Frustrated and feeling like everyone’s maid?
“It’s a never-ending battle!”
“It’s like shoveling snow while it’s still snowing . . . useless and exhausting.”
“Why don’t they learn?”
“Why don’t they help?”
“Why do I always have to be the one to clean up their messes and put things away every day?”
Do any of these questions or statements sound familiar? Have you heard other moms say them? Have you said them?
{Yes. Yes. Yes!}
If you have kids (which I’m guessing you do if you are on a site for matters related to moms!), and if your kids are mobile – then you know what I’m talking about above. 🙂 It seems like there is something built within each kid to mess up and bring chaos to the clean and peaceful home you have worked hard to create and maintain! No – it isn’t part of the “sin nature” (well – maybe sometimes it is!)- but more like curiosity, exploration, learning, playing, etc.
And if you came into motherhood thinking that your house would remain clean and looking like the Brady Bunch’s house . . . remember . . . they did have a maid! 🙂 (I keep putting it on my Christmas wish-list!) But I, for one, refuse to be a maid in my own home. A mom – yes . . . a maid to everyone . . . NO! 🙂
Cleaning up the easy way
Since I don’t have a maid, and I don’t want to be everyone’s maid – there has to be an easier (and more peaceful) way to keep the house tidy (picked-up and clean).
“Is there really an ‘easy way’ to clean up Lori?”
Well . . . possibly. 🙂 But it won’t happen by accident, by yelling commands every day, or by you doing it all yourself. Some of those might get your house clean, but will you feel peaceful and happy doing it that way?
“Cleaning up the easy way” will probably look different for each family – as each of you are unique! I want to share with you what has worked for us, for my personality, for our lifestyle, priorities, etc. – and maybe some of it will help. Yours might look a little different though – and that’s OK! 🙂 It really is!
There are many great ideas on how to keep your house clean and picked up with kids – little or big. Try them all out. Find what works for you.
Here are a few simple suggestions that I’ve implemented over the years:
- Schedule “pick-up” and cleaning times, and don’t worry about the mess the rest of the time. – This could be 2 times a day (before nap time or lunch and before dinner or bedtime), once a day (before bed), or once a week if you want! 🙂 Think and plan like a (pre)school does. There’s a “time” for everything – play time, snack time, cleanup time, story time, etc. Create a schedule that works for you. General pick-up can be done more frequently, but think about how you can decrease the overall cleaning schedule if it’s overwhelming you. Can you vacuum or mop every other day, or every third day instead of more frequently? Unless we spill something, we (yes – I said “we”. I’ll talk about that later!) vacuum Mon, Wed and Sat’s here (we have 5 kids – but you might not even have to vacuum that much!). I don’t stress about it the other days!
- Teach your kids to put one toy/game away before taking out the next one. – I was terrible at enforcing this . . . but it’s a great idea – if it fits into your personality and lifestyle. We usually would clean up everything at specific times instead, but for some, this method would be much easier to do.
- Limit what’s accessible. I had a friend who’s son was a “dumper” (and my youngest was the same). He just loved the thrill of picking up a container of toys and dumping them out, then moving on to the next bucket or container . . . and on and on and on. She kept most of the toys in plastic bins high in their closets so he couldn’t reach them. He was allowed one box down at a time. I, also, quickly learned to put some things away before he came over to play – and it also changed how I decided to store my kids toys as well.
- Buy/Own less toys and clothes. “What? Are you serious Lori?!” 🙂 Yes! If you don’t like cleaning them up – don’t have them. Buy a few quality, multipurpose, creativity-inspiring type toys. Give your kids some big boxes and crayons and let them build forts or houses. Get creative with less. Your kids will not grow up to be maladjusted adults because they had less toys than the toy companies think they should have. (same goes for clothes!)
- Rotate toys. If you don’t want to get rid of all the toys, pack some up in the attic, and rotate them out every 3-6 months or so. This way the kids will feel like they have “new” toys to play with when they get bored with the “old” ones.
- Stay away from toys with a gazillion small parts! – You know what I’m talking about . . . Polly Pockets, Barbie, Lego’s, Bionicles, etc. UNLESS you have a GREAT system for keeping them organized in an easy and non-time-consuming way, these will cause many frustrations (cleaning up, looking for missing shoes, pieces, vacuuming up those pieces by accident and having to fish them out of the vacuum bag/container, etc)!
- Change your expectations of “how” things need to be organized. If you are spending an hour every night arranging toys into cute little scenes – that your child will just destroy in the morning . . . is it worth it? (If it is your relaxation exercise or hobby each night – then go for it! If it’s frustrating . . . time to re-think what you are doing.) Would a big general toy box do better? Or how about having separate containers for different toys (ie – cars, trains, Barbies, etc)? We used to have a big container that held all the Legos. But it was too frustrating for the boys to build anything because it was impossible to find that one little black piece you wanted amidst all the other colored pieces. We took inspiration from the Lego store and bought smaller containers to divide them into colors. My son LOVED having it this way, and has spent hours and hours building and creating now. Plus – we didn’t have to clean up ALL the Lego’s every time, as he didn’t have to dump out the whole big box to find one small piece. It saved time cleaning up, and helped him to enjoy the toy more! Choose a method of organization that is easy enough for the little ones to do/help with. Too complicated – and you’ll be doing it all!
- Get out of the house. Go to the park, the library, the movies, etc . . . or even to someone else’s house to play! 🙂 hee,hee. The less you are in your house – the less time there is to make a mess that you have to clean up!
- Teach your kids to clean! This is – by far – my FAVORITE technique/tip! And I will talk more about this next week!
So come on back to find out how I’ve been able to get my kids to WANT to clean up their things!
What is your favorite tip/way to keep your house picked up and clean?
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