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Thursday, August 8, 2013

Household organization: Closet doors + kid money management part 1

We have a small house and soon-to-be two kids in school.
Two kids in school create a lot of paperwork and scheduling.
I needed a place to keep track of it all.
And enter... closet doors.
I can keep track of all our household organizational type stuff on the inside of closet doors. They're accessible when I need to see stuff and easy to close when I don't need to see stuff. 
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The inside of the pantry door is where I have my "household" organization. I made the corkboard, isn't it cute? I pin up schedules, countdown chains, fliers, etc on here, but the main purpose of this corkboard is to keep track of my kids' chores. We do chores a little differently here.


  
I was inspired partly by this blog post and partly made it up myself, so it works for us. My kids don't get a regular allowance; they have to do jobs for their money. This works in two different parts:



First, work for hire. This part of the corkboard has little odd jobs that I want done around the house. I put them up when I need them done and anyone can come grab one, do it, and get paid (the amount each job is worth varies, but is usually 50 cents or so). After they job gets done, I take the job card down and put it away until I need it done again, and then it goes back up on the board.



Second, help wanted. These are "contracted" (for lack of a better word) jobs that my kids can apply for. Yep, apply for. Each job card has a job description, pay rate, and contract length. Every Friday I conduct interviews and anyone who would like to apply for a job may do so. They have to be dressed and presentable to apply and I ask them questions like "Why are you interested in this job?" and "What kind of experience do you have that would help you do this job well?" 



If they are hired, we both sign a contract for the week or month, depending on the job. The contract has the day of the week that they have chosen to do their job so I can quickly see who needs to do what when, and also reminds them that they can be fired at any point for not doing their job well. At the end of the job period, I can renew their contract if they are still interested and did a good job, or I can put it back up under "help wanted" so someone else can apply for it. They can choose to apply for as many or as few jobs as they would like; it's completely up to them how much money they earn. They can also choose not to do any jobs. The jobs pay from $1-$2 per week + bonuses if they do their job without being reminded by me. 
Also, my kids have quite a few jobs that they have to do because they are part of a family and we all work together to keep our home clean: they have to help clean their bathroom once a week, clean the garage once a week, and make their bed/put away dirty clothes every day. The jobs on my corkboard are optional ways for them to earn spending money.
We keep track of the money they earn a little differently, too--post on that coming soon!

2 comments:

Lisa said...

Can I go back in time and use this for you and your siblings? I love this idea!

Claire said...

So cute!! love this :)