RTO Time = Restore The Order
Restore the Order.
A Place for Everything,
Everything in it’s Place.”
~ Ben Franklin.
RTO is an acronym that we use in our house that stands for Restore The Order! Does your house sometimes look like a disaster zone? Is it truly clean, but each room is cluttered with items that don’t belong in that room?
Some days everywhere I look there are items cluttered everywhere . . . papers on the kitchen table, shoes at the front door, backpacks on the couch, books at my bedside, Sports Illustrated magazines at my husband’s bedside, random socks taken off by my son in any room . . .
Before bed each night, we set the timer for 15 minutes and my husband cranks some dance music on the radio and we all race around for some Restore the Order Time. Everyone participates, even 3 year old Jonathan! We run around as fast as we can putting things back where they belong. If it belongs upstairs, we just throw it on the stairs to keep moving. I so want to do a You Tube video of this one day!
Once the 15 minutes are up, we take a breath and say a cheer like “Go Team!” or “Go Liermans!”. Then re-set the timer for another 15 minutes and take the items from the stairs and put them in their proper rooms upstairs and do RTO upstairs too!
I am so good at creating a system, coming up with a list, having a clipboard, and keeping my family organized. My husband is so good at making it fun! The more everyone in the family puts things back in their place as they go along in their day, the less RTO there is for us to do. RTO time is the one chore that the kids don’t seem to complain about too much. And it is so nice to wake up to house all picked up and it is so much better than you doing it all yourself after the kids go to bed.
Daily Restore The Order Time will help you keep your sanity Moms! Try it! Throw on some music and have everyone do a little RTO tonight!
MELISSA LIERMAN is a Wonder Woman of 39 Years, Wife of John 14 Years [middle school teacher], and Mother of 3 wonderful kids – MacKenzie Peter Age 11 [techno computer, blackberry loving, sensitive, guitar playing son], Maria Stella Age 9 [artistic and creative getting her soul filled each day at her first year at a performing arts school] , and Jonathan Roger Age 3 [lives to make you laugh and is the life of the party no matter wherever he goes!]. Melissa loves to help Moms to Maximize their Time with Systems, Tools, and Organization! Put yourself in a TimeOutMom and listen to her weekly Blog Talk Radio Show at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/timeoutmom. Check out her blog http://www.timeoutmom.blogspot.com for her latest tips, tricks, and systems to help with your family management.
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Thanks Melissa for sharing what REALLY works. Not only are you creating a great family team, you are making it fun to do what is not. RTO is a great idea!
Fabulous! I always try to do a “10-minute tidy” before bedtime, but I especially like how your family has really formalized “RTO Time” and turned it into a super fun game!
Wow – building good habits AND teaching kids that chores do not need to be awful? Double win. Way to go!
I love using a timer Melissa and the music is a great touch too! Kudos to you and your family!
Love this idea – especially that it can be fun. We so need to teach our kids (and ourselves) to have fun while we do the ‘necessary’ stuff of life. I would love to see that video on YouTube too, Melissa! I’m going to work to incorporate fun music at our house instead of my ‘directing & nagging’ voice! Thanks for the idea and the inspiration.
This sounds like something we should institute in our house. End the night with a clean (well, “cleaner”) house and tire the kids out by running around cleaning up! I might have to figure out a good “clean up” playlist tonight.