Getting Organized:

In your home and homeschool

One question I received last week was about kids and the amount of dishes that they dirty in a day. Does this happen in your house, too?

Since we homeschool and have three meals a day plus snacks at home, there is a potential for a lot of dishes to be dirtied in a day. A few strategies that I have used includes the children hand-washing the dishes they dirty them throughout the day. I have also used color coded cups. When I had really young children, I used a laminated mat with each child’s name on it and a circle. They had to keep their cup on that mat. This kept them from leaving cups all over the house and losing them. As they got older, I have taught them to clean the kitchen as they cook. These few strategies have lessened the amount of dishes that are dirtied in a day.

Your dishwasher is not a just a holding place for dishes. Use it as often as you need. I have to run my dishwasher twice a day. The boys take turns emptying it as soon as it finishes a cycle. That way it is ready for them to put their dirty dishes in as they need it.

One idea someone passed on to me was to limit the number of glasses and plates that are available to them. The children are then put into a position to have to wash the dishes as soon as they dirty them. This would help those children to get a clean glass or plate out every time they need something.

We also use reusable water bottles. That can make for several of them to be on the counter drying overnight, but it helps a lot with the amount of glasses used during the day.

Have a wonderful day!

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