I wish I had discovered this housekeeping hack ten years ago. It has saved me so much time and stress, and has even helped to get the kids motivated to participate in housework. And no, I’m not joking.
After three kids in quick succession (two of them were C sections, fifteen months apart), and the trauma incidents I’ve mentioned before, the house was in sad shape. And it didn’t seem to matter how hard I worked, it was always a mess.
Waking Up To the Mess
Around the time our youngest turned five, I was starting to come out of the fog enough to realize just how far out of hand the house was, and started looking for tips/tools/lists/supplies – anything that would give me a boost in the right direction. I found several awesome organizational things related to calming the clutter (like transportable bins for homeschool books, and zipper pouches for toys with small pieces), but the #1 best housekeeping hack I found for taming the dirt and clutter was a very simple app.
The Tody App
What am I talking about? The Tody app. And yes, the basic app is free, AND available for both iPhone and Android devices.
Customized Rooms & Frequency
Tody divides the house into rooms, and divides the room into scheduled tasks. You get to choose the frequency of tasks, which is super helpful since every family/household has unique needs. (For instance, we currently have five people in a small house with only one bathroom, so that one bathroom gets a lot of use. And therefore needs to be cleaned and tidied more frequently than in a home with fewer people and more bathrooms.)
Motivated Kids
How did this housekeeping hack get my kids motivated? Tody gamified the tasks! There’s a character named Dusty that is trying to take over your house. Your mission is to prevent him from taking over each month, and the homepage shows who is currently “winning” at any given point. Even my five year old got excited about doing age-appropriate chores, because it meant “beating Dusty”. I had originally downloaded the app in hopes it would help ME get back on track with housework. And it did. But the most amazing bonus was the incentive it gave my kids.
And More!
Other things I like:
- Under the premium version (which is only $4.99/year, by the way) older family members with their own phone can dowload the app (which syncs between devices), and each member can be assigned specific tasks to do
- You can view tasks by room, or by priority (based on the freqency you set)
- Certain tasks can be scheduled by season (for instance, changing to winter tires – yes, there’s a “garage” room in Tody)
- Tasks can be scheduled for certain months (like lawn mowing)
And Even More!
When I stumbled across Tody, I had been looking for a habit tracker. This is so much better than what I had in mind. But yes, I’m tracking habits, too. Specifically, I’m tracking self care. I created a “room” for Self Care, and created tasks for
- Physical Movement (not specific exercizes, because that varies a lot, dependent primarily on weather in our area)
- Bible/Spiritual (again, leaving myself flexibility to read my Bible or watch/listen to a sermon online)
- Piano Time (because playing my piano is therapy for me, and I’m also slowly re-entering music ministry at our church)
Game Changer With Visual Tracking
Tody has been a life-changing housekeeping hack. Which sounds silly, but it’s true. It gave me visual tracking for housework in a way my brain can connect with. Bonus: it resets every month, so if I have all three kids down sick (like I did last week) and get “behind”, I don’t have to worry about “catching up”. (Under the premium version, you have the option to turn on vacation mode, as well.)
Download my #1 housekeeping hack here.
Also read: 3 Mom Hacks for Less Stress and My Exercise Dilemma – Solved.