This past Saturday our family had signed up to help clean our church building. When 4 o’clock rolled around and it was time to head on over, I was inwardly dreading the whole thing because in the past it had not been the most organized experience. As my Mom used to say…there were “too many Chiefs, and not enough Indians.”
Upon arrival, however, I was pleasantly surprised to find a whole new “cooperative cleaning system” (a name I made up for it) had been put into place that made the whole experience a downright pleasure! Imagine that! Enjoyable cleaning! It’s not hard to have a good time when you’re with your family doing service. It just isn’t. 🙂
I was actually so impressed with this simple, yet thorough, system that while I was there I snapped a few photos with my iPhone so I could share it with all of you. I think it could easily be adapted to any “institution” that requires cleaning….ie. your house!
Here’s how it works (as far as I could tell):
The cleaning project is broken down into individual tasks and printed out onto cards. (There is a “master list” with all the tasks listed, but it’s really not something the “worker bees” have to be concerned with.)
All the cards are laid out for the “cleaning crew” to see when they arrive and all they have to do is select a task, put it in the “Work In Progress” box while they perform it, and when they are done, transfer the card to the “Completed” box.
Once all the cards have been placed in the “Completed” box…the work is done! How delightfully simple is that???
One other nice feature of the co-operative cleaning system was that since we were dealing with “family cleaning crews”, the tasks were even color-coded to designate whether they were Youth, Family, or Individual jobs (some fell under more than one designation and were thusly noted). Since when I’m cleaning I like to be a “lone wolf”, I chose “Individual” jobs. 🙂
Before I knew it, the entire project was done. I am not exaggerating when I say I was pretty much blown away by this system’s brilliant simplicity. I could easily envision making up a similar system for home and establishing a regular time for a once a week (or however often you desire) cleaning session with the family. (Good thing my boys don’t read these posts regularly…I can just see them running for the hills about now! lol)
What do you think….would your family go for it? Do you do something similar?
