Use this last week of June to create yourself a BUC-it list. Work on each BUC or Bit Under Clutter as a way of getting the house back under control! Turn it into a Bit-Under-Clutter challenge. Set yourself a number of BUCs to complete each day or each week, or even over the whole summer. Use deadlines and timelines that suit your needs or those of the family members in your house.
You get to choose based on how cluttered your house is and how you want it to look by September.
You can do it all on your own, but hard work is so much easier with a team. Engage the whole household in the challenge. Set the number of BUCs per person or per whatever timeline works for you, day, week, etc.
Depending on the ages of the people in the house, you may need very short-term and easy BUCs with lots of rewards. You may even need a BUC per half day or per hour. For very short timelines, try to set an alarm every three hours. When it goes off, grab everyone a snack, then open up a drawer! Let the kids rummage through it. It’s all gotta come out anyway to be able to sort through it! With youngsters, completing something with a short timeline means you can really focus on the reward to keep the progress moving. Pick a reward like time! Often, young kids just want you to get down to their level and play a game together. Give them that time, play with them the way they want you to play!
To get everyone more excited about the process, discuss what the reward will be – the kids may want a play date, they may want a special dessert treat, or maybe they just want something simple like a picnic dinner at the park. Make those things the reward! A reward doesn’t have to be something huge and expensive. Teach the kids that rewards can be simple and free! If you think free simple things are not a good enough reward for young kids, try looking up ‘kids opening fruit at Christmas.’ It’s proof that kids really do see magic in the things adults take for granted!
If you have teens, they may be a little…umm…less than enthused – even with a reward! Try assigning them a certain number of BUCs each week to complete Mon-Fri. They can decide how they want to manage their time – side note, if they are bad at managing their time, use this as a chance to teach them some time management and productivity tips!! Maybe they can get everything done on Monday so they have the week to relax. Maybe they simply do one BUC each day. As long as the BUCs are done by an agreed upon deadline, they get the reward. When it comes to rewards for teens, you may need to think a bit outside the box! Teens are sometimes harder to motivate with rewards, but try things like a bit of extra money, an extended curfew, a Starbucks gift card (or booster juice or bubble tea, or whatever store/chain they love), a new book if you have a bookworm, or new supplies to indulge a hobby they have. Rewards aren’t just stickers and charts – if only that could work forever!
Put your family’s heads together and come up with a plan that the whole family can get on board for!
Even during summer vacation, it’s surprising how much you can accomplish, especially with everyone working together.
Get that clutter gone so that your back to school routine can go a little more smoothly! (And just maybe, they can even keep up with their chores!!)
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