Homeschooling and Housekeeping

Homeschooling and housekeeping . . . a seemingly never-ending battle. I’m quite picky about my house staying clean, but with each additional kid that comes along the level of cleanliness seems to drift further and further from my ideal.  I hate that crazy feeling when I start the day with a clean house, but all of sudden I look around and realize that messes seem to have exploded from every nook, cranny, and doorway.  Shoes in the bathtub.  Toys in the coat closet.  A bike helmet on the tv.  How long have those shoelaces been in the plant?  

Not a day goes by that I’m not painfully aware that if I just sent all these kiddos off to public school my house would be a lot cleaner.  Over years of homeschooling and housekeeping though, I’ve figured out a few things that have helped me to balance two of my loves – teaching these cute littlies of mine and living in a clean, organized house.  Here are my tricks for combining homeschooling and housekeeping.

Tip #1: Establish Clean Times

My house can’t be perfectly clean every minute of every day, but it can be clean at times during the day.  {Right now as I type my kids have my kitchen transformed into a play-doh restaurant and I’m getting served fantastically fancy plates of plah-doh entrees.}

Your house shouldn’t be clean all the time, because that wouldn’t be realistic or a very fun place to live.  The kids will have to pick up when the play-doh fun is over, but messes are perfectly okay.  We paint, color, do science projects, build things, and generally get messy a lot, but we also have clean-up times.  Our clean times are before school starts, at lunch time, and before dinner.  

Before school starts we do a quick whole house pick-up, make sure the breakfast dishes are done, and I throw a load of laundry in.  {I say “Have you gotten ready for your day?”  And that means Are you dressed with hair combed and teeth brushed?  Is your bedroom picked up with your bed made?}  At lunchtime, we pick up after any school projects we’ve done in the morning, then also clean up our lunch dishes and switch the laundry.  The rest of the house is still clean because we’ve all been busy making messes studying in the school room.  Then before dinner, we do our formal chores to get the whole house cleaned up before we eat (more about formal chores later!).

Tip #2: Offer Free Bed-Making Service

The second thing I’ve learned is to offer free bed making service.  This has big stipulations though.  I’m only willing to make the bed if the kiddo jumps out of it right away when I awaken them.  Our morning starts pretty early (about 6:30 A.M.) because my big kids have violin lessons every morning, so it’s my incentive to get them up and moving.  If you get right up and get going, Mom will make your bed.  If not, you’re on your own.

Tip #3: Have a School Bin For Every Kid

The school part of our day is actually the messiest time at our house.  All of the kids have their school stuff, and my little ones also have toy bins, puzzles, bean bags, art supplies, and other little things to keep them busy and happy while I’m teaching and helping others.  This year I switched from storing everything on bookshelves to having bins for our school stuff and it has made life better all around.  Each kid has their own bin with their books, paper, flashcards, etc.  At the end of the day, they can put their stuff in their bin and shut the lid.  The mess is all inside instead of on display on my shelf.  Hallelujah.

Tip #4: Keep A Donate Bag By The Door

Too many people keep stuff around that they simply aren’t using.  I believe if you aren’t currently using something, you should let it be useful to someone else.  There are very few things that I’m willing to store.  I keep a donate bag handy and then when I notice that my son’s pants are high waters, I toss them in the donate bag.  When I get new cookie sheets for my Christmas, I toss the old set in the donate bag.  I immediately put things in the donate bag when I notice we just aren’t using them anymore.  The less stuff you have, the less stuff you have to dust (and pick up, and put away, and vacuum around!)

Tip#5: Keep A Snack Basket or Snack Bins

I teach piano lessons every afternoon, and it seems that my children get hungry for a snack smack dab in the middle of my lessons.  In the past, they scoured the fridge, heated up leftovers, spilled milk, and got out more food than they needed to be eating.  I started piano lessons with a clean kitchen and by the time it was finished it looked like a food-filled tornado had struck.  Hence, the birth of snack bins at our house.  When I get home from the grocery store I spend a few minutes making snack-size baggies of snacks to fill the snack bins.   My kids know they are allowed to choose ONE snack, and then throw the baggie away.  

