accountability

So. Sometimes, the state of my house has been downright embarrassing. And not like: There's dog hair on the couch! but like: I think that's mold in the toilet bowl. Gross.

It seems like the only thing I really made an effort to keep up on was Oliver's room. He always has fresh blankets, clean clothes, things organized. No matter how lazy I am and how bad we let this place get, Ollie and his stuff are always clean and tidy. (Well, in the interest of full honesty, that's not always true of his high chair.) Point is, I never let my tendency to do the bare minimum of cleaning reflect on him.

Okay, this is starting to sound like we NEVER clean the house, which is not true. It's just that, like I said, we'd do the bare minimum. Laundry gets done when one of us runs out of clean underwear. Pots and pans get washed as they're needed.

That is, until now. Us Panzas had a heart to heart, and decided we needed to knock it off.

Being frustrated and overwhelmed all weekend because the house was a pigsty? Because we were super busy last weekend and now there's god-knows-what papers and stuff stacked on the dining room table? Because we get down to play on the rug come up with two weeks worth of dog hair?

Total bullshit. We felt sad, you know? Like what kind of example are we setting here? How do we teach our son responsibility when there's dishes piled in the sink and the refrigerator full of forgotten leftovers?

It has been four days since we hit our wall. We talked, decided, resolved, and got motivated and organized and shit. Not including last weekend, when I cleaned the shower, in only four days worth of weeknights, the house feels clean.

accountability. boom.

With our list posted on the fridge, we know what our chores are for the day. Just the simplest thing, breaking down everything that needs done so it doesn't pile up on us, and doing a little bit each day (with some catch-up) we're already feeling lighter, happier, and more like adults.

So, lovely friends, what do YOU do to keep up on the housework? Am I missing anything?