Tell Cif how has your home changed since having children? £250 voucher prize draw NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

Cif have asked to find out if Mumsnetters have changed their homes since having children.

Here's what Cif have to say, "We all know that children see the home as a playground, and playgrounds get dirty. But we also understand how difficult it can be to clean up after your child, so we want to help make that process as easy as possible."

So, have you changed your home since having children? Have you rearranged it to keep more valuable breakables out of reach? Have you rearranged your living spaces to make room for their toys? Or perhaps you have you stopped buying more expensive furniture in fear of your child spilling their drink on it? Maybe it has been a more gradual and unintentional change?

Whatever it is, we would love to hear about how your home has changed since having children.

Everyone who adds their thoughts to this thread will be entered into a prize draw to win a £250 Love2Shop voucher.

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

We have everything breakable on a higher level now, the chest in our lounge that used to have blankets in is now full of toys. I have got used to regularly cleaning the inside of the patio doors because of finger prints. The house generally gets dirtier quicker

No more carpets, just big rugs that we can take out and beat...

We haven't that many 'child proof' gadgets as we believe that life should be about assessing and learning danger, but we have a shoe holder over the doorway of the kitchen cupboard which has all the nasty chemicals in it. We are a lot cleaner since we had children, totally changed from a student-y lifestyle to a full on parent lifestyle!

We have a big bed that we can all jump in together, we have a big dining room table we can all eat meals at.

We just soldier on really, making sure that things are just right for us.

I now think carefully about how furniture will clean, so leather sofas as wipe cleanable, wood and tiled floors down stairs as again easy to clean. Rugs as easy to replace if they get ruined.

I've tried to keep the lounge and kitchen as clutter free and minimalist as possible as it all gets a bit too much for me with all the toys scattered everywhere. If there is our stuff everywhere as well as my son's it looks chaotic!

We have more stair gates!

We have fewer breakable decorative things out, eg. fewer glass vases.

We have given up on coffee tables now because we need the extra space for toys to be set up in the middle of the room.

When we moved we didn't bother replacing our good quality sofas, we just bought cheaper ones and plan to replace them in a few years after all the potty training/accidents are behind us.

We use shelves to keep things out of reach now, they have function now, rather than just being a nice space to put photo frames on.

We have nothing of particular sentimental or financial value any more in our home and have become quite minimalist. Most of our living is out of the kitchen and we have a big kitchen table, which is used for everything from homework, to sitting and having coffee with a friend, to eating meals. The daily battle is against muddy shoes and paws and I use those antibac wet wipes to try and keep all surfaces hygienic, but it is a happy home :-)

Since dd arrived 2.5 years ago a lot has had to change. Locks on kitchen cupboards where bottles and cleaning materials are stored. Things being put higher and higher so she can't reach them. Delaying buying a new three piece suite until she is older. Cream carpet in living room is regularly spot cleaned and chocolate and juice etc restricted to the kitchen where we have tiles. We really need a new bathroom carpet but again this is on hold, however spilt calpol and the toothpaste that dd thought she was so clever brushing into the carpet with her toothbrush just won't come out.

Dining room has a corner used for storing toys, at bedtime they all get put away to try and keep the rest of the house tidy. Would love a play room so at the end off the day can just close the door.

We no longer light candles in the evening and are very careful if we light the gas fire, relying instead on the central heating.

Weirdly despite all the toys/baby paraphenalia we have less stuff as I quickly realised that the house is so much easier to keep clean and tidy if we have less clutter!

My home has changed in that we have had to accommodate all the toys my children have. When we are in need of a new sofa, as much as I would like a good quality one I probably wouldn't get a very expensive one as with young children it's too risky! I haven't rearranged my photos and ornaments, my now 3 year old just had to learn not to touch them, there was alot of "no" going on when she was first on the move, which was actually exhausting but I didn't want to have to move things that I wanted to have on display.

Because we went from being dissolute post-student, late 20-somethings to parenthood, we have a much tidier and nicer house now than before kids because we can't just leave it minging with unfinished DIY jobs.

Organising storage, regular cleaning and nice decor make it fairer on the DC and easier to keep clean. Oh, and moving into a house that some fool had previously decided looked nice with cream carpets everywhere except the living room and dining room does mean that if we don't want it to look gross we have to Hoover more than we would previously have done.

