11 Tried and True Ways to Tame the Home When You Homeschool

With the new school year comes different grade levels for kids. It may mean more relief for mom or it could mean more work when adding in younger children to the day.

Add a few preschoolers that need naps in the afternoons and a newborn baby and I was left many days wondering how I was going to fit in grocery buying, cleaning the house, menu planning and running errands.

It didn’t take too long into the school year before I was behind on cleaning the house and preparing for meals.

Tips and Tricks for Making a Messy House Clean

Though I thrived with schedules, my do-a-little-each-day method to cleaning wasn’t working.

Stepping back to examine even my method of cleaning, I want to share these sanity-saving tips that I used through the years.

• If your kids are real young and you are outnumbered, make your shopping day Saturday or when Dad is off work.

For a few years, I took my oldest to the store while my husband took care of the youngest boys. It just had to be or otherwise my whole day was wasted getting only a small portion of what we needed.

• As the boys got a bit bigger, I joined a local co-op in my neighborhood where I get could get fresh fruits and vegetables.

That was awfully convenient and I didn’t really need much preparation when they showed up in the neighborhood.

• Also, the Mr. didn’t mind a bit stopping by the store after work and grabbing a few things.

So I would go about once every two weeks for the big items and the Mr. would grab perishable items if we ran out.

• Limit your days to the grocery store. You only have so many days in the week.

It’s exhausting to not plan meals and go to the grocery store every other day.

I never wanted to do that and didn’t. When I could, I went once every two weeks, but sometimes I had to go weekly but not every day or every other day.

• Then as the boys grew older and entered middle school, I was able to go to the store weekly and more on a schedule, but it had to wait until after school or about 2:00 or so.

This still gave me time to shop and get back before dinner.

• As the boys approached high school, I made sure my grocery list was organized by aisles so that when Mr. Senior 2013 learned to drive, he could take over the grocery shopping.

There was no guessing what items or brands we liked because he had been shopping with me for many years since he was little.

Now, just organize your grocery list and let your highschooler do it.

• Another tip that saved me countless of hours was investing in more than one crock-pot.

I would have 3 crock-pots going at one time.

Sometimes it would be two meals and one side dish and then sometimes it would be 3 meals and one of them a breakfast for the next day.

There is no such rule that you have to have only one crock-pot.

Our lives are very different from most families and we need to think outside of the box.

• Did I mention that I even ordered once in a while from the Schwan’s delivery grocery? They have a few great tasting dishes.
• Nowadays, you can even shop at Walmart and with free delivery, things can be delivered straight to your door.

My sister does this all the time. It’s a great way to shop with no stress and everything comes to your door.

• As far as cleaning, I learned to have less products to clean with so that I could do all of the rooms in the house quicker instead of a different cleaner for each room.

I had to change the way I liked doing laundry too.

• I tried to do a one day laundry day and get a majority of it over with.

I saved back things like linen and towels, which could be washed and dried, but could wait on being folded.

Those kinds of clothes I did while we did school and of course the baby’s clothes were washed just about every day.

I learned that by washing a bulk of them on one day, I made a dent for the week and could focus on school.

Those are just a few quick tips that saved me during the time school booted back up and during the year when I felt like I was getting behind.

What do you do to get it all in for the day?

Hugs and love  ya,

Also, look at:
Inspiring Your Homeschooled Kids to Do Chores
Should You Switch to a 4 day Homeschool Schedule?

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