The Shared 15 Continues

Wow it has already been a month and a half since I blogged about The Shared 15 and the QR codes that we are using in the house- I had every intention of coming back in a couple of weeks to let you know how it was going.
I bet you thought, "Hmm- it came and went and they aren't doing anything with it anymore". "It turned into a flop"

The Mr. and The Not So Littles thought the same thing! They were convinced that Mom would make us play along - I even overheard him say, "Just go with it". {insert shock face here}

I guess we (I) have tried lots of ways to motivate them in the past. Like I said before, there were charts and lists and jars- full of chores. There was money and game nights and pick a dessert rewards. But nothing really S.T.U.C.K.

Until now.

We are rounding the last corner of February and here we are- still going strong!
There have been a few tweaks made, but overall it is still the same concept!
In case you are with me for the first time (hope you'll come back) or you have forgotten- here is the very quick jist of it:

The Shared 15 means that IMMEDIATELY following dinner EVERYONE in the house gets up and participates in spending 15 mins of their day cleaning a SHARED space in our home. It could be the bathroom, hallway, staircase, living room,- anywhere that is not just our own bedroom basically.

The QR codes came into play with how they are rewarded for their work. I'll link the last post here so that you can read more about the codes.

We are still using the same calendar and I still number each child with 1,2, or 3 for the day. This will determine what job they are doing. It was a bit tricky at first to set it up, but then I approached it like I was creating a rotating center chart.....using my teacher brain helped me out.

This is the calendar. I made a much easier way to see who has what on each day. It really is simple. 1 and 2 are the same tasks everyday. It is 3 that is different. Three are the jobs that don't need to be done everyday but do need to be done often.
So I made sure I had descriptions of what I expected.

1 is the only one that is gender biased. I don't think she should have to clean the toilet they share and I don't think the boys should have to wipe her hairspray off the vanity.

You just can't beat it.

Take Sunday there for instance- right after dinner everyone gets up- One child heads to the bathroom to clean the toilet and shake out the rug, another grabs the broom and starts sweeping from the hall to the back door and looks for thinks that don't belong in our shared space, and the last one picks up the dogs' feeder and waterer- washes it in the sink, refills, sweeps up the area where the food goes and then replaces it.

And it all "just happens" . I don't have to say anything other than "Ok, let's get our 15 knocked out".

Now if what you have to do for the day takes less time than the 15, you head to your room and work in there until the timer goes off.

yes, there is a timer, Littlest Little made sure of that!!

 

And on Fridays, they all bring their ipods and iphones in to scan the QR codes  for their rewards for the week. We write them down on the calendar and when they cash them in- we draw a line through them. Bing-o Bang-o Done-zo!

 

We are looking to add a few different rewards- to switch things up a bit- they are older than the "play a game together" or "screen time" rewards, so they have things like iTunes songs, movie rentals, small amounts of cash, free chore day, free laundry (they LOVE THAT ONE)..

 

It really has been a huge success for us.

We had the 15 years ago, but they were too small for what they did to really count and take a load off of me. Not to say that it went unappreciated, but my burden of cleaning was not significantly reduced.

Now it is a completely different story!!!

We do the kitchen after the 15- everyone has a regular unchanging part of the kitchen, so that goes pretty smoothly and is usually rather quick.

When that is finished- most nights no later than 6:30, we have the rest of our evening to enjoy a neat and tidy home in our shared spaces!

It is truly a beautiful thing! And there are 5 of us- so that's 75 minutes of work EVERYDAY. That's - hold on let me get my calculator- 525 mins a week - which is the same as almost 9 hours of cleaning a week!!! AMAZING! (They hate when I bring that up).

 

His laptop that I use now is old and evil- so I created the Shared 15 chart on the worst word processor ever- known to man- really- it sucks. If I linked the editable doc here that was made on his laptop, it would probably show up in some weird non existent language with lines in all the wrong places. But it does allow me to save to a PDF. So I am linking the PDF- and if it is something you are interested in, you could remake it to fit your needs.  Sorry that isn't easier.

The Shared 15 Chore Chart

 

As far as the QR codes go- the ones we are currently using are in the previous post

 

It has been especially nice to have everything so neat since we have been cooped up in the house for 10 days. Snow, ice, flooding, more ice, wind chills have all been culprits of what has kept us home!

 

This last part I have to share- It is one way I have kept busy and sane in the last few days.  Which you have already seen if you are following my Etsy's Fanpage or my Insta

If you just can't stand the cuteness, My Etsy store is linked at the top of my blog!

Here's to hoping that we head back to school soon!!! (Said everyone mom of three after 10 days EVER!!!) HA HA!

 

I plan to update you on The Shared 15 and any changes we make. I'll also be sure to post any updates to the QR codes we are using! I would love to hear about it if you give it a go- and see how it works for you!

I also plan to share how the Not-So-Littles help me out with Instant Lunches- Another lifesaver we have going on. There are others, too!

So stay tuned and stay safe.