To be overwhelmed with the amount of housework that a toddler creates?

[poshsinglemum]

I know that people say don't worry about the housework too much when the dc are young but I cannot live in squalor. I don't want a show home. I'm just overwhelmed with the amount of destruction that my two yera old creates. So far we have;
crayons on the wall, skirting board ripped off in the kitchen, poo on the lawn, torn up paper everywhere, toys scattered around, rancid carpet due to lots of spilliages etc, etc.

I love dd to distraction adn I thank my lucky stars that I have toys scattered around my house but I do find the drudgery soul-destroying at times. I do love cooking and creative things like that inc gardening but not cleaning.

With such a young child I have no time to do any repairs or rather no energy. It's a mess. My bedroom needs sorting out and the shed needs decluttering. Dd takes up all my attention and gets under my feet.

How can I keep on top of things? Most of the time I can't even go for a wee!

I am struggling to keep on top of the housework at the moment. DS2 is 16 months and just follows me around undoing things. He is in prime 'emptying' phase at the moment so whenever I do something, he is somewhere else nearby creating more carnage.

And the food on the floor, and the fingerprints everywhere.

But they are lovely and won't be small for long so I try not to worry too much

I hear you, sisters. My house is just awful, awful. DH has gone out to avoid having to be in it, it's so bad. There isn't a surface that's clear or a sofa cushion free to sit down on. When we go to bed we'll be moving all sorts of stuff off it and onto the floor. The carpet is giving off a weird smell from different aged patches of spilt milk.

DSs 13mo and 3yo. When will it imporooooooove?

Oh my god, just wait until your children are teenageers, poshsinglemum and leplan!

yanbu. I have 2 of the little pickles (3.6 and 21mo). I usually just give up by 10am if I'm not at work and resign myself to having a 20 min blitz after bedtime and have a good tidy when they are out with my mum / sister. Even cbeebies doesn't keep my 2 amused anymore so I can't turn my back to do things as someone starts climbing / pulling things apart / squabbling etc.

I am off all next week and they are at nusery for 4 days . My house will be organised again, at least for a little while.

I used to get my DS to help when he was quite young. Give him a little dustpan and brush or a toy hoover. This worked really well.( I was embarassed when he started nursery as he would pick all the other childrens shoes up and arrange them in the cupboard.)
Fill a box with toys anything will do that is not familiar like empty bottles with rice in to make music. Put it in the middle of the room you are cleaning and let your little one rummage. When you are done take it with you to the next room.

Arghh! I was hoping it was going to get better soon! DS (15mo) seems to be growing taller by the day, and can now reach things off the kitchen worktop. I'm running out of high places to put things!

Five minutes peace to do something mundane like wash up his cups/get lunch ready seem to come at the price of devastation somewhere.

I'm encouraging his interest in grabbing baby wipes and cleaning the bathroom with them though .

Hi all. Good idea Lynli. DD does love to ''help'' bless her. Its so cute when she hands me pegs in order to put washing on the line and she loves watering the plants. I guess it's about channelling their enthusiasm.

Why, oh why, oh why did I read this thread??? (DD is 8 mo and looking to get mobile soon - )

I try to get my two DSs (20mo and 3) to clear up their extensive mess during tidy-up time at the end of the day but they take forever, get easily distracted, and after 15 minutes' frenetic chivvying four blocks and an engine have been put away and I just end up doing it all myself. Sigh.

And my sofa is a disgrace. Milk and food stains everywhere, and even though it's dark green it still shows up where DS1 has expressed himself creatively with felt pens.

When my boys leave home I will move to an immaculate loft with minimalist furniture. Until then I just take comfort in the fact that I don't know anybody with small children who doesn't live in a pigsty!

Your two yr old will get free sessions at nursery when she's three - 15 hrs a week! You canclean then....

