Cleaning Hive With Beeminder

I have created some tables for setting up Beeminder goals to Beemind cleaning the the house. However it is going to create a lot of goals. How have you used Beeminder to help clean your hive?

Beeminder House Goals

Master Bathroom:

Item To Be Cleaned Frequency Goal Name
Tub Weekly MbathTubClean
Shower BiWeekly MbathShowerClean
Toilet Weekly MbathToiletClean
Counter/Mirror Weekly MbathCounterClean
Trash 3 days a week MbathTrashClean

Master Bedroom:

Item To Be Cleaned Frequency Goal Name
Dressers BiWeekly MbedDressersClean
Side Table Weekly CleanSideTable
Clean Sheets Weekly MbedSheetsClean
Clean Comforters Monthly MbedComforterClean
Under Bed Monthly MbedCleanUnderBed
Items On Floor BiWeekly MbedPickupClean

Kitchen:

Item To Be Cleaned Frequency Goal Name
Dishes 6 days a week Dishes
Wipe off Stove 2 days a week KitchenStoveClean
Clean Stove Elements Monthly KitchenElementClean
Oven Monthly KitchenOvenClean
Counters 3 days a week KitchenCountersClean
Table 3 days a week KitchenTableClean

Living Room:

Item To Be Cleaned Frequency Goal Name
Side Tables Weekly LivingTablesClean
Coffee Table Weekly LivingCoffeeClean
Couch Weekly LivingCouchClean
Entertainment Center Weekly LivingEnterClean
Clean Rug BiWeekly LivingRugClean

Hallway/Laundry Room:

Item To Be Cleaned Frequency Goal Name
Pickup Floor Bi weekly HallPickupClean
Dryer Deep Lint Clean Every Two Months HallDryerClean
Washer Self Clean Every Two Months HallWasherClean

Guest Bedroom:

Item To Be Cleaned Frequency Goal Name
Straighten up bed Weekly GbedBedStClean
Clean Side table Weekly GbedSideTableClean
Floor Pickup Weekly GbedFloorPickupClean

Office:

Item To Be Cleaned Frequency Goal Name
Clean Top of Desks Weekly OffTopDeskClean
Organize Office Drawers Monthly OffOrgDrawersClean
Organize Shelf Bi Weekly OffOrgShelfClean
Organize Closet Monthly OffOrgClosetClean

Floors (Goal Name CleanFloors):

Room Points Value
Master Bath 0.1
Master Bedroom 0.1
Kitchen 0.1
Living Room 0.25
Hallway 0.25
Guest room 0.1
Office 0.1
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Also as a note I plan on buying some NFC tags to make logging easier.

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I’d say:

  1. Group some stuff together or the overhead of beeminding becomes too great
  2. Pick a low low low frequency to start off. Ramp up only if you truly need it
  3. Start small!
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I track my cleaning system in two goals, cleaning (for tasks that repeat on the scale of a week) and slow-cleaning (for tasks that repeat any slower). I track those tasks on a separate Trello board; cleaning is fractionally scored on the particular day’s list; slow-cleaning gets a +1 for each task completed and if I notice I’m not completing, e.g., my fortnightly tasks every fortnight, I ramp it up. My system is described in more detail in the first two posts of my calendial thread[forum] if that sounds useful!

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Part of my issue is I can be a bit weaselly. I feel like what I would end up doing is repeating the easiest task to get points and avoid harder tasks. Any ideas to prevent that?

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You can only get a single +1 per task per time period. If you still find that you’re only completing the easiest tasks in a particular time period, then your rate needs to be higher! Eventually you’ll get it balanced out so that the only way to not derail is to do the hard tasks. Well, in theory, at least—I’m not quite there yet ^_^’

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I am thinking of taking the crazy option and creating separate goals. If I do I am going to give every goal 30-40 days start buffer. Also plan on buying some NFC stickers and setting up automations in iOS to add data when scanned.

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The mental shift is away from “must be once per week” toward “I’d like to do this more often”. It’s not like a bathtub goes from tolerably clean to unbearably grungy on day eight.

Maybe even use autodial.taskratchet.com to nudge the frequency upward until it reaches your desired rhythm.

With that many goals, ease of data entry is essential, as is keeping on top of upcoming holidays (aka calendial) and a low pledge cap

One day there’s going to be a mass derailment because some life event is going to be more important to you than having a pristine ‘hive’. Plan for that in some way that doesn’t involve emailing support@ with a million non-legit claims.

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That is fair I do not want to overload support and 32+ house cleaning goals could do that. Trying to come up with some kind of point system. Maybe break house into 5 sections or something. Could still use NFC tag stickers to add a comment on what was done along with point. Though due to having to pay $700 in car repairs probably gonna wait till next month to do the stickers even though they are cheap going save every extra penny I can to build back up emergency fund to prior value. Will think this month on how to make the system.

