished.
given the same 24 hours each day. Save your
precious time with these tips:
Run with it: making the running to-do list
From the Master To-Do list comes the running to-do list: a
▪ Don’t go empty-handed. Whether
short-term list of things to do that is consulted—and changed climbing the stairs, leaving the room, or
—often. Consult it daily along with your checklists to keep on going outside, take something with you to
put away as you go. Trundle newspapers to
the recycling bin when you go to the garage,
“A good Master To-Do list is
carry a pair of shoes to the closet when you
go upstairs, take out a bag of trash when
a mix of goals and aspirations,
you leave the house.
▪ Use small bits of time to do small
every day
errands and minutiae.”
jobs. Fold socks during a television
commercial. Give the sink a wipe-down as you
Making the running to-do list is simple. Check the
leave the bathroom. Little efforts mount up.
Master To-Do list, and transfer two to ten “to-do” items
▪ Do chores while you chat. During
to the running list. Some items will be time-sensitive: the telephone conversations, look for “busy-
“have-to-do” stuff that looms on the horizon. Sweeten hands” jobs that can be done while talking.
the list by adding a few “want-to-do” jobs, those to-do Chop a salad, sort a drawer, or return out-items that forward a goal. As you add items to the running of-place items to their homes while you talk
to-do list, note the date assigned on the Master List—and with family or friends.
when you complete a job, cross it off the list! Add the list
▪ Double up on errands—or stay out
to your Household Notebook, calendar, or your personal of the store. Never make a special trip to
planner. Together with checklists for routine chores, do one errand; instead, group them together.
to-do lists guide efficient day-to-day planning for an Visit the dry cleaner nearest the supermarket,
organized home.
or drive through the bank on the way home
from work. Look for new-century time
Daily To-Do Basics: Go, Call, Buy, and
savings from online subscription services:
What’s for Dinner?
have regular shipments of paper goods or
Each day’s to-do list has an internal rhythm that can help you personal care items made to your doorstep.
get the work done fast. Most to-do lists set out where you
▪ Make good use of travel time. Audio
need to go, whom you need to call, what you need to do, a books are good companions for a driving
list of things to buy, and what’s for dinner.
commute; use trips to and fro
m school to
Make your to-do list easy to follow. Group items on your check in with children. Avoid talking on
list under these headings: Go, Call, Buy, and Do. Review dinner cell phones while driving, however; the
plans in a section labeled “What’s for dinner?”
timesaving isn’t worth the safety risk to
By grouping chores and reminding you about the evening’s your family—and to others on the road.
dinner plans, your to-do list gives an instant update on the important work of the day.
82
SKILLS FOR A WELL-RUN HOME
Habit, the household
wonder
worker
Imagine the television pitch: “Special offer! The amazing Household Wonder Worker will take your house from chaos to castle in only 21 days. It’ll speed your cleaning, calm your chaos, and cut your clutter. Backed by scientific research, our product is guaranteed to bring order and serenity to your disorganized home.”
You say you have the phone in one hand and a credit card in the other? Sounds that good, does it? Sorry, television viewers.
You’re sold on the power of habit, but where
The Amazing Household Wonder Worker is the most powerful to begin? While every family’s climb out of
secret weapon in the war against disorganization and clutter, chaos will be different, focus on building
but you can’t buy it, not in stores, or anywhere. You have to these first habits for an orderly home:
build your own, but it’s free for the making. Put it to work for you, and it’ll lead you, step-by-step, out of the darkness of
▪ Check your lists. Review each day’s
disorganization and into the light. What is it? Habit.
checklists and to-do lists each morning
e to start? and evening. They’ll keep you on-track and Let the force of habit be with you
organized each day.
Habit is a small word for such a powerful force. It may start
▪ Make the bed. Invest 45 seconds to
small, but habit works like a snowball, perched at the top of a straighten sheets and tuck the covers to
wher