Ah, the beginning of a new school year! New books, a new schedule, fresh enthusiasm, new resolve, and clean closets! Clean closets? Is that a requirement? Well, not exactly a requirement, but the best advice I received when, years ago, we began to homeschool was the advice that a friend laughingly gave in reply to my question, "Where do we start?" She humorously said, "I don't know for sure, but I think we should clean our closets!"

Unknowingly she had struck right to the core. Chaos breeds chaos, and it is hard to feel successful in your home education endeavor when your home is a wreck. Now is the time to deal with issues in your home before the ink on the first lesson plan is dry and the first child complains about the math lesson.

Establish a Simple Routine

Establish a simple routine for the basics. Somehow, we always believe that we will get the necessary things like laundry, dishes, and mopped floors done if we just fit them in. If you have home taught for longer than one year, you have already discovered that isn't true. Do the basics first and on a regular routine. Definition of regular: as often as possible on the same day at the same time of day.

I'm not speaking of running a boot camp in your family, just a routine that keeps things running reasonably well. I hear some of you "creative types" saying, "I don't do well on a routine. I like to go with the flow." That's fine for everything but the basics. Flexibility is a virtue, but if you don't do the basics, the flow becomes overflow! You can improvise and change the school lessons, but you only have time for all those creative things you love to do if you aren't drowning in laundry or feeding the dog by letting him clean your floor for you.

Evaluate Areas of Struggle

If you struggle in this area and this isn't the first year you have home taught, sit down with paper and pen to reevaluate your past year. What was your biggest struggle? What thing was a continual frustration? If this fall will be your first year to home teach, just think of the areas in your home that are a challenge to you now. They will only get worse when adding home teaching. Begin there.

If your struggle is the laundry, decide now on a system for the coming year to get the laundry done. What time (not minute or hour, but time of day) and what day or days will you do it? Are the children old enough to help sort, fold, or even wash their own clothes? Will you do one load every day or incorporate one washday per week? Will you begin in the morning by putting a load on between breakfast, the morning chores, and school lessons so you do all loads by lunch? Will you (and the children) fold clothes after lunch or get it done before you prepare lunch? Will you direct an older child that you have trained well to help a younger child do their laundry together so the younger child is learning how to do it? The combinations are endless, and you know what will work best in your family, but the important thing is setting a specific routine and sticking to it. You can always change the method if it doesn't seem to be working well. The goal is for the clothes to end up in the drawers and closets rather than being stuck in the washing machine, the dryer, or in the laundry basket for days.

Is your frustration the school supplies that are scattered all over the house-never available when you needed them? Buy containers and choose a storage place for all school supplies. Designate a plastic dishpan or other container for each child (different colors or their names on each one), and ask them to keep all of their own supplies in their container. Yes, you'll have to ask them more than once, but you are training, remember? Be conscious of your own poor habit of not putting things away when you are finished with them, and ask the Lord to help you be a good example to your children.

Vow to deal with clutter in your home finally. Toss out irrelevant paper and clean out all the closets you can manage before school starts. Have a late summer or early fall yard sale and make a clean sweep. If you don't do all the clean out that you would like to do (after all, you do have to start school eventually!), set aside a day a couple of months from the beginning of school to tackle another project.

Take Baby Steps to Persevere

Write down each of your struggles and frustrations and keep the list. You won't be able to solve all of them at once, but you can use the list for a reminder that you will get to each of those items in turn. Choose only one or two to work on for the year and don't worry about the others. If your current challenges are under control quickly, you can go back to your list to choose another one to attack.

Communicate to your family the particular tasks you are working on at the time and solicit their help. If no one taught you to manage a home when you were growing up, remember that your children will have the same struggles unless you teach them. Learn together and they will thank you for it one day. I promise!

Find Your Family's Tolerance Tension Level

Each person has his own level of what I call tolerance tension. Some have a very low tolerance for a mess and it makes them nervous, and others have a high tolerance and don't even seem to see the mess. Find your family's mutual tolerance tension level and work to keep your home at that level. If husband and wife disagree on the standard, come to a happy compromise, even writing things down that will get done and things that will be left undone until someone has the time to do them. Remember that Mom, Dad, and children have to live in the home, and this is training in interpersonal relationships, respect for others, and serving others even when we don't like to do a particular thing.

Now you can add an additional "R" to the basic "readin', writin', and 'rithmatic." That "R" is "routine." It will add a foundation to your life just like the basic Rs form a foundation for all other learning. You will love the additional time that you gain to enjoy your family and learn together.

Originally Published in the THSC REVIEW © Texas Home School Coalition, August 2003. This article may not be copied or reprinted without written permission from the author and THSC (www.thse.org).

For more ideas on ways to organize your life visit our guide on Organization and Balance.