The reason I am going for shorter spans is to make the task easy and to prevent say the tub or shower from getting to a bad state. As if I do it every week it will always stay clean and will be like a 5 minute task. If I push it to a month then there might be some minor mold growth and might take 20 or so minutes and be a lot less pleasant if a task. Also I tend to do a task better if it is smaller as otherwise I will get overwhelmed and sometimes just not do it to try to negate my feeling of being overwhelmed. My anti anxiety medication has helped some with this but it is still a problem. Maybe I could do middle of the road and do two weeks.

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I use a combination of several beeminder goals and Trello. I have some goals for general tidying and one for dishes, and I have a goal for cleaning the house, where the actual list of things needing cleaning and the frequency is stored on a Trello board. Most of the goals grew organically over time, then I added the “cleaning + Trello” for “deep cleaning”-type stuff.

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I worked with GPT and here is the new system I am starting it is a in between goal for every task and one goal for whole house. I think it is a happy medium. I have below points amount and wanted frequency. I will probably adjust but it’s a start.

Beeminder House Goals - Point System

Master Bathroom (Goal Name: MBathClean):

Item To Be Cleaned Frequency Points
Tub Weekly 2
Shower BiWeekly 4
Toilet Weekly 2
Counter/Mirror Weekly 2
Total Points/Week 10

Master Bedroom (Goal Name: MBRoomClean):

Item To Be Cleaned Frequency Points
Dressers BiWeekly 4
Side Table Weekly 2
Clean Sheets Weekly 2
Clean Comforters Monthly 4
Under Bed Monthly 4
Items On Floor BiWeekly 4
Total Points/Week 20

Kitchen (Goal Name: KitClean):

Item To Be Cleaned Frequency Points
Wipe off Stove 2 days a week 2
Clean Stove Elements Monthly 4
Oven Monthly 4
Counters 3 days a week 1
Table 3 days a week 1
Total Points/Week 12

Living Room (Goal Name: LivRClean):

Item To Be Cleaned Frequency Points
Side Tables Weekly 2
Coffee Table Weekly 2
Couch Weekly 2
Entertainment Center Weekly 2
Clean Rug BiWeekly 4
Total Points/Week 12

Hallway Laundry Room (Goal Name: HallLRClean):

Item To Be Cleaned Frequency Points
Pickup Floor BiWeekly 4
Dryer Deep Lint Clean Every Two Months 6
Washer Self Clean Every Two Months 6
Total Points/Week 16

Guest Bedroom (Goal Name: GBRoomClean):

Item To Be Cleaned Frequency Points
Straighten up bed Weekly 2
Clean Side table Weekly 2
Floor Pickup Weekly 2
Total Points/Week 6

Office (Goal Name: OffClean):

Item To Be Cleaned Frequency Points
Clean Top of Desks Weekly 2
Organize Office Drawers Monthly 4
Organize Shelf BiWeekly 4
Organize Closet Monthly 4
Total Points/Week 14

Floors (Goal Name: FlClean):

Room Points Value
MasterBathroom 1
MasterBedroom 1
Kitchen 1
LivingRoom 2
Hallway 2
GuestBedroom 1
Office 1
Total Points/Week 9
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I have been using the Tody app (iOS, Android) for a while now. It does a really nice job of working with the elasticity there is for many household chores. The overview that the app gives helps prioritise when I have a bunch of overdue things. Being a week overdue with a weekly task means way more to me than being two weeks overdue with a quarterly task.

However, while I don’t mind having overdue tasks in there, I still currently end up with too many. I have been speculating about ways to beemind the overdue tasks in Tody, but haven’t come up with anything good yet.
I think that I would like to beemind something like the sum of “overdue-factors” of all tasks, but unfortunately the app is a little too simple to expose statistics like that.

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One thing I forgot to mention is when it comes to cleaning stuff it doesn’t matter if I do it or my wife. Either way it counts. We have very different schedules so sometimes I will do something sometimes she does. She actually really likes the schedule/point system GPT came up with (she has ADHD so set schedules help her a lot and they also help me to though for me it’s GAD). Also she is totally on board with the NFC chips setup idea.

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Update point system did not work well ended up canceling it. New system is a simple system. Mon-Fri I must do three tasks that make the house cleaner tasks that are already Beeminder goals do not count. Note this is a kind of goal with an Ice Cream truck sized loophole. But I feel that gives a lot of flexibility. Thank you everyone for the ideas as that is what helped lead me to this idea. I have the goal connected to Todoist.

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