by L.S. Watts

Created on: April 02, 2009   Last Updated: April 07, 2009

Whether you're a stay at home parent, or work outside the home sometimes life can get a bit chaotic. I found that by creating a Household Management Handbook, I was able to be organized amongst the chaos. My children knew what was expected of them and thus made our household run so much smoother. Most parents use charts on the walls but I personally got tired of it making the walls look cluttered. Granted, I think I had a chart for everything. Putting it all in a binder for each one of them has been so much easier and effective.

To get started you will first have to buy 3-ring binders. Some people prefer to by just one large binder for the whole household, but I decided to take it up a notch and bought myself a 2" binder along with binders for each one of my children. I also preferred to use the binders that I could slip a coversheet in the front. This helps not only state what the binder is but allows for personalization.

What if you have preschoolers that aren't reading yet? Make the book interactive for them. Find pictures or draw pictures that help show each rule. You can also include their reward charts in their binder. Again, it is all about personalization.

There are a variety of different sections in a Household Management Handbook. You can modify sections to suit your own needs. Although I have listed some suggestions below, you know your family's needs better than anyone else. Feel free to add more sections than what I have suggested or omit some.

Household Rules

I create household rules for each room along with general rules. Having children, I made sure to write every rule in the simplest of terms. I also included rules that you would think would be common sense just so I know every basis would be covered. I didn't want someone, especially one of the kids, coming back saying "Well, it wasn't in the Handbook."

At the end of each rule there will be listed what degree of consequences will be applied for not following the rule. This will be covered in the next section. The point to this is to let the children know what to expect. If they break the rule, they know there are consequences that come with making that decision.

I even threw in various etiquette rules to use in a variety of situations such as Fine Dining, Birthday Parties, Going to a Funeral, and so forth. This helped my kids know appropriate ways to behave in various situations.

Consequences

I listed a variety consequences by using a degree system. There are three degrees of consequences. First degree

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