Does your house stay a mess?

[Iamblessed]

But mostly with 5 people in the house and 3 of them being male :lol: my house is always a mess.

 

This. With 7 males in the house and only 2 females we are a little out numbered. Although my boys are expected to help with household chores it is definately not their favorite thing. My 10 yo boy likes things neat and commented that if he and I moved into our own place we could keep things clean LOL :lol: Doesn't help hubby is kinda a clutterbug and doesn't like to throw things out! Oh well, someday I'll have all the time in the world to clean right now I just want to enjoy my kids before they all grow up ;)

[Mrs.Gregg]

Yes it does. But it didn't always. For years I had a "quick clean this place before someone comes over, stress and freak out" home. Mostly when my girls were up until the age of 6 and 3. Then I had a turning point, I had an older child who craved order, a husband who is more relaxed in a clean home and I wanted to stop stressing. I also wanted a home of "spontanious hospitality" come over, enjoy and be at peace. I started of slowly, purging thru unwanted items, cleaning, pairing down. cleaning. Then set up a daily routine, then slowly added to it. As the kids got older they got chores to help, we also pick two days a month as family "clean the house day". My house isn't "spotless, don't touch anything, don't breathe". It is clean, organized, relaxed, lived in. But everything has a place and cleaning helps us keep it that way.

[LucyStoner]

We keep it clean but it is not a show house at all. My husband and I are both cleaning types so that helps. We also have a variety of habits that help:

 

-The kids toys are pretty well isolated to their room and the ones that are not are a 1 at a time thing. Meaning, you had best pick up those trains before dumping out the duplos.

 

-In the evening when my husband gets home from work we all pick up and clean up for 10 minutes. Literally when the door opens, my son sets a timer and we run around like goof balls cleaning. It makes a big difference.

 

-I wipe out the tub after I shower, wipe off the bathroom sink and faucet after I brush my teeth etc.

 

-We have a small house and limit clutter and stuff as much as possible. Our house can go from it's messiest to near spotless in less than 2 work hours (so less than an hour if we all work together.)

 

-All mail is opened over the recycling can. Anything that I need to respond to gets handled ASAP and then tossed or filed.

 

All this said, I have lowered my expectations considerably since we had kids.

 

I grew up in a messy, messy house. My mother definitely had hoarding tendencies that were kept at bay because she moved every 1-2 years. So I am really intense about NOT mimicking that.

[AuntieM]

I didn't read all the replies, but I DID read the ages of your kids. Cut yourself some slack, hon!!!

 

When I had three tiny mess makers in the house, I couldn't keep it all straight, either. What I did was to identify a few areas to stay on top of as best I could: the foyer/ front room, in case someone knocked on the door; the kitchen area (no toys on floor), to prevent accidents; and my bedroom, because dh and I needed a sanctuary! Other things that helped were to rotate the toys (they don't ALL have to be out at once), get rid of unnecessary items (not a knick knack in sight), and work with the kids on helping to straighten up together at strategic times.

 

I also took the mail straight to the trash can and "sorted" much of it into the round file right off the bat, then put the rest on dh's dresser - cause mostly all we got was junk mail and bills. No paper stacking on the kitchen counter. If you must, get a basket and don't allow it to overflow.

 

That's all off the top of my head. Hang in there, this season will pass and then you will miss all the grimy little fingerprints. But not the Lego pieces left on the bedroom floor in the dark of night. :D

[fraidycat]

Yes, my home is always a mess. It was way cleaner when my kids were younger. Now, as I'm trying to instill some responsibility for their own stuff in them, it is less so.

[FO4UR]

When mine were 5, 3, and 2 my home was very messy. I kept the bathrooms/kitchen sanitary, but even those rooms were never nice and tidy. My goal was to simply keep the little people healthy and safe. If the mess didn't impede those things, it was not important.

 

 

Mine are now 9, 7, and 6 and my home is never spotless, never very messy. They each have a job to do. We rotate it around so that they all 3 will learn how to take care of a home when they are grown. I'm teaching them to do those nightly chores (dishes, vacuum, put stuff away, etc...) so that I'm able to tackle jobs that I didn't used to get to (b/c I was exhausted after just doing the dishes at night). Tonight my 6yo tidied the living room/foyer, 7yo cleaned up the kitchen after dinner, and my 9yo cleaned the basement (play/school room) and helped me organize the bookshelves. When they were 5 and under, I did the dishes while they got out more toys...:001_huh::lol:

 

 

We had a friend pop in today, and I wasn't embarrassed about the mess though it was obvious 3 kids had just been reading and playing in the living room and dinner was being made...and the kids had just gathered dirty laundry in piles outside their door...lived in, but nothing terrible.

