Posted by Keeping a clean house with kids around is challenging. You clean one mess and they make another.
For a tidy person like myself, I feel physically cranky when things are in a state of chaos. And let’s face it, that’s usually the case with children.
Yet somehow, I manage to keep a clean house. (Well, most of the time. I won’t pretend things are perfect.)
But if someone told me they were coming over unexpectedly, I could have things in tip top shape in just 20 minutes. It wouldn’t take long because the house is generally clean from the tidy habits I practice daily.
I realize for some people, being tidy doesn’t come naturally though. So today I’m going to share with you the habits I do proactively to keep a cleaner house with kids.
Let’s get started!
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Bathroom Break Up
Let’s begin with one of the dirtiest places in the home that we all wish would clean itself. The bathroom.
You know that looming feeling of “The whole bathroom needs to be deep cleaned 😩” which makes you keep putting it off?
Well here’s my secret to keeping the bathroom clean:
I break up the tasks depending upon what I see that I can accomplish within a few minutes time.
For example:
If I see that there’s a ring in the toilet beginning to form, I will just clean the toilet. This only takes a couple minutes to get done.
If I have more time, I’ll grab some Clorox wipes and do the sink/counter at the same time (wipes make cleaning faster).
But the shower/tub is always a separate thing.
Deep cleaning everything all at once just takes too much of time.
Plus:
It’s hard to do when the kids are around (especially if you’ve got a small one that needs constant supervision).
So breaking up the bathroom into a few minutes time makes keeping it clean much more manageable.
And this breaking up of tasks can be applied really anywhere throughout the house. Being tidy, after all, is really just about doing small cleaning tasks throughout the day that add up.
Keep Up On The Dishes
Keeping up on the dishes is a great example of not letting things pile up until it becomes a huge job to deep clean.
I’m in my kitchen A LOT. Between myself and two young kids and a husband who works 100% from home, someone is always eating.
The dishes seem to never end.
It’s important to me to keep up on the flow of dishes especially because the kitchen is the first thing people see when they walk into our home.
To maintain the kitchen, I empty the dishwasher every morning and wash and stack the dishwasher throughout the day. I wipe down the counter as needed too.
After the dinner dishes are washed, I end the evening with a clean kitchen.
I don’t let the whole day’s dishes pile up into one humongous pile and do them after the kids are in bed (my kids are in bed by 7 and I’m DONE with household chores lol).
We’re exhausted by the end of the day which makes for an excuse to put that huge pile of dishes off until tomorrow.
Try to keep up on them during the day so this doesn’t happen.
Related:
Do The “Stuffle Shuffle”
If I’m not doing dishes, I’m usually putting items back where they belong throughout the day.
With kids it often feels like I’m constantly shuffling stuff around my house. I call it the “stuffle shuffle”.
Every item belongs somewhere though whether it’s in a drawer, cabinet, in the closet or just in a specific room.
Basically, I almost never leave a room without grabbing an item and putting it back in its rightful place.
If it doesn’t have a place where it belongs, decide if there’s an opportunity to make one (or if it’s junk).
I use cube storage for organizing toys and books because I can easily “stuffle shuffle” toys into boxes in the cubes (plus, it looks good too).
When items don’t have a specific place where they belong, this is when things start to get messy.
Things get lost. They pile up.
They turn into… clutter!
Declutter
Having too much stuff in your home not only makes it look cluttered, but also makes it looks dirty as items pile up collecting dust.
My husband and I have always been minimalists, so having less stuff definitely makes a difference when keeping our home clean.
Most of the stuff I consider to be clutter actually belongs to the kids!
Our clutter is excess toys and leftover baby stuff. But whatever your clutter may be, you have to proactively get rid of it either by trashing it, donating it or selling it.
Personally, I like to just give stuff away on my neighborhood Facebook Buy Nothing group. It gets stuff out of my house a lot faster than if I were to try and sell every little thing.
I am constantly getting rid of toys, shoes, clothes, books and more every month to keep unused or outgrown items out of my home.
So whether you want to list items for sale or give them away for free is up to you. But you have to be proactive about it.
Selling items takes a lot more time. If it’s been sitting in your garage or stuffed in some corner of the house for months or years with the intention of selling it, maybe it’s time to take it to Good Will already!
If there are things that you must store for later, organize them in these stackable plastic bins. I use them to store hand-me-down clothes for my youngest. I also use them to store excess toys, which I rotate from time to time.
Decrease Stuff You Bring Into The Home
Keeping your home clear of clutter doesn’t only mean proactively cleaning out old stuff that’s been lying around. It also means not bringing so much new stuff in.
Maybe thrift shopping is your thing. Or you love shopping online.
For us a lot of times it’s just a friend or family member bringing some small toy for the kids every time they visit.
It all adds up.
Before you know it, things are piled up again and you have to declutter all over again.
So be conscious that you’re removing items as more items are coming in.
Related:
Mail And Deliveries
Speaking of bringing items into the home, having items delivered is a norm for most families nowadays, which means boxes, boxes, boxes.
It’s another thing that can pile up easily if you let it. So break those down immediately and recycle.
The same goes for the mail. Go through it when you bring it in and throw junk away.
If you must save mail for later, make a tidy “home” for it by getting a mail organizer instead of letting it pile up on the counter.
