If you have young children, is your house clean?

[ASN68]

I really enjoy having things clean and organised but that dosent reflect in my home. I feel like all I do is clean when I can but with work and having a 3 year old and a baby at least 50% of my home is untidy at all times, washing piles up etc. It's frustrating because I never used to be a messy person.

Is this just normal, does everybody with young children have a messy home or am I doing something wrong? Life feels so messy and disorganised right now.

(Disclaimer before there are comments: my partner does help out where he can in the evenings cleaning up while I work from home, he works hard with long hours too at work)

It’s not filthy, the work surfaces are clear and disinfected and the bathrooms aren’t covered in grime but the floor could do with an extra hoover and mop and the skirting boards and windows are done once in a blue moon. My standards have dropped massively. Kids and a dog!!

Clean & tidy here. We have a lot of storage so it's pretty easy to put everything away and make it all look tidy enough.

Clean, mostly. Tidy? Not as tidy as I'd like during the day if we're home! Toddlers are little whirlwinds. There's usually at least 1 load of washing to put away at all times, but thankfully we have a study and a playroom so toys and clothes airer/clean washing can be put in there and the door closed!

I hoover every night, fire the toys away after kids bedtime, and downstairs looks respectable fairly quickly.

My house was always clean and tidy. I found it easy to put a load of washing on, hoover, whilst looking after ds's, or when they were playing or watching tv. I am naturally very organised and any email that comes in i action, ie buy a mufti day outfit. I batch cooked so always had a bag of spag Bol or meatballs to pull out of the freezer and then dinner was ready. But I never worked full time. I work 4 days now they are older, so that makes things a lot easier than it might be for OP.

When mine were younger the house was always guest ready. Now they are 10 and 11 they are in and out, this time of year they are covered in mud and track it in. Can't seem to keep their hands off walls, I won't mention the state of their rooms.

They do help but my god the mess!!!

I used to be so house proud even when my 3 eldest was young but since having two more children my life feels like absolute chaos. There's always washing and washing up to be done. I've been off work since November for mental health reasons and even though I'm home alone everyday I still can't get my self organised. I was up until 2am this morning pulling out my cooker and washing machine and cleaning behind them (which was very grim, not done for a year) and I cleaned my oven inside and out. I've still got a list of stuff to do as long as my leg but can never get everything ticked off because there's always a mountain of washing and washing up that's never ending
I've just spent the morning cleaning underneath my top kitchen cupboards because I made the mistake of looking up when I was loading the washing machine and saw how grim they were.

Clean - yes, we have a cleaner so it's always hygienically clean but the crumbs/sticky handprints/footprints where he's buggered off over the cream carpets with his shoes still on the moment we get into the house mean it doesn't always look spick and span. No one needs to be afraid to accept a cuppa and a biscuit, though.

Messy - all the bloody time and it drives me up the wall.

In this instance the footprint 'he' I'm referring to is 3 year old DS, not DH. DH used to do this but I've made it clear that it's a sackable offence (lighthearted before anyone stays accusing me of being a controlling wife!)

Always clean , messy during the day. My DH does bedtime and I do a tidy up so we can sit down at 8pm to a tidy lounge , play room and kitchen.

Yes, I have a messy home with a 3 and 1 year old. Baby isn't in nursery and eldest does 2 days so they're nearly always around to make a mess 😂 it stresses me out sometimes when there's too much to do (currently there are toys everywhere, baby's emptied a kitchen cupboard, tons of washing to do, plus huge pile to put away, dishwasher needs emptying and filling with last night and this morning's pots etc ect) it's hard to get the balance right sometimes between cleaning or entertaining them

Nope. It's not. I do the bare minimum in survival mode

It's clean but not very tidy and quite cluttered. Our kids are like tornadoes leaving a trail of destruction behind them (got 6) and the dog sheds loads.

Clean 'ish' tidy no

Nope, looks like a bomb’s hit it most of the time. It was pristine when I was on maternity leave, but now I’m back at work full time and my baby is a school child who creates his own mess in addition to mine.

We can’t even get a cleaner because the problem is mess rather than dirt. It’s not particularly dirty, we clean the kitchen and bathroom regularly. There’s just stuff everywhere.

Yes pretty much. Ds is almost 2. Lots of building work the last year of so, and I have majorly de cluttered as didn’t want so much stuff after renovations. So now pretty minimal.
It’s covered with toys at various points in the day. But they all have hidden storage for when not in use.
Robot hoover.

I'm beginning to come out of the messy stage. My view is it's surface mess, if the surface underneath is sanitary,.eg clean toilet, floor etc then crack on. Enjoy the kids they will be at school sooner than you think.

The 18 month old watched me put all the toys away in their toy unit thing and dragged it all out immediately onto the floor. This repeated 3 times. Standards have dropped.

Oh christ no

My house isn't dusted or hoovered as regularly as I would like and is cluttered. It does my head in BUT my 9 year old and nearly 2 year old are more important... I spend time on the evening helping son with his extra tutu homework and in the day keeping my youngest entertained. They aren't little for long, I will get back to my more regular cleaning then... (house isn't dirty just dusty but it is also nearly 100 years old so I expect it)

Yes clean and tidy. I don’t have a cleaner

Clean? No.
Tidy? No
And we have a cleaner once a week.

I work 4 days a week and spend most of my day off cleaning and tidying, as well as ad hoc bits over the weekend and during the week. My house rarely looks completely tidy and gets very messy when the kids are at home. I'm so so over constantly tidying.

It’s cleanish, rarely tidy! I was hoping things would improve when the kids get older?! Certainly when they’re both at school they’ll have less time at home to make a mess…

I have 3 young children 5 and under and we both work full time. As you can imagine life is busy and time isn't something we have in buckets. Our house is clean, it just isn't tidy (most of the time). I do try to keep communal areas tidy but it's near impossible. I won't put up with dirt though, floors are swept at least 3 times a day downstairs and I'm quite ocd that everyone wears clean clothes so I'm constantly washing so clothes don't often get put away. So yes our house is clean but full of toys and piles of clean clothes! I've no idea how anyone with kids and pets cope, it must be even harder. I remember when we were house viewing how easy it was to spot pet houses, even when the owners had clearly spent ages trying to clean and tidy, they still felt dirty, pet hair on furniture and funky smells, yuck.

I think a bit of mess (untidy) with children is normal, but dirt isn't, that isn't the children that's a lack of cleaning.

Yes but only because we have a cleaner.

We do our best with tidying (quick tidy each evening and proper tidy before cleaner comes each week so she can actually clean) but tbh it feels rather pointless when the kids just turn the house into a mess again immediately.

By the time we've done meal planning, food shopping (and we do most online), cooking, clearing up after meals, filling and emptying dishwasher and washing up the stuff that doesn't go in, plus all the mountains of laundry (and I don't change sheets and towels as often as I'd like ), essential life admin, and obviously work and looking after the kids... there's only so much tidying and cleaning we have time and energy for.

It's relentless.