Messy Monday -> Makeover Monday: The Fifteen Minute Blitz

In theory, our chore system is brilliant. Each school aged kid (we have four of these and two babies) has a daily 30-minute task, and on Fridays, we shake things up: instead of their regular chores, they do two smaller cleaning stints—15 minutes on Saturday and 15 on Sunday. That adds up to an two hours and thirty minutes of weekend cleaning spread over four kids and Mom.

In practice? Total chaos.

Here’s how it usually goes:

• Kid #1 “cleans” by walking around with a dust rag like it’s a magic wand—nothing actually gets dusted.

• Kid #2 disappears mid-task and resurfaces 10 minutes later holding a random sock, claiming it’s “related.”

• Kid #3 argues over which 15-minute segment is theirs and ends up doing… nothing.

• Kid #4 actually works, bless them, but it’s just one tiny corner of the house.

• Dad? Well, let’s just say he's excellent at supervising everyone else.

• Mom: Walks around with a trash bag, fills it up; Cleans up the kitchen, encourages other kids, puts clothes in the laundry, etc.

At first, this worked like a charm. Everyone was up, moving and making the rooms cleaner. But now, not so great. By Sunday night, the house has somehow managed to get messier than it was on Friday. How? I don’t even know. It’s like the chores conspired against me while I wasn’t looking. The weekend cleaning plan that sounded like a genius time-saver has turned into what I can only describe as a comedic cleaning disaster.

And yet, we keep doing it. Because at least… it’s something.

✨ Quick Clean Tip: We're going to try taking our time blocks and assigning an area per kid. One kid, dishes, another, kitchen. One walks around with the trash bag. My five year old is set to clean up the toys - he loves sorting things into bins. Things like “Fold all towels in the laundry room,” “wipe all counters in the kitchen,” “collect shoes from the living room.” It’s harder to cheat, easier to measure, and kids might actually feel proud when the mission is accomplished—chaos be damned.