Mum of 3- How to get on top of things?!

[MrsEdwardsA]

Hey everyone!
I am a mum of 3. 7yrs, 3yrs, 1yr old. And I just feel like I’m drowning at the moment! I have mountains of washing and every room is untidy. I feel like I’m constantly tidying and cleaning when I’m not working. Any tips on how to keep up? Get back on top of things? Maintain an organised house hold?

Thanks x

Not really any tips but sympathy. I’m
the mother of 3 who are older teens now but when they were around your ones’ ages I felt the same. The washing was a nightmare and I had no idea how parents of more managed. We did have open baskets in the living rooms to sling toys in as that felt more manageable.

Sympathy here too. I have 3 similar ages kids and work 4 days.

Laundry, I try to fold as soon as it comes out of the dryer and put straight in drawers. Toys, I have a kallax unit downstairs which they all get thrown into at the end of the day. I try to encourage the kids to pick up after themselves and put their own shoes away etc, even the baby. As soon as we come in the house I tidy away shoes and coats and water bottles etc and sort out school/nursery/changing bag ready for the next day. I'm also pretty ruthless when it comes to clutter. Eldest can hang onto whatever random crap she likes, but it has to live in her room.

I also always spend half an hour after kids have gone to bed tidying up/running the hoover round/doing dishes. I think if you can get on top of it then it doesn't take as much effort to maintain if that makes sense.

My house looks pretty tidy on the outside. Just don't look in any cupboards or drawers!

Get them doing as much as you can. Build in time for them to tidy up after themselves at the end of each day. Even if it feels painful helping/cajoling/guiding them in doing it, it’s worth it in the long run. I have a bag for life on the kitchen door that everyone knows is the ‘upstairs bag’. Anything that needs to make its way upstairs at some point gets chucked in there instead of cluttering up surfaces or the stairs. I then sort through it while I give the kids a bath. Upstairs each child has a box for any clean laundry or anything that needs to head to their room/space. For your 7 year old I’d make it their responsibility to sort out and put away, help your 3 year old do it and do it for your 1 year old. But I’m a bit further in to having 3 by now (youngest is 5) and life was a lot more messy and chaotic in the earlier years of it. So don’t beat yourself up. And have a space by the door for their coats and shoes. Shoes only multiply and get bigger so building habits of them putting them in a certain place is worth it.

Do you have a partner, helpful family or friends? Do you work FT or PT?

I’d suggest you see if you can get some help with having the kids for a day so you can make a start on having a big organisation day. If possible, get someone else to help you too. Get some supermarket shopping bags as theyre more durable than bin bags and sort all the washing out into separate loads then it’s ready to go in the machine - as a one off use the short cycle until it’s all finished. My short cycle takes 45 minutes so in a day I could potentially do 10 loads! Choose a hot day so you can get it all dried on the line.
Id sort it by person, so yours in one bag, eldest child into 1 etc. Take it off the line and fold back into the bag. That way it’s already sorted ready to put away as soon as it’s dried. - forget about ironing!!