Managing our Home

The jobs that Brian and I manage on a daily/weekly/monthly/yearly basis.

• Accountant/ Bookkeeper
• Auto Maintenance Supervisor
• Babysitter/Daycare Worker
• Building Supervisor
• Cheerleader
• Chef
• Coach/Team-builder
• Counselor
• Entertainment Chairman
• Fashion Coordinator
• Filing Clerk
• Fitness Trainer
• Gardener
• Gift Coordinator
• Health Care Practitioner
• Historian and Curator
• Hotel Manager
• Interior Designer
• Laundress
• Maid
• Manager of Food Services
• Personal Organizer
• Purchasing Agent
• Seamstress
• Secretary
• Travel Agent


I find myself trying to take over too many of these positions and running myself ragged. I’m definitely not a good wife or mother if I don’t have the energy to spend time with them. Even though Brian may not do something the exact way that I would, I need to let him know that I trust him to complete a job without me “fixing” it after he is done.

Stealing from “The Family Manager Takes Charge” by Kathy Peel, I need to learn to work smarter, delegate and find easier ways to complete tasks.

Cleaning, straightening, and de-cluttering are the most time consuming of the jobs in our house. Here are a few ways that we can make these tasks not so daunting.

• Power of Ten Minutes Method- Time yourself. What can you accomplish in 10 minutes instead of trying to tackle everything at once on a Saturday? I would rather spend my Saturday with my family instead of with dust bunnies and dishwashing detergent.

• The Clean While You Sleep Plan- there are some things that can be done overnight (laundry, soaking pots and pans, clean clogged drains, etc).

• Prevention Plans- Ways to prevent messes (use aluminum foil with abandon, don’t wear shoes inside, use pump soap dispenser instead of bar soap, etc.).

Brian and I have made a commitment to do these three things daily so that cleaning doesn’t become an all-day Saturday phenomenon when we lose large chunks of time that we should be spending with each other. We don’t want to remember our weekends as always digging out of the mess. We want to remember them doing fun things with Sam.

Please let me know if you have any tricks that have worked in your household.