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Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

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Original poster

Is it possible to keep your house nice with small children in it?

19 replies

ThatDamnDog · 26/10/2010 19:16

From another thread, where the concept of having your house ready for unexpected visitors was mentioned, I am wondering when exactly I can hope to get back to that stage.

DS is 3 and DD is 5 weeks. OK, so I can clear away the bricks and the playdough and the pipecleaners (WTF is that all about?!), but it takes more than a 5 minute sweep to remove the veneer of yoghurt and biro from the walls, and it takes time (that doesn't appear to exist right now) to do the usual jobs like clean the bathroom properly and wash the windows. I'm grateful for the health visitor's weekly appearance if only because it means DP and I call upon our dwindling energy reserves to shove a hoover round and collect the pukey muslins the night before.

Am I doing it all wrong? And if not, how old were your kids before you could maintain some degree of cleanliness at least?

OP posts:

potplant · 26/10/2010 19:19

Not my house.

I think I read on here that your house should be 15 minutes away from receiving guests. Mine is closer to 15 days.

mapoftheworld · 26/10/2010 19:23

I think 5 weeks is a abit young to expect anything like a tidy clean house!!!

Mine is clean most of the time and tidy when kids arre not in the middle of playing with things most of the time but mine are 5yo and 2yo

Tortington · 26/10/2010 19:24

no, and tbh, i wouldn't know why a good mum would want to. controversial perhaps, but a fun home isn't a show home IMO

Original poster

ThatDamnDog · 26/10/2010 19:38

Before DD arrived I was still miles off tidy. And that was with one 3 year old! I'm imagining decades of stray jigsaw pieces and odd socks ahead of me.

OP posts:

SkylineDrifter · 28/10/2010 11:24

Mine are all grown up and only one of the four still at home. It never gets tidy. But I have figured out what makes it untidy. DH has been away with work for almost three weeks, and it's just me and DD2. I'm expecting a visitor in an hour or two and have only to run around with the hoover. Usually it'd be clearing up the papers, etc all around his chair, washing the mountain of mugs he'd used, and making sure the toilet seat was down.

lollipopshoes · 28/10/2010 11:25

yes.

I know because I have seen it.

But I don't know how she does it

PaulineMole · 28/10/2010 11:25

not while they're awake, no.

overmydeadbody · 28/10/2010 11:29

Yes it is entirely possible.

All you have to do is redefine your idea of 'nice'.

lollipopshoes · 28/10/2010 11:30

although her leaving her two children throwing up while she cleaned the kitchen floor may have had something to do with it...

overmydeadbody · 28/10/2010 11:31

Actually, on a more serious note, it is possible to keep on top of things by doing little and often, like never leaving a room empty handed, and giving the bathroom a quick clean when you're in there anyway, I do this every other day roughly and my bathroom is always clean without me feeling that I have to find the time to clean it.

I also discovered that it is far less effort to wipe down the hob every evening, rather than needing to scrub it for ages once in a blue moon to get all the cooked-on spills off.

ariane5 · 28/10/2010 11:32

my house always a mess if i suddenly find that iam going to have visitors and place is a mess i run around with bin bag chuck ev thing in and put it in my bedroom to sort out later,flush loo and squirt bit of loo cleaner down it, put all dirty dishes in sink hoover front room and hope for the best!!

with 3 children (8,3 and 11mths) i never manage to get everything done.id love a spotless home but its so full of clutter,paperwork and toys !

SquirrelonmyHead · 28/10/2010 11:33

I think tidy and clean are two different things though. I wouldn't think a house with toys scattered around and kids playing wasn't ok but if there was a grey water line in the loo I'd run a mile.

Though not if you had a 5 week baby, then I'd roll up my sleeves and try to help.

overmydeadbody · 28/10/2010 11:41

Agree. I regularly clean the house. Mess doesn't look that bad really.

I found the best way to keep on top of mess is to have a place for everything, even down to little things, and especially for toys, and every member of the house knows the place of everything, then it is easy for anyone to quickly put things away.

I also am ruthless at de cluttering.

thesecondcoming · 28/10/2010 12:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

yomellamoHelly · 28/10/2010 13:42

Not for me, no (3 dc).
Keep on top of the daily mess - clearing toys, laundry, bins, hoovering, wiping table, mopping floors a couple of times a week and cleaning bathroom and toilet. (Feels like groundhog day here.) Take advantage of dh being round at the w/ends to change sheets and hoover bedrooms. Find rest almost impossible to get round to, but it's not the end of the world.
Part of it is that I'm just so knackered all the time from running around with the kids non-stop. So when I do get a few minutes I make myself a coffee rather than worry about the ironing or yucky windows/walls or dust or whatever.
Am happy to invite friends round regardless of the state of the place though.
It bothers dh most.

Rannaldini · 28/10/2010 13:56

I've found that since this dd and a proper mat leave i've started to really enjoy trying to have a sorted house

Truly if you met me or knew me before you'd be amazed at the amount of pleasure it's giving me
I'd had two cleaners ironing lady and gardener for 10 yrs+

DH hates the new me and mutters darkly about ocd or pnd but I think now that if I don't keep at it constantly I'll need a pitchfork and map. But I am bizarrely calmed by it

I still don't give a fuck what anyone else's house is like though except if I might actually die in there
I'm a stepford slattern I suppose

Dexterrocks · 28/10/2010 14:08

I swing between having my house very tidy and clean and living in a pigsty.

I have to admit that when it is tidy and clean I am a nervous wreck and end up screaming about stray mugs, felt pens, lego pieces. The kids end up watching tv or playing computer games so I don't go nuts.

When it is a pigsty the kids have a great time doing amazing sticking and gluing projects, cutting up bits of paper and leaving it all over the floor and building amazing lego worlds.

We are currently working on a happy medium. We have a living room and family space in the kitchen so I have banned the kids from the lounge and keep it tidy and clean - where I can greet unexpected visitors unabashed. Good friends still get taken into the kitchen though where lego and craft is tidied enough to hoover up after the dog hair and eat tea but projects are allowed to hang around for a few days before I get jumpy.

It seems to be a reasonable compromise for us but everyone has their own tolerance level. The best advice I got was that if someone was a good friend then they wouldn't care and if they weren't then why should you care?

Bumperlicious · 28/10/2010 14:21

I want to know too, i have the same ages as yours Dog.

Custy, I understand your point but for me being in a messy, and yes often dirty atm, house is pretty depressing.

For us the problem is storage. we don't have the room or money for anything nice. Would rather not have plastic boxes around everywhere. plus dd1 is getting to the age where her toys have lots of little bits which end up all over the house.

I suggested to dh that we identify & try to tackle the main hot spots.

ethicalmum · 31/10/2010 14:38

I have three boys all under seven. I can honestly say the best I hope for is at least one day of clean and tidiness sadly it is the day when my Organic Cleaner attends my fifty quid a week help irons window cleans tends to my garden whilst putting the washing out and cleans the kids bikes so for just one day a week it is possible....

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