How to Keep a Tidy Home with Littles
How to Keep a Tidy Home with Littles
Happy Friday! Today on the blog I am going to share with you how to keep a tidy home with littles. It feels impossible, but I promise with a few new habits your home will feel more tidy, too!
Recently I was asked by a friend how I kept my house clean with 2 little boys. It struck me because I feel like it’s never clean and tidy around here, but I guess for the stage of life we are in, it’s pretty well kept. I have gone through my fair share of minimalism streaks and it feels good for a while – but I find myself wishing I had certain items that I had previously deemed at pointless.
I’ve compiled a list of the things I have found have truly made a difference in our home and my sanity! Enjoy!
Tidy Home with Littles: Clean Kitchen Every Night
I don’t know about you, but when I wake up to a disaster in the kitchen from the night before, it just starts my day off sour. Mornings are usually crazy around here and when my kids wake up at 0 dark 30 I don’t want to see what I put off the night before when I’m walking to the fridge to get their morning milk.
Granted, there are a few times we don’t accomplish everything at night, but for the most part the sink is always clean, dishwasher set to run, and counters are wiped down. This seriously helps SO much. In reality, it only takes a few minutes to do but the reward the next morning is priceless.
Thank God for my amazing husband who will take the boys outside to play after dinner, or if we are running late, will do their bath time and get them ready for bed while giving me space to wipe the tables and chairs and clean up the dinner mess. He always asks if I’m okay doing that at night, but it’s relaxing for me now. I have heard the phrase “put the kitchen to bed” and it’s so true. Once I have cleaned the kitchen for the night the kitchen is officially closed.
With running the dishwasher every night and unloading first thing in the morning, it leaves the dishwasher open during the day so you can load it as dishes are dirtied. Less in the sink and you can do a little here and there instead of being stuck with an entire days worth of dishes at night! Score! Plus, we don’t run out of sippy cups anymore 😉
Tidy Home with Littles: Everything Needs a Home
I’ll be honest, I am still working on this. I have been guilty of just shoving random things in closets, drawers, hidden spaces and dealing with it later. Let me tell you a little secret – it just creates more chaos later. I don’t know about you, but I am constantly forgetting where I put things. It really is a vicious cycle.
If you slowly start going through your spaces and giving every item a specific home, you will know exactly where the item is at all times and know where to put it when you’re done with it. Rocket science, right? Haha, but it’s easier said than done sometimes.
Start small, it could be a junk drawer or your bathroom drawer. Finding a place for everything means that everything in your home has an intentional home. That is key to keeping things tidy.
Tidy Home with Littles: Keep a Declutter Box
Keeping a declutter box is a game changer. I am constantly finding things we no longer need or use and having a designated space for those things to go keep my house clean and decluttered. I have tried the Marie Kondo style and I don’t have the time or energy to destroy an entire space and then put it back together. I have found that decluttering things as I find them, its much more manageable and we actually see more results since it is not a huge ordeal.
If you are still purchasing diapers like I am, keep the box and store it in a closet and once the box is full, take it to your local donation center. Of course, don’t put things in there that just need to be thrown away. And trust me, there are certain things that just need to be tossed.
Tidy Home with Littles: One Touch Rule
Again, something I am still working on but when I actually follow this rule for myself I am so grateful I did. The concept is to only touch an item 1 time before putting it away. If you know the dirty sock on the floor needs to go to the hamper, just take it to the hamper. Don’t throw it across the room and wait to take care of it completely for another time, just take the extra 10 seconds and take the sock to the hamper.
It sounds so silly when I write this out, but implementing this into my daily life I have found that things end up where they need to be and I have less piles to deal with at the end of the day.
Tidy Home with Littles: White Linens
Some people think I am crazy with my all white towels and sheets for everyone, but the fact that I can just throw everything together in the washer with some bleach saves me SO much time and sanity. If something is beyond dirty, I know that some hot water, Tide, and bleach will take care of it. Work smarter, not harder!
With a simplified laundry situation, I find that I am not letting things sit around and wait to be washed, but that I am on a constant rotation of washing our linens and we never run out what we need. Plus, I think all white is much more aesthetically pleasing than a bunch of random faded colors.
That’s it! Hopefully these tips are able to help you and you gained something from reading this post. Thank you so much for being here, it really means the world to me that you take the time to read what I have to say!
