Being a homeschool mom means we’re home all day, so therefore it should be EASY to keep a clean house while homeschooling, right? WRONG!! It can be a daunting task trying to maintain a clean home when most, if not all, of your family is home all the time! But don’t stress – I’m sharing my EASY house cleaning schedule for busy homeschool moms that is REALISTIC and achievable.
This isn’t a ‘how-to’ on how to achieve a Pinterest worthy home…quite the opposite really. As homeschool moms, our homes are actually lived in! What we need is an easy house cleaning schedule that provides less stress, and helps us enjoy our home life even more.
The good news is, that is EXACTLY what I’m sharing with you here today – starting with allowing yourself to clean LESS!
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Homeschool Moms Should Clean Less
I know you’re probably looking at me with a raised eyebrow right now, but are also relieved I just said what I said. YES – I believe that as a homeschooling mom we need to adjust what our standards are for our home.
Culture and social pressure can make it really hard for us to not obsess over keeping our entire house perfect all the time, especially when we are having company over! I can not tell you how many times I’ve acted like a crazy person trying to make my house look Martha Stewart worthy just because we were having friends over for dinner. It’s sad, stupid, and totally unnecessary!
Let me let you in on a little secret…….our friends know we live in our home! I know….amazing right? And guess what else? They also know we HOMESCHOOL OUR KIDS!!! Mic drop…..
Also, people really don’t care if the pillows on your couch are fluffed, or if there’s an art project laying out to dry on your kitchen counter. And if they do, don’t invite them back – HA! (I wish this was one of those valuable life skills I had learned a little sooner……)
I’m Not Saying Do Nothing…..
Here’s the thing – when I say that homeschool moms should clean less, I’m not implying that we should just not care and decide to live in a dirty house. I’m not saying that at all. But what I AM saying is that we need to adjust our own mindset. We can’t stress ourselves out trying to make our house look like its NOT the center of our entire family’s activities, when in reality, it is.
Have a clean home, yes. But that doesn’t mean always perfectly tidy, organized, and ready for pictures. We have to let that go for the sake of our sanity, and even our relationship with our kids. At the end of the day, what matters most is that our children feel secure and loved. Not that their shoes are lined up perfectly.
Daily Homeschool Mom Cleaning Schedule:
I’m going to share what has been working for me, and I want you to adjust this list however it may suit you. We all have different lives, so don’t think you need to start doing EXACTLY what I’m doing.
There are certain areas in our house that give me more stress when they’re dirty, than other areas do. Those are the places I focus on daily. It’s kind of like zone cleaning. I focus on certain zones each day, and the rest is given attention usually about once a week.
What you will NOT find on this list are things like:
- Windows
- Baseboards
- Dusting
It’s not that I never do those tasks, I do. But they are not on any sort of schedule. When I see that they need to be done, I do them. But I’ve learned to not let those things bother me like they used to. I have 2 kids and 2 dogs – my windows will never be fingerprint or nose print free! Therefore, I don’t worry about it.
Each daily cleaning task on my list are realistic household chores that make our home function well on a daily basis. I’m first going to list each chore on my to-do list, and then I’ll break it down to show you what this looks like in real life:
Here’s what I do each day as a busy homeschooling mom:
- Empty and reload the dishwasher
- Wipe down the kitchen counters and sink
- Wipe down the kitchen table
- Tidy the living room
- Vacuum certain areas of the house (NOT the whole house)
- Make my bed
- Do a load of laundry (sometimes)
- Quick tidy of the mudroom
Now let’s break this down into chunks of time, because I do NOT do these things all at once!
Cleaning Schedule – Before School:
- Empty and reload the dishwasher
- Wipe down the kitchen counters and sink
- Wipe the kitchen table
Because we do the majority of our homeschool at our kitchen table, having a clean kitchen is a must for me. I do feel tense when my kitchen is messy, and because we spend so much time in there during our school hours, it needs to be one of the zones I focus on. Starting each day with a clean kitchen helps me feel more prepared. And it really only takes about 10 minutes or so each morning.
After the kitchen is done, I like to do a quick tidy of the living room as well. We sometimes bring our reading in there, or my oldest will do her math in there, and I want it to feel comfortable. This whole job takes me around 1 minute to complete, so it’s NOT a major clean. Here’s what this entails:
- Pick up any blankets or pillows that have landed on the floor
- Straighten up the ottoman
- Open the curtains
Now, after doing these few things, the areas of our home that we will be spending our morning in, are clean and inviting. It literally takes me all of 10-12 minutes MAXIMUM to finish these chores, but it really clears my head for the day.
