How do people manage to keep a clean house when the kids are home all day? I know there are probably many different answers to this question, but for me, there are five things I have found that allow us to enjoy a clean house on a daily basis. I am not comfortable living in a messy house. It takes away my ability to focus and, quite frankly, turns me into one stressed-out mama. I know that having a clean house will benefit our family and all who enter our home as well.
It isn’t selfish to want a clean house. It doesn’t mean I don’t spend time with my kids. You’ve seen those memes, right? The ones that say “good moms have sticky floors, piles of laundry, and dirty dishes in the sink”… since when did being a good mom only mean focusing on your kids while neglecting all household chores? What about my husband who relies on me to provide him with clean work clothes? Or the neighbor who stops by for a visit only to find she cannot even find a place to sit comfortably and talk due to the piles of who-knows-what on the couch? My life as a mom is not solely about my kids. I have other roles also such as wife, daughter, and friend. The Lord has called me to be a good steward of all He has blessed me with and my house is one of those things.
As I say all of that, I know it is challenging to homeschool and maintain a clean home. But it IS possible! When the kiddos are very young, you will be doing the majority of cleaning yourself, but the strategies I share today will lessen the load. Once the children are school-aged, you should be giving them more and more responsibility in this area. I am not suggesting you spend all your time cleaning! On the contrary, you may find you are cleaning less and your house looks better.
1. Put things away immediately~ This one trick alone has saved me hours upon hours of needless cleaning. Isn’t it funny how we bring something home and plop it on a counter? Or how we wash and dry the laundry but cannot seem to get it folded and put away? It is a nasty habit that often makes a house seem cluttered and dirty. In order to break a bad habit, we need to replace it with a good one. So, from now on, when you get home and remove your coat, put it right where it goes. Don’t be tempted to hang it over a dining room chair or throw it on the couch. If you don’t have a place for your things (such as a closet or coat rack), then begin by creating that. Once everything has a place, you can work on putting things away as soon as you are finished with them.
For a season, I noticed we were getting things very close to their storage places, but for some reason would stop a few feet away on a convenient chair or table. After a time, this lack of immediate cleaning resulted in a messy looking space which then took a good chunk of time to repair. Learning to put all things away immediately gives your home the appearance of being clean and well-organized.
2. Get rid of clutter~ Do you want to know why I think we enjoy those home improvement shows on HGTV? They want us to think it is because they have a brand new space which is updated in style. I actually think the reason we are so drawn to those spaces is the lack of clutter. Think about it for a minute- no one lives there yet. The space has been staged and nothing is out of place. We see a room with everything in it’s place and nothing that doesn’t belong. We have to understand that realistically we will not have a perfect home with nothing out of place. People actually live in our home! So in order to reduce the amount of cleaning I need to do for the appearance of a clean house, I must rid each space of clutter or excess.
For this process, I need to decide what to keep and what to toss. We are often inclined to hoard things that we will never use. I am not a minimalist by any definition of the word, but I do make it a point to carefully organize the possessions I do keep. Take some time to go through your spaces and remove those items which are nonessential. You can then take what is left and create an organized space which keeps things neatly stored. The key here is hidden. Stacking books on an end table is not my idea of neatly stored. Instead, I may get a crate or some sort of bookshelf where I can place these books.
The same goes for paperwork or mail. Create a desk area or special drawer where you can stash important papers neatly, yet out of sight. This simple act can make my kitchen counter look much cleaner and less cluttered.
Of course, homeschooling comes with a variety of books, teaching aides, hands on activities, and more! For me, it is vital that I have a place to store all of these. We may do school on the kitchen table, but I want a place for the kids to put everything away when they are finished for the day. Someday, we plan to finish our schoolroom which will provide a space that is “hidden,” but I will still require things be put away since it is a good habit to continue.
3. Practice non-negotiables~ This is another way of saying you need to create a routine or rythym and stick to it. I have come up with a routine which includes daily and weekly non-negotiables. These are things that I have committed to doing in order for the house to remain in a constant state of clean. Once you get into a routine, it will become natural and it won’t feel like extra work! I will share my daily and weekly must-do’s so you get an idea of what I am talking about.
Daily~ I always make my bed each morning. In doing so, my room automatically looks cleaner! If I am careful to put everything away immediately in its space and make the bed daily, then there is a good chance this room will need very little attention otherwise.
I make it a point to wipe down bathroom counters daily as well. This can be done one of the times when I am using the restroom throughout the day or in the evening once a busy day has finished. To make this convenient, place a rag and spray bottle of cleaner in the vanity or closet of each bathroom.
