Balancing Homeschooling with the rest of life

I have been asked: How do you handle homeschooling, work, volunteering and house cleaning?

My answer?
Not very well.

While I have gotten my homeschooling, work and volunteering balance down packed; cleaning is an eternal struggle. I don’t blame homeschooling for it though, I have always struggled with it.

I tend to gravitate towards the tasks that I like and find any possible excuse to procrastinate on the rest. So I keep up with cooking, dishes and laundry. But everything else is done on a “spot” or desperately needed basis. I may scrub the toilet but not get to the sink until another day. I may mop the kitchen floor but only sweep the rest of the house.

Right now my house feels very cluttered but every attempt at reining it in just ends up with a bigger mess because I just don’t have a big enough chunk of time available to dedicate to that task until completed.

I have fantasies of a no expenses barred shopping trip to the container store or Ikea to have an easy storage system where everything has its place and I know where everything is. That scenario will remain in my dreams for the foreseeable future.

In the meantime I take pride in the fact that while my house may not be visitor ready, my kids are happy, learning and making memories.