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I'm a wife to my "Mr. Right". A momma of five. A maker of slow food and simple living. A collector of memories, a keeper of books, and a champion for books that make memories. An addict who likes my half-and-half with a splash of coffee. A fractured pot transformed by the One Who makes broken things beautiful. I heart homeschooling, brake for libraries, and am glad you're here with me on the journey! Be sure to subscribe to my monthly newsletter. Or, follow along with Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google +, Youtube, or Pinterest.

5 More Homeschool Mom Hacks to Start Today

5 More Homeschool Mom Hacks to Start Today #homeschool #organization #cleaning

Written by Krista Smith.

I’m a plain-Jane sort of a person. I gravitate toward the ordinary. You won’t find any stilettos in my closet and if given the chance to eat something extravagant, I will opt for a cheeseburger. Every time. The same goes for how I manage my home. When faced with the mountain of daily tasks that come with homekeeping while homeschooling, I prefer simple solutions. I've already shared seven of my favorite everyday life-hacks. Here are five more.



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5 More Homeschool Mom Hacks to Start Today #homeschool #organization #cleaning

Laundry Detergent Scuzz


If you’re using liquid laundry detergent like me, you’ll know what I mean when I say, I love liquid detergent, but I don’t like the scuzzy sticky, remnants of half-dried detergent oozing all over the laundry measuring cup OR dribbling down the sides of the bottle.

One fateful day, I accidentally dropped the cup full of soap down in the washer and thought, Forget it. I’m not digging that slimy thing out of there. I’ll dig it out after the load is done. And when the load was finished and I was transitioning it to the dryer…behold! There was my cup at the bottom of the washer…scuzz-free…and dry!

Hallelujah! I’ve never looked back. That cup now gets tossed in with every load of laundry, ensuring that I don’t have to have smears of detergent all over me or anything else in my laundry room.

5 More Homeschool Mom Hacks to Start Today #homeschool #organization #cleaning

Column Folding


In the past, whenever I’d get done folding laundry, I’d put the giant pile of folded stuff on my kids' beds. But what ended up happening was, my sweeties would struggle to sort them and get them into their proper drawers without accidentally unfolding a bunch of them in the process or getting wrong things into wrong drawers. (We wear a lot of t-shirts as pajamas around here--but they are not t-shirts that I necessarily want them to wear ‘round town.)

I knew there had to be a better way. So, I began sorting a little differently while I was folding. Since there are five of us in my family, I started making 5 columns of laundry as I folded (plus a miscellaneous column for towels, bibs, etc.)

PJ packets get placed on the top of each person's column. Next down the line comes shirts, then pants, then undies and socks. When each person’s column is completely folded, I take them in their sorted form to that person’s bedroom and lay them out in a column on their bed. This has allowed them to see clearly what is a pajama piece and what is not. Since all 8 of the shirts are going into the shirt drawer at once, everything ends up in the drawer in an orderly fashion now, and mama never has to refold.

Safe and Effective Cleaner


Several years ago we had the stomach flu fly through our house, not once, but twice. Back-to-back. Even though I felt like I’d done everything possible to disinfect our home, we just couldn't shake it. This got me wondering how effective my store bought cleaner really was. Plus, it was right around that same time that I began to get serious about keeping nasty chemicals out of our home. My favorite lemon-scented cleaner was one of my last hold-outs.

That being said, I just wasn’t sold on the old “vinegar and water” craze that seemed to be recommended by everyone for every purpose. So I did some research. And what I found out was that in actual trials, homemade cleaners were just about as effective on some germs as water (YUCK!). But to my surprise, even bleach couldn’t kill norovirus (stomach flu). And this is when I finally discovered what has become my new cleaner for just about every surface and purpose in my house. The best part...it's dirt cheap and safe for even children to use.

"What is this magical cleaner?" you ask. Hydrogen peroxide!

I now buy large bottles of peroxide for about a dollar a bottle and pour it (along with a generous squirt of Dawn dish soap) into a peroxide squirt bottle--a bottle made of brown, opaque plastic. (You can find them in the first aid department of most stores.) My new GO TO peroxide solution cleans my entire kitchen and bathroom and is the only thing I’ve found that effectively cleans stainless steel without leaving streaks (when used with a cotton washcloth). A note of caution, however, if you get too much of it on your hands it can tingle. So make sure you and your children use gloves or thoroughly wash your hands after using it.

