Is it actually possible to declutter with small children around?

[Jemster]

I am forever picking up stuff & tidying up around everyone. There is 'stuff' everywhere I look, toys, clothes, books, paperwork, spelling sheets, colouring pens, bits of snipped up paper etc...
We have one main living area & smallish kitchen. I have tried to put storage in place but the stuff is still left everywhere. I am tired of asking my ds7 to help tidy up only to be grunted at. I am constantly nagging everyone & it's starting to get me down.
I work part time 5 days a week so would really like to spend quality time with family at weekends instead of just tidying up again & again after them all.
I've tried decluttering but it seems to make little difference. The 'stuff' seems to breed!!
Sometimes I feel like getting a skip & putting everything in it!
How do other people keep on top of all this with young dc (dd is nearly 3 & very demanding of my time)?

Is it decent stuff or just crap?

DS is much smaller (toddler) but I have baskets for toys, colouring stuff, craft stuff, books and one big one for crap. So floor can always be cleared. I don't ever have more stuff than the room can cope with IYSWIM.

When the kids were small I started to herd them around the house with a carrier bag permanently attached to my belt loops. Stuff to chuck just got added and then the whole bag was thrown away when semi-full. Tissues, bits of "craft", abandoned snacks/colouring in, crap-that-comes-with-comics, small toys from Grandma I didn't like. It made a massive difference.

For stuff that needed to go back to bedrooms I got a plastic tub for each child and we just filled it during the day, bit by bit, then had a five minute run about grabbing the last pieces before going up to bath. They are older (and have less stuff) now, but I will still occasionally order them to bring their tubs downstairs and gather up their hoodies, books and electronics.

It gets easier.

I have lots of things stored in plastic boxes so most stuff has a specific place to be stored. I also rotate toys so keep a few boxes of toys in the cupboard for a while (that kids can't access) then every few weeks/month, swap some of the toys out. This means less toys around in general. Is there any way to get kids more involved in tidying or does it all accumulate while you are at work? My DS (aged 3) isn't allowed to watch TV in the afternoon till his room is mostly tidy - he doesn't do it all by himself but I won't do it all for him.

jemster are you me?

I have nothing helpful to add I am afraid, but am going to watch your thread with interest and steal any good ideas

Oh actually I do have one thing I now do. But, mine are older than your youngest (5 and 8). I have just started in the last couple of weeks to set a timer on either a saturday or sunday for 1 hour and get them to tidy their bedroom within that time. Anything lying on the floor when the timer ends is removed, into a plastic box and stuck in the loft (ok, it doesn't generally get that far). And, anything slung on beds doesn't count as tidying and so I remove those things too, if it is not a pillow/their bears for bed etc.

The children are hit and miss with it. Last week, they ran around tidying and presented me with 'tadah! look at our room mummy!' This week they got distracted playing, I gave them a headsup of the time 10 mins before the end, they charged around chucking things on the bed, I removed everything to cries of 'not that!', just slung it in the plastic box and put the lid on, hoovered, job done. I did take their lego away, and another precious thing. I allowed them to earn those two things back by eating their dinner without mucking around, bathing with mucking around, going to bed without a fuss. The rest will be, well, er, not sure yet

and I bloody hate plastic boxes everywhere. They are so unsightly. I have Naice Boxes here and there, but actually, they just get filled with crap when I tidy, then they get full, then the kids turf them out looking for something, and I am normally too bloody tired to go through and put it all back where it 'lives' if it ever had a home in the first place so now I have boxes of crap, and also crap around the place.

I think it's hard and you just have to do a bit all the time to keep on top of it. I was just thinking the other day that if I lived alone there would be very little tidying up to do... But children just seem to generate stuff. My dd (8) can tidy up but I still have to do a bit of tidying up/decluttering as well as she is not great at throwing anything out and also thing often get jumbled up, etc.

Have you looked at the Kondo thread? I have an 11 mo DD and have just been enlightened by the Kondo thread- my life has been changed!!! :-)

I've just finished doing a 'Marie Kondo' on the house, it was insane, but definitely worth it (DC1 is 7 and the youngest is 7 months).

I have noticed that the DC's need a lot less toys than I had previously though, they really enjoy a core set of toys, there was loads of crap that just didn't get played with.

Car loads went to the charity shop or the tip and a few bits were sold. It was hard work but the house has a different feel to it now, I used to be all about storage and fitting stuff...in the end I was left with a huge stack of empty storage boxes.

I did have to do it a bit differently I think, I pulled the sofa forward at one point and had to put stuff behind it that needed to go ad then waited until DH was home so that I could load the car up without the DCs under foot.

Now I am much better at not keeping stuff that we won't need any more, I just get rid straight away.