Chores: the vicious, never-ending tasks that haunt you at all hours of the day.
I don’t know about your house but no matter how much I clean my house, it STILL needs to be cleaned more. What is this conspiracy and how do I make it stop? It’s a recurring nightmare that I never knew I signed up for.
Dishes, laundry, sweeping, mopping, cleaning toilets, and my least favorite: dusting. And those are just some of the chores that need to be done! I am always so baffled at how fast our home gets messy. Empty fruit snack packets, empty water bottles, blankets, pillows, toys, socks, shoes, dirt, grass, spilled food. It’s discouraging honestly, spending so much time cleaning a house that will inevitably look messy again in 10 minutes.
Sometimes my kids will pick up after themselves and other times they pick up half of their mess. It’s beyond me why they will make the effort to only clean half of their mess and I find it rather annoying, to be honest. However, I feel like this is the norm for households that are occupied with littles, but what no one talks about is the elementary and middle school-age children and the damage they can do to a room.
How hard is it for kids and husbands to pick up after themselves and why does everyone need this reminder?
Sometimes I can be easily overwhelmed and irritated with how messy our house can be. My anxiety will skyrocket from the chaos and mess. It’s all I can do to not freak out on my kids for not listening or cleaning, and sometimes the freak out happens whether I am trying to stay calm or not. But then I stop the freakout or rein in my anxiety to remind myself that one day I won’t have as many dishes to wash, the thousands of little clothes will no longer take as long to fold, and the hardest reminder: the floors won’t be as dirty because there won’t be as many feet running around.
To help my anxiety, I started to pick up as I went along doing my daily routines; at least I try to, but it doesn’t always turn out that way, especially if I am having an off day. I also started giving my children smaller tasks at a time so I didn’t overwhelm them with a stream of chores to do. While this doesn’t always work, it has helped me tremendously when tackling the issues of a messy house. I also noticed that my kids clean better when I play music and I have started doing that as well when it’s chore time. Not only does it give us a little more energy to clean, but we are making memories by singing the songs and dancing together.
At the end of the day, it’s ok to put the dishes off and take the time to play a board game with your children. It’s ok if the kitchen floor needs to be swept because you let your kids play with playdough and you decided to play with them instead of cleaning up the mess. The time will come when they don’t want to play board games or sculpt masterpieces out of playdough with you. I have to remind myself of this often because it is so easy to get caught up in cleaning or the tasks I need to accomplish for that day that it becomes my main focus.
So, when you’re feeling overwhelmed with all of those daily chores that don’t seem to stop, remember that one day all of the little hands, feet, clothes, and people will grow up and have families of their own. One day your house will stay spotless, and you will have all of the time in the world.
