Chores - FlyLady Zones

I posted some things a while ago about home organization, family work, and chores. I have heard from a couple people asking details so here goes:

Our chores list is rotated on a daily basis. I personalized a list from FlyLady.com. I do not do everything she suggests...that would drive me crazy...but I took some lists of chores by Zone and made our own zones. In our home the zones are:

• Zone 1 - Dining/breakfast area - sweep (includes kitchen floor), clean table, clean sliding door as needed, tidy china cabinet
• Zone 2 - Kitchen - Dishes, counters, wipe down cabinets & appliances when needed (this is the hardest zone that everyone dreads)
• Zone 3 - Children's Bathroom - Everything in bathroom
• Zone 4 - Family Room - Vacuum (includes hallways), dust, tidy room

This does not include laundry room or master bedroom and bathroom - which are my additional areas. Each child is also in charge of their room every day. I also tried a laundry schedule that has not been perfected yet. This is Monday through Friday with Myself having Zone 2 twice a week. I rotate myself through so that every four days the room gets a really "good" cleaning. They have to do their zone at least 3 times a day: before school, after school, and before bed. If there is a big mess then I call them in to clean their zone an extra time.

Saturday is our extra deep cleaning day and the zones are rotated so that we have each zone once a month. If I had more children or a larger home I would probably add more zones or break up zones.

My children are now middle and high school. When I started this they were much younger. I helped them do some of the harder things or allowed their "best job". Over time they grew to be able to manage everything on the list.

Someone first sent me a link to FlyLady.com about 5 years ago, I think, when my kids were 6, 8, and 11. She helped me to think of things in a more organized way - which I so desperately needed!