House Rules

doelani

I am so fed up that I was thinking of printing house rules and put them up around the house. I have visited a friend who does this, she has one on bathroom door........leave bathroom clean , replace toilet roll etc one in kitchen ................clean up after you, put rubbish in bin, dirty dishes in diswasher etc


I also seen this on a plaque in a shop............

"House Rules
If you drop it - pick it up;
If you sleep on it - make it up;
If you wear it - hang it up;
If you spill it - wipe it up;
If you turn it on - turn it off;
If you open it - close it;
If it rings - answer it;
If it whines - feed it;
If it cries - love it. "


My hubby and kids will think I am mad but so p*ssed off chasing people to bring washing from bedrooms, tidy kitchen after them that I have to do somehting. Kids are 20, 18, 16,14,12 and hubby lol


Does anyone else have " hosue rules" that they acually print out and stick somewhere, or am I mad???

Evansangel

ahaha i was literally just thinking of house rules for when i move into my new house

I'll take this for tips

xx

Artytarty

I did this a few weeks ago.
Notes saying who had to medicate the dog and when , note on recylcing bin.:. NO YOGI POTS
notes in bathroom about towels note on .dishwaher:etc. oh, I forgot to say I live with my husband and one son. ( girls have flown) and it was driving me nuts!
I took all the notes down recently as they looked awful and annoyed me more than anybody else. The boys just thought I'd finally gone stark raving mad and ignored them.
So, back to nagging it is then!
So my opinion is that notes are not worth the paper they are written on:)

Krystaltips

I have unwritten rules in our house... That are never adhered to... And I'm pretty sure I could print rules off and stick them up somewhere... And they'd not be adhered to...

HopeAndDriftWood

I have that plaque!!!
I love it

doelani

Krystaltips wrote: »

I have unwritten rules in our house... That are never adhered to... And I'm pretty sure I could print rules off and stick them up somewhere... And they'd not be adhered to...

the problem with the unwritten rules in my hosue is I keep having to tell them " wheres your washing" " lift your rubbish" and jsut makes me a " moan" lol

Krystaltips

The same here... But if I had a note stuck up saying 'put your dirty plates in the dishwasher not on the side' it would still get ignored... And I'd still be a moan!

squeaky

Hmmm... I live alone and after a long illness I decided that I needed rules and notes to help be to get back into good housekeeping habits since I'd lost them, and anyway didn't have a lot of energy or indeed enthusiasm for the job.

What I found was that after a week or two they became so much part of the decoration or the furniture that they were attached to that I just stopped "seeing" them. Of course they were still there, and I saw them - but they simply stopped registering as "things to do".

So I decided to make them more memorable. I scoured the web for good cartoon type pictures - such as someone slipping on a banana skin, added in large text "Pick it UP ya muppet!" or some such reminder, and placed it somewhere prominent. Humorous and memorable worked better; but I still found that I need to change them regularly. I also found that just one or two rules at a time worked better. Too many and they all seem to meld together and then blend into the background again and disappear.

Apparently it takes about fifteen days to develop a good habit.

It's such a shame that it only takes fifteen seconds to lose one!

jm2926

You need new rules.

1/ Washing which is not in the correct place will remain where you dropped it.
2/ Rubbish on the other hand will migrate itself to your bed, along with plates/cups.
3/ If the kitchen isn't tidy I'm going out for food for me and you can all starve.
4/ If I run out of plates etc because they're on your bed, I'm not cooking. (see 3)

Sit everyone down, explain the new rules, and stick to them.

xx_Jo_xx

When we were younger we had our own chores that we had to do by the end of the week to get pocket money or whatever it was that we particularly wanted at that time.

Ive started this with my son already who is 7. Every day he has to make his bed, put his laundry in the basket, open his curtains and keep his toys tidy (i.e. off the middle of the floor and in a box or under his bed which is where they should be!)

He has a chart, and if he does what hes supposed to every day he gets a sticker! If he has all stickers by the end of the week, he gets a treat that he had asked for previously as his pocket money. For larger items he has to save up several weeks worth of stickers and do extra jobs like taking the recycling outside and putting it in the box (ie plastic milk cartons), or helping with the hoovering.

Yours are a bit older so it may not work on them, dont think they would be impressed with some stickers and a few treats! But good old fashioned bribery works at any age.

My mum had a rule that if it was downstairs in the basket, she would wash it. If it wasnt in there it was your own problem.

There was tears and tantrums when we discovered our school uniforms had not been cleaned, or our favourite thing we wanted to wear was not clean and still in a heap where we left it on the floor......but we quickly got the message.

If we left stuff lying around in other rooms and wouldnt put it away, she would go round with a black bag and chuck it all in the bin! If we wanted it, we had to go and get it and keep it where it was supposed to be.

I threatened my son with this when he wouldnt clean his room, and he knows I mean business. You have to follow through on your threats and your family will undoubtedly think you have completely lost it.

But when you start chucking all their stuff out, their attitudes do change.

Good luck xxx


PS always make sure your own stuff is away and set a good example before you start chucking it all out. You cant backtrack and start picking your own stuff out of the bag.........

princessamy86

My mum once bin bagged everything in my room and put it on the front lawn waiting for me when I got back from college :eek:! She would never ever wash anything that wasn't in the basket, and she used to just make herself tea if we hadn't done our jobs. What worked in our house was that she would leave a list of jobs which needed to be done by the time she got back from work. No jobs done=no money, no food cooked, no washing done, no TV, no computer. Lol the list went on but we did learn to get things done! One thing to try is to never nag, just don't say anything and get on with what you're doing. Don't talk to them, just detach and carry on! Your house will be horrible for a few weeks while they all catch on, then I bet they start helping more when they've no clean underwear and their beds smell like pies.