How to Keep Your House Clean and Homeschool
When I thought about pulling my children out of public school two years ago, one of my biggest concerns was my house being a mess. I told several of my friends that are homeschooling already about my worries. One friend told me I’d just have to get over having a clean house. Not surprisingly, two years into homeschooling and that is something that is still eating at me. With four kids, I was keeping up ok when they were in school. Now between my own college class as well as my four children age 4-11 home, I have no chance at keeping a clean home. There are a couple things that have been life changing with keeping up with my house.
The first thing that has really helped us with cleaning up our home is taking half a day off of school each week to have the kids help me with this house. This day is usually Fridays. However, at different times we switch the day. During soccer, for instance, our cleaning day was on Wednesday. The kids usually start with cleaning their bathroom and then we get other chores that need done accomplished. I have bought so many chore charts. I wish I could say I was better at using them. One of my favorites is Family DoDots. Yet, it can be more than many homeschool parents want to put out. The general idea of something that works best for our children before and after I did the family DoDots is to have them do certain chores that are expected and then to reward them for doing extra. You can find on the yellow heart below to take you to their website.
The next thing that has made a huge difference for me was quite an investment. I bought a Shark robot vacuum and mop. We had fun naming our vacuum. My kids named him Sevi and I named him Alfred. This vacuum was about $300 at the time I bought him, but I used a coupon code. They cost around $500 without the coupon code I used. There are more expensive and cheaper versions of robot vacuums. Shark just happens to be my favorite brand of vacuum. This vacuum mop has helped me so much and eliminate much of the stress I have with a large family. I no longer have to worry when the kids track mud through my freshly mopped kitchen. Nor, do I have to panic over when I’m going to get time to sweep my kitchen when they made a mess of crumbly biscuits. As I have explained, this vacuum has done so much to eliminate my stress with keeping up with my house.
The last thing that has been very motivating for me is flylady.net. I don’t do most of the things this lady recommends. However, the first step fly lady encourages women to do when keeping up with their house is to shine your sink. What this means is to wash all your dishes at night. Clean your sink out and have it ready and clean for the next day. My friend and I for a while would do this and send each other pictures of our shined sink. That was super motivating for me. I found that as I shined my sink it helped me feel like I was really accomplishing something with my home. When my dishes were done, I would often go to the next thing and then the next. Often, the hardest part of cleaning my home for me is getting started. This proved to be super helpful.
If having your house clean is something that you have to have to stay sane like me, don’t just put it aside and ignore that it’s eating at you. Give yourself time as a family and time by yourself where you can keep up with the house. Nonetheless, I’m not saying that you should spend all day everyday cleaning and not teach your kids. Other friends I have had have told me that homeschooling is like a full-time job. You have to kind of think of it like that so you put it as a priority. Yet, you can find the balance between cleaning and homeschooling your children. Our family thrives on routine. I recommend finding a day or time for your family that works best to keep up on your house. My last piece of advice is do what works for you and don’t compare yourself to your friends. If you have to have your dressers all in one room so that you it’s easier to put all the clothes away then do it! Sometimes laundry works best for your family in the morning before starting school. If that’s what works best for your family then do it! The Lord never told us that the way our family functions has to look the same as everyone else’s family. I hope these things that have helped our family will also help your family.