Immediate Follow Through
Taking care of mail and boxes are some examples of a tidy habit I’ll simply just label as “immediate follow through”.
You’re not tossing things into a “I’ll do it later” pile of procrastination.
Of course, let’s be honest… your kids will interrupt you a thousand times a day which can make following through on even the smallest tasks difficult (just do the best you can).
There are lots of ways you can apply this habit throughout the day to keep a tidier house.
Here are some examples of ways to follow through immediately:
- Hang up bath towels right after shower/baths
- Put clothes in laundry bin after changing or rehang/put back in drawers after trying on
- Put the dish you just ate off of in the dishwasher, not the sink or counter
- Wipe food or makeup spills right away
- Put away toys the kids are done with before bringing out more toys. (Ideally the kids should be doing this. Try to make it a rule.)
If these little messes get left behind all day, they become bigger ones.
By taking care of the little messes throughout the day, you’ll also be doing one very important thing in front of your children – leading by example.
Lead By Example
Leading by example in terms of having a tidy home is important because children copy their parent’s habits.
So if your bedroom floor looks like a tornado of clothes and junk, theirs will too.
If you leave wet towels on the floor, they’ll do it too.
If you leave dirty napkins, snack wrappers or food containers out, they will too.
Then, when you’re telling them to clean up their rooms, they might have a hard time “hearing” you.
Because the hard truth is that children don’t hear us, they imitate us.
That’s why it’s so important to lead by example as part of maintaining a clean home.
Only Eat At The Table
One of the tidy habits I do in our home to lead by example is to eat at the table only.
My kids eat all of their meals and snacks sitting down at the table, kitchen counter or high chair.
It helps if you begin this habit early on. My kids are so used to this that they don’t even think about eating on the couch or taking food with them around the house.
I also give them each a wet wash cloth for wiping their hands when they are finished.
You know what that means?!
The rest of the house is saved from millions of crumbs, spills, sticky fingers and food wrappers.
Creating this habit of eating at the table is huge in terms of keeping my house clean.
Because of this, I only have to do a daily vacuum under and around their chairs. I keep this cordless vacuum in the closet near the kitchen and it only takes about 30 seconds so there’s no excuse not to do it.
Leave Shoes At The Door
Another tidy habit our children follow by example is leaving shoes at the door.
This is a big one in terms of bringing dirt, dust and germs into the home.
I wasn’t always a shoes at the door person. It wasn’t until I moved in with my Filipino husband that I adopted this very common practice among Asian households.
Now all of our shoes are actually in the garage on one big shoe rack! It’s where we usually come and go from so it makes sense (we rarely use the front door!).
And as much as I sometimes miss having all my shoes in my bedroom with my clothes, I will take not cleaning the floors as often over wearing shoes in the house.
That’s what house slippers are for, right?
Because we don’t wear shoes in the house, the floors are easily maintained. We vacuum the bedroom rugs probably twice a month and then just use a Swiffer Sweeper on the rest of the wood floors.
The kids actually love helping with the Swiffer 🤷♀️😂.
Involve Children In Chores
Speaking of getting children to help, if they are old enough to do chores, then they should definitely be contributing to keeping the house clean.
When they’re small, this might first come through modeling some of the tidy habits I’ve mentioned.
For example:
We taught both our boys to put their dirty laundry into the hamper at 2 years old during potty training. It’s now a habit.
Related:
But now they’re big enough to do actual chores.
My eldest enjoys doing yard cleanup and also helps with laundry by pairing up the clean socks or folding wash cloths. My youngest helps empty the dishwasher and dust with the Swiffer duster. They both clean up all the toys every evening.
If you’re not sure what kinds of chores are appropriate for your child’s age, check out this article with chore lists by age to give you some ideas of ways they can help.
As they get older, keep them accountable with a chore chart (this is a good one) so everyone knows what’s expected of them on what day.
We moms may be doing the bulk of the work to keep a clean home while our children are young, but involving them in chores from an early age teaches them not only to contribute to the family home but to be responsible for their own messes.
And hopefully, they’ll grow into tidy young adults!
Final Thoughts On Keeping A Tidy Home With Kids
It is hard work to keep a clean house with small kids. And no mom should feel bad if theirs isn’t!
On days when it seems like there’s so much laundry, toys scattered everywhere, and pee to clean off the toilet, I try to remind myself that some day I’ll be an empty nester and I may even miss the mess (ha!).
So if you’re feeling overwhelmed by the chaos of a messy house right now, just remember you’re a good mom and the tidiness will come if you work on it.
Here is a recap of my cleaning tips to help you get there:
- Break up big tasks into smaller ones you can accomplish within a few minutes.
- Put stuff where it belongs. If it doesn’t have a place where it goes, make one or decide if it’s clutter.
- Declutter (proactively give away on FB Buy Nothing, take to Good Will, trash it or sell it).
- Be conscious of how many new items you bring into your home.
- Sort through mail and deliveries
- Follow through immediately on little things instead of putting them off until later… or never.
- Keep up on dishes throughout the day. End the evening with a clean kitchen.
- Lead by example. Model tidy habits to your kids.
- Only eat at the table. Keep crumbs, food wrappers and sticky fingers out of the rest of the house.
- Leave shoes at the door. Less outside dirt means less frequent floor cleaning.
- Have children do age appropriate chores.
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