Chore Strategies: STATIONS!

My husband is a genius.  Live it up, honey, because I'm not always going to say that, but in this case: utter and complete geniosity.  (I know that's not a word.)


The scene: me trying to get my kids to help pick up the mess that is our house every single afternoon.  It's not a huge job, it's just... never-ending.  And I think that if my kids helped make the mess, they should help clean it up.  Heck, if they live here, they should help clean it up.  In fact, that's pretty much what you could hear me saying, over and over, in a thousand iterations, while trying to get my kids to clean.

And what were my darling children doing?  Well, anything but cleaning.  Whining, hiding, sitting down and claiming that they had to stop cleaning, because he wasn't cleaning, and it wouldn't be fair if they were to happen to pick up one more tiny toy/sock/wrapper/whatever than one of their siblings, right?

I think you know what I'm talking about.

If not, pat yourself on the back, get a book and something to drink, and sit back and enjoy your amazing children and their cleaning abilities.

If you can relate however, read on, because here's where the genius comes in.

So one day maybe three or four years ago, my husband comes into the house and finds us where he frequently found us: the kids trying not to work, and me trying to get them to.  He stood there for a few minutes, and then announced that he had a "new plan".  As the cleaning of the house generally falls under my purview, I was interested, but kind of skeptical. Okay, really skeptical. I mean what were the chances that his idea would make a real difference in how my afternoons went every day?
As my mom would say, Oh ye of little faith...
The "new plan" was something he called "Stations".  And as is the case with so many of the concepts that change my life, it is incredibly simple:

• Each child has an assigned room, or "station".
• You stand in your station and put away anything that goes in that room.
• If an object doesn't belong in your station, (here's the fun part!) you THROW IT into the next station!
• As soon as every station is clear, everyone is done!

This plan has so many wonderful aspects to it: First of all, the throwing.  Isn't that what every kid (and maybe every adult??) wants to do anyway: just throw it all somewhere and not have to clean it up?  Second, the fact that no one leaves the room they start in.  No chances to wander off and get lost.  No having to track down the kid who's taking a suspiciously long time putting something away, and in the meantime losing two others who make a break for it as soon as you leave the room. 

Another great part of stations is the yelling.  No, not the kind of yelling you're thinking of where Mom yells and the kids ignore her. This is super fun group yelling. Stations initiates with a parent shouting, "Stations!" which is immediately followed by each kid shouting back, "Stations!!" at the top of their lungs.  And as each child finishes their station, they yell, "Clear!"  As soon as the last kid has shouted "Clear!", everyone yells joyfully in unison, "Done!"  It's all very loud and very satisfying.

And the whole thing almost always takes less than 10 minutes.  Which means that all the main areas of my house (front room, living room, dining room, kitchen, stairway) are picked up and company-ready in less than 10 minutes.
See what I mean?  Genius.

Kate