I am always so curious how others keep up with all the work of keeping a home. Especially when the kids are there all day and constantly making a mess. Being a home schooler gives people the image that you have all day to clean and you should have a perfect house, but that is so far from reality! In reality you don't clean and then everyone leaves for the day to return to a clean home. You clean then turn around and they have taken out toys, made a snack, decided to wrestle and knocked over everything... it never ends. So many times it feels futile to even do anything because you know it won't last.
I have found that if the underlying home is clean that their play messes do not seem as bad. You can look and see it is just a million legos all around... everywhere... and try to go on with life. I also have learned that I cannot keep the floor mopped, but if I know in my head that it was mopped on Monday and will be mopped again next Monday that somehow I have learned to live with that. For a visual person that is a hard one, but for a sane person it is necessary.
I used to clean my whole house one day a week then daily get up and maintain it by wiping the bath, doing laundry, etc. That was when we had two or three bedrooms and a small house. It has morphed to a larger home with more than I can handle to do in a day. The job became too overwhelming to do in one day and I would put it off. I have learned to break up my tasks and consentrate on different areas each day. I haven't gotten it down to where I am doing it daily, but have a schedule to try to have a purpose each day.
Monday- grocery shopping for the coupon deals and errands. All the stores are within 3 miles from me so I run to Rite Aid, CVS, Walgreens, Publix, and Kroger in a day. I have my list and coupon match ups ready and get in and out quickly. Usually it takes between 1.5 and 2 hours. If I buy a lot of meat I try to start cooking up some of it to freeze. I brown 10 lbs of hamburger meat, grill a family pack of pork chops, grill up a large package of chicken, or boil a whole chicken to freeze the meat for individual portions. Wash Kitchen rugs for clean rugs tomorrow. Wash Master sheets.
Tuesday- Kitchen and Bath- Spray down the tub and shower and let sit while I wipe the sinks, vanity, then tub, shower, and toilet. Go back with windex and do the mirror and silver edging on the shower. Shake rug and sweep the floor. Put a cup of water in microwave and heat 3 minutes to steam the crud loose. Wipe microwave, clean stove with cleaner, wipe toaster and coffee maker, clean sink. Wipe downstairs bath sink and toilet and cabinets. Clean mirror. Sweep foyer and laundry room. Mop baths and foyer and laundry room. Wash towels.
Wednesday- Vacuum and Dust- Start in Master bath and dust any pictures or cabinets, do master bedroom, upper hall, foyer, front room, kitchen stuff on walls, family room, and top of washer and dryer. Clean all the hardwood floors. Wash girls sheets.
Thursday- Pay bills, make any follow up calls, file papers. Schedule any appointments on Thursday afternoons. Iron clothes for the week. Wash boys sheets.
Friday- I save Friday for fieldtrips, playdates with the kids, catch up day. Once a month I go to Sams, Target, and Walmart and buy a months worth of items that I need. OK, at Target I search for things I don't need but find irresistable. Wash towels.
Daily - take the hand towel and wipe water and spots on vanity, wipe down toilet, make bed, take clothes down to laundry and put in a load, fold dry clothes that I hung dry, unload dishwasher, CHECK KIDS CHORES ( I never do this, never, and really need to). After school put up school work and put in another load of clothes if enough. Around 4:00 straighten, start supper, put up all folded laundry, spot mop wood floor in kitchen/family room area.
The kids do dishes, wipe counters, and sweep daily as their chores. They also vacuum and wipe interior of our car, wipe cabinet fronts, clean the front of the appliances, wipe baseboards in kitchen, wipe their bath, and sweep the porch and deck.
So there it is. Sounds so much easier than reality of doing it. But, if I do my house stays so much cleaner and runs so much smoother.
3 comments:
I use a rotating schedule, too. See it here: http://www.motivatedmoms.com/products.html
(I use the half-size, page per day.)
I blogged about this last year. What I love most about it is that if something doesn't get finished, it comes back around on a regular schedule - and, I don't feel overwhelmed with thinking I have to "get it all done" every day.
I've really slacked off over the summer (and boy howdy does my house show it!) but plan to get back on the wagon with the start of school.
Please move to TX - I really do think we'd be best buddies!
I copied your schedule because I am so overwhelmed. When I found out I was pregnant and I started with the morning sickness all day, I got so behind. I haven't even been doing much coupon shopping. I feel a lot better now and started getting more organized today. With the kids starting school I'll have a little more time so I thought I might try your schedule and see how that works. Thanks for sharing it.
Holly,
The only suggestion I have is that most folks I found stop by on Friday , Saturday, Sunday or Monday. So I use to make as much cleanning on Friday as possible have a mostly clean house over the weekend and then spot clean the inbetween days. I homeschooled for 8 years and this worked well for me. I had a schedule and I did all the things for the home as well as personal assistant to hubby. If the front entrance and main room look nice for visitors and a bath if they need to use for the restroom. So this helps for stop by company. Then give yourself a break no ones home looks like a catalog and if it does (like my sisters with 7 kids at the end of her marriage none of her kids spoke to her and no one was happy with her) So live a little! Let the kids mess some! Boys often learn from what looks like a mess to us ladies.
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