I like my house clean, don’t you? And I love my kids! But kids and a clean house don’t seem to fit together, do they?
I remember thinking when #2 was a toddler that she was like a little tornado leaving a mess everywhere she went. That’s hard to keep up with! And as our kids have multiplied, so have our messes! But that doesn’t mean the house is always a mess. Aside from seasons of more messes and less messes, I feel like we have done a pretty good job of keeping a tidy house.
So our topic for today is:
How to keep a house clean with kids
Tip #1 Have Realistic Expecations
While a clean house is important, it is not the most important thing. The people you live with are the most important thing. When you have a newborn who requires being cared for most of your 24 hours a day, you won’t have time to do much cleaning. Things don’t get much better for a couple years. So figure out what is the area or thing that you most want to have clean. Is it the kitchen? The bathroom? The livingroom floor? Maybe it’s your own space in your room. When you have 5 minutes to clean something, start with that space.
As they get a little older, your hands will get a little freer, and it will be easier to find time to clean. As long as you have little kids, don’t expect yourself to be able to take care of everyone and keep your house as clean as you did before kids. Life has changed, and you have to change with it. Aim for tidy, not spotless.
As I’ve gotten used to a clean that includes kids, I’ve reminded myself of this truth over and over again:
You might not know that I mopped the floor, but you would know if I hadn’t!
-Anne
Tip #2 Make a Place for Everything
To keep a house clean with kids, you have to keep things organized.
Pictured above is a peek into one of our school cupboards. My husband is really good at clean and tidy, and I didn’t even have to ask him for these bins for my school things or the cupboard he built to put them in. I started collecting, and he provided organizing tools. Having a cupboard for my school stuff and bins for the different kinds of things makes it really easy to find what I need. It also is nicer to look at when it’s all organized.
Just as you would put forks in one spot and spoons in another in the drawer, everything in the house needs a space. Make a space for everything you have. There should be a place for shoes, a place for books, a place for toys, etc. and your kids should know where those place are.
Tip #3 Limit the things you get
Getting new things is fun! But you can go over board if you aren’t careful. To keep a house clean with kids, you can’t get too much stuff.
Have you ever watched a little kid get overwhelmed by the pile of presents they get on their birthday? I’ve seen it. At first they’re having fun getting new things, then they look like they feel stuck in the pile of stuff. Other times I’ve felt overwhelmed on Christmas, when all the presents are open, and I’m faced with the challenge of finding space for all the mutlitple gifts times the number of people in our big family. Ugh!
It doesn’t have to be that way. We’ve cut back on the number of gifts we get for each person. We now ask our kids’ friends not to bring presents to their birthday parties. Sometimes they bring a present anyway, but they’re usually a lot simpler gifts. We’re trying to get less of the things we don’t need, both for presents and whenever, and having less coming in keeps organizing simpler.
Tip #4 Keep a Donation Pile
To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven: A time to get, and a time to lose; and time to keep, and a time to cast away;
Ecclesiastes 3: 1, 6
For those of us blessed enough to have more things than we need, in order to keep our house clean, we’re going to have to get rid of stuff from time to time. A simple way to do that is to keep a donation pile. Ours is in the garage.
When I find a toy that I know is not cared about, I put it in the bag in the garage. When I notice a shirt in my closet that I haven’t worn in years and I don’t care to wear again, it goes in the donation bag. When the toy boxes are over flowing, we set aside some time to go through them. We make sure to keep the favorites, and take out a few we can live without. Then we find a donation center or a family who has less than we do, and we give it away. It feels good to clean out and even better to share!
Tip #5 Teach Them to Clean
To keep a house clean with kids, you have to teach them to clean. As babies turn into toddlers, they make more messes, but they also love to help you clean! Let them help however they can. Letting them help will
- improve their self-esteem
- give them quality time with you
- start teaching them how to clean
- teach them that cleaning is important
- make one less mess in your house!
One thing I’ve had to work on is making sure the kids clean up their games or toys when they’re done with them. It’s great if you can have them play with a few then have them clean up before they get the next toys. For me, though, it often ends up that I don’t notice they didn’t put them away until hours later, then I debate with myself whether it’s worth it to go find them and make them do it, or if I’d rather just do it myself. I make them do it about half the time. 😬
The older they get, the more capable they’ll be. Give them assignments and expect them to clean up to the best of their ability. Thank them for their help, and don’t worry that it’s not perfect. The more they practice the better they’ll get at it. By the time they’re preteens you’ll be able to say, “Go clean the bathroom,” and know they’re capable of doing it.
Tip #6 Make a Clean-up Chart
I’m a chart kind of person. To help keep our house clean with kids I like to make clean up charts. Below are 2 charts we use. The “Daily Chores” chart has lots of little jobs that need to be done, and I use mounting putty to keep their names next to a week worth of chores. We switch the names on Mondays. On the right are jobs that need to be done to clean up lunch. The homeschool kids and I rotate through these on school days.
Just a note about the chore charts- I’ve tweaked them and reprinted or remade them more times than I can count. About once a year I feel the need to redo “Daily Chores” because the kids’ abilities have changed. You can see the notes I’ve made with a pencil, some because I noticed I’d missed something important, and some because the kids told me it was too hard or too easy. Those things also get fixed when I redo the chart.
Tip #7 Put Cleaning in the Daily Plan
The best chart won’t do any good if you don’t make time to use it. I’ve found it easy to get the homeschooling kids to do their chores because it’s part of our school day routine. The highschoolers are more tricky because they are tired after school and have extra activities. On the other hand, the older ones are more capable and will jump in to help more often when they see help is needed.
We also have rules to motivate the kids to get their chores done. For the younger kids, chores have to be done before have screen-time. For the older kids, chores have to be done before they can go out. By putting chores in the daily plan, they get done most of the time.
The kids also know that everyone is expected to help clean up after dinner. As you can imagine, a meal with our big family makes a big mess. The little ones often have to be assigned a task, but the big kids usually jump right in and find some way to help. This helps a lot to keep the house clean with kids.
And see that all these things are done in wisdom and in order, for it is not reqisite that a man [or woman] should run faster than he has stength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order.
Mosiah 4:27
There you have it; my 2 cents worth about keeping your house mostly clean while your kids are living in it. Just do your best, and remember that the messes won’t last forever.
For more on teaching your kids see Be Tough and Gentle.
Thanks for reading my post. I hope you’re enjoying your adventure, messy or clean. 😉
