Solving the World's Problems

Problem 1:
For years now I have been noticing that my children become "industrious" when they are tired. It is when they are most exhausted that their bodies kick into overdrive, the adrenalin levels go up, and they become little energizer bunnies. They run to and fro, find containers to empty and fill, jump off the couches, and generally wreak havoc. This is my least favorite time of day. Getting everyone settled down when their instinct is to go, go, go sometimes seems impossible.

Problem 2:
With four kids, my house seems like it is always messier than I would like. Even when people do "jobs" around the house, it is usually only moments before things are messed up again. I want to teach the kids to work and pick up after themselves, but the job of making everyone else do their jobs is often much harder than just doing their jobs myself. But then I'm the one doing all the work -- and it still gets messed up only moments after I'm finished cleaning.

Problem 3:
By the end of the day, I am exhausted from dealing with the above two problems.

Solution:
Harness the industriousness. Work WITH their body clocks.

For the last couple of days I have been experimenting with a little idea. All day long I don't say anything to anyone about cleaning. Then, after dinner has been over for a couple of hours, we do "quick clean up" where we spend some time in each room running around straightening things up. The kids have so much energy at this time of night that running around is pretty natural, and we can get the whole house done in about a fifth the time it usually takes during the day, especially because nobody is playing or eating or doing anything else to mess it up.

The bonus to this is that we all go to bed with the whole house clean! It also means that we wake up with it clean, and people actually enjoy the morning because they're not dreading having to do jobs, and the house is clean for them to play in. I'm not exhausted from having to do it all myself, and we are all HAPPY!

OK, so all of the problems of the world aren't solved, but if this keeps working, it will feel like it to me. (Also, I really don't know if this is practical once school starts up again anyway -- but I'm going to live it up as long as it lasts.)