If you have small children AND a clean house, how?

[Hopefully]

I mean actual logistics. Do your kids help? Do they watch tv? Do you do it while they're at nursery/school or whatever? Do you let them whine at your ankles?

Ds1 is 3 and will 'help' for a while, but not long enough to get everything done. DS2 (8 months) will watch for a while then whine/sob I give up.

My current technique is to live in a shit pot then put the tv on for a couple of hours a week and get everything done, but I'm not really loving of as a long term plan as (a) I hate dcs watching too much tv and (b) we live in a bit of a pigsty until it gets so bad that I give in and put the tv on again.

Do you have a routine? A good strategy? We can't afford a cleaner...

Help!

Young children and a clean house just dont go in the same sentance! Dd is 12 months and likes to 'help' but her version of helping is to take the wet washing off the rack as I'm puyting it on, emptying the dishwasher as I'm filling or destroying the room I've just finished cleaning. I've given up!

Do you mean a clean house or a tidy house?
We have 3 small DCs and the house is clean (and tidyish).
Kitchen gets a good wipedown when clearing up from breakfast, only takes an extra 2min. Loos and sinks get done straight after the toothpastefest in the mornings. Hoover round once a week upstairs, quick whizz of hoover round downstairs few evenings a week in that wierd part of the day after baths and not quite bedtime, and clean clothes away then too.
Piles of toys everywhere.....yeah, well why not?!

half an hours telly here and there doesn't do them any harm in my opinion, especially if they are tucking into a fruit platter (which is my tactic) they get their five a day while they watch. Most of my cleaning is done in the evening for about an hour, but I have one morning a week when they are at nursery when I do the serious stuff. Oven/Bathroom etc.

My little one loves to dust all his cars which takes him ages, which means I can dust the living room properly.

Don't put too much pressure on yourself, but it is possible!

a bit of telly now and again won't do any harm

every time you move from one room to another (eg living room to kitchen to make a cup of tea) take something with you that needs to be moved in the same direction

clean kitchen as you go

if your children are happy in the bath and won't climb out then clean the bathroom while they're in the bath

ironing while they're asleep

plenty of boxes/cupboards to chuck toys in - makes child detritus tidying a 5 minute job

we don't have much clutter many ornaments etc so easy to swish round

my house is small which helps, it looks clean and tidy most of the time, just don't look behind the sofa

some people swear by FLy Lady, there are threads on here, that can help you get on top of it and keep on top

I'm not ashamed to have people over but it's not immaculate.

Some things which help.

DD - age 3 gets a white vinegar spray and a cloth and 'helps' while I clean the bathroom. She actually did clean the sinnk the other day! DS 16m gets a cloth or plays with some water or bumbles around (but then he's quite good at entertaining himself. DD wasn't).

DD puts her and DS's things in the sink after a meal. She wipes the table while I do DSs chair.

I eat dinner with them, get them stuck into pudding, clear all the rest and wash up while they're busy scoffing. Jelly takes a long time to eat!

They carry bits that I give them from the washer and ut it in the dryer.

They 'peg' clothes onto the airer while I actually do it. DD can do it now!

They bounce on the bed while I dust / do window frames / make beds.

I limit the amount of times I wash up in the day Breakfast things don't get done till after lunch. Kids dinner after dinner but anything after they go to bed waits. This is a bit scummy but saves my sanity.

I aim to one job a day over the basics (basics = pushing round hoover, surfaces and washing up etc). Monday, ironing/ Tuesday, dusting or odd jobs / Wednesday, bathroom / Thursday = oven, grill, sink + fridge / Fridays, big hoover)

And yes, ceebeebies is liberally used although DS is not interested. He gets on with things by hiself which helps immensly.

I often clean the bathroom when they're in the bath and do the 'don't leave a room without something in your hand' style tidying.

I spy type games to tidy up toys at the end of the day. Ie. I spy a teddy that needs to go in the yellow toy box. (but not overused as it gets dull. I often just do it for them.)

I am trying FlyLady with a 3 year old. I don't think it is possible to have a perfectly tidy house with young dc. What I tend to do is have telly on most of the day but she also has lots of toys around for her to play and I try and play with her too here and there. It's sort of multi-tasking.
I try to break everything up into 15 minute sessions so
15 mins washing up
15 mins de-cluttering (which I am in the middle of now)
15 mins break MNetting or whatever(which I am also doing)
15 mins playing
Just fit it around what you need or want to do.
By the way my house isn't perfect!

Forgot to add my dc actually learn quite a lot from the telly! and they're not just sat there watching all the time.

