heartofdakota.com

Okay ladies first of all I am so excited to be bringing my kids back home in about three weeks they will be home schooled again. I am kind of a neat freak and germ freak person so my question is how do you all do school and still keep up with the cleaning? How often do you clean the kitchen, bathroom, wash floors vacuum etc. I usually do this all in one day, once a week. I will clean daily some minor things and the bathroom around the toilet everyday ( with four boys, two who are potty trained it needs to be done daily!) Anyways I spend a good morning on doing this and I hate doing it on weekends we are usually busy so that leaves the week and when I start with home schooling again that will take up most of the morning, which is fine. But by afternoon I just don't have the energy to do that kind of stuff. I am also expecting a little one in April so that will add to it then. I know this sounds kind of like no big deal but it really bothers me when the house it not cleaned. I am not talking about toys on the floor or laundry undone. I mean the more sanitary things for health reasons, which I have to add everyone is sick right now how lovely! Oh well first time this year it hit everyone feel lucky for that. Just wondering what you do. Here is a quick look at what I am planning on doing once I start home schooling again. I will have two doing BLHFHG a ds 9 and dd 7. They will have different math and reading though. I have two I am doing LHTH with a ds 5 and ds 3 and then a toddler who has to be involved in everything of course! What do you do? Do you clean as often as me or more? Does your family get sick a lot? Maybe I am cleaning to much I don't know. Just would like your idea's. thanks

Sheila mom to five great kids, one angel and one on the way!

I am just so excited to be bringing the kids home again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sheila,

I'm heading off to bed but I wanted to link you to a thread that might help you and also do a search for "schedules" and you will see many threads come up that might help you.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2093&p=17925&hilit=schedules#p17925

I use Motivated Moms to help me keep the house clean. I've tried many things but MM is the only cleaning schedule that I am able to stick to more consistently than any other. If you are not familiar with MM here is a link where you can see samples of it and then decide if you want it.

https://www.e-junkie.com/ecom/gb.php?ii ... etails</a>

I don't know how I would keep my house picked up and presentable without MM and that is the truth. It was a constant mess before MM and now it's only a mess if I don't do MM LOL.

Hope something here helps you!

Sheila,

I have always preferred to clean the way you described...but have had to change my expectations in the last couple of years with more homeschooling to do. I only seriously clean on Saturday mornings...and sometimes I even skip a week. My kitchen currently still doubles as our "mud room" - on a farm, so sweeping is a daily event (it seriously could be hourly). Our living room gets vaccuumed every day as it gets A LOT of traffic and I don't like to get dirty sitting on the floor. If your cleaning your house at least every week or 2, I don't think your kids could be getting sick from it, so feel free to relax. Honestly, maybe you'll build their immune systems. (My 2 yo is incredibly healthy...and I don't even want to know how much dirt and sand he's ingested among other things.) I guess I've had to consider how big my window is that I have to teach my kids. If I look at the big picture, it's such a short time! So, I'm willing to let how clean my house is slide and enjoy making memories! (That said, clutter drives me nuts, so it's not like I don't pick up anything, but I can tell you my house is nowhere near as clean as it would be if I were home and my kids were in school! But, that's exactly how I want it!! It takes a big investment of time to teach your kids...and they're all home making messes! Enjoy your privilege and know all of us have messy houses, too! )

Kathleen

I can soooooo relate!! I also used to pride myself on my CLEAN house, but once I started homeschooling my expectations had to be lowered or I was going to lose my mind. I have learned to live with a not so clean home; it is a worthwhile trade-off. My time with my kids is worth more to me than a spotless home. I don't know how to recommend a cleaning schedule, as we do it as family when we have the time and I get my husband to pitch-in. What I can say though, is this, try to relax and enjoy your children and remember that a spotless home is not all that important (in the long run, that is). I do really love it when we get our home clean and, but of course it doesn't last long.

Sheila,
I know how you feel about a clean house. It drives me batty! It was so much easier to keep the house clean when I worked full-time and the kids were in daycare Now that everyone is home ALL day they have alot more opportunity to mess it up and I have alot less time to clean it.
I have to second annointedhsmom's suggestion of Motivated Moms. We started this last Feb. It has been wonderful! I add in extras that our house needs done each day and other things on various days. My older kids pick at least one chore each day to help me until all is done for the day or we all just give in. We don't get everything done on the list (I'm learning to cope), but I just asked my husband if it was worth getting the new year schedule - Did it make a differnece? He said, "YES, a tremendous difference." Plus, I'm less stressed out about it. Meaning the house is more at peace.

