Anonymous
Post 03/04/2019 19:42     Subject: Re:How do you keep your house tidy?

The nanny prods the kids to tidy (tidied for them but started having them help around 2.5, and now at 5 and 7 just tells them to do it) toys, and nanny does their laundry and food.

Twice a week cleaners Mondays and Thursdays.

DH and I are both otherwise very neat.
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2019 19:40     Subject: How do you keep your house tidy?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The dishes and laundry are on you.

The toys though are on your kids. We ride our kids hard to keep their toys picked up and then it gets easier as they get older. I have a 4, 2, and 6 month old. The 4 and 2 year old clean up constantly and we have a 15 minute cleaning session before bed where we play music and they put everything away. They clear the table too, take their laundry to the hamper and put their shoes where they go.

I still spend 1-2 hours cleaning but my house is pretty immaculate.


I like this idea and I'm stealing it! Question, do your kids put things away where they belong or just kind of put them anywhere. I'm struggling because my DD cleans up and then I organize after she's asleep. I know I should just let her do her thing and eventually she will get to the point of knowing how to put her toys away but I'm neat freak.


They 100% know where toys go. Food goes in the kitchen, books on the shelf, magnatiles in that bin, stuffed animals in a large basket, etc. Even the 2 year old knows the system perfectly. I actually think toddlers are more into rules and order than we give them credit for. We have minimized toys but there's still a huge playroom's worth of toys. I rotate 4x a year. I set the system up and they know to follow it. DH and I are convinced that the more we have them do now, the less we'll tell them later. Like it took a few months at age 1 for them to take their shoes off upon entering the house and putting them in their rooms, but now they do it automatically the second they come in the door.

But, like i said, there's still a lot of cleaning for me. They can't mop or vacuum really. Both help cook but that takes a lot of assistance from us (but that's an activity we think is valuable and counts as us spending time together).


+1, except my 2.5 year old was vacuuming—pretty well—yesterday.



Anonymous
Post 03/04/2019 19:12     Subject: How do you keep your house tidy?

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:The dishes and laundry are on you.

The toys though are on your kids. We ride our kids hard to keep their toys picked up and then it gets easier as they get older. I have a 4, 2, and 6 month old. The 4 and 2 year old clean up constantly and we have a 15 minute cleaning session before bed where we play music and they put everything away. They clear the table too, take their laundry to the hamper and put their shoes where they go.

I still spend 1-2 hours cleaning but my house is pretty immaculate.


I like this idea and I'm stealing it! Question, do your kids put things away where they belong or just kind of put them anywhere. I'm struggling because my DD cleans up and then I organize after she's asleep. I know I should just let her do her thing and eventually she will get to the point of knowing how to put her toys away but I'm neat freak.


They 100% know where toys go. Food goes in the kitchen, books on the shelf, magnatiles in that bin, stuffed animals in a large basket, etc. Even the 2 year old knows the system perfectly. I actually think toddlers are more into rules and order than we give them credit for. We have minimized toys but there's still a huge playroom's worth of toys. I rotate 4x a year. I set the system up and they know to follow it. DH and I are convinced that the more we have them do now, the less we'll tell them later. Like it took a few months at age 1 for them to take their shoes off upon entering the house and putting them in their rooms, but now they do it automatically the second they come in the door.

But, like i said, there's still a lot of cleaning for me. They can't mop or vacuum really. Both help cook but that takes a lot of assistance from us (but that's an activity we think is valuable and counts as us spending time together).
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2019 18:32     Subject: Re:How do you keep your house tidy?

If it makes you feel better, OP, my house was a mess until my youngest was about four. Now it’s fine. Little kids tend to just carry random stuff everywhere! Plus play dates with friends seemed to include getting out everything we owned. Cooking was a team sport. Now my house is cleaner than before kids.
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2019 18:06     Subject: How do you keep your house tidy?

I do not waste time constantly cleaning. My house might be a little messy, but it is not dirty! House keeper comes every 2 weeks to change all the sheets and do a deep clean. Other than that, yeah, I do my best to get the kids to clean up (but don't turn it into a power struggle), and if we are having company, we all pitch in. And/but, life at thome with kids is too short to spend so much time cleaning, so to quote a famous ice queen, I LET IT GO!
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2019 17:01     Subject: How do you keep your house tidy?