The Importance Of ‘Cozy’:
Also, as a homeschooling mom, I want my home to be a cozy and comfortable environment for the kids to learn in. If I feel stress and anxiety over big messes, they probably will too. Likely on a different scale, but they will still feel it.
Just take a few minutes each morning to make whatever zones you will be spending the most time in feel comfortable. It’s well worth it, and once you’ve made it a routine, really only takes a few minutes.
Consistency with your cleaning, as well as showing up within your homeschool is hard, but it’s so important. If this is something you struggle with, you may enjoy this: Top 10 Tips To Become A Consistent Homeschooling Mom
Cleaning Schedule – After School:
We usually aim to be done our school day around noon. During our school time, I don’t worry about trying to clean anything, other than wiping down the table if needed between subjects. Sometimes things can be a bit messy and I just do a quick wipe down IF it’s needed; if not, I don’t.
Once our school work is done, I have the kids help put away their school supplies. After everything is put away, here’s what I do next:
- Give the kitchen table another good wipe down (there’s always eraser dust, marks from crayons, etc.) By doing this NOW, I know that come supper time, the table won’t be messy. It only takes 1 minute and it just feels good for my brain!
- If needed, I will also grab the vacuum and do the floor around the kitchen table as well. Again, eraser dust, paper bits, things like that….they often end up on the floor. This may take 1 minute, sometimes less.
The Rest Of The Day:
After we have lunch is when I will typically throw in a load of laundry. I don’t assign a specific day as a laundry day. I just put a load in here and there as we need it. While the washing machine is going, I then turn my focus to our master bedroom.
Remember when I mentioned zone cleaning and how certain zones of our house are more important to me than others in regards to daily chores? Well, our master bedroom is another one of those zones for me.
I don’t need to have it perfectly neat and organized every single day – that’s just not realistic! But I do need to make our bed. Maybe for you this isn’t important, and that’s fine! If it’s not, then don’t stress yourself out thinking you have to do this. But for me, when I walk past our bedroom during the day and see a bed that’s made, it makes me feel calmer. Plus, once evening comes and I can finally relax, I love walking into a room that doesn’t look chaotic.
A Note About Stress..
If you can’t tell, I do get stressed out and feel anxiety over certain messes. So for me, a good way to avoid feeling overwhelmed is by just keeping up with the small tasks to avoid an overly messy house all at once. Do things sometimes get out of control and my whole house is a mess? YES! That’s life, especially when there’s little people trailing behind you making messes in the areas you just cleaned.
However, it still feels good knowing that the floor that is once again covered in toys, DID in fact get vacuumed!
I actually came across an old saying recently that goes like this: “Cleaning the house while kids are still growing is like shoveling snow while it’s still snowing.”
Weekly Homeschool Mom Cleaning Schedule:
Now let’s talk about the cleaning chores I do each week. I do not assign specific days every week to get these done. My life doesn’t really work like that. If doing that makes it easier for you, than by all means, schedule a specific day.
Chore charts and things like that have never worked for me. Rather than motivating me, they actually sort of stress me out. So, I function way better by just doing things as I see them and when I have the time.
Most cleaning jobs really don’t take THAT long anyway. But as busy moms, we tend to build them up in our minds and make them seem bigger than they actually are. I’ve learned that if I have the time to do something, that I should just do it and stop thinking about doing it. To some of you this may sound obvious, but for me, it was most definitely a learning curve!
Here are my weekly cleaning chores as a busy homeschooling mom:
- Clean both bathrooms
- Make sure there’s clean laundry
- Vacuum
- Mop the kitchen floor and mudroom floor
- Make sure the toy room gets tidied up
Bathrooms:
Let’s talk bathrooms first – we have 2 bathrooms in our house. We used to live in a much bigger house where we had 4 bathrooms, so I’m finding 2 bathrooms so much easier to take care of! I do typically clean both of them on the same day because cleaning bathrooms is hard work, and I like to just check that off my list all at once.
Because I still have younger kids, I am always doing little wipe downs in the bathrooms throughout the week, but the big clean happens weekly.
Laundry:
I added laundry to the weekly list because even though it can be done daily, it’s not a chore I always do every day. Because of our well, we need to be mindful of our water usage. Therefore, having laundry going all the time simply isn’t an option. Like I mentioned before, I will throw in a load here and there, so for me, laundry IS more of a daily chore than one big weekly chore.
