Building blocks for 2009

FH and I are very excited to have recently ordered our wedding bands. They should arrive next week and we can't wait to try them on! We are really happy with what we've chosen as our everyday reminder of our commitment and both look forward to wearing them in less than 6 months.


Also, lest you think we only ponder our wedding day and not our marriage, I have more to share. In this time of resolutions and such I recently search out a new website, www.chorebuster.net. Ever since FH and I moved in together I've wanted to spend some time making a list of chore "assignments" and this program fits the bill perfectly. You sign up for an account, enter your household chores, along with an agreed upon point "value" (based on difficultly/undesireability) and a frequency, and the program assigns chores fairly and evenly between all available participants. You can set certain chores to be assigned only to certain people (hence I get out of cleaning the cat boxes and Bill gets out of cleaning the bathroom, our two most hated chores, respectively.) You can also set it so one person gets a higher or lower percentage of chores and schedule days with no chores (for those who enjoy a true Sunday day of rest.) Once set up the program will generate a printable weekly chart with chore assignments.

I have to say, it's only been a couple of days but it's already made a difference in the overall neatness of our household (let me confess, I am NO master housekeeper and a total clutterer by nature.) The key, I think, is that instead of having an overwhelming mountain of chores in front of me I now have 2 or 3 tasks that are simply.enough.for.today. And once I do them I'm done. Tomorrow I'll do a few more. And eventually things will be generally clean on a regular basis. Also, I now have a non-biased third party divying things up in a fair way and a nice little piece of paper on the fridge to reference if things are not done (easing my fears that I'm going to become some sterotypical harpie wife type.)

I try to avoid feeling that just because I'm going to be married I suddenly have to become this perfect homemaker, however, I am often frustrated by my own lack of motivation to keep my household organized. I now have hope that we've found a system that just might work!