Winners of This Giveaway are: Lindsy, Angie & Melanie. You should receive an email this week with your ebook. Congrats!
Since BlissDom, I’m trying to get my blog on a schedule. My plan is to announce the weekly giveaway on Saturdays. For now, you can make a comment on any post that week to enter our giveaway. The following Friday is the last day to enter to win.
Last week’s winners are: Susan Mueller, Ginny, Kimberly, Lisa, Tamara.
On Monday, I’ll have Hunter email your ebook, Making Biblical Decisions.
If you have an item you would like to give away on my blog, please email me. Let me know what it is and how it would be used by homeschoolers.
It’s spring cleaning time! I’m on a roll using my 15 minute system that I shared in January. I’ll be sharing some photos of what I’ve recently cleaned. With spring cleaning, we are giving away 3 copies of the ebook, 51 House Cleaning Tips.
What’s one of your favorite house cleaning tips? Post it as a comment
28 Comments
One of my favorite house cleaning tips is to teach your kids to clean young! (and clean with them, it takes longer but it’s worth it) 🙂
Shannon,
This is so true. Even a 3 year old can learn to pick up the toys. I kept a laundry basket in the living room so the kids could pick up their toys right before Steve got home from work. Little ones can alo take their plates back from the table…and so much more.
Being organized in housecleaning is of life long benefit. Always looking for good tips.
Joyce,
You should find some great tips here as the ladies share what works in real life.
I agree with Joyce about teaching children to help. I don’t think I worked alongside my children as much as I should have. Teenagers are harder to get to do their chores as they are so busy, but I keep trying. 🙂 I have two tips I use daily. Keeping dirty dishes in the dishwasher until there is a full load helps keep the kitchen more presentable. Having a laundry basket in each room for dirty clothes and a basket in tne laundry room for each bedroom for clean folded clothes helps keep the laundry ordered. I just keep working on the laundry daily, 2-3 loads a day. I put the clean clothes in the baskets and eventually require each child to put away their own clothes when the baskets are towering with clean clothes.
Ariel,
Wonderful ideas & I completely agree. GEt the kids helping at an early age. We used the basket system, too. It kept laundry under control. Thanks for sharing.
Being new to homeschooling, I’m finding my biggest struggle is my house. It is difficult for me to sit and homeschool when my mind is running with all of the chores I have to get done.
Lindsy,
I understand. It is hard to keep it altogether. I think you will find some great ideas from the ladies on this blog. I’ll also be sharing my own ideas. For me, I could keep homeschooling if there certain rooms were picked up, like the living room or dining room. It gave me a sense of peace to have at least 1 clean room
Make a chore chart for the entire family so everyone knows what everyone’s chores are for the day/week. We include everything from dishes, vacuuming, garbage duty and help cooking meals. I didn’t think it would work but the family insisted and they love being able to look on the chart and see whose day it is!
Charts are wonderful b/c it reminds everyone what their chore is. It also gives mom a quick summary of what needs to be done & who will do it.
My favorite laundry tip on conquering “Mount Washmore” is to do one load daily and have a laundry basket for each family member. Sort the folded “clean duds” right into the basket. And while you’re at it – have a separate color for hangers for each family member. I put a tension rod in the doorway to my laundry room and put all the hanging clothes right on the appropriate colored hanger. When laundry’s done for the day, have an “All Call – Come and Get It!” If you have wee ones, a sibling can carry the basket and help hang up the clothes, but teach them while they’re young to take care of the clothes in the basket …et voila! Laundry’s done and put away.
Val,
Great idea. When I was growing up each child had their our own baskets, so I followed my mom’s example with my kids.
We have a laundry sorter with six hanging mesh bags, one each for jeans, whites, kitchen towels, bathroom towels, darks and brights,and lights. When the laundry is already sorted, it just takes a moment to throw it into the washer and juggle it to the dryer when it is finished washing.
Patricia,
What a great idea. Where did you get your laundry sorter?
I do this too! The sorter works great..I found mine at a garage sale actually…but I have seen them at Target etc.. Ours has little wheels on the bottom, and so they slide easily under a folding counter in my laundry room.
My 9 year old son loves to help with laundry. He helps load/unload both the washer/dryer… does detergent, and additives and even folds, hangs and puts away his own clothes. He actually find sit fun, so not an issue in our home. I think it is just a personality thing…nothing special that I did to ‘train’ him. But I simply keep him as involved in as many ‘things/chores’ as possible because doing is a great way to learn…and I simply love to spend time with him. I joke with him how he knows more about how to do laundry and run the machines than his dad. And he actually could do it on his own if needed. We still do it together, and he always asks to make sure he has the settings on the machine right…but he has a great memory for that type of thing.
