I need some help. I am trying to get organized and everything so my over running plate doesnt splatter all over the floor..... I run a daycare I do all clerical work , etc.for hubbys business 4-H I am going to start homeschooling in July....we are going to hs all year around and take breaks when needed. I have 3 kids and a husband 2 dogs, 4 rabbits, hamster and a cat. I try and try to keep things tidy and organized and than theirs my............................... FAMILY who just throws everything around...doesnt do anything to help keep things organized...I am always always picking up and the others just are like"um, what we do? why you upset? ":shock: I need some organizing tips plus tips to get my family into gear.... any ideas.
Not sure I'm qualified to answer b/c I am NOT organzed - it is my summer goal though. Getting myself a copy of "The Organized Homeschooler!" as my summer reading project!!! BUT...as for kicking the kids in gear...I find what works is having a curfew for stuff....if it's still out after curfew...it's gone and they have to earn it back. Also...look at the chores you do on a daily basis and figure out age appropriate chores and introduce them slowly. With my kids I say "families work together so that they have more time together". My kids set/clear the table, help load the dishwasher, sort and help wash/dry their laundry, fold and put their laundry away. Clean their own rooms and clean their schoolroom, also. My oldest (9) cleans the hall bath and the schoolroom bathrooms. Toilets and all. My oldest also helps cook dinner some nights and occasionally will give her younger sister her bath. My son (7) helps empty all the trash in the house and helps my husband get the trash out on trash night. I find my kids fairly compliant. Maybe not always ecstatic about helping, but compliant. As they get a little older more things will be added...like they will rotate being responsible for dusting/vacuuming and mopping.
Gosh same thing going on with me farming, homeschooling, house duties, volunteering, driving endless to appts it never seems to stop. Hubby finally saw me stressed out and started the kids to help out a bit more especially my teen daughter thats what I needed to get a kick start on cleaning up the house. Sometimes you just need the extra parental control even if they don't do anything other then help set the kids straight sometimes just to get things going. He also helped getting the kids early to bed because they would linger late at night and wouldnt give me my alone time. We despertly need our alone time. I now also set a alarm off a certain time of the night and when that goes off its time to get ready for bed the kids know this all electronics off, no more playing, time to wash up and jammies. Meals started coming a lot better when I placed a calendar on the fridge door and started putting down what we ate each day on it this gave me an idea on what to plan for the next day so we wouldnt get so bored and spread the chicken, beef, pork days, left over days out. Seems to be working out great! I still can't plan for weeks in advance but its a start. The days that I will be home the most I plan to do most of my house cleaning those days. At night when kids are asleep I write on my My eraseable to do list board in living room because if I didnt write it down I would completly forget about what I was going to do in morning. Sam
This echoes the previous responses a bit. Designate. Your older two can do A LOT. In my house, some chores are a given (we all live here, we all contribute), some are extras for which rewards are given. Try to think out of the box - there are many chores I catch myslef doing autmatically that one of my kids could be doing (instead of complaining about boredom LOL). Eliminate. Cut the clutter from your home, your schedule, your to-do list. (In another life) I once took a day-long seminar on managing multiple projects. We were taught to designate every project as Important and Urgent, Important but Not Urgent, Not Important but Urgent, and Not Important and Not Urgent. Guess what? If it's not important, I don't do it anymore. A little more helpful: The "experts" there stated one should never have more than four projects going at once. Well, as a homemaking, homeschooling parent, I find that's often not realistic, but it does help me as a reality check (as in, just how far past four projects am I now?). Plan your work, work your plan. I HATE planning menus, but life here is so much easier when they are planned. I need to grit my teeth through the planning so I can have an easier time the other 30-1/2 days of the month. I plan our lessons - now, we almost never do exactly what I planned, but I find it easier to "catch up" or "work ahead" if I check things off as we go along. As far as housework and tasks, I use a homekeeping planner I bought, but I adapt as it works for our home/family. Hoipe you found something helpful here.
What works best for me is to take care of things as they come up, like filing the mail in the filing cabinet. If I put things off, they pile up then it is too overwhelming to tackle. Good luck!
First of all, check out Flylady. She has changed my life, home, homeschool and marriage. All for free! Next, you may not like this but you have to do it. If your kids (can't speak for your dh) take stuff out and don't put it back, that is YOUR issue, because YOU are not there telling them to fix it. You are just reinforcing that they don't have to if you jump in. YOU need to make the extra effort to notice that they didn't do the job, then the extra effort to call them back into the room and make them do it. Yes, it is actually more work for you short term, but homeschooling is a long-term sort of thing. After 10 yrs I finally am seeing the fruits of my labor in that 2 out of my 3 kids will "generally" put there stuff away after they take it out. I has been my personal experience that by following Flylady, my dh noticed the changes and without me saying anything started pitching in and cleaning up. By following Flylady nothing ever gets so messy that I need to have a temper-tantrum about the condition of the house any more (in the past it was a bi-monthly thing). It will only work if you are willing to make permanent changes in the way you do things. It is a lot harder than it seems to change.
