Keeping house tidy

@mimifavour Yes we do this too. Getting out of the house is soo important for all of us and less mess at home. I think I’m going to invest in a robot vacuum - this would help big time I think. Thank you!
 
@wh2 Tip1, don’t cook, so that you don’t have dishes pile up. At least take out, or microwave food for some day in a week. Tip2, let the kids do laundries (above 2yr old). At the beginning, it will be forever to let them put the laundry in the washing machine, but after a while, they will put them in properly. 3yo can fold laundries, but not very efficient, and it will take a long time to train them. Tip3, organize toys. Just put several toys out for kids to play, and rotate them. Organizing is hard work, but you can do it during weekends. Tip4, ask help for deep cleaning. That’s once/twice a month thing, clean the bathrooms and kitchen. Ask somebody else to take care of kids for a few hours or hire some cleaning lady to do the cleaning.
If you cannot get the extra help, or don’t have enough money for takeouts, just let it be. Keeping a house organized needs time, and taking care of kids need time, housework plus child care needs more than 60hr/week. That’s overwhelmingly for anybody.
 
@islandleaper Yes we do keep toys minimal and store most of them away in builtin shelves so I can rotate and it helps a ton!! Maybe I need to do takeout more. Or frozen Trader Joe’s dinners. We typically make most meals at home, occasionally one night of takeout. Thank you for the tips!
 
@wh2 I’m in a similar boat - 3.5yo, 1.5yo, and 30 weeks pregnant. The truth is that some days it’s clean and some days it isn’t. I’m a pretty type A person and love my house being clean (stresses me out otherwise), but pregnancy kills my energy levels. I know I’ll bounce back after pregnancy!
 
@wh2 I hired a cleaner when my first was 18 months old - because first trimester me couldn’t handle it.

I’m 32 weeks now & going to keep her on for at least another 6 months. I am incapable of doing it. Maybe some people can, but I cannot.
 
@wh2 If I’m home all day and my kids have done nothing but watch tv, my house is clean. Otherwise it’s hit or miss 🤷🏻‍♀️

My cleaner came yesterday and then this morning my children decided to make “fairy potions” with glitter and assorted other crap so I feel like I’m back to square one 🙃🙃🙃
 
@wh2 First - the house is not going to be spotless. What I did is a sweep after each meal ( living areas- kitchen/ living room) I’d tidy up bathroom during bath time ( when kids were old Enough to sit fine in the tub without me holding them)

Also, with three year old start getting her in the habit of picking up when she’s done with one toy before going back to the next .
 
@wh2 I mainly keep the bathroom, living room, and kitchen clean; those are the main parts of the house that get used so everything else can wait. Mind you, I have only my 4 year old daughter to keep an eye on so it's much easier to get stuff done. Also, I do my work in the morning before her hyperactivity kicks in.
 
@wh2 I don't, food messes get cleaned obviously but toys are scattered across my house and stuff is piled up on the counter. my husband came home from work on Friday and the first floor was spotlessly clean, he asked if people were coming over lol. we are both content to live in a lived in house
 
@wh2 Even with just one kid my house is a mess sometimes. I try to stay on top of things by picking one or two cleaning jobs a day to do (bathroom one day, dining room the next) and I try to run the robot vacuume daily which forces me to keep the floor clear. But life happens in this house so 🤷

You're doing great.
 
@wh2 I have a three year old and soon to be two year old. Until recently, I constantly stressed about keeping the house clean…finally, I decided to let it go. I’ll pick up and clean as the day goes on, but totally gave up on having a “clean house” and realize it just wont happen until my kids are older. I just try to keep the living room clean because that’s out hang out space when the boys go down to sleep. I try to keep the kitchen fairly clean because I spend so much time in there. Other than that, I just let things go!
 
@wh2 Have the kids help. My 1 1/2 year old is actually getting pretty good at putting stuff in the hamper, loading the dish washer etc. Yeah I have to hand her individual dishes or things to go in the hamper but it gives her a little task while I'm working on the rest of the room.
 
@wh2 I have 2 under 2 and we keep it tidy by having minimum stuff, frankly. And baskets in every room for whatever clutter piles up. That’s it really. We also aren’t opposed to using paper plates for a couple days when we are getting overwhelmed with dishes and need to catch up. It really isn’t that difficult if you get rid of the majority of the junk taking up space (physically and mentally!) We did a big purge when I got pregnant with baby 1 and then again while I was pregnant with baby 2. We are all in better moods with less clutter around.
 
@stefany23 I had two under two also and it is wayyyy harder now that #2 is mobile, Playing with toys, and a messy eater 😂Paper plates are a good idea to use on occasion. Thanks!!
 
@wh2 My husband is the one who handles the big tidying up projects. While I can tidy, it never seems like enough. And then enters my husband who just moves armloads of things around back to their proper homes and makes space. I don’t know if I get distracted, don’t know where things go, or get too caught up with other tasks but it takes me so long to put things away.
 
@wh2 The only time I was able to maintain a truly clean house was to stay up and clean 2 hours every night after the kids went down. I don’t pick up at all during the day because my toddler and baby are so needy, so it’s bad at the end of the day. I wouldn’t go to bed until like 11pm. Shutting the kitchen down alone took 40 minutes because I had to unload and load and hand wash a sink full of random things and wipe the counters down and think about meal prepping for the next day and take out any frozen meats and make rice, etc.

Folding and putting laundry away also took like 20 minutes because we have so much every day.

It’s honestly exhausting to keep up with an actually spotless clean house. And I take adderall lol.

BUT the upside was that I noticed there was less deep cleaning to do the next day because I was slowly but gradually deep cleaning the house every night, just had to do light maintenance going forward.
 
@zajudah Haha I got addicted to the feeling of walking out to a clean house! It made mornings for the entire family so much more calm so I tried to keep up with it
 
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