Motivated Moms Review and GIVEAWAY – Getting a Handle on Our Daily Chores

As a busy, work at home, homeschooling mom, I sometimes find it easy to let my housework get put to the side. As the day is consumed with lessons, reading, preparing meals, spending time with the kids, taking them to extra-curricular activities, and working, I feel that the daily chores are many times neglected.

As a result, I often end up spending hours cleaning the house once I have finally “had enough” and need to get the house cleaned. Do you ever feel like that?

I have spoken to so many people, asking them how they get the housework done along with everything else. Before I came home to be a work-at-home, homeschool mom, I can remember thinking that if I stayed home my house would be spotless.  That’s exactly the opposite; it was much cleaner when I worked outside the home, but then we barely lived in our house, we were always at work, the kids at daycare. I’m blessed to be with them, living in our house together as a family, day in and day out. It’s a wonderful blessing. However, with that blessing means that the house needs cleaned.

I have many friends that have big families that divide the housework among the family members. But with two young kids and a VERY busy husband, it is difficult to get a lot of help with the housework. So I’m continually searching for a way to get it done without everything being cumbersome.

Last year I found Motivated Moms and was very excited to try their chore system. However, I didn’t do a good job at following it because I would get behind and didn’t get a handle on what to do when I got behind (I have a personal things with not throwing in the towel just because something isn’t working exactly as planned.) Nevertheless, I was excited to try Motivated Moms this year again. And this year, with the addition of an application version of Motivated Moms, I was excited in thinking it would be a great way for me to stay on top of everything. Boy was I right!

What is Motivated Moms?

Have you ever heard of Motivated Moms? Motivated Moms is a chore planning system to help you clean and organize your home with tasks broken down into daily tasks.  Each day there is a list of Daily tasks and a list of specific tasks for that day.  If you follow the tasks you will stay on top of the household cleaning, organizing and responsibility without much extra planning or even thinking.

Each day you simply consult the list, do the tasks, check them off, and you are done.  The tasks are very thorough and organized.

For instance, each day you have normal tasks to complete like feed pet, exercise, take your vitamins and supplements, load dishwasher, and plan dinner. Then specific tasks for the day like change hand towels in the bathrooms, change sheets, sweep porch, and spend time on a craft or hobby. Some days there will be more cleaning tasks like clean the refrigerator or clean computer screens or spend time working on a storage space or attic and some will be more personal like clip children’s nails or clean out purse or wallet.

As I mentioned, the tasks are very thorough and organized so you don’t spend hours on end cleaning and organizing.  I love that it includes changing furnace filters, doing ironing and mending, spending 30 minutes on a clutter spot, sorting coupons, and water plants. It doesn’t forget anything really. But there is room to write in something if it is specific to your family.

What got me hung up last year was that as I got behind I would have to transfer what I didn’t do to the next day. Easy enough but I didn’t. Enter the app.

Motivate Moms App for smartphone and tablets

This year, Motivate Moms has added an app available on iTunes for iPhone, iPad, or iPod, and in the Google Play and Amazon Appstore for Android and Kindle Fire.  The app is the same setup as the printable version but you can check it off on your phone.  You can get it on the Motivated Moms website, or through iTunes and the Play Store for just $7.99.

Additionally, you can color code the tasks if you have multiple family members that are working on the tasks.  I love that I can add my daughter, assign her favorite color (pink of course) and then I know what she’s supposed to do each day and so does she. We only have it on my phone right now but plan to put it on the Kindle and then we can all refer to it.

The other thing that REALLY helped me this day is that I can move a task that I didn’t do. We are traditionally gone one day a week all day for our co-op day so I don’t have much time to clean. On those days I have to move most of the tasks to other days. I can do this for all the tasks or just that day. It’s great because I can move them all to the next day or disperse them throughout the week, which I do. And I can do it right on my phone. You can also give a due date rather than just moving to the next day so if I want to do a Tuesday tasks that is every Tuesday to every Thursday, it’s easy, just a one-time change.

