Housekeeping Mom Tips

[Anonymous]

Oh, i most certainly do not handwash bras! At most, I'll toss them on the drying rack to dry. (New poster here, btw)

Can someone recommend their stick vac? I have one that I'm not loving these days. Maybe my kids are just pigs, but it's doing a terrible job under the dining room table!

You can get sock rings at the container store. I find that the thicker socks don't dry in the rings, but DH's dress socks do. He has enough for his entire collection. The kids and I all have multiples of the same socks (and they wear gap socks, so the size is printed on hte bottom).

DS's legos are stored in either tupperwares or ziploc baggies so his younger siblings can't raid the sets.

We do at leas one load of wash per day, then fold and put away at night. Keeps Mount Laundry at bay around here.

After the kids brush their teeth, they wipe out the sink with a washcloth, that then goes into the laundry. We own (and go through) a TON of kids' washcloths, but they're low volume.

Finally, i installed coat hooks in the hall closet at the kids' level so they can walk in and hang up their coats. Keeps the foyer clear of coats at least. Now if I can just find a better place for the infant seat....

[Anonymous]

I keep baskets by the front door just for kids' socks and shoes. They don't have any socks in their drawers upstairs. I was always sending them back upstairs atthe last minute to find socks (and sometimes shoes although usually they take those off when they enter the house). Now they have socks right at the point we realize they don't have them. When I sort laundry at the dining room table, I just put the socks into the sock basket.

[Anonymous]

I'm impressed, people! My house is never this tidy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does the Bissell steam cleaner really clean, with no soap? How can just water get the floors clean?

It's steam, so it can even disinfect if you move the mop slowly over an area. The design of the cleaning pads really picks up the dirt, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I bought a cordless stick vacuum. Between sand from my kids shoes (playground) and dog hair my house was always trashed and I hate lugging out the big vacuum. I find hitting the high traffic areas with a stick vaccuum each day (Ok, some days) makes a huge difference. Plus its so lightweight, my preschooler can use it (and will actually go get it after he plays with playdoh).

My son has to clean up his toys each night. If not, I pack them up in a box and put them in the basement (only had to do it once). Wish my husband and I were as good about this as him.

I've been teaching my son that if he makes a mess, he cleans it up. He actually does it without urging sometimes.

I've started keeping some sort of cleaning wipe (some green product) in the bathroom to clean up after my son brushes his teeth.

I clean in increments. I hate cleaning the whole house. So I break it up into pieces (dust upstairs, dust downstairs, vaccuum upstairs, vaccuum downstairs, clean bathroom). The most effective times are when I just make it a habit to do a certain peice on a certain day, but I've gotten out of the habit).

At what age did you start having your son clean up his toys?

Not pp, but my answer is "as soon as he could walk." We would "help," of course (and still do, if it's a really big mess), but we started very early making a big deal out of picking up toys every night before bed. DC gets a ten minute warning before bath time, and knows that he needs to start cleaning up his toys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the Bissell steam cleaner really clean, with no soap? How can just water get the floors clean?

It's steam, so it can even disinfect if you move the mop slowly over an area. The design of the cleaning pads really picks up the dirt, too.

Do you think it would work on tumbled floors? Our floors are a natural stone (or are supposed to look like it) so the surface is not smooth. When you mop, the dirty water settles in the nooks and crevices, and over time it looks terrible. In the past I've paid to have it professionally cleaned every six months or so, but I'd love to be able to avoid that.

[Anonymous]

Love this thread. Thank you.

Every now and then, I give my 5 year old daughter a bucket (one of her summer sand buckets!) with solution of baking soda and warm water and a sponge. She will scrub the handrails and doorframes until they sparkle. She thinks it's great fun!

[Anonymous]

This may have been mentioned already, but checking and sorting through the mail daily is a big help in keeping paper clutter at bay. It's amazing how all those catalogs, ads, and junk mail can pile up on the counter. Keep the recycling bin and shredder handy. Have a good filing system for your bills and other important mail. It just takes a few minutes each day - much better than letting it snowball into a big pile!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This may have been mentioned already, but checking and sorting through the mail daily is a big help in keeping paper clutter at bay. It's amazing how all those catalogs, ads, and junk mail can pile up on the counter. Keep the recycling bin and shredder handy. Have a good filing system for your bills and other important mail. It just takes a few minutes each day - much better than letting it snowball into a big pile!

I agree. We have a mail slot so the mail is on the floor. As I pick it up, I sort into advertisements (that we may or may not go through later - I put into a large basket) and important mail (bills, letters, cards) - which I put on top of the desk into a mail sorter thing.

[Anonymous]

Stick Vac Reccomendation for pp above. I think mine is this one (or very similar, not sure of the model)

http://www.amazon.com/Eureka-Quick-Up-Cordless-Vacuum-96F/dp/B000QV3SMK/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1294927304&sr=8-6

If the link doesn't work it's a Eureka cordless and has an option to switch between bare floors and carpet. It has a battery charger that allows you to charge an extra battery - which I've found to be useful when my 4 year old helps (as he vaccums one square foot and i'm left with zero battery to finish).