That said, we are terrible at decluttering and seem to be filling the spare room with piles of crap at a terrifying speed, so if anyone can work out how to stop creating piles of things that need mending interspersed with paperwork and DS's artwork, please clue us in. We do know deep down that we really shouldn't be keeping bank statements in a disused baby bath.

Openerofjars [greets one of own kind]

We never seem to be in a state of tidiness since having kids. there is almost no point because it just gets messy again within minutes!

My friend once said keeping a house clean and tidy with kids is like painting the Golden Gate bridge. By the time you've finished, you need to start all over again. Don't think I could have summed it up better myself.

We used to have an open-plan kitchen/ diner/ lounge, and a separate cosy lounge for TV-watching... we now have an open-plan family room, and a playroom!! Says it all really... toys everywhere, can't walk round barefoot due to risk of serious injury from Lego bricks or die-cast trains. The kids have officially taken over!
So yes, we've moved furniture around, moved breakable things away into cupboards, created more toy space, sacrificed our own space...
I wouldn't have it any other way though... honest...

I never get the whole house clean anymore. The mess just migrates from room to room. Generally I try to keep the downstairs presentable but that in itself is a full time job, and by presentable I mean relatively tidy if you ignore all the toys, the massive red and yellow plastic "fence" which protects the TV/DVD unit and of course the huge and sturdy fire guard.

The level of storage has proliferated too; I think I am solely responsible for this area's sales of Ikea's Expedit unit and have warned DH that I fully expect our entire house to have floor to ceiling shelves wall to wall in every room by the time DS starts school. There is just so much stuff, the only way to have any semblance of control is to have tubs for the stuff on many, many shelves. It is like living in a scattered, chaotic library.

The worst thing though is the laundry. It never stops, ever. When there were two of us I did one, maybe two, washes a week but now it is almost every day. I emptied the wash basket on Sunday and had a quiet gloat to myself, turned my back for ten minutes and it was half full again. I have given up on any scheduled ironing entirely and will iron stuff as needed if I have to.

DS has not even started walking yet, so I am expecting the situation to get much much worse before it gets better!

never did childproofing with my kids. moved things around and fron them being tiny have said whats dangerous.
house is always messy with washing overflowing and ironing pile plus toys everywhere.
only cleaning tidying up i do in the day now are the kids rooms everywhere elsexi leave until their in bed.
i truely believe as long as house is clean and not a tip then it doesnt really matter.. making memories and having fun with the children is whats more importent.

i have friends who dont have kids who sometimes pop over and always ask why im happy for toys to be everywhere.. reply is always the same.. if the kids are happy and playing then toys can be anywhere and everywhere its their home to.

We have just moved - the first move with children. I am amazed at how many pieces of paper we have - from basic scribbles, through to stories - we seem to have kept them all. It's hard to thrown them out now, but has to be done.
Aside from that, tidiness is the issue. Pre-kids, no one is at home during the day, and when we were at home, we were generally tidy. Complete opposite now, and it takes a bit of getting used to!

our downstairs has become a wipe-clean toy pit, and upstairs is just generally a disaster area (no change there then).

it's the bath toys in the bathroom that always get me - I never had them as a child, so seeing our bathroom full of brightly coloured crap stuff is always a bit astonishing!

We are perpetually changing to accommodate perpetually changing needs.

From storing baby stuff,to storing dolls and doll prams,to storing Sylvanians...

Our house is messier,dirtier (as in stained) but we keep it warmer as a result of children.

It's the little stuff drives me mad.Jewellery,moshis,DS games.....

And finding cake underneath the settee cushions two days after they were given it.

Well I am currently pregnant and expecting a child at Christmas. My house has already changed a lot. The new baby needs so many things and they have already taken over our second bedroom (and we only have two). I expect the changes will continue as the baby gets older, although I wouldn't have it any other way. :)

I have to say that even with three children my house is pretty tidy and in order. I do work shifts as a midwife so am generally quite a busy person but I tend to find time and we work together as a team.

I encourage the two older (11 & 7) to clean their own rooms, and I generally run the Hoover around their rooms twice a week. Downstairs is small, but we manage. Me and other half generally share chores.

