How do you keep your home nice with kids?

[Anonymous]

We live very minimal. I clean out toys often. I encourage my kids to pick up behind themselves by keeping baskets around that they can use to pick up. There are only two rooms on my house that have toys at all and if i find them in other rooms the kids are made to clean. I have the kids do chores but they are young so after bes i usually clean for less than an hour ( power hour).

[Anonymous]

I was just going to ask this question!

I'm constantly cleaning. My kids feel the need to dump toys, cut things up etc. to have a good time playing.

I feel horrible because the mess stresses me out so much and I'm constantly telling them to clean up. I say it at least 8 times a day, I swear.

[Anonymous]

For me, a really clean and organized home is really important, even with kids and pets.

I do have a cleaning service come in every few weeks, but otherwise, I do it myself. I am a clean/organize as you go person and everything in my house has one place where it goes and that is where it lives. It's a mentality to a certain degree and ingrained in me, so I don't find it hard.

[Anonymous]

I try to keep almost all kid stuff in the playroom so it doesn't invade each space.

I tidy up as I go so it doesn't get insurmountable, and I also spend 20 min or so doing light cleaning of the kitchen after the kids go to bed. I don't let myself sit on the couch before I do this or it's all over.

I have a house cleaner every other week who is phenomenal for deep cleaning.

Lastly, now that my oldest is 5, I make her tidy (somewhat) her stuff before she goes to bed.

[Anonymous]

Cleaning service every few weeks. Certain chores each day after the kids go to bed - sweep/vaccuum, pick up toys (my kids are little), wash dishes and wipe down kitchen. We also limit the toys allowed in the main areas of the house (most toys permanently live in the basement playroom).

Even with that, the house still sometimes looks like a hurricane hit. I think it's just a normal part of having young children (I have a toddler and a preschooler).

[Anonymous]

Minimalism. Closets are not overstuffed. Toys are few. Kids spend most of their play time outside or at activities. Vacuum twice a week before bed and do small loads of laundry couple times a week. I did that Marie Kuando ? thing a couple years ago and never looked back. Life is do much more sane now. Never look for lost stuff because there isn’t anything lost.

[Anonymous]

I literally labeled the baskets in the playrroom with masking tape and a sharpie pen: "Small cars ONLY" or "legos ONLY" so that me, DH, guests, the once every other week cleaning crew, etc. won't mix up stuff. That's my pet peeve.... tons of kids toys ruined because the pieces are all over the place. Etc.

I also have a small art area in the corner of my living room. Kids can be creative there, or in the playroom, but not in the rest of the living room. The art area also helps keep the kids off the eating area for arts.

[Anonymous]

OP--are you me?

We have cleaners come once a week, which helps. (AFter they leave, anything in piles can be thrown away lol!) My DH empties the dishwasher in the AM when I nurse the baby. But other than that, I've just learned to live with a mess in my house. And then when I suddenly see it all around me, I PURGE. It's not great. I'm hoping it gets better when the kids get older.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have an “adult space” aka foyer, dining and living which are basically clean except for a smal toy box.

The upstairs is a total mess with our family and play room.

+1
The playroom & study are usually cluttered, relaxed spaces. The family room and kitchen also more casual.
But the front rooms, living and dining rooms, we keep clean. More mangeable, and balanced home for us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH and I are both Type A.
We have a nanny who directs the kids in cleaning up their messes.
We have twice a week cleaning ladies.
The kids are not allowed to pick up anything outside except money (hey look at this cool dead slug I'll just put in my pocket! NOPE).
Shoes are taken off immediately upon entering the house.
After that you wash your hands right away (you can put down stuff first).
When transitioning from one activity to the next, you first clean up what you were doing.
Before dinner we clean up. After dinner we clean up from dinner and set up for the next morning (pack lunches too).
Before bath/bed everyone cleans up.
Before leaving the house we clean up.
No playing inside in the morning before school. If the kids have extra time after getting ALL ready, they can read inside or play in the front yard.

We do not lower our standards. That's just not okay with us. We have more stuff since having kids, and you can tell we have them when you're in the common areas of our house, but there are no crumbs or stains on the couches or carpeting, no messy stacks of paper on kitchen counters, etc.

So OP, if you want your house to look nice all the time, this is what it takes. Is that what you want?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I no longer care about whether their rooms are clean on a daily basis. Most of the time, I just close their doors.

Purge relentlessly. If I’m folding laundry, and I fold something that looks too small, I put it in a bag to donate right then. Same with toys I’m cleaning up. I throw most mail away right away and don’t keep much that comes home from school.

I run the dishwasher almost every night and unload it as I make breakfast in the morning. This way dishes won’t pile up.

I make our bed every morning as soon as I get out of bed. Makes a big difference.

I do smaller loads of laundry now. Makes it easier to fold them and put them away immediately.

I clean kitchen counters and straighten our living room before we go to bed every night and again before I leave for work in the morning.

It’s an uphill battle and I don’t always accomplish it all, but when I do it makes a big difference in our stress level. I’m the person who cares most about the house being tidy so I’m the one it falls to.

This is helpful. I'm not OP but I might as well be. After spending all the $$ on daycare, we don't have extra to use on cleaning ladies. But I can use some of these suggestions here.

[Anonymous]

I can't believe no one has said this yet, but for me it comes down to picking your battles and being relentlessly organized.

Our house is not big enough for a separate playroom, so I accept that most days there are going to be Legos all over my family room floor. That's ok. (It would have made pre 2-kids me roll over and die, but it's ok now.) Our main areas are laid out in an L, so the kitchen is open to the dining with the family off of that. I am completely uptight about keeping the kitchen / dining area pristine because that's where I am the most, but it doesn't take too much as they play mostly elsewhere. Kids have to pick up bedrooms every night, and I do laundry on a rigid schedule. Cleaners every other week for the big things, and I vacuum almost every day. Having these set things that I know I will do makes me more flexible about the others, and I can fit them into my life in a reasonable way.

My things are probably not your things, but my point is to pick the top priorities, roll with those, and then just lower standards on the rest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hired a professional organizer to help me. We went through all my stuff, tossed a lot and organized the rest in labeled and thoughtfully located bins. It was a splurge, but once I had a system in place for each of my problem areas (mudroom, laundry, pantry and playroom were the biggies), I was able to keep with it - it's been three years. It was an investment well worth it.

Can you recommend the person or company who you worked with?

[Anonymous]

It is a struggle. We have a large house and I do the cleaning myself. I usually do a deep clean to one room per day along with the daily chores. And I'm constantly tossing stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hired a professional organizer to help me. We went through all my stuff, tossed a lot and organized the rest in labeled and thoughtfully located bins. It was a splurge, but once I had a system in place for each of my problem areas (mudroom, laundry, pantry and playroom were the biggies), I was able to keep with it - it's been three years. It was an investment well worth it.

Can you recommend the person or company who you worked with?

I'm not in the DC area. I found her through word of mouth (she owns her own business).