Motivated Moms - A Review

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I'm a natural born slob. It is innate to my personality. I don't like this trait. In fact, clutter makes me feel stressed. I prefer a tidy, simple home. But my inner slob fights me every day. I have read scores of books and articles, all promising to help me conquer this natural instinct of mine. They didn't help. Most were written by tidy people who wanted to help misguided sloppy people. Admirable, but ineffective. Some were written by psychologists who were convinced they had discovered the root causes of sloppy natures. Everyone is so different, with different motivations and disciplines, that I don't know that any self-help book could really "fix" such a thing.

I have, through the years, discovered 3 things that have helped me stay afloat with housework:

1. Digital Cameras
2. The one-minute rule
3. Motivated Moms

Digital Cameras
Digital cameras mean I can take pictures freely without having to worry about the cost of development. All day long,  I can snap pictures of my beautiful children. But when I go to upload them, I notice that behind the adorable shot of my two year old covered in flour, there is a pile of laundry, yesterday's dishes on the counter, and a floor that hasn't been swept in 3 days. I can't share that one on facebook! Shame can be a good motivator.

The One-Minute Rule
Things pile up quickly. Frighteningly fast, really. I can scrub the house spotless for company and within 2 days, it looks like a disaster. This happens because things don't get put away, they get left wherever they were last used. Little things that we don't notice begin piling up. Within an hour, all flat surfaces are magically covered in mail, half-finished cups of coffee, pencils, wrappings, hairpins, craft projects....all with good intentions to come pick up in a minute, right after I finish this (whatever this may be.)

The rule is: if you can do this job in less than one minute, it is worth doing and will not slow you down. It can only help. So do it. It's not an overnight fix, but through the years, it has improved my habits. Somewhat.

Motivated Moms
For nearly 2 decades, I've battled my messy nature and this is the only "program" that has worked. My nature is still messy and if I stopped using it, I'd likely still fail. But I've used it for years and I don't plan to stop using it. Motivated Moms is the handy little tool that has kept my husband sane and my house above water.

What is Motivated Moms? It's a nice, little checklist. The list gives you tasks for every day of the year. It breaks down the gross jobs so that you are never told to "clean the refrigerator". Instead, you are given a task like "Clean top shelf of refrigerator". It also lists the small things that we tend to forget, like "Clip children's fingernails". Admit it: how many times have you looked down in church and realized your child's hands looked like he was trying out for the role of Dr. Evil? (I don't know who Dr. Evil is, but it sounded fitting)

It's easy to use; baby steps all the way. Such tiny things, but they free you up and inspire you to tackle other things. Before you know it, everyone has drawers full of clean underwear and you can always find a coffee mug. As a friend aptly put it: It's a game changer. An $8 game changer.

Motivated Moms is easy to follow - just check off the list of daily assignments. Sometimes you'll get it all done and more. Sometimes you won't get half of the list. Your house will still be cleaner than it was without the list. Anything is an improvement over nothing.  

• If you are in need of getting your act together, I'm telling you, I've tried every book on the market and out of print. THIS works. 
• If you are NOT in need of getting your act together: A. You don't need this and 2. Don't tell me about it. I will concede right now that you rock. I rock in other ways. Housekeeping does not come naturally to me. Making pajama pants look good for 4 days comes very natural to me.
• If you are a flylady dropout, like me, this might appeal to you. No clutter. No distractions. Just a list on the fridge.

I'm a true rebel at heart and I'm amazed that I was able to accept someone else's housekeeping list since I tend to try rewriting everything I find, but I haven't changed a thing with this list. It's one that my kids can look at and mark off with me. It breaks everything down nice and easy. 

This tool is available as a a printable download in various designs and as an app. I love the app because you can color code different recurring tasks. I put this on the ipad and let the kids choose a color for the week. Everyone was able to participate and know what was expected of them. 

In both formats, there is room provided to add in additional tasks that might not be on the list. Once added to the app, you can set it up to be a permanent addition so you won't have to enter it again. You can also delete tasks that aren't relevant to your needs. Because of that, I prefer the app to the PDF. I've had extra tasks that I wanted to add to the print-out, but didn't want to write in every day. I also didn't need all of the tasks on their list; we didn't always have a dog, so "feed pets" was superfluous.

I believe in the value of this program so much that I signed up to be an affiliate. If you are convinced it is worth trying, be sure to click on my purple MoMo square in the sidebar, which helps support my book addiction.