I planned on cleaning out my current "supposed to be" craft studio out this week, but I can't keep the main part of the house clean enough to spend time in there going through, getting rid of and organizing to make it into the classroom. And we're not even homeschooling yet! My oldest still goes to public school! Can I do this? How do you do it? Maybe I should try FlyLady again....
I have been deep cleaning my house this last week. I finally got into mode of "if I haven't used it in the last 6 months...toss it." I have to say at first it was REALLY hard to toss some of the stuff but as I kept going I felt so refreshed knowing that my house has WAY less clutter and junk. I divided everything into 3 piles: 1. Trash 2. Keep 3. Give to goodwill I also bought a bookshelf for our dining room where we store our HS stuff. I figure if it doesn't have a place...we don't need it. I also changed the way we do chores...we now work together as a family on each room so I can make sure each kid understands how each room is supposed to be cleaned, and how it looks when it is done. Then once the older ones were trained, they work on their own. The younger ones still work along side me.
FlyLady is pretty good... to be honest, I can't keep up with it all. There is ALWAYS one room in the house that's a mess. I just do what I can and try not to stress about it.
I was going to suggest flylady. Now that our home is on the market I have to keep it spotless at all times which can be hard with a dog, a husband, two kids and another one I sit for. I go room to room and make a to do list for each room. Write down everything! Then work on one room at a time and mark things off as you go. I also have two days a week for laundry. I know it doesn't work for everyone but it does for us. Sundays or Saturdays depending on what we have planned on the weekend and then again on Wednesday. That gives everyone a proper amount of clean clothes and laudry doesn't pile up and I don't have to fold stuff every dang day. I also have a morning and an evening routine that I stick with. It took me a long time to be neat and organized all the time but now that I am I love it and it leaves me time for other things without feeling overwhelmed.
Flylady works for me when I use it LOL I just get so overwhelmed so easy and I never finish anything, so I HAVE to have lists so I can mark stuff off! I like the idea of cleaning each room as a family. I might try that rather than 'chores' for the kids. Just let them help work on the same list as me...
My house is usually a disaster! I try to keep the kitchen and living room clean, because those are the rooms other people see! So a couple of times a day I do quick picks of those, But other than that I attempt one other room a day! I am not a very good house keeper though!
well my house is on the market too, so I have been having to keep it clean. But, what I have done in the past every since my girls were old enough to drag toys out. we work together as a team and when we are done with something we put it away. Before I put my house on the market we did deep cleaning and I too got rid of so much stuff and some was hard but now I don't miss it anymore. So, start with one room clean very well, then make everyone help keep it clean then the next day go to another room... do 1 to 2 rooms a day until they are clean and rid of junk.
I keep way to much stuff. I need to get tough and toss a lot of things. Freddy is the same way so we are terrible about getting rid of things.
Well I'm pretty good about tossing what we don't need, but when we moved here (I'm ashamed to say in Oct '08) I had an online business selling handmade items I made myself. My idea was to shut down my shop for a month for the move then open right back up....I have yet to open back up! LOL I guess the month off just really made me see how much time it took to run your own business and I'd just rather spend it with my kids instead (at that time hubby had a job and we were fine financially) But now, I want to turn a pretty useless room into the classroom. I think with having a 3 year old around, it will be easier for my oldest to have a room to work in away from the TV and radio and computer games his brother might be playing as he is trying to work on worksheets or projects. Plus, I have a table in there I don't mind them getting paint and glue on, it'd be really nice to keep the arts and crafts off of my kitchen and dining room tables! I did pretty good today. The kitchen, living room and dining room (main areas) are pretty clean now, just a couple of dishes to do in the morning, so maybe after we go to the grocery store I'll start on the classroom! Here is what I have to work with http://www.flickr.com/photos/simplysonita/sets/72157623247209845/
The things I've learned.... *Clean enough to be healthy, dirty enough to be lived in. *Make a place for EVERYTHING and everything in it's place. *So, if you take it out, put it back. *Use it, give it or throw it away...stop keeping so much stuff. *recognize your "clutter" areas and hit them everyday. *It might be easier to just do it yourself, but if you take the time to teach it to your kids, they know for themselves! (My future daughters-in-law should love me.) *On the day you feel full of energy, put on the music and get down to the "big" project you've been thinking of or needs done. And the biggest? Company (or your MIL) always shows up unexpectedly when your house is the dirtiest. lol
Just last week I found a quote "Our house is clean enough to be healthy, but messy enough to be happy" LOL LOVE it! But the thing is is hubby pretty much expects a spotless house or he thinks I haven't "done anything" all day! One day I'm going to run away and stay gone for a week! Then he'll learn! LOL It just seems like I am constantly cleaning but it's never totally clean! It's just frustrating...