With that said, I'm also learning that a clean house is not going to matter to my kids in the long run. They may remember that mom always kept a clean house, but they will remember more the times we play and read and goof around together. They want my time, my attention, my love. It's a balance that I'm still trying to find.

Hope that helps alittle.
Laurie

You have a lot of little ones and you're expecting, so make sure you give yourself a break. Getting into a new routine is tiring just by itself. If you can possibly have the kids clean up after themselves several times a day while you are putting your feet up and resting will be a big help. I try to give my bathrooms a quick wipe daily. I teach my dc when they are six to do this. I try to make sure our eating areas are clean and we sweep the living room daily. (I let my kids snack while watching tv in the afternoon). I think you could still do your one cleaning day-- maybe on Sat?

My house was messier when my kids were younger. No, your house probably won't be as clean as you would like. Remember it's a "season".

Missy

I only have one child and we are doing LHTH so this may not apply to your situtaion, but I have a cleaning schedule. I used to clean the house all at once one day a week, but in the past few months I have split it up to where I do a little each day and it has worked wonderfully! Depending on the day and what rooms I'm doing I can clean in 30-45 minutes per day. I do one load of laundry each day. Also, I have set times throughout the day where DS and I do a quick pick up and make sure everything (toys, books, etc) are put away where they belong. We do this before naptime, right before DH gets home from work, and then again before bed. It makes me feel so much better just to know that everything is in its place. On weekends, I don't do any cleaning other than laundry if needed and quick pickups. We also make sure to load the dishwasher each night before bed so that there aren't dirty dishes in the sink. When I wake up in the AM I take the first 30 minutes or so to start the load of laundry and unload the dishwasher. Then we do school which only takes about 30-45 minutes since we're doing LHTH. After school, DS is usually pretty content to play by himself while I get the cleaning done for the day. I'm trying to find something each day that he can help with so he can get used to doing some cleaning also plus he really likes to help out. Here's my basic cleaning schedule:

Mondays - We don't do school so this is my errand day. I plan my meals, make my grocery list, go shopping and run any other errands
Tuesdays - Clean the kitchen and laundry room. This includes cleaning the counters, stove, & microwave, cleaning out the fridge, sweeping, mopping, and taking out the trash
Wednesdays - Clean the living room, dining room, and bedrooms. Basically I just have to dust and vacuum. I also change the sheets on the beds
Thursdays - Clean the bathrooms (we have 2 1/2). I clean the sinks, toilets, tubs, sweep and mop, and empty the trash.
Fridays - This is my day to catch up on anything that didn't get done or any deep cleaning or projects that need to be done.

My house may not always be perfect but this has helped me keep my sanity and the more I get into the routine, the quicker I am finding that it is to get done. Also, I can't remember how old your kids are, but you might be able to get all of them involved in helping out each day and it would take even less time to get a couple of rooms cleaned -- for example, have one dust, one vacuum, and one straighten up. Hope that helps!

Thanks for the tip on MM. I checked it and decided to get it and it really seems so easy and doesn't seem like it would take to long on any one day. Lots of great idea's and I know I will work it into the kids chores. Maybe they could each pick one a day. I am feel less stressed now. I know it will really just take some time and we will just have to wait until we get into a new routine, but it will happen of course only to have to make a new one once the baby comes! LOL I hope that when the baby does come we will at least keep up with reading and math until I get back to doing all of it.

Sheila mom to five great kids one angel and one on the way

Hi Sheila! I can so relate to you and it looks many others do as well! Clean and picked up are necessary for me to focus. I don't have anything new to share, really, but just wanted to tell you a few things we do. The kids each have daily morning chores that include things like wiping the sinks and toilets every morning, picking up their personal area, or straightening a drawer or closet on a rotating basis. They also have weekly jobs like wiping down the fridge or dishwasher, etc. We used Managing their Chores by the Maxwells. It was helpful to come up with this system, but somewhat pricey. I do one or two loads of laundry a day and the kids do all of their own laundry including folding. I also do one household chore a day - vacuuming or whatever. I do not like to use my weekends for cleaning since that is my "down time". So, that keeps things in order during the week. I save my in-depth cleaning for breaks. And the kids help out a lot with that, too. Mine are older than yours and I don't have babies anymore, but my twin nephew babies lived with me last year and we still managed to get it done using this system.

I know some people use the nine weeks on school and four weeks off all year. That leaves plenty of time to do those projects or cleaning that you aren't able to keep up with during school time. I would love to try that sometime, but it has not worked out for us yet. I wish you the best with this. I know it is important to you and I understand that need.