But i can't vouch for how it does with food, because we have a brown furry vaccuum for that (dog)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am an anti-clutter FREAK and my husband is...let's say...not one! One thing that has really helped is a standing rule that when you leave one room, you look around to see if you should bring anything with you. For example: if my husband would look before he left the family room, he would realize that the empty cereal bowl and beer bottle should be brought up. Or, the day old newspapers left in the kitchen would be brought down to the recycling bins. Or, the shoes left in the foyer (a huge pet peeve of mine!) would be placed by the stairs so we know to take them up when its time to go upstairs. It literally takes 2 secnds but it prevents things from piling up!

We, and our husbands, must be clones!

I stack things that need to go up or down stairs right by the stairs, that way as someone is walking up or down, they should never be empty-handed. Of course, Dh can walk by a huge pile of things that need to be taken up or down.

I also keep a vinegar solution spray bottle and a pile of clean rags under every sink for quick cleans as needed.

Another set of clones here! My DH jumps up from the couch during a commercial to go get something out of the kitchen and does not think to take his dirty cereal bowl or whatever upstairs. I always say, "Hey! Multi-task!" And then he'll come back for it. It drives me crazy!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the Bissell steam cleaner really clean, with no soap? How can just water get the floors clean?

It's steam, so it can even disinfect if you move the mop slowly over an area. The design of the cleaning pads really picks up the dirt, too.

Do you think it would work on tumbled floors? Our floors are a natural stone (or are supposed to look like it) so the surface is not smooth. When you mop, the dirty water settles in the nooks and crevices, and over time it looks terrible. In the past I've paid to have it professionally cleaned every six months or so, but I'd love to be able to avoid that.

It would probably be ok for quick cleans, but the only downside (that I've found) of the steam mop is that it does allow for some moisture build up in the crevices or grout of a tile floor, but the same is true of conventional mops. We have light colored grout for the tile in our kitchen and every six months, or as needed, I get my good old scrub brush out and scrub the grout. Dh says I put both a's in anal

[Anonymous]

1) I clean the bathroom while DS (4) takes a bath. I keep wipes, glass cleaner, and paper towels under the sink of both bathrooms and in the kitchen. The wipes are fantastic for picking up dust and hair from tile floors.

2) If something takes less than 2 minutes, I do it right away.

3) I deal with mail every day. If it's not a bill, I shred/recycle it. If it is a bill, I pay it online that day.

4) I keep the living room neat. This is the first room you see when you enter the house, and it is important for me to keep it un-cluttered. I bought a coffee table with two drawers and one is reserved for DS's toys. These are all the toys that he is allowed to bring to the living room. If they don't fit in that drawer, they go down to the family/playroom.

5) Our rule for putting away play-things. If he wants to move onto the next toy, he has to put away the one he was playing with first. At the end of the day, there is only one toy left to put away.

[Anonymous]

Our rule for putting away play-things. If he wants to move onto the next toy, he has to put away the one he was playing with first. At the end of the day, there is only one toy left to put away.

As a parent, I understand your desire to do this. As a teacher, though, I must discourage this. Creative play involves using toys in new and often unintended ways and creating imaginary adventures that involve multiple layers of action. That's hard to do if you can't use the dolls, trucks and blocks and little people animals at the same time. And often the ideas for that kind of play aren't worked out in their head beforehand. So its not until they see the doll next to the dump truck and the cow that the idea develop that the cow jumped on the garbage truck at the farm and fell off a the little girl's house and was hiding in the closet...etc. Not to say that shouldn't be ANY limits on dragging out every toy you own, but you might want to loosen up a bit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Our rule for putting away play-things. If he wants to move onto the next toy, he has to put away the one he was playing with first. At the end of the day, there is only one toy left to put away.

As a parent, I understand your desire to do this. As a teacher, though, I must discourage this. Creative play involves using toys in new and often unintended ways and creating imaginary adventures that involve multiple layers of action. That's hard to do if you can't use the dolls, trucks and blocks and little people animals at the same time. And often the ideas for that kind of play aren't worked out in their head beforehand. So its not until they see the doll next to the dump truck and the cow that the idea develop that the cow jumped on the garbage truck at the farm and fell off a the little girl's house and was hiding in the closet...etc. Not to say that shouldn't be ANY limits on dragging out every toy you own, but you might want to loosen up a bit.

I'm also a mom who requires toys to be put away. My child is not one bit short on creativity. You must know as a teacher that oodles of toys are not needed for creativity, no? We have very little toys in the house as a matter of fact, but I don't see a need for a huge pile of bristle blocks on top of legos, on top of lincoln logs. Often times the "toys" my kids chose to play with and be creative with are not even toys at all. They often put on "plays" unsing props such as blankets, chairs, and empty boxes. I think creativity is born from engaging with your child, taking them to places, and asking them questions-not necessarily a mountain of toys every where.