My hubby is very patient with me and tries to help, but his time is limited since he works and has obligations at church and so on. He decided, however, to take Christmas week off work to help me wrap up 2012 and get ready to bring in 2013 with a cleaned and organized house! (I have a super wonderful hubby!!)
The day after Christmas, we began by getting all the new Christmas presents put away. The kids sometimes need help deciding where to keep new things and making sure all of their toys and things have a proper "home." We made sure all of the wrapping paper and boxes were thrown away. (Well, Scott and the kids actually burned them instead of putting them in the trash.) Then we made sure everything in the house was generally straightened, cleaned, and put away. Just doing that made a huge difference!
The next few days we chose one room and one closet to completely clean out and organize each day. It was quite a huge job, but we made it through every room and closet in the house! Some rooms (like my younger daughter's bedroom) took lots of time while others (like my older daughter's bedroom) didn't take long at all.
In each room, we got everything (yes, everything) out of the closet, dresser, chest of drawers, cabinets, etc. Then we went through all of it and sorted it into categories: (1) keep, (2) give away/donate, (3) throw away, or (4) rummage sale. It was unbelievable how much stuff we had crammed in closets, drawers, and under beds! And it turned out to be a good lesson for the kiddos (and me!) when we saw how much stuff we actually have and how blessed we are. That made it much easier to choose some nice toys and clothes and books to give away as we went through our "cleaning out" process.
The kids and I will probably start school again either later in the week (after New Year's Day once my hubby goes back to work) or possibly next week. When we try to do school and the house is a mess and things are chaotic and disorganized, I have trouble concentrating and keeping the kids on task because I'm distracted by all the things I need to be doing in the house! It was such a wonderful blessing for my sweet hubby to help me get everything done so we can start out 2013 with a clean and organized house!
How about you? Do you find it hard to do school if your house is a mess? How do keep the house clean and get school done at the same time? Any tips you can share? I'd love to hear from you!
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I second everything you said here! I struggle so much with trying to keep things in order while schooling. Its like I can do one or the other, but not both.
ReplyDeleteI might write up a post on things that have helped me, but I still feel like things are always crazy here. It helps so much to have an understanding husband who knows we live here 24 hours a day and that they house is never empty.