Keeping a Tidy House…
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When everyone is home, all the time!
So, 2020…wow! Enough said!
Everything has changed so much and now this new normal almost feels normal. One of the things I am having a hard time with it keeping a clean house while everyone is home, amiright!?
I am working on tackling this myself, but I found some tactics that work. Ready?
Honestly, it is simple, but it does take CONSTANT consistency! This is something that tends to be a bit of challenge for me. Listen, I consider myself a work in progress, but aren’t we all.
First things first…
Start in the evening. That’s my tactic and so far it is working great. Once everyone is done with dinner, this is what you need to do, in this order:
- Clean off and wipe down all the counters and dinner table. Simple right? Realistically after a long day at work and making dinner and just the everyday stuff, this just seems like too much sometimes. But for real though, mama is beat! It may feel overwhelming some days, but it goes quick.
- Load the dishes into the dishwasher and run that bad boy. If you don’t have a dishwasher, then wash those filthy plates. The trick is you want your sink to be empty when you wake up in the morning. Don’t worry about putting anything away tonight – this will be for the morning. I am working on clean up, then relax. Something attainable and realistic.
- Once that is done – sweep those floors. Depending on the state of your kitchen after dinner – you might be able to skip this. I try to do it 3-4 times a week
The kitchen is now tidy – again, tidy – not spotless. Who has the time or energy to clean everything to sparkle everyday? If that’s your thing, you probably shouldn’t even be reading this and rock on with your bad self! 🙂
Now onto the rest of the house…
Whether your child is home with you all day or comes home after school, it is truly amazing how quickly they can explode your house. I swear it is a special skill they have.
Our son is 3 and can technically can clean up on his own, but at this age I noticed if I ask him to do it unsupervised then he just brings out more toys! So I switched up my efforts a bit. Now I just help him clean. It goes quicker. When I clean with him, it turns into a game and get gets really into it. Then he is so proud of himself when we are done. Most of the time if I start cleaning his toys with him I am able to move onto other parts of the room while he continues on with his stuff. Once the toys are all picked up – or if your kids are still cleaning up successfully on their own – start folding the couch blankets, fluffing those pillows. You are basically getting your living room ready for full relaxation mode.
**Disclaimer – the kids may still take out toys, but let’s just say this again – We are aiming for tidy. I can almost guarantee it will still be better and you have less of a chance of stepping on the rogue lego.**
That’s it – everything is picked up, the house is in some state of order.
Now it is morning…
- Make your bed, first!
- Then tackle breakfast
- Brew your coffee
- While the kiddos are happily eating their breakfast and your coffee is percolating go ahead and put those clean dishes away.
- Now, once breakfast is finished and your dishes are put away, have a seat and enjoy that coffee. **Make sure the kiddos, put their dirty plates away**
- Time to continue on with the rest of your day with a clean slate.
Extra Tips:
- Keep on top of the dishes throughout the day.
- Be mindful of the messes that happen throughout the day. If you have 5 minutes – use it wisely.
- Teach your kids to put away a toy before they take out another one.
- Grab this toy dump basket – they can toss stuff in here and at least it won’t be on your floor
- Put items back in their place. Ever have those condiments that has been sitting on the counter waiting for all his friends to join them and collect on your counter
- Use a timer – you would be surprised what you could get done in 15 minutes.
- Be mindful of small messes. Those take a quick 5 minutes.
- Ask yourself – Will my future self thank me?
