How often do you feel like you’re the only person in your home who does all of the household tasks?

How often would you like some help but feel that it’s easier just to do it yourself?

How often do you feel guilty for asking for help with household tasks?

Would it improve your mental health if you could offload some of the easier/ safer tasks to other people in your home?

Let’s think about which tasks you could share with others. Let’s start making a list:

• Filling/ unloading the washing machine.
• Putting away clean clothes.
• Making beds.
• Filling/ unloading the dishwasher (depending on the age of your children it may be safer to share this task).
• Laying/ clearing the meal table.
• Changing bed linen.
• Sweeping/ hoovering.
• Wiping surfaces.

This is just a start. Some of them might feel impossible to get your kids to do (or your significant other), but everything can be adapted for different abilities. For example, I’d expect my 7 year old to put away everything from the dishwasher apart from sharp knives because I know he can reach all of the cupboards where items are stored. My 4 year old is expected to put away everything which belongs in the low cabinets/ drawers and I do the sharp knives and anything that lives in a wall cupboard. Every little helps!

If your brood aren’t generally too keen to help, I find the direct approach really effective. ‘I’m too tired/ mentally exhausted/ busy to do all of the household jobs. I’ve had a think about what you could do to help. So in the future you are going to do…’. We swap jobs between the kids each week so that they don’t feel like they have to do more than the other one!

For those of you who’ve been inspired to share our household tasks, either today or in the past, how did it go? How do you feel now that you’ve done it? Add your comments below.

Come back tomorrow for your next nudge into productivity.

Photo credit: Freepik