To ask how the hell you keep your house clean?

[NeilArmstrongWalkinOnMeFace]

Really struggling here. Two DS-2.5years and 3 months. DH and I have never been tidy people and it's just got worse and worse. It's starting to affect my MH as I just never feel on top of the house and it's always a mess. Pre kids I was super organised ( not tidy though!) but now I can barely think straight. DH less so.

Have tried TOMM and thought it was great but don't seem to have any time now with a clingy baby and demanding toddler.

Please tell me how you keep on top of the jobs and how you keep organised.

Any hacks? How do I change the way my brain works?

Ah, I think you are being a little unrealistic with 2 under 3!

However, prioritise.

Clean and tidy kitchens make everywhere feel better. Especially a clean sink. So try to attack the kitchen.
Ditto the bathroom. They don't need to be show home standard, but there's nothing worse than needing to start cooking and you can't because it's a mess.

Then in the living room, make sure there's somewhere for toys, that the sofas are clear and every now and again the floor too.

Beds. Get out of then and make them.

Thays enough, surely with a babe in arms and a toddler. It will get easier, much easier, eventually.

Do you have enough storage?

De clutter. Storage. You need somewhere to tidy things in to. And fewer things to tidy.

Honestly, when the DC were that young, we got a cleaner! If you afford it, I'd really recommend it. Once they are both at nursery/school, it gets easier.

I think it’s fire fighting at that age tbh.

Mine are now 12, 9 and 5, I can’t manage TOMM at the moment with the schoolwork, my own work, dog etc at the moment, but once they are back at school I’m going to try to be religious about it.

Decluttering is key
That and good coffee and some antibacterial wipes.

Each day try to get rid of a small bag of clutter it doesn’t take long
Wipe surfaces with wipes
Do your best with little ones it’s all you can do
Have a coffee (and nice biscuits)

Honestly I was a nightmare especially when the kids were young then about six years ago watched a programme on minimalism and basically drastically reduced what we owned (probably about 50%) probably still not minimalist in the true sense but life is just so so much easier now.
People ask how I keep my how tidy and it’s really only because I don’t have clutter and excess stuff. I’m not a naturally tidy person so it’s the only way for me not to have a trashed house all the time.
Of course with a family of 4 things get untidy but I can easily get things back in shape. Could probably tidy the whole house in 20 to 30 minutes now which makes cleaning so much quicker too

Ive got 3 under 3 and my once tidy, organised home is now a complete mess 24/7. It really affects my mood too. I’m constantly cleaning/tidying the kitchen but it never seems done, I have no answers only sympathy!!! Am following this thread with interest!

It’s so hard to keep the house clean with toddlers ! Especially at the moment when we’re all stuck in the house a lot more than usual .
Storage is your answer. Make sure everything has a home and try to put everything back when it’s finished with .
I put everything in the dishwasher because I can’t stand the look of dishes on the sink so as doll as I’ve finished with a cup or we have finished lunch it gets put in.
We have a cordless dyson so it’s easy to run it over the floors after meals .
I clean the bathroom when one of the dds is in the shower , the shower unfortunately though doesn’t get a scrub as much as I’d like !
Every evening I put a wash in the machine to run for the morning so I pop that on when I get up and then I tumble dry them at some stage that day. Once that’s done I put them away or in the ironing pile straight away . I only iron it necessary so would do that in the evening maybe once every two weeks - only takes 30 mins.
My main issue is the amount of toys, we have storage but they get brought from one room to the next and left there . Nothing we can do about that at the moment !

Declutter and find space for everything you keep. A home for everything and everything in its place.

DH does his share or at the very least not undoing all your good work by leaving a trail of clothes, crockery, pocket debries, mail lying around.

He does bathtime and you clean then, or vice versa.

If he works and there is any suspicion that he extends his working day to avoid bathtime or doing his share at home 'because he works long hours' then address this.

If you can afford it, get a cleaner.

Mine are a similar age and it used to stress me out. People said priorities will change when you have children, but bollocks to that, I couldn't let it go! It just added to the to do list and got me so annoyed/upset/stressed.

Ended up getting a cleaner. It's a luxury/spending choice and I've reduced other things to pay for her, but it is literally a weight off my mind.

Now I only have to worry about tidying...

Lockdown isn’t helping.

Being in pat of the day.
Cooking every meal.
Living around the mess 24/7.

Your DC's are so young, don't put too much pressure on yourself.

I have a 5yo and nearly 3yo and my house has gone to pot since DD has been off school. It's really hard to keep on top of it when you've got young DC's at home 24/7. You don't get much time to get things done. And whatever you do gets undone within 24hrs.

I (barely) keep on top of tidying, washing and bathrooms. DH keeps on top of the dishwasher, kitchen and floors. Anything else like dusting, windows, skirting boards etc gets done as and when but really not often enough atm.

