How to Keep a Clean House and Homeschool Too

By: Kathleen Crane

When you
have children, messes sort of come as part of the package. It’s hard
to stay clean and organized. It’s even harder when you have to
homeschool. Homeschooling generally means that your children never
leave the house! Never!
They
don’t go to school and you don’t get a home full of peace for about
5-6 hours each day. Yes, that sounds intimidating. How do you keep
your home relatively clean and your sanity intact? How do you survive
homeschooling? It’s not easy, but it
is possible.
Here are a few tips on how to stay on top of housework while
homeschooling. Continue reading.

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Accomplish
a few things while you homeschool

Bring whatever work you have
that can be done on the school table or in the room where classes are
held and use those small moments when your kids are doing exercises
to cross some chores off your list. For example, cut some veggies for
your meal tonight or process weekly mail. If you homeschool in the
kitchen, take the time to disinfect the countertops and clean the
sink. That way you can still supervise your children while they are
doing exercises. If you have classes in the living room, take the
time to put some stuff away, mop the floor, straighten cushions, etc.

Leave cleaning for later

Go with
this rule of thumb which says that you should leave the chores for
later in the afternoon when your kids are supposed to be doing
homework and they are not going to get in the way. Besides, the later
you start cleaning, the longer your home will be clean. Your husband
will come back home to a relatively clean and tidy place are saying
from PromptClean
Canary Wharf.

Accept the “whoever makes
messes gets to clean up” rule

Have your children clean up
their own messes or at least whatever they can clean up. Develop a
cleaning routine for them. For example, get them to put away all
their school books and supplies after homeschooling as well as to
pick up their toys after playtime. To make it easy for them, divide
the work into small chunks. For instance, let them focus on one thing
and then move on to the next one: the Legos, the play doh, the
stuffed animals, etc.

In other
words, get
your children on board.

The earlier in life you manage
to develop a sense of responsibility in your small ones, the better.
Housekeeping is a family affair and your children should be aware of
that. Make sure to assign individual cleaning responsibilities to
them. They could set and clear the table, put dirty clothes in the
laundry basket, wipe up spills, sweep floors, sort laundry, etc.

Accept the fact that you
are not perfect

The mere
fact that you are a mother, housekeeper and a teacher speaks for
itself. It’s perfectly normal to not be perfect. It’s perfectly
normal for your home to be tidy and dusty. You are not a super woman,
you are a human being and no, you can’t stretch time, no matter how
good you are at time management. You need to lower your standards.
Choose to have a relatively
clean home, rather than a spotless
home. Don’t despair because you can’t get all the tasks done in a
single day like you could when you didn’t have children and you
didn’t homeschool. Those days are gone and you need to readjust your
cleaning
routine.
If you can’t clean the bathroom in a day, focus on getting the toilet
and shower clean and leave the rest for tomorrow. If you can’t vacuum
the entire house, do a couple of rooms today and do a couple more
tomorrow. See? As long as it gets done, who cares when it gets done?