What are some tips for keeping a house clean, without slaving over it, when you have young toddlers?
My kids are 1 and 3, and I feel like I'm house cleaning all day every day. And if I miss a day, then the house it a complete mess.
Ask yourself the question..What is the worst that can happen?
Worry about the things you do not have control over and do not worry about the things that you do have control over. If you do not have control over them then it does not make sense to worry about them. If you do have control over them then you do not have to worry about them.
Someone gave me this piece of advice when all four of my kids were five years old or younger (yikes! - looking back, I'm surprised I didn't lose my mind). Anyways, they told me to just always make sure that I have something in my hands to return to its place as I go through the house. Need to go to the bathroom? Grab the hairbrush from the living room and it return it as you go. When you leave the bathroom, pick up that washcloth and throw it in the hamper. Ok, so you get the idea.
The other thing is, have a box or basket in EVERY ROOM where you can throw all the kids' stuff. If you get to the end of the day and the house is strewn with toys, etc. at least you can throw it all in that box or basket real quick and at least have a (mostly) picked up room to sit down in and breathe for a moment.
As far as actual cleaning, vacuuming a room makes it look SO much better, even if everything else in the room is dirty. Likewise with getting the table in the kitchen cleaned and the dishes put in the dishwasher.
OK - HTH! That's all I've got for now.
You could try to do a little bit every day, even if its 15 or 20 minutes while the kids take nap or after they go to bed. Each day you could concentrate on a different room. You'd be surprised how much you can get done with 15 minutes of concentrated effort! Have you ever heard of the flylady? Its a little quirky but you might pick up a few tips. Check out the website: http://www.flylady.net/
My 4 kids are all under age 10 and we refer to the baby as the "one baby wrecking crew" -- at 13 months, he's into everything. I have trouble concentrating when there is a mess, so I enlist the help of the bigger kids and try (ha ha) to make it fun: "Everyone pick up 5 things" or "Spend 2 minutes picking up this area." I find if I can send everyone upstairs for 10 minutes, I can get the downstairs semi-picked up. Then, of course, there is the upstairs mess. . .
I have to mop floors and other major stuff after everyone is asleep, though. Even little things like spending 3 minutes wiping down the bathroom while watching the kids in the tub helps. And baby wipes work OK for that -- they don't sanitize, but at least they won't irritate your hands.
Just keeping up with the laundry by doing some daily helps keep me from getting too overwhelmed. I find that when I get overwhelmed, I can't even get started, and then it just gets worse and worse.
I don't know if that helps at all . . . but it may help to know you are not alone in fighting the mess/clutter battle!
Consistent routine is how I manage to keep mine clean with 2 three year old kids every other week end with me. Approximately every 2 hours we play "clean-up time". I help them by telling them what to pick up. I make them do it! (That is also a key to success).
We have rules that I consistently follow. For example...if you want to go outside the room must be cleaned. No toys out of the playroom.
It may still seem as if you are "constantly" cleaning to begin with but once they get the idea of what to do and that they HAVE to do it they don't pull out near as many things without putting others back first!
This isn't as complete an answer as the other women, but just a short tip. I have a friend who asked for wooden toys at her baby shower and each of her 6 kids first few birthdays. The kids of course had toys other than wooden toys, but this gave her a large collection of toys that were pretty enough that even when they were scattered around the house, didn't bother her so much.
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