However, usually about once per week I’ll take stock of things and if there’s bedding to be done, or someone has a bunch of laundry piling up, I’ll take care of it. Eventually, I’ll teach my kids to do their own laundry, but for now, I’m the one doing it, and I’m okay with that.
Vacuuming:
This is something that I actually really love doing! All my friends know that I have a vacuuming obsession! (It only becomes a problem when I start vacuuming at 7:00 am while my husband is still trying to sleep – haha – yes, I’ve done that.)
I just find watching all the dust and dirt getting sucked away by the vacuum cleaner EXTREMELY satisfying! So yes, I do vacuum every day. But, I don’t vacuum my whole house every day. Just the areas that get the dirtiest – kitchen, mudroom, and sometimes the living room. (We also have 2 dogs that track in a lot of grass and dirt, so honestly, vacuuming isn’t really something I could avoid even I wanted to!)
But the rest of the house gets vacuumed on a weekly basis. That includes the bedrooms, the full living room, the sun room, and the basement.
Mopping The Mudroom and Kitchen Floor:
As much as I love vacuuming, I equally hate mopping! It’s become one of my least favourite chores to do. I think it’s because the effects don’t seem to last very long, and the process is kind of annoying! However, with kids and dogs, it must get done.
I do NOT mop my entire house every week – let me just be very clear on that. Perhaps I should, but I don’t. I focus on the areas that receive the most traffic and get the dirtiest – the mudroom and the kitchen.
I don’t think I need to explain why the mudroom gets dirty. It’s name basically says it all! And because the kitchen is where we cook, eat, and do homeschool, the floors definitely take a beating.
So, I’ve made it a habit that about once a week I do a quick mopping of those two areas. As much as I dislike it, it really doesn’t take up too much extra time. The rest of the house gets mopped on an “as needed” basis.
Dealing With The Toy Room:
I say “dealing with” because that’s often what it feels like! After morning chores, the first thing my kids do every day is go downstairs to play. Then, as soon as school is done, they’re back down there playing. And most of their day is spent playing in the toy room. It’s absolutely wonderful and I’m so thankful they have great imaginations and love to play.
But the mess that their play produces can get a tad overwhelming at times! I do make them do regular clean ups down there and for the most part they do a decent job. However, about once a week, it needs my attention.
This involves me pulling things out from under the couch, organizing the books, etc. This is also the perfect time for me to vacuum down there as well. Knowing that this room will get “Mamma’s” attention about once per week, helps make the daily messes feel a bit less stressful.
It’s Okay To Do Less:
The last point I will make, is that as homeschool moms, we are completely immersed in our children’s lives almost every hour of every day. As much of a blessing as that is, it can also leave us feeling a bit drained at times as well.
It’s so important to make time to do the things that will fuel you in all the ways you need – physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally.
If cleaning less means giving yourself time to exercise, read, pray, or whatever it is that you need to do in order to be able to function WELL, then please, clean less! Nobody else holds you to the expectations that you often hold yourself to. I know this from my own experience, trust me.
Break Cleaning Chores Up Into Smaller Portions
Break things down into the “must-do” daily tasks, know your weekly tasks, aim to accomplish them, but if you don’t…the world will keep spinning. If your children are loved, fed, and cared for….it’s totally ok to wait and clean the bathroom tomorrow if you need a break today.
If you have older kids, try assigning them with some cleaning chores to help you out. If not, just do what you can, when you can. Don’t let the social media culture make you feel like you’re failing if there’s laundry that’s not folded or toys all over the house. As hard as it is to believe, those things are actually blessings that one day – you will miss.
My grandmother use to say, “The dust will still be here in 20 years, but your children won’t be”.
Those words are so true Mamma. There will come a day when you will miss tripping over dinky cars and barbie dolls. All of a sudden, you will look around at your neat and tidy house and realize how quiet and still it is. In those moments, I know for a fact that you will look back on these days and wish you hadn’t stressed so much over perfection, and just enjoyed your children. I know that for me, that’s exactly how I’ll feel.
So take a step back, do what you need to do, but don’t OVER DO it. The years really are short…so enjoy them while you can!
Blessings!
~Maryann
Amy Clayton
Pretty! This has been an extremely wonderful article.
Thanks for providing this info.
simplyhomeandfamily
You’re welcome!