The Chore Bucket

The Chore Bucket....no, it has nothing to do with Plankton's restaurant called the "Chum Bucket" across from the "Krusty Krabb" on "Spongebob Squarepants".

It's a varation of the "chore jar" which I read about in a book I'm reading on care giving. I'm using an old Folgers coffee bucket instead of a jar so I altered the name. I made a cute picture to put on the bucket and then I typed up a bunch of chores, printed them out, and cut them into strips. The idea is that you shake up the bucket and each family member reaches in and pulls out a chore to do that day. As I was doing my first chore today which was vacuuming the work out area, the guest room, and Jonnie's room, I thought of more chores. I came down and wrote them on slips of paper and added them to the bucket. I had Jon pull a chore out of the bucket with the understanding that he might not be able to do what was on the slip. He is supposed to dust the guest room and the work out room. Since I'm not home on Tuesday nights, I pulled out a second chore tonight which was dusting the dining room and the play room. I put an envelope in the bucket for chores that are "DONE". Once all of the chores are done, we dump them back into the bucket.

There are some chores that will be bypassed given the time of year. I would look silly tomorrow if I were outside mowing the lawn while it's snowing so that chore will be placed into the envelope and I'll choose another one. The hope is that our household chores will get done regularly without any one person feeling overworked.

We ordered our new bed yesterday. It's a Captain's bed with a bookcase headboard and drawers on the sides and on the footboard. The king size bed will really change how our bedroom looks. I went to Big Lots yesterday and purchased a couple of sheet sets and mattress pads. I need to order our new comforter set from Bed, Bath, and Beyond in the next few days. We're going to order the mattress from Sam's Club and we're trying to put that off until just before the bed arrives in mid-February. I learned, the hard way, how much larger king size sheets are than full size sheets. I tried to wash both sheet sets and both mattress pads together. The sheets were a wrinkled mess so I rewashed them separately.

It's only going on 7:15 PM on Saturday night and I wish Jonnie were in bed! He's been a bit of a pain today. He's following me constantly and I almost knocked him over a couple of times while trying to carry laundry baskets and run the vacuum. He distracted me while I was making dinner and I sliced into my left thumb and thumbnail. I realized while cleaning up from dinner than I left a blood trail on the counter when I ran for a paper towel. Yikes! I'm down to just a waterproof bandage on it now and I think that will be good. I did have it wrapped in gauze and tape but it was falling off.

I'd better close. I'm going to see if I can sneak off to the other room and read more of my book on care giving. It's a really good read! Have a great rest of the weekend!