Get a Job! (Jar)

I seem to have developed a problem getting things done around here. Shocking, no? I'm guessing it has NOTHING WHATSOEVER to do with the 130+ blogs in my Bloglines. Nope, nothing at all.

Ahem. So I saw this idea for a Job Jar somewhere and I've decided to give it a try and see if it improves my productivity on the housework front. I started out by making a list of household chores that take about 15 minutes. These are things that I don't need to be doing every day (like loading the dishwasher or laundry), but rather things that I tend to let pile up and never get around to until I freak out about how dirty my house is and then feel all overwhelmed and just go read more blogs. I'm talking ironing, cleaning the baseboards, dusting, cleaning window blinds, weeding, etc. Stuff that needs to get done but doesn't have to be done every single day. My list ended up at about 25 items.

Next, I made a cute label for my jar. Naturally, I used a 1950s housewife image (this is Vacuuming in High Heels and Pearls, after all) and used a retro-style font. I made the label to fit on the side of this neat vintage jar I picked up at a yard sale earlier this summer. The jar was lidless anyway so I tied some fun cherry-print ribbon around the top and added a darling cherry charm because who says chores can't be cute?

For the jobs, I went through my patterned paper stash and picked out a bunch of red scraps. I cut them into rectangles roughly 1" by 3" though I didn't actually measure, just eyeballed it. I am a pack rat and paper hoarder so I had plenty of cute scraps to choose from. I wrote each chore on a slip of paper and then used a pair of scissors to curl the paper as you would curling ribbon. If that sounds like a good way to cut your fingers off, you can just roll them around a pencil or marker. Drop them in the jar, and that's it! I like that it's easy for me to add or subtract jobs as I see fit or as the seasons change. Maybe I need to include jobs like "Go eat a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich" or "go check Two Peas NSBR to see the latest drama." Those will get done for sure!

My plan is that during the day when I get sucked in by the internets (which is often, I shamefully admit) that I can tear myself away and go be productive for at least 15 minutes at a time, which will hopefully motivate me to do even more. This way things will get done but I don't have to feel like all I ever do around here is clean. I'll let you know how it works. And now, I do believe it's time to go pick a job out of the jar!