How do we keep our house clean…well… hmmm.. I’ll be back in just a bit (looking around)

In theory, we keep our house clean by:

1) being responsible for ourselves, picking up after ourselves. If you get something out, put it away.

2) spending a few minutes throughout the day tidying (10 minutes to clean at any point)  – this is especially necessary with 14 children at home, 12 of whom are homeschooled and 2 who are…  messy makers.   Figure 12 students with a minimum of 6 subjects – 72 books plus pens, plus notebooks… especially since we are book lovers, and so some subjects have a lot of books! Everybody helps with this. It is part of living in a family 🙂

3) chores – our chore system is a paid system.  It is 3 tiered.  If you are a little – you don’t do a chore.  You also don’t get paid AND you miss out on some things we do for just bigs.  They’ll get it someday – when they are old enough or responsible enough to do a chore.  Even in the chore system, there are 2 more levels, entry and professional.   Entry level gets paid, but doesn’t get benefits. (think hourly employee!)  They make $5.00 every other week and they do a fairly small chore.  Professional levels make perks!  They make significantly more money.  The people who help with dishes at my house make significanly more money than the person who empties the garbage.  The person who is currently on dishes does all the dishes for a family  of 16 every day with no dishwasher!   He makes 25$ every other week.  Other perks we have – late night snack :), movies,  etc.

4)  it is my responsibility to ensure cleanliness in my home.  I cannot “expect what I don’t inspect”.  Below is an example of a chore gone BAD!!! ((“THANKFULLY THIS IS NOT THE NORM!!))

Sometimes I am gone, sometimes I am busy or gone, sometimes I am tired. It isn’t an excuse. There are times where our house just doesn’t get clean.  I try but recognize I am human, and that the bodies in my house will still be here tomorrow. I also try and recognize that disorder in the house makes  others cranky (especially daddy who dislikes things under his feet!)  Those are his feet in this picture and this is the only picture with him, his feet and floor).

5) keep my priorities right 🙂   be a Mary first off!!! Value family and relationship above all else.  Here is our most recent family picture! (Vacation post forthcoming!!)

Hope to see you more this week, as we recover from vacation, laundry, lack of sleep and photo overload…

Momma