He loads / unloads dishwasher after dinner. He sweeps and mops whilst I'm with the children doing homework / playing. I do laundry and lunchboxes. I cook and if I'm home generally cook our meal in the morning, as it saves doing it in the afternoon with a tired baby. I also batch cook.

General tidying is just done daily, here and there and the place is kept in order. I couldn't live in a mess. I hate clutter. But I don't compromise time with my children, its about balance.

My carpets are dirtier! Especially the dining room. In addition to dropped food, DS also likes to do craft at the dining table so there are frequently bits of paper, play-doh, glitter etc sprinkled on the carpet too.

However, in general it's tidier. I was a bit lazier with housework before I had DS as I knew I had all the time in the world to get things tidied and clean! Now, my free time is precious and I don't want to spend it doing housework so I try and keep on top of things as I go.

Also, once DS was cruising round the furniture, I made sure that things like my knitting equipment were tidied away and it's a habit I've kept to.

Someone remarked the other day that my living room looked like Lego did the interior design! All the bookcases are covered in models that DS has made and his collection of mini-figures. I don't really notice it anymore! It's all neatly on shelves and like a previous poster said, it's his house too, he's entitled to have his stuff around.

Well, I'm learning about best methods to remove sick smell from upholstery. We got rid of the last sofa as it was minging, thankfully the new one has removable covers.

Every room, all sharp corners have been covered. All cupboards have catches. Stairgates at top & bottom, & a gate to the kitchen. (DD is possibly the nosiest toddler in the world, & fast, so everything has to be out of reach. Our living room is basically a big playpen.)

Carpets/rugs more stained. Can't get rid of them & just have hard floors though, as DD (toddler) slips in socks, won't keep her slippers on. She'll learn... then we'll just have laminate downstairs.

Bottomless laundry baskets. Impossible to get it all done in winter as we've no tumble drier.

Yes our house has changed since having a child. There is a lot more stuff around! I used to love the minimalist approach, vase with flowers on a coffee table, books - well that has all changed. I have large baskets holding toys; the table is a collection of pens and paper and craft stuff that gets swept aside for eating, and then manages to re-accumlate as soon as we have eater.

Washing is always around, no matter how much i do or pack away it magically appears again in mounds.
I have lost caring about "damage" or "spills" - and know that things will get used/damaged - throw in a kitten and some sharp claws on the furniture and you get the picture.

However I do think our home is warm and inviting. I keep it manageable by having places and baskets and spaces for things to go/be dumped in. I know that these child years are not forever, and in a few years time, all this will be replaced and I will miss it ... so i relax about the chaos and stuff that constantly comes into the house

Our house has changed alot, we have moved rooms around and swapped thier uses to make it more practical. The room with the lovely soft bouncy carpet is now the quiet room, I.e the room which the children only use when they are clean and wanting to chil out and watch a movie or play a game with us.
The rooms with the hard floors are the playroom and dining room, this works well because any spills are easily cleaned up with no stress, the children can play and be independent with their food at meal and snack times.
The kitchen has no breakables or pollutants at low level.
The walls - LOST CAUSE! Nothing I can do about those, grubby fingerprints, marks from toys being scraped and cars being driven up the wall (as well as me, haha).

But apart from that our home has changed because it's loud, lively and lots of fun!! I love it :)

I saw a thing recently which had "Cleaning your house with the children still in it is like eating biscuits while brushing your teeth!"

I agree. I try to have a routine where each room has a day of the week on which it gets a thorough clean, as well as trying to tidy up as I go, cleaning certain things daily (kitchen worktops etc). The key word is trying!

We moved a couple of years ago and the new house had horrible carpets - we've not yet bothered to replace them thinking that with young children any new carpets will be messed up pretty fast - either that, or I will spend the entire time worrying.

My general approach is to take a step back and think about what I want my kids to remember when they look back on their childhood. Do I want them to remember being allowed to do craft projects, and creating complex imaginative games which involve toys strewn all over the shop, or do I want them to remember me nagging them about tidying up? There are certain games we do clear up - gives us a chance to talk about taking care of your toys. But on the whole, the mess and chaos will (eventually) pass. By then, so will their childhoods have gone. There will be a time when I can be neat and clean - it's just not now!!