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*Re-Zoning* My House

(Image from Google)

Now that homeschool has started back up, my house is a disaster. I mean, really, it's terrible! I've come to the conclusion that if you're a homeschool mom and your house is spotless, either A) You're not doing your job homeschooling or B) You have a maid. haha

Now I say that completely lightheartedly, believe me! But seriously, it's hard to keep up with it all. Isn't it? Or am I the only one? Please say "no"! It seems like it's just hard for me to keep all my juggling balls in the air, one or two keep hitting the ground.

When I first got married~over 13 years ago~I was housekeeper extraordinaire! Everything was spic and span and I took one day each week to totally clean the whole place. Now, please understand that we lived in an apartment that was 640 sq. ft. and there were not munchkins making messes. Even our 2nd home (first house) was only about 1,100 sq. ft., so it was very easy to whip into shape. But somehow, even though our current home is not that much bigger (about 1640 sq. ft.), having two littles running around just kills my *keep things in order* ability. It's like trying to shovel your sidewalk during a blizzard. I just can't seem to get everything done in one day anymore.

So I was recently inspired by Amber at Three Meals & a Baby to revisit my Martha Stewart Homekeeping Handbook. I also {briefly} revisited the FlyLady. And after pondering how I can become more efficient with my housekeeping, I have created some *zones*.

Each day has its own zone to be cleaned on that particular day. For example, my zones are:

  • Monday: the bathrooms
  • Tuesday: the bedrooms
  • Wednesday: the entry, hallway, living room and laundry room
  • Thursday: the kitchen and dining area
  • Friday: tidy-up each zone for the weekend
Now there are things I do daily as well. Things like tidying up the kitchen, sweeping the kitchen/dining area, doing laundry, etc. Now if I could just work in my ironing pile....ugh.

So this new plan was implemented just yesterday. Hopefully I have made it easy enough that I can get my daily *zone* done each afternoon after we're finished with school work.

Monday went well and I now have very clean bathrooms! It's a nice way to start the week!

How do you schedule out your housekeeping? I'd love to hear!

This post is linked to the Hip Homeschool Hop.

Comments

RedBettySummer said…
Oh, so well said! We are in the trenches every day because the kids never leave- not that we want them to, and then there is constant projects and homework all over the place! Just the same, eventually things get picked up. I like the zone idea. I have a friend that has a chart but it isn't for her kids, it's for her and her husband. Every day they both have assigned jobs, and he has to follow them. She even has jobs like "wiping the top edge of the cabinets" and he does it! How cool to get that far into your marriage, huh? Thanks for your post.
Kathy said…
I am SO with you on this ... I feel like it's constantly a mess around here! We just wrote up new chore charts yesterday b/c I need my littles to HELP me cause I can't do it all alone!
I love your zoning idea and think this may be just what I need to start doing - thanks for sharing!!
Girls, you are making me feel better...at least I'm not alone:)

Kathy~
I love chore charts, but I feel like I'm always nagging the kids to do them. Mainly I just want them to pick up their stuff when they're finished and tidy-up their rooms each day. Apparently that's asking too much, but they love to help w/the tasks I'd rather do myself...lol But I'll take what help I can get! :)
Tiff said…
I'm in the same boat!!! Right now my house looks like a tornado blew right through it! I think I'm going to try this plan! Thanks for the idea!
Be Thou Exalted said…
Thanks for the encouragment! I know what you mean, except we just got back from a trip to Florida so that's why my place in "out of order"! I love a clean home and I love to homeschool. They just don't seem to work together!

Stopping by from the blog hop. Hope you have a great day of school!!
Anonymous said…
I agree about the house. Mine is a mess everywhere I turn it seems. Sigh*** following from the Hop!
I can totally relate! Glad to know I'm not the only one, too. LOL! :)
Deb said…
I have the very good fortune of paying a delightful, homeschooled teenage girl to come clean bathrooms and vaccum floors. I genuinely fear the day she decides that scraping dried pee off someone else's toilets is not worth $8 an hour. Because she comes once a week, I am forced to shovel out the house that often. I change sheets and towels, nag my husband into loading the dishwasher, and generally try to have the place be Not-Too-Disgusting when she comes. I should be shoveling right now, actually...
Ashley Pichea said…
I've started incorporating chores into our schooling - I call it "Home Economics" :)

Stopping by to say "Hi" from the Hip Homeschool Hop!
I just wanted to introduce myself as the newest member of the HHM team - I'm looking forward to getting to know you!

- Ashley Pichea
@apichea
ashleypichea.com
Ashley~
I do include them in chore time, but I haven't thought of calling the cleaning part *home ec*~what a great idea!! Thank you for coming by from the hop!

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