Are you tired of cleaning your house?

It's not so much the cleaning, it's the unhelpfulness of the tween who apparated-Ron-Weasley-style into some unknown corner of your home in the middle of the chores (Room of Requirement, maybe?) and the turtle-pace cleaning speed of your teen. Mix that with working all week and then spending half of Saturday trying to motivate your people to clean with purpose, and you are over it.

I hear you.

My coworker gave me life-changing advice about a tangible way to keep my house clean.

I was telling my friend from work about our cleaning as a family on the weekends. ("No one is focused. It takes forever. Saturday mornings aren't enjoyable.")

"First..." my coworker said to me, "You have to know how good it is for your boys to help you clean." (She has sons, as well, and is a few clicks ahead of me in parenting.) It teaches your sons' life skills, to treat their mom well, to be a better future roommate and/or husband, to take ownership and pride in your family home, and to do life as part of a team.

(Oh, dear friend - you had me at "It's good for your boys to help you clean.")

"But here's the key," she continued. "You need to clean on a Thursday." Then she went on to tell the pros of Thursday cleaning:

-Everyone still has energy on a Thursday, by Friday, you're toast.

-You go into the weekend with a clean house, and that's so nice.

Here's how it works:

-You get pizza on the way home from work and everyone eats early.

-Everyone works together with the goal of getting the whole house clean between 1-2 hours. A family member finishes a job, then goes back to mom (or dad) to find out the next job. This continues until you are done. (Set a timer, blast some music and go.)

-Yes, there are sometimes activities/conflicts, but you figure it out and make it happen anyway - remember, Thursday you're strong, Friday you wilt.

So, I tried the Thursday cleaning, and it was like magic - it worked far better than my weekend routine. We've kept this new schedule up for years with one small addition.

We've added that during the week we also do our best to imperfectly pick up after ourselves. Then after dinner, half the family cleans the kitchen and the other half does a quick house pickup. (Aim for 10-15 minutes max.)

Is it flawless? Of course not, but no parent is hidden somewhere in this world doing it all right. Motherhood is an imperfect journey by definition. The cleaning routine bounces between great to okay to meh because that's life.

But still - the Thursday ritual is truly the best cleaning routine I've ever tried...and I've tried them all in the 15 years I've been a parent.

My sons asked for a checklist so they didn't have to constantly ask me for their next task. I dream in lists, so was happy (thrilled!) to oblige.

Momma, I know you're busy - so I want to save you some of your precious time, and made the family cleaning checklist available to you.

It's in word document form so you can quickly tweak it to fit your family. It also outlines both weekly cleaning and a few "deep cleaning" things you should do every Thursday to keep your home sparkling.

**THIS IS A DIGITAL WORD DOCUMENT PRINT. You will not get a hard copy. As a bonus for purchasing this item, I'll add you to my monthly(ish) parenting tweens and teens inspirational email list. The monthly emails are free, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Read the humorous blog post that goes with this product: https://www.empoweredmomsandkids.com/get-your-teenager-to-do-chores/