Please can anyone tell me how to keep my house tidyish . . there must be a secret!

[whyme2]

I have four children under 6 (youngest is 9weeks). Does anyone have any advice on keeping things fairly tidy, how to contain toys, discarded clothes, bedrooms even the bathroom is chaos after we've all used it in the morning. Help and advice needed before I lose the baby somewhere. .

Start your day by getting up 30 minutes earlier than everyone else and getting washed, dressed, bed made, windows open.

Before bedtime make sure laundry is in, d/w is on, toys are away.

Through the day if you see something that needs doing, pick it up and do it, don't step past it.

Agree with the do something when you see something philosophy. I was terrible at doing that, eg stepping over the same pile of books on the stairs, ignoring the collection of stuff for the recyle bin, now I do it when I see it. I am permantly decluttering and tidying as I go.

I alwyas do the main rooms, our front door comes straight into an open plannish kitchen family room so as long as that is fairly straight I am happy.

Make sure evrything has a place. We have oodles of storage baskets for toys and books, the boys are encouraged to put stuff away when they are done with it.

Have massive declutters and get rid of anything that hasn't been touched for three months or so.

My biggest flaw is I let the washing get on top of me, I hate putting it away but that;'s because our clothes storage is short. I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the new IKEA in Feb when I will be buying many chests of drawers.

The DCs have those wooden cube storage units with the pull out leather 'drawers' in their bedrooms. Very easy to sort toys into.

Craft & drawing are the biggest mess offenders in our house. So I bought a stand-alone cupboard for the kitchen especially for their pens & paper etc. Plus they have a huge cupboard in the boiler room for paint, fabrics, glue and a shocking number of those 'paint a piggybank/egg cup/bird house/chair/teaset/princess mirror/plant pot etc that they get given every birthday (and which we never have time to do).

Can offer no help as my house is a shambles!! But my sympathy heads your way

Molly Maid is most people's secrete I've discovered or OCD too late for me though.
I have banned all toys from the living room so at least one room feels normal, the rest of the house is a health hazard at times.

Molly Maid is most people's secrete I've discovered or OCD too late for me though.
I have banned all toys from the living room so at least one room feels normal, the rest of the house is a health hazard at times.

30 mins earlier than a 9 week old though?

The other tips sound all well and good but you need to try and get your dh/dp on board, and also try and get dcs to clear up as they go along eg dirty clothes in the laundry basket. When you see it do it is a good principle but if you're the only one doing it in a family of 6 you'll go loopy. So far we've taught our 17 month old to put everyone's shoes away, and I hope to extend it to other things, though of course he likes getting everything out as well...

thanks for the replies. I am lazy but will try to tidy kitchen before bed. I think we have lots of stuff that hasn't got a home so I will make that a priority to find a cupboard/box/shelf/rubbish bin for the stuff lying on floors and surfaces.
Anymore suggestions welcome - like how to train the dcs to not make things worse.

ah yes - I did wonder about getting up before the baby, that would be about 5:30. But actually the baby is the tidiest one here, the only mess she makes are little pukey deposits on her chair. Unfortunately my DH is the worst offender but that is how his parents are.
I think I need to sort storage that my two oldest can use without my help, they are good at sorting their dirty laundry and putting things in the dishwasher although I have to keep strongly reminding them.

av 8 kids (5 birth, 3 step),tidy house is long distant(wonderfull)memorey. do as i do get the old photos out(pre kids) and prove to the world that yse that immaculate home is there ,its just hiding under all the toys! think of it as a tempory phase (18ys untill the darlings leave for uni ).if all else fails ,get help in.its amazing what can happen if theres someone to help 4 a couple of hours,doesnt need to be expensive ,get ur mates in 4 a "tidy party".basically u circulate around the group and once a month u go round to whoevers turn it is and clean.heres the clever bit ,if ur like me most of ur mates have 2.4 kids so u still get majority help.cheap drinkies r great 2 help get m8s onboard.

DS2 has ASD & SLD. He used to love emptying jigsaws, playing cards, Lego etc over the floor. I quickly realised that to have any semblance of a life, I had to pick up & put away each layer before the next was added. He was trained to "pick it up" and actually became the best of the 4 DSs at that particular chore! Agree with the "place 4 everything and everything in its place" philosophy.

I am more of a morning person than a night owl, so put everything that will go in the dishwasher and put it on just before I go to bed. Everything else goes on breakfast bar or in the sink to soak and I tidy or wash it up in the morning.