Small steps each day can lead to big changes in your life and in your home. Our society has an “instant gratification” attitude. This spills over into our homes and homeschools. We start to want everything done now. This leads to burn out.
Using routines and breaking things down into manageable steps leads to success. Not procrastinating because we don’t want to spend hours cleaning and decluttering will be a new way of thinking. Procrastination is a by-product of perfectionism and being burned out.
Teaching your children at home is a big job. By dividing up decluttering and Home Blessings throughout the week, you can preserve your weekends for fun and family time.
Your children can help you with your home, too. They will eventually grow up and move out, and you want them to know how to take care of themselves. You can train them now in small steps to clean the house, cook, do laundry, menu plan, grocery shop, and more. I have a monthly maintenance schedule that we follow to change the air filters for our heating and cooling system.
The boys know how to check the oil and tire pressure on our vehicles weekly. They also help me clean it out each week. The goal is to get everything out of the van each time we get home, but somehow, there are always church bulletins and papers floating around in the van.
As you can see, I have developed daily, weekly, and monthly routines with my children. As I talk to my young adult children, I see where they have kept many of the routines they learned at home to their homes. That is the goal!
Small, achievable steps will lead to success.
Wednesday – Declutter in the Laundry Room
Thursday – Declutter the Home Office/Your Desk
Menu Plan for Monday – Turkey (baked over the weekend)
Weekly Home Blessing – Wash the Sheets
- Make Your Bed (Do this as soon as you get up.)
- Get Dressed Down to Your Shoes
- Swish and Swipe
- Start Your Laundry
- Decide on Dinner
- Check Your Calendar
- Start the Day off with a Shiny Sink. Don’t leave the breakfast dishes sitting.
- Daily Movement for 15 Minutes
School: Read aloud as a family.
Afternoon Routine:
- Eat Lunch
- Clear off One Hot Spot
- Reboot the Laundry
- Declutter for 15 Minutes (Be sure to have your children declutter, too.)
- Drink Your Water
- Check the Calendar for Tomorrow
- Lay out Your Clothes for Tomorrow (Have your children lay their clothes out, too.)
- Put things at the Launch Pad that you will need first thing in the morning
- Shine Your Sink
- Clean Off a Hot Spot
- Go to Bed at Decent Hour