I think that most people with young DCs struggle to stay on top of housework tbh. It gets easier as they get older. My 5yo is good at tidying up after herself and makes much less mess than the 2yo. Also I could leave her to her own devices while I get stuff done but it's much harder to do that with the 2yo. 10 min bursts max because he's likely to start trashing the kitchen or leaping off the furniture if left alone for too long 😂

When my dc were very young, I gave the house a really good sort out, cleared out loads so it was easy to keep tidy.
Then I had to let my standards skip, so bathroom and kitchen cleaned hygienically, kept on top of washing but did only essential ironing, but I didn't do skirting boards, Windows, under beds etc., more a case of quick tidy, dust, hoover.

Declutter as much as you can and then baskets in every room to chuck stuff in when you've not got time for a proper clean/organise. If you've got room a dishwasher is a life saver also a tumble dryer so there is not wet clothes hanging everywhere.

The best thing I’ve done over the last few years is slowly de clutter the house, I mean EVERYTHING. I’ve given away a couple of thousand items, seriously, if I added up every item of clothing, book I’ll never read again, mugs, craft stuff, bed linen etc. The point of this is that I now have some empty shelves and cupboards or EMPTIER spaces so I have room to put stuff AWAY which instantly makes a room look better.

Cleaners, twice a week
Strict throwing out recycling regime otherwise

Also..... storage storage storage! And de-clutter. Everything needs to have a place to go. It's much easier to keep on top of it when everything is tidied away.

Honestly you need both of you invested and partaking.

Go through the entire house and organise/ declutter (I would do this over a weekend without kids)

Have a place for everything

Clean as you go

Deep clean with Dh weekly, robo vac helps

Well I don't to be honest. Living room, kitchen and bathroom can be fine but bedrooms are a mess or vice versa, I just have a weekly list and try and do as much as I can, I roll over missed tasks to the next week and do them first. Seems to keep me from drowning

A cleaner. Worth every penny and the £25 a week it costs me saves me a whole day of deep cleaning in my day off. I do still have to ‘keep tidy as I go’ and put the odd wash on but as long as I put things back after use it never gets to the point where it’s an absolute mess.

Also.. the one toy rule!! Best thing I ever taught my child If a toy isn’t out away before a new one comes out, it goes in the bin.

With young kids I just had a huge storage trunk for downstairs toys which were put away at the end of every day, that alone was a massive relief. The rest.... I tended to wipe around the bathroom when kids were in bath and kitchen when I was in it. Decluttering helps but you need time to do it.

For toys and stuff, just get the biggest containers you can find and Chuck it all in each day. Stackable. Honestly, I’ve spent probably weeks of my life trying to organise the chaos of kids’ stuff and it’s just a pointless task. You have to just learn to live with it until they get a bit older and the toys get smaller and they have less.

Agree de-cluttering is your friend for other things. You can get more/smarter storage but unless you get rid of things you don’t need it doesn’t help.

For cleaning - think ‘clean enough’ rather than show home clean. That mindset shift is a game changer. I know some people like to vacuum daily but we do a full run through the house once a week and then downstairs (all hard floors) I might spot sweep when there is a specific mess - usually kitchen. It never looks spotless but it’s frequent enough that we are on top of it.

Also, just in case it’s not the case already, if you have a partner make sure they do their share. Whatever that looks like will be specific to your set up but for us it looks like DH and I having some jobs that are specifically ours, for example I do weekly shop, DH goes out for top ups, I cook, DH tidies kitchen and loads/starts dishwasher each night. I clean the bathroom each week, DH does the weekly vacuum.

Most other things are done as and when. We also occasionally just spend 10-15 mins together tidying round, and it’s amazing how much you can get done and how much better things look afterwards.

Cleaner. I didn't have a cleaner for years and my house was a tip. Having a cleaner means I know that once a week, all the floors get mopped, bathrooms properly cleaned, oven/fridge done- and then the rest of it, which is tidying and washing up and the odd whisk around the bathroom seems less daunting.

I can then aim to quickly tidy/clean in the evening, just for 10-15 min, and it's all nice by the morning.

Decluttering is what I do in holidays!

We've got a cat and a mud loving dog.

Cleaner once a week, robot hoover, de cluttered. I'm going to get a robot mop too.

Old house had more storage which helped - we are getting storage built.

Have lower standards.

It helps that my husband is naturally tidy and likes to clean up the kitchen after tea. It's lovely coming down to a tidy kitchen.

OP, I live alone and don’t have the enthusiasm to keep on top of cleaning at the moment, even though I’m wfh. Everyone suggesting declutter is right, but it’s hard to get rid of/sell stuff in lockdown. I’m hoping that once it’s safe to have people collect items I want to donate or sell then I’ll crack on with it. In the meantime some of the suggestions re: toy storage sound good and fairly easy to do.

I don’t have room for an under counter dishwasher in my kitchen so purchased a small countertop one and that has been a great help. Soon I’m going to invest in a robot vacuum and set that to work.

Maybe invest in a one-off deep clean from an agency (if that’s allowed in lockdown) and take it from there?