If I had read this post two days ago...I am not sure exactly what I would have written. Perhaps something along the lines of yelling at my child to pick up something for third time and then threatening if I see one more pile of the same stuff moved to another room to be a pile of stuff there instead of put away properly, that it would not be here at all to worry about ever again in the future. :x General housekeeping is not on a set schedule--actually, nothing in my life is on any set schedule so why should cleaning be any different! There was a time I had a scheduled life and I loved having a set day to clean everything, but with my husband's job, that just never worked for us, so I believe that God, in His Infinite Wisdom, has caused me to be quite irritated by very certain things to the point that they make me want to clean things up. I suppose I should say that in a more positive way and use the word "motivate" but it would not be as accurate--at least, not with my current mood. I have adopted personal policy that when I walk into any room and see something that bugs me, like spots on the mirror, a dirty counter, something out of place, dirty sink, etc. and I have a minute or two, I just take care of it right then to keep all those little things from building up, because when there is a great deal of little things like that I do get that overwhelming feeling. I cannot stand a lot of clutter so even if everything is not really clean, most rooms in my house look comfortable. I have pets, so vacuuming is also done when I begin to see some hair, which happens every few days to a week. Dust, especially while we are in the height of the pollen season, is something I can ignore somewhat, until my daughter makes pictures in the dust clinging to the TV screen. See, stuff like that is highly...uh, motivating for me to clean up even when I have not turned on the TV for days. I have a headset with my wireless phone, so I am often cleaning when I am talking on it because my hands are free. When someone calls, I am looking for things to do and have things ready when I call--folding laundry is my favorite for phone conversations; if I never talked on the phone, I think my all clean laundry would still be piling up in the basket. :wink:
I don't try and keep the whole house clean....at least not by myself. I keep the kitchen, living room, my room, and my bathroom clean. The boys are in charge of the dining room (keep the table clean and sweep the floor), their room (they clean each night before bed), and their bathroom (wipe daily, clean on Saturdays). This way most everything stays neat most of the time. But if it's not clean for some reason I figure people will just have to get over it I am only one person and I have four boys to clean up after.
It is just me, my husband, and our son in our small "quaint" home. Things just do not get that messy. But I do have a couple of rules that help things to not get too messy. 1. There is a place for everything. I seem to be the only one who appreciates this. 2. My rule for thinning out the junk "long ago precious treasure". If it has not been used in six months toss. If I still can not part with it, I put it in a box and stick it in the garage. If I don't look at the box for another six months, then I through it away without even looking inside the box. This seems to work good for me. It helps with my separation anxiety. 3. I have a memory box for each of us. This goes beyond pictures. It contains a favorite toy, baby outfit, birthday cards, etc. I just wished everyone else in my family appreciated my efforts of having a clean and orderly home.
Oh I LOVE the idea of putting it in a box in the garage and then tossing it without looking in it! I might have to start doing that!
So how often do you guys do most chores? Like I have to sweep the kitchen and vacuum the living/dining room every day. (2 small boys, hubby, friends and neighbors, dirt road, mini-farm...LOL) I don't mind that so much though. I also clean my bathrooms everyday, cause I have boys and bathrooms are just nasty to begin with, add 2 small boys and they are even nastier LOL So the sinks/toilets get cleaned everyday. And I don't mind doing this, and the baby (he's 3) helps. My big thing is I HATE doing dishes and laundry cause those two things NEVER end. When you're home all day and rarely eat out and have young kids, you mess up a lot of dishes! LOL
We do chores daily...well we try to anyways. I have to sweep the kitchen floor after every meal. I swear, half of what I feed my kids ends up on the floor! I vacuum 3X a week sometimes more if it needs it. I have a laundry schedule that works really well for us, we each have a day we do our laundry and then I have my cloth diaper days and linens and towel day too. ...but we have fallen off of it this week since dh has been home. The kids are supposed to have their chores done before bedtime but if that doesn't happen I make sure they do them in the morning. As for dishes...I know this is not "green"...but we have switched to paper plates, at least for now. It has cut back doing 5 loads of dishes every day to 1 every other day. Soooooo much easier.
Ah, this is where you need a nice friendly dog. Will keep that floor spic and span.....well, except for brussel sprouts. (giggle)
LOL, I don't. There are so many more important things to do with my time. It is difficult to keep it clean when you have a tornado right behind you messing things up less than a minute after they are picked up. I do try to have the house somewhat presentable when dh comes home. I do try to have all the dishes done before the kids go to bed. And laundry? Well, I haven't been caught up on laundry in 6 years. I'm getting close though. My dh used to complain, but when he had the main caregiver/housekeeping role for awhile he realized it wasn't so easy. I know he likes it clean. I like it clean too. But keeping it that way is very difficult when you live in a small place with three kids. My boys do some chores every day and their main one is picking up the toddler's toys.