Tip #6: Hold 20-Minute Pick-Ups

Every so often our schedule gets crazy or things get out of whack and the house gets messier than normal.  Then I call for a 20-minute pick-up.  I set the timer and we all (Mom and Dad included) race around the whole house cleaning up as much as we possibly can in 20 minutes.  It’s rare that we don’t have a pretty spotless house after 20 minutes, right down to the floors vacuumed and the toilets scrubbed.  

The kids know there’s something good at the end if we’re successful – a family game, an outing, or a yummy treat.  If they don’t get things picked up, I either take things away until the kids do jobs to earn them back or donate the items to charity. This game alone is what saves us in the homeschooling and housekeeping department. It’s how we clean up at the end of our school day before company comes, and any other time I just notice we need it.

Tip #7: Use Chore Charts

Our formal chore time is managed by chore charts that I made years ago.  Our chore time is when the vacuuming and dusting, glass cleaning, and garbage removal get done.  It’s when the floors get mopped and the toilets get scrubbed.  There are a million chore systems out there, and I’m sure many of them work well.  Here’s what works for us.

These little charts I made stay on the side of our fridge, one per kid.  See the little stars on the right?  Those are cleaning superstars.  When they do a good job on their chores they earn a cleaning superstar from me.

It also allows me to rotate their chores.  They look at their chore chart and then go to their room assignment where they can find a little cleaning checklist card hidden on the backside of each closet door.  

Tip #8: From The Mailbox To The Trash

Mail and paperwork pile-up is a big, messy problem in most households.  On my way back from the mailbox I’ve made it a habit of stopping at my outdoor trash station.  Recycle all that junk mail before it ever makes it inside your house.  I take all the bills out of their envelopes and discard the envelopes before walking in.  We have a clip hanging on our wall for the bills that haven’t been paid and a little box for non-bill items that need to be taken care of.  Once a week I “push papers” and get everything taken care of and filed appropriately.

Tip #9: Laundry Responsibility

I do most of our household’s laundry myself.  It’s one of the few chores I do on my own.  I cycle it through and then it all goes on to my bed for folding.  Often I recruit help from my kiddos, but for the most part, I consider laundry my responsibility. Once it’s folded, I give each kid their own basket and they are responsible for putting it away.  They are also responsible for getting their own hamper of clothes down to the laundry room when they need things washed. I do laundry daily. If I do one or two loads a day, I never have an overwhelming pile-up.

Tip #10: A Kid At My Side

I keep a kid at my side whenever I’m doing a household chore.  If I need to fix dinner, I ask one of the kids to come and help me cook.  When I need to take the garbage out to the road or haul in firewood or water the plants, I ask one of my kids to lend a hand.  We do the jobs together and chat as we go.  

I don’t do this because I need help or can’t stand to be alone.  It’s more work for me, and alone time is something I crave.  I do it because I want my kids to learn to be hard workers and appreciate all the things moms do – the things I do for them every day. And it pays off.  If I have the flu, my nine-year-old daughter can cook dinner without any help.  My 11-year-old will take care of hauling in the firewood and starting the fire.  My 5-year-old can water my plants.  They can all change diapers and take out the trash.  They have learned how to work and take care of things when I can’t, and they’re willing to because they see how much I do for them every day.

The Bottom Line

The bottom line is that we intersperse work in everything we do.  We don’t let the house get totally out of control and we clean as we go and all work together.  We really don’t spend huge chunks of time cleaning up – just a bit here and there as we go.  Hope you found at least a tidbit or two of knowledge that you can use in your quest to combine homeschooling and housekeeping at your place.  Do you have any tips for me?

Hands-On Family Schooling

With the Layers of Learning homeschool program, you’ll begin to see how life and learning combine in everything you do. Our family never stops learning, whether it’s about the ancient Mesopotamians or how to put your own laundry away. We hope you’ll give Layers of Learning a try. We believe learning should be a lifelong adventure. It’s time for your family to jump in!