Between a four-year-old, a toddler, and a husband who routinely peels off his dirty socks while he’s watching the evening news and tosses them on the living room carpet, since apparently that’s the cue for his personal magic cleaning fairy to swoop in and whisk his laundry away to the hamper, my house has a bit of a clutter problem. Toys, books, shoes, crayons, and forgotten half-chewed waffles tend to accumulate on every available surface throughout the day, making it a real challenge to do the deep-cleaning I so greatly enjoy.

(Note: by “deep cleaning” I mean “sitting on the couch eating pretzels”. But the point is, if I really did want to vacuum, it would be hard to do so when the floor is three inches deep with LEGOs.)

I like to exact revenge on my husband by 1) power-nagging in that oh so attractive fish-wifely tone, and 2) draping his various discarded clothing items over his computer monitor (sometimes with a note: “OH HAI WE GOT LOSTED CAN YOU HELPS US FIND THE WASHING MASHEEN?”), and as for my four-year-old, I’ve started being more strict about having him pitch in. He’s definitely capable of putting away his things and carrying out other small tasks around the house, and I’ve been thinking it would be helpful to have a chore chart for him.

In poking around online, I’ve noticed that chore charts tend to have one common theme: they are butt-ugly. I know the home decor aspect of a chart isn’t really the point, but still, it doesn’t seem like it should be so hard to find a chart that’s both useful and non-hideous.

Here are a few chore-organization-solutions I eventually came across that I think are pretty cool-looking:

Homemade fabric pocket chart board. I found this via Jessica at Balancing Everything, and if I could sew worth a damn I would totally try to make this. You can read about it here and here.

Magnetic bulletin board. This is neat—you could post chore tickets on this with pins, or attach them with magnets.

Chore magnets. Super simple chore magnets you can post on the fridge.

Do Your Chores chore pad. Another cartoon-character-free, just-the-basics option. (Please also note the extremely awesome Don’t Kill the Kids babysitter’s notepad.)

Magnetic Wooden Chore Board. A nice little hanging magnetic board with chore magnets and To Do/Done columns.

Obviously the easiest solution would probably just be to print your own chart, but honestly, I was surprised that I didn’t find more semi-stylish retail options. Hello, market opportunity!

Do you have a chore tracking system in your house? What do you use?