Once you take a look at the tasks you can see that some are weekly and some monthly. Some are less often than that and those I move to a specific date not that Tuesday task to Wednesday or Thursday but a specific date on the calendar. You can make a due date, you can assign the tasks and a room. I love it! It makes it all very easy to understand and get through and now I don’t have the excuse of not getting it done and then getting behind.

You can get a 2-week free trial of the application through iTunes or the Play Store as the Motivated Moms Lite version. You can even extend the 2-week trial by a week if you still aren’t sure. You don’t get all the features but you get enough to get a good idea on how it will work for you.

Printable Options

When ordering the printable calendar you have to decide whether you want the half size or full size calendar.  Additionally, you can decide between the chore planner or the page per day daily chore planner, which includes room for menu planning and appointments.

The full-sized planner ebook is 8 ½” X 11” and has 55 weekly pages including the cover pages, 52 calendar/planner pages, and a two week menu planning page.  The page per day has the same information but smaller so there is room for appointments and menu planning on the same page. The full-sized planner ebook is available with or without the schedule Bible readings and is available for $8.

The half-sized planner ebook is 5 ½” x 8 ½” and includes everything the full-size includes but is designed to be printed on 29 pages, cut in half, to make a 58 page planned. The half-size planner is available as a chore planner or a page per day planner, which gives room for appointments and menu planning on the same page. These will fit in half size Franklin Covey and Day Timer binders.  The 58 pages include 53 weekly planner pages and 2 two-week menu planning pages. The half-sized printable ebook is available with or without the scheduled Bible readings for $8.

If you choose the Bible reading option you will get a Bible reading assignment each day that will help you read the Bible in a year.  If you purchase the application for your phone or table, you receive the Bible reading options but they can be hidden if you prefer them not to show up on your daily schedule. I actually turned mine off for now because I’m participating in a Bible study and am doing those Bible reading assignments. Once it’s over, I will probably turn it back on, it’s nice to have the reminder.

As you can see, this is a very user-friendly system. I am SO grateful to have found Motivated Moms and will definitely go back to each year. If you are a household notebook user, you can put the printable Motivated Moms printable ebook directly into your household notebook (that’s what we did last year) and it’s there under a tab for easy referral. There’s plenty of space for additional chores, to-dos and moving of tasks.  If you prefer the technology of tablets and smartphones, you will love the ease of use the Motivated moms app provides.

I would love to be able to have the app one several phones for synchronizing. Motivated Moms says that this is in the works for the 2014 addition. I think this will be a great feature! But right now, it is still easy to share it on our one tablet or phone for easy viewing.

Now for the Good News!! – Promo Code and GIVEAWAY!!!

Motivated Moms has provided me with a code for my readers to get $1 off any of Motivated Moms printable products (sorry, printable products only. iTunes and Play Store do not allow promo codes.) But you can get any of the printable ebooks from Motivated Moms for $1 off from January 14 through January 27^, 2013 by using the code ADVENTURE.

That’s Promo Code ADVENTURE, January 14-27, 2013 for $1 off ebooks.

Additionally, I have a giveaway. The winner has their choice between the iPad/iPhone/iPod application or any printable ebook product (sorry, the Android store does not allow giveaways.)  So, just enter through the Raffecopter below, now through January 27^th at midnight, and you will be entered to win your choice of the iTune application of Motivated Moms or a printable ebook, with or without a Bible reading schedule, in half size or full size – your choice.  (Raffecopter will randomly select a winner, which will be published on Monday, January 28^th.)

Enter to win a printable ebook or iTune application from Motivated Moms.

Be sure to check out Motivated Mom’s products on their website and Like them on Facebook. You can follow them on Twitter too to get the latest updates regarding Motivated Moms.

Disclaimer: Motivated Moms provided me with a free copy of their product in return for my honest opinion of their product.

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