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I love having a clean house. But I think it’s super unrealistic to expect your house to always be magazine ready! Especially when you have kids at home it can be difficult to always keep your house tidy.
My rule of thumb is if I can pick up my main living areas in 15 minutes, my house is clean. Cause guess what? We actually live here, and I have three small humans who like to make messes.
Here are some tips I have found useful in my efforts to keeping my house tidy!
Have Family Members Help
There is no better way to burn out than to try to do everything for everyone! Get your kids/spouse to help you clean!
After our third baby I finally asked my husband if he would be in charge of the family room every night. I don’t know why it took so long to ask for his help! But once I did, it was so nice to not have one more thing for me to do.
My kids are no exception, they pick up their rooms every morning. And every evening they help clean up the play areas in our home.
Yes, they whine and complain sometimes. And it feels like I’m doing a lot of the work any ways. But every little bit of help takes a load off of you!
We try to teach our kids that everyone who lives in our house gets to help take care of our home! The more consistent we have gotten with having them help, the more I have noticed them clean up as they go. And the best part? I don’t even have to tell them! They’ve figured it out on their own!
And after asking my husband, he is a champ every night. He picks up the family room. Every. Single. Night!! On top of that he has started to recognize other things that need to be done (like sweeping the floor, wiping off the table) and he just does it!
So stop doing it all on your own, assign your family members different areas, or jobs!
Clear Sink at least once daily
When I had my first baby, dishes were my nemesis. We didn’t have a dishwasher, and it felt like there was always a massive pile of dishes to do.
Once I got into a good routine of doing dishes, I realized that if I do it little by little it’s not as bad.
One of the goals I have every day is to make sure my sink gets cleared. And by sink, I mean all the dishes in the kitchen get done.
I gather all the dishes to the sink, and make sure it gets cleared. Including all the wash and dry dishes that may be around.
On days I really have it together, my dishwasher gets unloaded in the morning, and I just load dishes all day. It beats having a pile at the end of dinner when you’re exhausted! A magnet like this one is super helpful when lots of people are helping do dishes!
But if you make sure the all the dishes get done, and the sink gets cleared at least once a day, the piles and piles of overwhelming dishes won’t stack as high!
Have a "home" for everything
Everything in your home should have a “home.” A place where everyone knows where it belongs, and it gets put away there.
This makes cleaning lots more manageable! Instead of just shoving stuff away, you know where it goes!
This is especially helpful for kids! If they know where something is supposed to go, maybe they’ll put it away better! I mean, they’re kids though, so it won’t happen every time.
Another benefit of everything having a home is that you can find things easily! Rather than rummaging through all your belongings (and making more of a mess) you can just look in the place it belongs!
If you find that you don’t have enough room for everything to have a home, then it’s time to get rid of some! Let’s jump into that topic!
Get Rid of Clutter
We moved six times in the first seven years of our marriage. And the more you move, the more you realize how much crap you have!
But the great part of moving is you go through everything, and get rid of what you don’t want to move!
Having been in this home for almost 3 years, I have had to be more conscious of going through our stuff. I try to go through the kids rooms and closets at least once a year.
I go through other areas that are messier more frequently. My pantry for one I go through about every other month!
When I realize that an area is cluttered, I make a point to go through it! It’s lots easier to do a drawer here and closet there, than feel like you have your whole house all at once!
I like a good deal! And I have a really hard time passing up a good deal! But buying something cause it’s a good deal is a great way to get a cluttered home!
So once you have gone through your home and gotten rid of clutter, be careful with what you buy! If you don’t need it, or it won’t have a home in your house, don’t buy it!
The older my kids get, the more I realize how little they really use or play with. When a toy is no longer something they enjoy, we donate it. This way we can have a less cluttered play room, and can enjoy actually playing!
Clear Surfaces Regularly
My lazy cleaning usually consists of setting something down on a countertop or tabletop. And my kids certainly think that makes something clean. If the floor looks tidy then obviously the room is clean right?
But the surfaces in our home end up collecting so much random stuff.
When I clear my sink for the day, I usually try to also clear off the countertops. And wipe them down! When they’re cleared off, it’s so much easier to quickly wipe them down after they’re used.
We have a couple of tables in our family room that also gather lots of stuff. Each evening when we clean I try to clear them off of unnecessary items. It doesn’t always happen, but if I stay on top of it, it is definitely less overwhelming.
The worst area in my home is in my kitchen where all the papers end up! Mail, school papers, pictures the kids draw it all ends up on a counter in the kitchen. I have tried to put things away as soon as they come into my hands.
When the mail gets brought in, it gets filed right away. School papers get put into kids folders or hung up. Taking care of the items as soon as they touch your hands will make these areas less cluttered.
Having cleared off surfaces makes your house look so much tidier!
Establish a Regular time To clean
We have two designated times each day when we tidy up our home. Once in the morning after breakfast. And once in the evening after dinner.
We clean difference areas in the morning than we do at night. My kids morning chores include making their beds and picking up their rooms. Which if they did the morning before, keeps them pretty tidy!
In the evening we clean up our main living areas. This includes playroom, family room and kitchen. Everyone is expected to help, and even my sweet 1 year old is learning how to put her toys away and keep our house tidy.
It’s so nice to wake up in the morning and come down to a clean kitchen and family room. I know that the day will be crazy, and toys will be all over. But it’s so nice to see it nice and clean every morning!
In addition to our morning and evening tidying up, I typically try to do one large chore every day and a load of laundry. This makes things run smoothly and never get too far behind!
Figure out what is the best time for you and your family. And then make it happen!
Make It Fun
I was so sick of constantly badgering my kids to help clean up. So with the help of my lovely friend Alexa (more formally know as an Echo Dot) I revolutionized cleaning in our home! We have an echo dot in the kids bedrooms and our kitchen.
Rather than having to round the kids up to tidy up every evening, I have a routine set on my Alexa.
Around 7:00 every evening, Alexa magically starts playing songs! I hesitated to join Amazon Music Unlimited but it is worth every penny every month. Simply because of this routine.
I have various songs for each night of the week. They usually play for 10-12 minutes, which gives the kids plenty of time to clean up!
As an added bonus, if we finish early the remainder of the songs we get to have a family dance party. I’ve listed some of our favorite clean up songs, pin it and save it for referencing!
In addition to having out amazing Alexa routine every night, when we clean in the day I try to make it fun. We play cleaning games, turn on music, or have a reward when the job it done!
Tidy Up!
Take these tips and begin your own routine to keeping your house tidy!
You will love how it makes you feel to have a house that is manageable and tidy. By working everyday doing little things you will be able to maintain a tidy house!
What things do you do to help keep your house tidy? Let me know below, I need all the help I can get!
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