Although this is a topic relevant to many households, home organisation and homeschooling have special challenges.
Melissa (house management extraordinaire) shared with us many ideas to help us get things more ordered in our home.
I would like to share with you 10 tips that helped me.
1. Work is good for us. It is a God given privilege (Gen 2) and we should not be lazy (Prov 21:5). Christian’s should do our work heartily as unto the Lord. (Col 3:23).
2. Home is a training ground for our children. We are to teach our children not to be afraid of hard work. Training is part of our parental responsibility.
3. Make time to plan your home management. Have a planner. Make your own planner or use your electronic calendar. I personally prefer a paper version. Look at your calendar and see what you can realistically achieve. Plan a way to keep the mess under control. Set aside a weekly time to menu plan, decide when to shop, and decide when the chores will get done.
4. Routine and habits are the backbone of setting up a good system for home management. Do you have one? I personally got my jobs done on a more of an ad hoc basis when I thought they needed it. I decide the bathroom looks dirty or the floor needs a sweep but I didn’t have a routine for cleaning it. I would just decide that can’t wait any longer. Melissa challenged us to set up a good morning and afternoon routine. I decided to make sure I swept the floor and made my bed every morning before breakfast. (Day 10 and its still happening.)Ask yourself what do you need done every morning and every day.
5. Menu planning requires its own little category. I’m a big menu planner but I’ve slackened recently. After our planning night I sat down and planned the dinners for a month. It’s so freeing. I keep my previous plans to give me ideas. It also helps with eating healthily. Here’s my menu planner ideas and a free menu planner.
6. Take control of your diary. Don’t plan to go out just to get away from the mess. Know your capacity and stick to it. Plan the big things first, then work out how to get the other things accomplished.
7. Share the household work. Get your kids involved. Give them structure and a routine. This is part of the training that they need and it is also a way to get it all done. Little kids can do so much more than we often let them. Here is a list of Age Appropriate Chores for kids to do.
8. Get birthdays onto the list and shop online for cards and gifts.
9. Reward yourself with a job well done. Make time to enjoy time with friends, play with your kids and sit down to read a good book.
10. Live a quiet and peaceful life. I Thess 4:11.
Melissa and her husband are partners in a financial planning business that is run from their home in the Upper Hunter NSW. She has been homeschooling three girls for seven years and has found ways to incorporate the demands of homeschooling and business successfully.
