Is it possible to keep your house nice with toddlers?

[snowchick1977]

As it states really.

I have a 19 month old and a 5 month old. My house used to be beautiful, it's now descending into chaos.

Marks everywhere, stains on my carpet from food.

If any of you have any tips, I'd be grateful....or should I just admit defeat

no it's not

sit down and have a cup of tea instead

We only manage it by limiting where they go in the house but we have the option of banning them from the living room most of the time.

Yes of course.
Food should be eaten at the dining table /kitchen, not wandering around. Craft stuff ditto.
Tidy up at the end of the day, even if it's just shoving it all in a box.
Not rocket science :)

It may be. If you become an obsessed and naggy mother.

I'd rather remember that their mess will only be in my life for a short time and then they will grow, leave and take the mess with them. And I will miss them terribly.

So I'd rather have them and their mess

Yes. Eat food at table. Get storage for toys. Don't worry about general toy mess but do get staining on the carpets sorted.

Good luck!

No but you can keep carnage to a minimum by Scotch guarding carpets, only doing painting messy craft etc in the kitchen(wipeable area),putting breakable ornaments away for a few years and insisting on a no shoes on the house rule.

Also don't be a sap like me and tidy up for your children get them to do it for as early an age as possible

Mine are 2.8 and 13 months. They eat in their highchairs in the kitchen (it's tiled). The arty stuff is kept in a child-proofed press in the dining room and is only used under strict supervision (and it's only crayons and markers so far, the creche do all the really messy stuff!). We have a big toy box that the toys get flung into (by me, not them!) as soon as they're in bed.

The place is messy during the day, certainly, but it's never so bad that it can't be fixed fairly quickly. And we've wooden floors so bodily fluids spills can be mopped up quickly.

Of course! I cm so my house is over-run with children normally.
Food is to be eaten at the kitchen table, same for drinks. Craft and messy stuff in the kitchen only (tiled floor). Shoes and bags hung up before doing anything. If you want something else out then you tidy away what you're currently playing with!!! Even the baby (10months old) knows how to chuck toys back into the baby toy box.

I think I'm expecting too much. We cant eat in our kitchen, not even room for a table so they eat in their highchairs in the dining room but that is carpeted, and wrecked now.

I think they key may be wooden flooring, not carpets.

No. I cleaned from top to bottom at 10 o'clock last night. DD1 and DH got up and went out, just ,me and baby dd2 in the house all day and there's food on the floor, smears on the sofa, the cupboards and nappy basket has been emptied out etc etc.

It drives me mad. I actually feel like walking out sometimes over it all :(

It may be too late for your carpets now, but I've heard shower curtains under highchairs advocated for carpeted dining rooms.

No. And on top of the two under two I have a dog and two cats. Even when I clean thoroughly it looks as bad a few hours later.

We don't have carpets. It helps.

I did a thread on a similar vein a few months ago. I came to the conclusion that if you have toddler(s) and work and don't have a cleaner it's pretty much impossible unless you're extremely fussy/slightly obsessive about it. I do my best but it feels like a losing battle alot of the time! We have carpet in the dining room too (and no table in the kitchen) and our dining room carpet is disguisting, despite lots of carpet cleaning and using oil cloths on the floor around the high chair (DD has a long range with her throws!). We are soon to get vinyl flooring in the dining room so it's easier to clean. I am, however, strict about DD not eating or drinking anything which might make a mess or stain anywhere except for the dining room, and I try to tidy as we go along and get DD involved in it there's always so much to do though.

Ok yes,no carpets under tables, or get a cheap rug from Ikea to put on top of the carpets that you can throw away when they start eating more neatly! Put plastic down when doing art i

The best thing we did was to rip up the carpets and lay wood flooring down. I was cleaning (with the vax) the carpets every few weeks but they still looked awful. A quick vac and a mop now and it's so much better.