10 Second Clean Up!

I received this tip a long time ago and it really works great! When you are in the middle of a school day (or any day with children ) and an unexpected person pulls up in your driveway, what do you do? Well, books and learning things are expected but things like snacks, drink cups and such are a bit of an embarrassment.


We yell, 10 second clean up and everyone begins to scramble. It's great! Everyone grabs something that was carelessly left out and puts it away. When the visitor enters, it's not as embarrassing! (It's good to take the family through a few 10 second clean ups to get the hang of it.)


Sometimes when our lives get busy on the weekends, our place gets to lookin like a pig sty. We will let the boys know that it's time for a 10 minute clean up and miracles begin to happen! If the 4 of us clean up messes for 10 minutes, mom can rest easy seeing that the place may look lived in but doesn't look like a tornado went through!

Do you have any cleaning tips that are helpful for homeschoolers?