That is soooo me!!! I find my biggest challenge is my dh. He very, very rarely puts anything away. I've tried to talk with him about it -told him that it's very hard to get the kids to follow my example when they see him leaving his things around. When we do a big clean-up, the kids even comment on how much of their dad's stuff they pick up. After almost 15 years, I think I'm stuck with him like he is. I do not ask my dh to help clean the house. I only ask that he pick up after himself and return things to their places. It has taken some time, but I have had to learn to let some things go. I can be a little OCD about neatness. God's cure for that was 5 other people in my house who could care less what it looks like. I don't look in my kids' dresser drawers. I don't look in their closets. My clothes are arranged like I like them. My school stuff is organized like I like it, and the kids only touch what's theirs. It's a balance I've had to compromise on. As far as keeping activities organized, we have a large dry-erase calendar. I found that when I recently got a part-time work-mostly-from-home job, I was having trouble keeping up. By putting actives on the calendar, I can easily see what's going on that day/week. We have lots of shelves, baskets and plastic boxes. They corral lots of things and keep the house looking somewhat neater. I'd love cabinets to hide some things, but I have no room.
I agree, LOVE the Flylady system and the reminders. They help me feel I shouldnt be making myself so crazy. Have to say though that my dh and I had a very long heart to heart. Essentially it became clear as dawn - he agreed to help,but he just doesnt "see" it. So I asked him straightout what the best thing FOR HIM would be. He told me, "Just tell me specifically." Sooooo, very nicely, I say,"Hun, please go put yor shoes on the shoe shelf. Oh and the socks can go in the hamper." and I walk away. He might take 10 mins to do it (or 2 hours) but I leave it and he does it (drives me balistik but Waiting has worked.) And he told me if I wanted something done right away, like it was gonna really bohter me< to tell him. Soooo, that turned into,"Hun, the kitchen trash needs to go out, now. Please." it's taken awhile for me to be calm and him to help, but now the kids do the same thing. 'DAD!!! You need to put your shoes on the shoe shelf..."
COLORS: use a color bin or folder system for each like green for 4H, Blue for DH's business, and Purple for paper work for preschool. Even if all of your bins are the same color get colored dot stickers. Keep the same color Marker or pen for marking dates on the calandar. I found great bins at Target you can put casters on them or leave them off and with a bit of double stick tape on the edges you can make them stack--- use labels for crayons, markers, paints, paper etc.....(I have mine for scrapbook stuff)---- I used these stacking slender book shelves for homeschool but I don't recamend them because the ones we bought are just too flimsy,the backing is coming off.--- but a better set wouild work.
LOL!!! I suggest flylady also. I need to get back on track myself. I didn't follow flylady to a tee but it changed my life! LOL....seriously it really got me in gear. THen I added another baby and blew that...time for me to get organized again also.
We have a weekly chore for the older two girls then they switch for the next week so one may be cleaning up the living room putting anything away that needs to be put away, the hall bathroom, and hall. That person also vacumes. The kitchen person, picks up the dirty dishes, puts the clean dishes away, sweeps, keeps the kitchen table neat and takes out garbage. I also generally load the dishes and wash the pots and pans that need to be done by hand. My ds (he's 4) puts away his toys and helps the girls with their chores in any way he can. Laundry, the girls do their own, my dh does his I do mine and my ds and whatever else needs to be done. Meals, well we eat simple stuff through out most of the day sometimes I'll make a soup or something it's to hot right now or even a hot breakfast, but again it's to hot to contemplate it right now. But dinner time I try to have something made before I go to work but a lot of the times I'll have it put together but my dd cooks it for the rest of the family or my dh bbq's. It's just a matter of having to work together otherwise it doesn't work very well. Oh, and my girls get $20 for their chores, but with this money they have to pay to race on Saturday nights and practice on thursday nights.
rhi, you you have the set-up that I hope happens for us some day!! How old are your girls? How did you convince DH to do his own laundry? Mine won't even put his own away!! not even when I have a job! I look forward to having someone other than me responsible for the kitchen. ugh. I don't mind cooking, but the constant clean up after meal snack meal snack meal snack meal snack meal drives me crazy!! and just for the kids' benefits I hope to have them responsible for dinner when they are teens, not all the time, just maybe 1 kid once per week or something? How old were your girls when you could count on them to do dinner? I grew up with no responsibilities at home. My mom saw good grades in school as our "work." I appreciated it at the time but now wish she had forced us to take care of things in an effort to learn for the future (our own families). She's a control freak though, so it was more simple for her to just do everything her perfect little way (she's an awesome homemaker) and for me to stay out of the way! So, good for you, and please clue me in on how to get to where you are. my kids are 3,2, and on the way.