5 More Homeschool Mom Hacks to Start Today #homeschool #organization #cleaning

Rainbow Closet


Years ago, I got tired of not being able to find XYZ shirt hanging in my closet. Annoying. I’d always organized my closet by sleeve length/season: summer short sleeves up front, winter longs sleeves in the back. But then I got a clever idea! What if I put my clothes in rainbow order? I’d never have to guess where my favorite blue shirt was again! And I could easily find the cream-colored sweater I needed to pair with it. Now every clothes closet in my home is set up this way, making my kids superstars at ROY-G-BIV! Brilliant!

Window Grid


Do you know what job I especially don’t like around here? Washing my windows only to find that they are streaky the next time the sun shines through them! Know what I like even less? Not being able to tell whether I need to scrub the insides or the outsides again to get rid of the streaks. But, I've found that if I wipe the insides of my windows from left to right, and the outsides from top to bottom, when the streaks show up, I instantly know which side of the pane to clean again.



See? No glitz or glam here. But, hey, three cheers for some sanity-makers that don’t break the bank or require a Ph.D. to navigate--just five, plain old tips which I hope will help you and yours as much as they've helped me and mine.

___________________________________________


Krista Smith is blessed to be the mother of three beautiful children and is privileged to homeschool them using an eclectic variety of methods. She has a deep and abiding love for tan-colored coffee, spending time with her family, and seeing children find their forever homes through adoption. But above all of these things, Krista is, first and foremost, a lover and follower of Jesus Christ. So, may the Lord and His Gospel get every ounce of honor, glory, and credit for anything she writes, says, or does.




9 comments:

  1. I love the cleaning solution!

    But with 14 people in my house, I'll not be making columns of laundry. :) I'll stick with my somewhat untidy system of having a single stack per person!

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    1. 14 people? I don't blame you. Stick with whatever system works for you...tidy or untidy!

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  2. I don't sort laundry at all. Everybody has a different day of the week and I do THAT child's laundry that day. So it gets washed, dried, back into their room, and they fold and put away. Even for my youngest who doesn't yet fold, at least I'm not sorting! The only laundry that mixes is mine and my husband's. And towels. Even beds are washed separately. It helps with boys underwear (I swear they all look the same) and socks. :)

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    1. Assigning each of your kids to a different day of the week is a great idea! I'm sure it teaches them lots of responsibility!

      In my home, all the laundry gets mixed together, but every person in the house has a laundry job--mine is folding. I do a similar column system to what Krista does.

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  3. Although I like the idea, it doesn't work in my house. I've given up on folding my kids clothes and now they are in charge of it. A lot less frustration on my part and it gives them the responsibility to take care of their own things. They each have a basket they bring out for laundry day and as I empty the dryer, I fold my husband and my stuff and then sort theirs into their baskets for them to fold and put away themselves.

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    1. I don't fold socks anymore. They all go in a sock bucket and everyone's in charge of finding and matching their own socks.

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    2. Yes, I hear ya! I am currently teaching my kiddos folding right now. As my kiddos are still fairly young (all under the age of nine) folding, even when they're giving it their most concerted effort tends to be a little to "lumpy" to fit in their drawers. (Because of bedroom sharing and space issues, our kiddos all have to share a small dresser, which means all of the clothing we own for them has to fit into two drawers!!!) So it has to be tidy before it goes in or it just won't fit. Thus....I am still folding laundry...but I do look forward to that glorious day when their motor skills catch up with their willingness to do it and this mama can finally pass the laundry baton to the sweeties.

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  4. Yes to all of these!! My mom instituted the rainbow closet with me when I was young...the only way to go in my opinion! Also do this with the laundry but now that our kids are getting older I'm starting to make piles of clothes on the bed for each kid and they get to fold it themselves and put them away. On top of their normal responsibilities we have been asking each of them to find three ways each day to serve others (whether it's around our house or in the community)...they've been so excited to share with us each night at bedtime what they did!

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    1. I. LOVE. THAT! Great job helping your children to see the immense joy of giving of themselves! It is such a gift to see our children grow in selflessness, yeah? It makes all the less-than-stellar days take a back seat when you realize God's doing something way bigger in your house than mastering the multiplication tables! Though that is (quasi) Important too ;)

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