6 Simple Tips To A Cleaner Home While Raising Toddlers

Does the idea of a cleaner home while having little kids around seem impossible? It’s not. Just like when you’re having a bad day, if even a few things go wrong, the whole day can feel like a loss. The same goes with your home. By doing a few small things to improve the clutter or mess in your house, you will feel more organized and pulled together, too.

The best part? You can do ALL of these things in 1 hour or less!

Keeping up with certain areas of the home decreases clutter and makes the cleanup less overwhelming. This allows you to focus on other things you need to do.

If you’re anything like me, I used to start cleaning the house and then feel the need to clean and organize the ENTIRE home in one day. Then I’d feel like doing NOTHING the other days. It’s easy to get caught up in the ‘Pinterest Perfect’ images on social media of clean homes and beautiful decor. Raising young kids means our homes won’t look like museums, but that doesn’t mean they have to look like we are living in a zoo either!

We want our kids to have fun and enjoy being kids. At the same time it feels good to maintain a more organized home. In finding a good balance, I’ve come up with these easy tips that take 1 hour or less to do. Your home will be less cluttered and easier to maintain.

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6 SIMPLE TIPS TO A CLEANER HOME WHILE RAISING TODDLERS:

PUT TOYS AWAY IN TOY BOXES : I have two blue cube ottomans in my living room that are used for storage. Besides those cubes, we use toy boxes in the kids’ rooms to store their toys. Now that my kids are old enough to follow directions, I sing a cleanup song before bedtime. They help gather the toys and put them in the storage bins. It’s a fun game for them, and I am left with a tidy living room and no toys to trip over.

EMPTY TRASH BINS THAT ARE FULL: Trash piles up quickly in our household. We usually take a bag out every night after dinner. I’ve also found lining waste baskets in bathrooms with plastic bags saves time taking out trash from there. Seeing bits of toilet paper, tissues or dental floss overflowing over the waste baskets onto the floor drives me bonkers. It just makes the whole bathroom feel messy.

PICK UP DIRTY CLOTHES OFF THE FLOOR: Either in the morning or at night, I spend a few minutes picking up dirty clothes off the floor. I toss them in a laundry basket or right into the washing machine. This simple step makes it so much easier when you actually do the laundry; this minimizes untidiness.

THROW IN A LOAD OF LAUNDRY: For me, waiting until I have mountains of laundry to do becomes a daunting task. Throwing in a load here or there when you have a minute is much easier. At least you’re getting started! It’s folding all those loads of laundry that’s the challenge for me. I tend to let the basket of clean clothes and pile up. So I’ve begun folding clothes at night when the kids are in bed. I catch up on episodes of “This is Us” or anything on Bravo or Food Network.

WASH ANY DISHES IN THE SINK: Nothing makes me feel more behind than starting the next day with dishes from the night before. As a tired mom in the morning, it is such a great feeling when you get up and have a clean sink. I can just go make that much needed ~~cup~~ pot of coffee. Then I can play with the kids instead of washing and scrubbing and telling them that “I’ll be there in a minute.”

VACUUM THE KITCHEN FLOOR AND ANY HIGH CHAIRS THAT NEED IT: This Dyson handheld vacuum is a life saver. I use this EVERY DAY, often several times a day. It’s lightweight and great to use on highchairs and quick once overs on the floor. Not to mention it’s convenient not having to plug in or lug around a big heavy vacuum. Handheld vacuums are also fabulous for vacuuming stairs.

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Getting started and knowing where to start cleaning and organizing is the hardest part. Organizing your home will be much easier with these ideas. You may even want to keep going now that you’re on a roll. Check a few more things off that list, mama!