Yogurt smeared on sofa
poo in the garden
felt tips on wall
biscuits in bed (mine)
dried milk on car seats
glitter on husband

Its crap innit !

ttalloo - I had wondered if I was a bad mother for frequently fantasising about how lovely my home will be once my boys are gone, and then mentally crossing off the dates on my cell wall...

Ooh, I have managed to convince DS1 (4) that windolene and pledge are monster repellent.

yesterday he cleaning the sitting room windows and polished all the tables.

rainbow drawn on the wall, hidden behind the curtains.
finger prints on walls up the stairs.
grubby sofa.
curtains pulled down (and re-fixed).
books / cd's pulled out of unit on a daily basis.
floor under dining room table speckled with crumbs.
walls with an interesting splatter pattern.
veggies in garden slightly trampled / picked and hanging on for dear life.
dents in walls from hurled wooden blocks.
toys no longer in correct OCD-ish labelled boxes and mixed up and strewn everywhere.

Pledge is monster repellent. True brilliance!

And dusting will ward off dragons. And a tidy book shelf will make the ice cream van more likely to be at the park. And putting clothes in the laundry basket will make nettles sting less.

This may be the solution I've been looking for. How long do you think it will work?

Meglet, I would let the house rot for the next few weeks if I were you xx

Just don't get to the stage of my old neighbour who was seriously counting the days until her children left home - that's too sad. I would like to see my bedroon floor though - can't remember the last time it was clear enough to hoover.

My 20 month old DS2 can now move a chair and climb onto it to reach the things that he can't reach by himself. I have a gate on the kitchen, but DS1 can open it and usually forgets to close it again.

I think the breaking point is the ants in the kitchen. Put down my rentokil ant repellant tonite so fingers crossed. Not toddler related but must make sure that dd dosn't bget ant repellant.

leplan thats how it's normally is . This week housework is going to be my displacement activity while the dc's are at nursery.

Positives are; cute toys, cute baby clothes, cute baby. I also love seing baby clothes drying on the washing line. I do moan but my house would be sad and sterile were it not for dd.

It doesn't have to be too hideous.

I have 3 DDs, now 11.5, 6 and 3.9 and have never had any structural damage or writing on the walls.

I find Vanish Carpet and Upholstery cleaner is great.

I do hoover every day or we would crunch our way around the house on the crumbs/leaves/grass/sand that gets trodden in.

I find loads of storage baskets and boxes are good as you can just sling everything in at the end of the day.

Having said that DH thinks we should get something like this to help with the clearing up process

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Oh dear it is horrendous.And also people forget and I am an older mother so friends my age have older offspring and tidier houses.I follow my smallest DD (just turned three) around all blooming day and I do try to get her to tidy up but as soon as I'm doing something else then I turn around and AAAARGGH mess everywhere.My house looks like a squat.In fact I've been in far tidier squats.It looks like I've been burgled by a person determined to find the PURPLE my little pony or the SYLVANIAN PANDA ("I MUST get it,I MUST").They have failed and left empty handed but will return....

It's so soul destroying when you spend hours making it nice, and then they literally make it look like a bomb site in 10 minutes

Actually, my tips, keep anything potentially messy (pens, things which can be spilled, etc) out of reach except for when supervised only. Anything other than water to drink and messy food ONLY in highchair (biscuit crumbs don't count as can be hoovered, I mean like chocolate here). NO breakable toys a) until older OR b) only to be kept out of reach to be played with under supervision. This means I can chuck DS' toys merrily into the toybox from the other side of the room without worrying I'm going to break them, and also that he's not going to break things playing with them.

Keep hoover plugged in and accessible at all times and/or get a hand held hoover.

Go out at every opportunity. (I am not joking!) If you have a safe garden for them to play in, encourage the use of it! If it truly is safe/they are old enough, it even gives you 5 minutes to rush around chucking things into boxes and maybe even run the hoover round (I have only just discovered this as a tidying strategy, it's fab!)

Sidge - lol, that is too funny