Giving your home a refresh when you Home Educate

Ad

I’ll admit early on, I don’t enjoy decorating. I like my house to be functional and to look lived in. I really don’t understand the chopping and changing of furniture and colour schemes that seem to be ever prevalent to fit in with the latest trends and fashions.

The homes of my home educating friends are always reassuringly cosy and comfortable and, very clearly, a space where children are busy learning and playing. When your children are home educated, as a parent, you don’t get that same time to keep on top of household jobs like sorting and the such, and decorating the house becomes a much bigger project that needs timing between projects and other things.

I thought I’d share my top tips for refreshing your home when you’re a home educator.

Ordering and Sorting Resources

It’s really easy to gather more and more resources or save things ‘just in case’ they come in useful for a project. I have got much better at not keeping too much stuff. I found that having one box for the children to store papers and ribbon, pipe cleaners and egg boxes meant that once it was full it needed a sort out. It means that all the crafty resources are together and contained within a large drawer and we have a prompt to clear through it when it starts to get too full.

Keeping on top of books and even just switching around the bookcases and shelves can give a room a bit of a refresh and a fresh look.

Choose quality items

I can’t stress enough how important it is to choose good and high-quality items, especially in high traffic areas. We invested in hard-wearing flooring that is easy to clean in our high traffic areas such as the hallway and backroom. For other areas we are looking at carpet remnants from Designer Carpet, giving a splash of colour and comfort to the quieter and more restful areas of the house. This helps the children to know which rooms are fine for glue and painting and creating and which spaces are for quieter pursuits such as reading or board games.

Keep your colour scheme neutral

Keep your colour schemes neutral and then accessorise with things like lamps, candles, cushions and the such. These can be a relatively cheap way to refresh a living space if things are starting to look a little tired. I like Dunelm for things like this and our living space always feels much newer when I switch up the throws and cushions.

Remember function over fashion

It’s really easy to look at the perfect colour co-ordinated homes on Instagram full of clean line and minimal clutter, but that is a million miles from reality for most home educators. Instead, embrace the messiness and opt for functional furniture over fashionable furniture. I’d love for our dining room to have different furniture that was more ascetically pleasing, but the reality is that Ikea Kallax and Trofast is popular for a reason! It’s cheap and functional and works perfectly for giving the children access to the things they need.

Remember, it’s not forever!

Finally on those days when you spot the marks on the wall and really want to empty a room and start again from scratch, remember that that time will come soon enough and that home education and the lifestyle it brings will pass in time and then there’ll be plenty of time for the perfect home.