Anyhow…I truly think that laundry should not be a big issue in a home. It is a simple thing to train children to help with…whatever is appropriate for the age/skill. It may take a little time initially to train them in the skills they may need…but it will be time well spent…they will learn a great life skill, and free mom up to do something else…like take a nice relaxing bubble bath! lol!!!
I agree, teaching the kids to help. They are part of the family and the family has responsibilities. Also, training them to clean up one mess before making another also keeps me more accountable to do the same.
Jacqueline,
I’m trying to clean up my messes in the kitchen…one week at a time. I cleaned the island and it looks so good. I’m trying to put away anything that I leave on the counter. Or, ask the family member to put away their stuff.
I make sure the kids have laundry baskets boh upstairs and downstairs. Doing laundry daily is a must! The kids also have chores they are responsible for getting done before they have free time.
I have a difficult time with cleaning versus decluttering. We have so much clutter it is hard to clean sometimes.
I am also working on simplifying (decluttering) our home. I want to encourage you to take one small step a day. It might be just one shelf, or just one drawer, or corner…something that takes 5-20minutes. In time, you’ll (we’ll” get there!! I also read an article years ago that still impacts me…it was actually in Oprah mag. She made a comment that ‘your house is not a museum’, as she talked about what to do with things that have been given to us, and are potential ‘keepsakes’. We can free ourselves from the guilt of tossing out something that we otherwise were just keeping because it was a gift/heirloom, but not something that we actually really like or use. Of course, there are some heirlooms that bring a smile to our face, and THOSE, I think we should keep! Anyhow…happy decluttering!!
Two of our girls are only a year apart in age, and although they are different sizes on the bottom, they like to share their shirts, and their pj’s, so I have combined them together. This makes the sorting, and taking care of laundry much easier. All 3 girls share a room (15,10, 9), so I removed everything except for the oldest daughters clothes and made a “walk in closet” for the younger girls in the garage (which was converted to a multi-purpose room years ago.
I think my best tip is to declutter when you aren’t desperate so you don’t have to re purchase something you tossed in the heat of the moment.
What a great tip. I still remember getting rid of my silver beads at a garage sale and regret it every time I see them on my neighbor. That was 15 yrs ago 🙂
I have found that if flat surfaces are kept decluttered and clean, that my house feels and looks clean and presentable. Even if its not perfect…its not a disaster, and we can live comfortably, and don’t mind drop in guests! So tables, counters and floors…it makes a big difference. Our eyes need a place to ‘rest’ on the flat surfaces…it keeps things and our mind decluttered simultaneouly.
I also have found it helpful to multi-task the house chores as much as possible….I actually spend time catching up with family and friends via phone with a headset as I clean…I pretty much can do anything while we chat…except vacuum of course!
And…I have a few areas that help me stay sane when things get really hecitc…if the kitchen counter, sunroom floor, and bathroom counters are decluttered and wiped off…I can function for school or whatever else the days may bring!
As for dust bunnies…. aren’t they cute creatures? lol!
Angie,
Have you been to my home? You sound like me. I plan my phone calls while I walk (w/ cell) or fold laundry, etc. Last week I cleaned our kitchen island. My goal is to not go to bed unless there is no clutter on it. For a week, I’ve been successful. I’ll be posting pics since it is one of my 15 min task.
I am trying to use fewer chemicals in my cleaning. Therefore, I depend on baking soda for many of our cleaning tasks. Good old-fashioned elbow grease is also important.
Janet, What a simple solution to cleaning. My mom tells me to use baking soda.
We are starting our first official year of HSing – my oldest is turning 5 next month, and I am due with #4 late December. It’s sheer madness at times! Laundry is my nemesis. I get easily overwhelmed with things at times and the itty bitty stuff was taking over. I dreaded and avoided laundry even more b/c of all their clothes, then got frustrated and sadly at times angry when after taking the time to fold everything, it just got rummaged through 5 minutes later. Our solution? Some heavy duty Sterilite drawer systems. Each child has their own 3 drawer tower – the top small one has undies, socks, and swim/misc. items. The middle is shirts/tops. The bottom is, well, bottoms. They help sort clean laundry into piles for each person, then take and sort them further into their own drawers (which are removable with handles so they can just bring them into the living room, then take them back. It is a time, and sanity saver! Just bought our 4th tower for the new babe 🙂 (I had this fear that they would discontinue it since I finally found a system that worked). If all their clothes don’t fit, we know it’s time to purge…
We’ve also been purging and simplifying b/c it just makes life so much easier! We’ve come a LONG way (looking back at pics it’s horribly embarrassing!) but still have plenty ahead of us. It’s a constant process.