In our home we have an excess amount of dirt. It may be due to our county location or our wood stove, but either way, it finds its way onto our wood floors. In order to keep it from spreading throughout the entire house, I use a broom daily to sweep our hard floors. You could even do it just after dinner if meal time is where the majority of your floor dirt comes from.
Lastly, I am careful to wash the dishes everyday. If you have a dishwasher, this is quite an easy routine to begin. Run it at night and unload in the morning. Our dishwasher has quit working and I haven’t decided whether I actually want another one. Yes, we have six eaters in our household, so we have our fair share of dishes. At this point I have a routine of doing the dishes three times a day directly after each meal. It can be tempting to leave dirty dishes until the next day or even until the end of the day, but I have found that this is another one of those times when it is best to do a task promptly. It is amazing how much cleaner my kitchen looks when the dishes are not overflowing out of the sink and onto the counter.
Weekly~ For our family, we do not need to do laundry daily, so I have included it on the weekly list. We typically have 5 loads of laundry per week. It depends on our schedule for the week as to when these get washed. I prefer to do two loads of laundry on two different days of the week and then one load on the weekend. The thing I love about laundry is it is not very time consuming. The washer and dryer do all the work! It is a fabulous way to multitask. If you make it a point to start a load as soon as you get up and follow through with the dryer as soon as you hear the end of wash signal, it goes rather quickly. It is important to follow through with folding and putting away the laundry as soon as possible! Get your kids involved, too.
Cleaning toilets and bathroom sinks is a weekly event in our home. We choose to also vacuum and dust furniture on this day as well. The way our routine is right now, we do our weekly cleaning on Thursdays. I have four children ages 2-9 and many hands to make light work! We have a chunk of time in our homeschool day where everyone gets a task and then is asked to complete it with a joyful attitude as if working for the Lord. As for mopping the floors, I do this one evening after the kids are in bed or very early in the morning. It is the best way to avoid someone walking on the wet floor.
4. Clean it when you see it~ If you are able to create a routine and immediately put things away in their designated place, then your house will already feel neater and more organized! As soon as you notice a mess, take care of it! One example of this is taking out the trash. As soon as I notice our kitchen trashcan running over, I call out, “Time to gather trash!” and all the kids scatter to bring me all of our thrown away items to finish filling the kitchen garbage bag. It takes less than 5 minutes and has a huge impact on multiple rooms of the house!
The things we haven’t addressed are those deep cleaning tasks which will need to be tackled occasionally. You may find it helpful to make a list of these chores and assign a month in which to complete them. It may include cleaning areas such as tub/shower, ceiling fan, refrigerator, closets, etc.
My best advice is this: If you see something that needs cleaned, don’t procrastinate. Just do it! If for some reason, you cannot do it right then (maybe you are too busy educating your children!), add it to a to-do list and make it a priority. The longer you put it off, the longer your cleaning list will become and the more daunting it will seem.
5. Get kids involved~ My goal is to raise kids who are prepared for life after dad & mom’s house. When they grow up, I desire for them to have the knowledge and experience of keeping a home clean. Since practice makes progress, I start them on this early in their life! It is important to have them start with taking responsibility for their own possessions. They can take dirty clothes to the laundry or put them in a designated basket, make their beds, fold their laundry and put it away, pick up toys before getting more out, clean up after themselves after meals and in the bathroom, as well as putting all random belongings away before bedtime each night. All of my children have been doing these things since they were 2, 3, or 4 years old. I am planning to write an entire post on this soon! It is important to also train them to clean up any messes they make without being asked. This creates less work for you and will produce adults who don’t need to be told what to do as often.
Getting kids involved will lessen your load and teach valuable life-skills to the next generation! The modeling & training is imperative in the beginning. It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it! As the kids get older, I find my house is easier and easier to keep clean. We are home all day long more than 4 days of the week, so being able to keep it neat gives us a sense of belonging and rest. The blessing of homeschooling is being able to do life with my kids!
A clean house is something you CAN have. You just have to “do the next thing.” Don’t wait for motivation to clean. It may never come! Simply take it a step at a time and you will form a lasting habit. I am convinced we all have time it takes to maintain a house that is neat and inviting. We simply choose not to. It is easy to forget that our home is meant to be a place of order, cleanliness, and ministry. This is not only referring to our physical house, but also to our spiritual growth, time management, relationships, emotions, finances, and much more. As we begin to take the steps to create these things, God will show us how we can use our homes for His glory.