Fake it.

Washing up bowl under sink to dump dirty dishes that can be left until you have a minute to do them, but if anyone calls around kitchen doesn't look scummy!

Swiffer the crumbs and floor bits into a corner (preferably behind a pot) until you have a mo to get the hoover out...but to the rest of the world floor room looks freshly hoovered.

Dust only the obvious bits and save the rest for a quiet-kiddies half hour when they are amused with something else.

If someone is due to call over at short notice, spray furniture polish into the air (obviously not around the kids!)...gives impression that you have been disting all morning. Also bleach down plughole to give kitchen & bathroom that sanitised smell!!!

Not exactly an easy task but I find cleaning the windows makes the whole room look cleaner & fresher (thereby saving time hoovering and dusting every last corner).

I've also de-cluttered to within and inch of my life. Makes cleaning so much easier, gained a whole load of storage space.

*dusting, natch.

When we had two small DCs we had a small house and we had rules that kept the house clean.

No shoes in the house ever.
No food outside the dining room ever.
No toys outside the playroom.
No pencils, pens or crayons allowed anywhere but the kitchen table.

Other than that, clean once a week and ruthlessly throw out rubbish and clutter.

Oh one final thing. DW took DCs out to the swings/shops/soft play while I cleaned on Saturday morning and cooked lunch. It is much easier to do while no one is in the house.

Little and often. The days of having long cleaning sessions are no more. Bathroom and toilet get cleaned after use. Vacuuming gets done on a piecemeal basis in the day with the stairs done when DH is at home. Kitchen is cleaned after breakfast and dinner.

Dusting - er rarely! We do the basics in our house

Tidying - well we have boxes for toys and try and keep on top of our stuff.

We tidy the toys away at bedtime unless things get really untidy.

Little and often. And a massive declutter so there is less stuff to tidy and all the toys have a home.

I usually spend 30 mins-an hour cleaning/tidying in the morning and little bits as and when through the day.

Every morning I:
Wash up
Wipe kitchen sides and table
Wash and hang out 1 load of washing
Wipe round the loo seat/rim
Make beds & quick tidy dc room
Tidy the sitting room
Hoover downstairs

This takes 20 mins max (apart from the actual washing bit but the washing machine does that not me!)

Then one or more of the following:
Ironing
Dust downstairs
Dust upstairs
Hoover upstairs
Mop floors
Strip beds
Clean bathroom
Proper clean kitchen
Clean oven
Clean out fridge
Clean the insides of the windows
Sort paperwork
etc

These are all mostly 2-5 min jobs with a few longer ones that I save for evenings or when ds is at preschool.

I tidy toys etc through the day
Wash up and sweep crumbs straight after dinner
Often hoover again in the eve

While the dc are in the bath I put away clothes and tidy their room.

The main thing though for me was to cull all the toys etc and to sort them so each one has it's place...that way if the dc want to play cars they get the cars box out and don't have to tip a load of random toys out to find the cars. Also means you don't have toys piled round the edges of the room because they all have a place to be put away.

cull all the toys
that just reminded me of the incinerator scare in Toy Story 3...

They go to charity shops mostly, though I would have liked to have sent some of the more annoying ones to their death

Arf at MoreBeta's 'small' house having a dining room and a playroom

I suggest chloroform.

For the kids, not MB

All our unwanted toys went to the nearly new sale, anything that didn't sell went to the charity shop

I don't throw anything out that someone else could use. If I can get cash for any of it, so much the better.

Our small house has a dining room, a play room a study and library tethersend, it's about nine foot square and is the same room

Ah- open plan living, FourThousand

Mine are 5 and 2 and the 5 yo is home educated.

I have children that take forever to eat, so I do stuff while they are finishing their food. Generally, while they are finishing breakfast I sort out the washing, while they are finishing lunch I make dinner and do dishes, while they finish their dinner I do a quick tidy round.

I clean the bathroom while they are in the bath, then just do the bath while they are getting dressed.

Anything else gets done on a Sunday afternoon by either DP or me depending on who is currently in demand from the children!

My small house (without dining room or playroom ) is tidy downstairs & in our bedroom. DS1's bedroom (he's 14) is a different story. DS2's is usually fine but then he's a tidy creature by nature. DD is still in our room. The bathroom is generally the room most in need of cleaning & gets done when I get the chance.

Kitchen and lounge are just tidied up as we go along & floors swept once a day. It is not perpetually spotless though - I've never quite known how people achieve that .

Freakoid - your ironing is a 2-5 min job? Are you a spider with eight ironing boards?