Used to be the task women groaned about doing the most, polishing the silver. Now, we use the good stuff to infrequently, it doesn’t come up anymore. Getting the nooks and crannies in the intricate work on the handles of soup ladles and other silver utensils doesn’t make us squirm, nor is it a hot topic at the quilting bee.

However, that does not mean there is nothing new to say on the subject, because there is. What do tell could it be, why natural silver polish my dearies. Just because you don’t have clean or polish the silver on your weekly, or even monthly list of chores, you will eventually have to do it if you own any and want to keep it in good shape.

Guess what, this doesn’t involve schlepping to the store to buy a new specialized product either. Instead, fill either an aluminium pot, or another pot that you have lined with aluminium foil with hot water. Make a mixture of salt and baking soda and then dissolve into the hot water. Then once you place the silver into the concoction the tarnish gets whisked away in a chemical reaction. Sounds like good old fashioned magic to me.

I just got a pretty rude awakening when I read that just because an oven, or other appliance is self-cleaning doesn’t mean it is the best thing to rely upon. To be blunt the article I was reading had a lot of fear mongering involved, which I would normally laugh off, but appliances can be mighty expensive. Therefore, I have filtered out some of the unnecessary scary stuff and will give you the useful stuff. I learned.

First off, apparently self-cleaning ovens are infamous for breaking during  the self-cleaning cycle. Seems there is a good window of opportunity for an owner to make use of this cycle, and that is sandwiched between two bad times. If you use the cycle too frequently, something called a glowbar will get used up. However, if you go to long between cleanings there will be so much buildup from cooking that the machine will not be able to handle the cleanup. All of this information has led me to go directly back to the instruction manual that came with my oven to see if I can make heads or tails of this. As it is though, it sounds as if I am already using it in a way that lowers the risk level of breaking. More on this later I assure you.

The word chore invokes feelings of dread, and this is a bad start. As it is parents are probably not looking forward to performing household chores, and the same is almost definitely true for kids. As such, might I recommend you parents do two things right off to make the dynamics of these activities something other than abysmal.

First, do not call them chores, or jobs, or work. Be inventive with the title of these tasks so that they seem less burdensome when they are discussed, or mentioned. Make a joke of it if you can, or inject some fun into the classification you give them. Even if all you do is co-mingle two words to create a new one, you are off on the right foot. For example: jobs and chores will give you jores, or work and tasks can become tasorks. Anyway you get the idea.

And for the second thing, be aware of the jores you assign to different members of your family. You know each persons likes, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses. Keep those in mind before you choose who gets what to do.

Once all of the usual chores have been completed there are often some that have not been delegated. This is not because they were forgotten, but because you are not really sure how to clean the remaining stuff. A great example of this would be votive candles that have wax residue left on them from their last use.

Well there is good news, if you take a second before inserting the votive candle into the holder to prepare it, you will have no troubles getting the melted wax right out later. All you need to do is spray the inside of the holder with a thin coating of cooking spray, and then slide the candle inside of it. Then after you have used the candles the wax will wipe right out. Now all you need to do is remember this tip, and give the chore to a family member in the future.

For the longest time I would find myself stewing over the way my husband tackled the chores allocated to him. In fact, to say he tackled them is not accurate, it was more like he swatted at them, meaning they did not line up to my standards. I just could not fathom how he could skip sweeping before mopping, or sweep and then dust.

Then it dawned on me, part of his approach was possibly due to the fact that nobody ever showed him how to do it properly, and the rest was a lack of interest. So, I doled out new chores to him and took away the ones he would never warm up to. Then I took the opportunity to show him how I think the jobs should be done to actually accomplish the goal of getting something clean.

In the end, I did observe some genuine effort, and drenched him in praise for it. Then I analyzed whether the help he gave in other areas was better than no help at all, and decided it was if it meant more time together once the work was done.

If you are really serious about raising your ambitions regarding chores then you will want to investigate the book Managers of Their Chores by Steve and Teri Maxwell. Once you have committed to the book, you are then able to access the companion website ChorePacks.com.
The book itself is a practical guide to childrens chores, and is accompanied by a chore pack kit. The idea is that this will guide families to achieve their chore goals by giving them the tools to conquer the ongoing war of the chores. The text and kit are meant to motivate each member of your brood by presenting practical advice. The ultimate result being that you and your tikes accomplish the work without the stress.
Managers of Their Chores is focused on preschoolers to teens. Ultimately though, the intent is to teach them lifelong skills. Additional chore pack kits can be purchased on the website, and many useful resources are also available there on the topic as well. In addition, you might also like the other books written by these authors which are also discussed on the site.

Depending on the ages and level of reliability of the people, in your household setting up and delving out the job duties will not be all that is required. There could be an awful lot of follow up, which in turn is another way to say one more chore. However, if you start your chore program off on the right foot, follow up and follow through, then it is destined to be a success. It is entirely up to the initiator, aka director of this program to organize, oversee and enforce the plan of action.

The very first thing to do to get the ball rolling is to make a master list of what needs to be completed. This means everything both inside and outside. Be sure to indicate if the task must be completed daily, weekly or even monthly. Remember too that some chores require numerous steps, while others are single actions. Those requiring more need to be broken down further If there are several people involved, along with several age groups, then the next priority is to break the master list into levels of difficulty.

At first the list might seem overwhelming, but there are seven days in which to complete them. Plus, once the system is in place and actively being pursued the list will appear to shrink. Also, note that the person in charge of checking that all the chores are completed, and done well is already assigned to do that chore, and should receive credit for it as such.