I tidy up every night for 20 mins after kids are in bed. Put on a podcast and just start at one end of the house. I do laundry once a week - Sunday. Cleaning ladies every other week.
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2019 16:57     Subject: How do you keep your house tidy?

Kids are responsible for picking up their toys three times a day:
1. before they leave for preschool (weekdays - usually there's not much time to play, so they only take about 5 mins to tidy up)
2. before lunch (on weekends)
3. before dinner
Cubby style shelves and mesh bins are what we use for toys - the kids can easily look at the contents and figure out where to put them. I have a 2 year old who can get it 90% right.
I do laundry every day. Throw it in the washer first thing in the am, in the dryer before I head to work. Re-dry for 5 mins to get them warm again when I fold at night after the kids are in bed.
Dishes don't pile up in the sink. Breakfast dishes get put in the dishwasher before we leave for the day; dinner dishes get put away after the kids go to bed. Run a load of dishes daily.

Cleaning lady every other week.
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2019 16:44     Subject: How do you keep your house tidy?

Everything is cleaned at the end of the day.
No dishes in the sink; straight to dishwashers.

Kids don’t leave rooms messy.

Cleaning lady ever other week.

It is when the mess piles up that I start drowning.

Keep it clean and you don’t have to clean it.

Anonymous
Post 03/04/2019 16:41     Subject: How do you keep your house tidy?

Anonymous wrote:The dishes and laundry are on you.

The toys though are on your kids. We ride our kids hard to keep their toys picked up and then it gets easier as they get older. I have a 4, 2, and 6 month old. The 4 and 2 year old clean up constantly and we have a 15 minute cleaning session before bed where we play music and they put everything away. They clear the table too, take their laundry to the hamper and put their shoes where they go.

I still spend 1-2 hours cleaning but my house is pretty immaculate.


I like this idea and I'm stealing it! Question, do your kids put things away where they belong or just kind of put them anywhere. I'm struggling because my DD cleans up and then I organize after she's asleep. I know I should just let her do her thing and eventually she will get to the point of knowing how to put her toys away but I'm neat freak.
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2019 16:40     Subject: How do you keep your house tidy?

Our house is always tidy, although we could usually use a good vacuum or dusting.

We just put things away when we’re done using them.

Before we head up to bed or leave the house, everything is tidy. DS helps.

If it’s not an option it just becomes part of the routine.



Anonymous
Post 03/04/2019 16:00     Subject: How do you keep your house tidy?

We use the same cup all day long. Same goes for the plates so long as breakfast and lunch and snacks were not messy (ex: crumbs quickly shaken off).
I use the same part of the kitchen counter 95% of the day so I'm only ever cleaning up 1 area. In the warmer months especially, but sometimes even in winter, we eat outside - patio, playground, front stoop, etc so who cares about crumbs.

I never go up/downstairs empty handed.
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2019 15:59     Subject: How do you keep your house tidy?

The dishes and laundry are on you.

The toys though are on your kids. We ride our kids hard to keep their toys picked up and then it gets easier as they get older. I have a 4, 2, and 6 month old. The 4 and 2 year old clean up constantly and we have a 15 minute cleaning session before bed where we play music and they put everything away. They clear the table too, take their laundry to the hamper and put their shoes where they go.

I still spend 1-2 hours cleaning but my house is pretty immaculate.
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2019 15:55     Subject: How do you keep your house tidy?

Constantly clean
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2019 15:54     Subject: How do you keep your house tidy?

I pay someone to do it and then go out as much as possible to avoid messing it up.

Otherwise, I'm just Sisyphus pushing a mass of toys around for eternity.
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2019 15:52     Subject: How do you keep your house tidy?

I have a 7 month old and a 4 year old and am home part time. The days that we are home, the house gets trashed no matter how hard I try to clean up as we go. Never ending laundry and dishes plus toys every where. I don’t feel like I am a neat freak but this is driving me insane. I am spending 1-2 hours cleaning up at the end of the day. Any tips from those of you who are able to maintain an orderly home? How do you do it??