How a Few Simple Rules Can Make Housework a Whole Lot Easier

One of the most effective and simple ways to keep the family home organized is to recognize the difference between shared space/property and individual space/property and establish the very reasonable rule that each individual family member will be responsible for his own space/property. Each person should also be responsible for leaving the shared space/property as s/he found it. A parent - usually the mother - can take responsibility for the "overall setting" in which the family resides and has its own individual space and property. Obviously, two parents sharing responsibility for things like walls, floors, windows, basements, garages, and yards makes it easier for the parents (between them they can agree who will handle what), but even a single parent will find that expecting children over a certain age to be responsible for their own belongings/space while leaving shared space/belongings as they found them can make a big difference.

The method does have two additional, complicating, factors that make it not quite as simple as it sounds: The first is that the parent does need to act as "team leader" and to sometimes give a little direction to the people who will be taking care of their own space and belongings. The second has to do with children under four years old and the fact that with children this young the parent(s) just has to do more than he/she will once the child is of school age.

If a parent establishes, though, that s/he will wash the pots and pans and dinner dishes but expects children and "certain others" (who may be guilty of leaving snack plates behind)not to leave dirty snack dishes behind it allows children to have the responsibility of not creating a "non-dinner" mess by washing their own dishes without having to wash the whole family's dinner dishes (which can be too overwhelming, particular for children under a certain age). Children may appreciate that an adult will clear the dinner dishes and clean up while still seeing the "simple request" that they wash their own sandwich plate or between-meal cup themself.

When the parent takes responsibility for cleaning the bathroom but asks all family members to keep their own personal items in their room and only bring them into the bathroom when they need them it eliminates a lot of extra shampoo bottles and towels being left in the bathroom and makes cleaning easy.

Clothes can be put into simple categories: clean, dirty, or to be worn again (for those who wear clothes again). Clean clothes should be put away. Dirty clothes should be in a dirty clothes container. "To be worn again" clothes can be hung on an over-the-door hook, which keeps worn clothes from being returned to closets or drawers with clean clothes.

When it comes to picking up clutter, miscellaneous items can be put into categories: back where they were taken from, placed in storage, or in the trash. Toys can have a two-hour rule: If they sit out and aren't touched for more than two hours they must be picked up. Even mail can be a disaster if everyone in the family leaves his/her mail out in "shared space" (the dining room table or hall desk, for example). Have a rule that all mail is immediately brought to it's addressee's personal space.

Having the rule that there is no eating anywhere but in the kitchen or at the dining room table can reduce a lot of potential mess as well.

The best example of how to be organized is seen in the menu on your computer or cell phone: There's a main menu, and then there are menu's within the menu. If you have a reasonable separation of responsibilities, and if you break down belongings into simple categories, you can see how keeping a family organized can be almost as simple as using a cell phone (The exception, of course, is when there are too many little folks under four years old, which is bound to make remaining organized consistently close to impossible - in which case, hang in there. They'll be school age sooner than you think.)