What the heck is a zone anyway?

Thank you for the positive feedback on my family meeting posts!  I love hearing that people are considering implementing this habit and I'd love to hear how it works for you and your family!

The most frequent feedback I got on my worksheets was "What is a zone??"

Hmm, people aren't familiar with the weird jargon we use in our family meetings?  Noted.

I have a very strong dislike for cleaning.  I'm not that good at it, and it doesn't come naturally to me what needs done when.  So, like the scheduling freak that I am, I made a type of schedule.

This list is very specific for our house.  So unless you have the exact same house, pets, and concerns as me, it will need some modification, but maybe it could serve as a launch point.  Personally, I think everything would be just a little bit better if we could somehow get it down to 5 zones.  By the 6th week, it's usually extremely obvious what zone is next.  One whiff of the dogs breathe and I'll know she's up next week.

That probably leads sane people to wonder why I need a list.  If I can tell the dogs breathe is bad, why can't I just brush her teeth?  I don't have an answer to that.  All I know is that before I had this system, I lived in a constant state of feeling behind and stressed out.  Everything seemed messy and out of control.  Now, instead of worrying if everything is perfect, I can relax and know that everything has a time to be dealt with, eventually anyway.

Some tasks simply can't wait 6 weeks. That's what the purple box in the bottom right quadrant is for.  Every Sunday there is a list of tasks that we've decided need done weekly.  Toilets, laundry, etc.  We've recently adjusted how we handle those tasks, actually, but for a long time this system worked very well for us.

So, that's what a zone is.