Let’s be honest, we’re all just tall children who sometimes need the same motivation as the little humans in our lives who are motivated by star charts and allowances.

Last month I tested out a new method of doing my monthly chores and want to share that today. First of all, these are the 16 tasks that I wanted to ensure I was completing at least monthly. So don’t be like the idiots online who scream “you only clean your toilets once a month? Ewwwww!” No, I ensure that I deep clean both toilets every month and do light cleaning as needed in between.

In the past I’ve kept this list in my bullet journal, which is great, except it is not something I look at daily. So I recreated the list using 16 small super sticky Post-It notes and 1 giant Post-it on my bedroom wall.

Now I can’t avoid seeing it and seeing what needs to be done and I get that childlike sense of accomplishment when all the things are done. Here’s what it looks like:

By writing the chore at the bottom of the sticky note, I can stack them like this and see every task easily. When a task is done, it moves to the right side of the giant Post-it. If I get halfway done, such as cleaning 2 of the sinks but not third, I allow it to hang out in the middle for a short time.

Just so you don’t have to zoom in, here are the 16 tasks I currently have:

• mop the office
• mope the living room
• mop the kitchen
• mop the bathroom
• mop the bedroom
• clean out the freezer and organize
• scrub the oven and stovetop
• sweep the stairs
• disinfect light switches and doorknobs
• scrub the bathtub
• shine the stainless steel appliances
• clean and descale (if needed) the Keurig
• scrub the toilets
• scrub the sinks
• wash the mirrors
• clean out the fridge and organize
• scrub the kitchen counters

As you can tell, the sticky note doesn’t always have all these words, simply because I am lazy and know what they mean.

If a task needs to be done more than once a month, I don’t really do anything. See, I regularly clean off the kitchen countertops to take care of crumbs or spills but once a month I’ll move everything off one section and disinfect it. The design of my countertop is such that it’s hard to see some foods so I’ll use a scraper over the top to get off any mystery goo or crumbs. Then everything on the counters gets wiped down and put back.

If I must do this later in the month due to a spill or it’s just bugging me, the Post-It doesn’t move from it’s completed position.

One other way that I track my progress is that I have a daily Productive task to do a cleaning job. This reminds me daily to keep going back to the Post-Its and make sure everything is getting done during the month. Even if it means cleaning out the freezer at 8pm on the 31st of August, it gets done.

The only thing I haven’t implemented yet is a rewards system for completing all of my cleaning tasks. Maybe I’ll tie brunch at my favorite out of town spot to getting all the chores done. I don’t know yet, give me your ideas!