With a new home comes new responsibilities!
It is almost a month since we moved and we have quite the list of projects to be done. Peter and I were feeling a little overwhelmed, so we decided to sit down and have a discussion about our projects and prioritize them. This helped us to see what needs to be done, the cost of the individual projects, how soon they need to be done, and when we can actually make time for them. Here I will share with you our method for getting home projects prioritized!
Home Project Prioritization
First we took a sheet of paper and wrote down each house project, immediate and long-term.
Next we went through our long list and wrote down the estimated cost of each project.
Then we labeled each item with either 1,2,3, or 4 depending on how soon that project needs to be done. An item labeled 1 would be ASAP, an item labeled 4 would be long-term or a dream project, so not immediate.
Next we counted how many 1s we have and totaled the project costs.
Then we looked at our home projects budget to see how soon it would take us to afford those projects.
Next we looked over our calendar to see how much free time we have each month to work on projects and made sure that we leave one weekend each month to work on them.
After seeing that we can afford to do all of our #1 projects and most of our #2 s, we wrote down a honey-do list with those projects and their individual prices and posted it up on our refrigerator so we can see what needs to be done first and know that we don't have to worry about the items on our 3s and 4s until the end of August/September.
All these items were on our #1 list. As you can see, some projects don't require a cost, but they do require time. The goal is to finish these before we stress about our #2 list, which is underneath the first list, but it's accessible so we can prepare for the next month. Having a numbered priorities list helps us know what we want/need done without having lists everywhere and starting a project that isn't necessary and causing the other spouse to freak out (aka moi). Now, there are software programs where you can graph your lists and the computer will prioritize it for you, but I honestly can't read the graphs as well as my tech savvy husband... So the old-fashioned pen and paper method works for us.
It is important for us in our marriage to be on the same page (literally) when it comes to housekeeping. It keeps peace and helps us understand what the other spouse's needs are.
-Michelle
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