 

 

My MIL makes comments sometimes about how not perfectly clean the house is. I don't care. It would be harder to not care if it were my mom making those comments, but my mom's house when I was growing up was a pig-sty...so she doesn't generally comment.

[Hannah]

I agree that given the ages of your children, you shouldn't be too hard on yourself. Having said that...

 

The key for us is to have little stuff. Declutter. The fewer things need places, the less time it takes to clean up.

 

They can put away their own toys, make their own beds.

 

Tidying was easy for them because they knew exactly where to put the board books, the puzzles, the play dishes, etc.

 

I started of slowly, purging thru unwanted items, cleaning, pairing down. cleaning. Then set up a daily routine, then slowly added to it.

 

The above is key.

 

Have a place for everything and expect everyone to put their own things away. If things don't have a place, it means there is too much stuff for the available space.

 

Establish a routine. Whatever works for you, but it has to happen consistently and the children come to expect tidying up time as part of their day.

 

 

ETA: It's an ongong process... Things have been piling up on surfaces here lately because we can't find space for them, so I'm decluttering again this morning.

Edited June 9, 2012 by Hannah

[Kelly1730]

My mother was never a good housekeeper, in fact, she hired my grandmother to clean our house once a week! She did work outside of the home but it was only my sister and I and really, we were not very messy. I like a neat house. It's never spotless because something always needs to be cleaned but I can't stand looking around at a lot of junk.

 

When I had littles, we cleaned up before lunch because they went right in for naps after lunch and I had 2-3 hours when things stayed neat. I remember cleaning the glass on the door everyday at that time so for several hours I didn't have to look at tiny fingerprints all over it:001_smile: We picked up at bedtime too, when they were in bed I wanted to sit down in my living/family room and not look at toys all over the place. You need to make a routine that works for you and , agreeing with some of the other posters, you may need to stay home more often;) I know when I'm out of the house a lot on any given week, things get out of control because I am not there or too tired to deal with it.

 

This too shall pass. They get bigger and can help out more instead of just making the messes. I can recommend a book that I thought was very helpful in setting routines/cleaning, Large Family Logistics, and wish would have been around when I had lots of littles. It is Christian based (if that is a concern).

[Kelly1730]

Our house stays pretty clean. I try to get up by 6:00 so i can have it done by 7:45. My kids are eating, doing their chores, and playing during this time. I have 1.5 hours worth of chores each day, so for example, today I changed all the sheets, vacuumed and dusted the whole upstairs, and washed and put away two loads of laundry. Yesterday I cleaned both upstairs bathrooms, including mopping, and did a load of laundry and diapers. Each day I have a similar workload, so I don't do a major cleaning day, that would overwhelm me. When we moved in i made a master list of all the things that need to be done and split it into five days. I do all the downstairs things on Mon-Wed, and the upstairs on Thur and Friday. On Saturday i'll do a major thing like clean windows or baseboards. I do a quick (2 min tops) sweep after every meal, so my floor looks clean even though it only gets mopped twice a week.

 

My kids are responsible for their junk, toys, shoes, books, and clothes. I don't pick up any of it. This cuts out quite a bit of work for me. Even my one year old knows how to put her toys away and puts her clothes in the hamper before her bath. My five and 2.5 year old have to clean up Every. Single. Toy. they have dragged out twice a day, once before rest time and again before bedtime. This keeps the mess from being overwhelming for them, I also only let them get out one or two sets of toys at a time, if they want to switch, they have to clean up first. My five year old dumps his little pieces (Lego, Hero Factory, Playmobil) on a blanket so to clean them up we just fold the four corners up and dump it into a bin. They both make their beds in the morning and bring their dishes to the sink. Asher is responsible for unloading the dishwasher (I put all things including glasses in the bottom cabinets where he can reach.). I am trying to find child sized brooms so they can take turns sweeping under the table after meals. I add chores that he is responsible for every year, and raise his allowance by $0.10 a day.

 

This is how I keep our house pretty clean, by doing these things I would never feel embarrassed for someone to just drop by :001_smile:. By getting most of my cleaning done in the morning, we are free to do whatever for the rest of the day. We have been starting school around 8:00, and since we're only doing 45 minutes this summer, we have all day for fun stuff.

 

I do believe they call this "born organized".:)

[Lizzie in Ma]

My house is fairly clean and organized and was when the kids were younger, too.

The key for us is to have little stuff. Declutter. The fewer things need places, the less time it takes to clean up.

Also, every thing has a place and gets put away immediately. No piles of things to find homes for later.

 

Expectations? Spotless is too much of an expectation for me. Our house looks lived in, but not dirty. We clean when it is necessary, not on schedule.

My standard is to be ready for drop in company, but not ready for a Better Homes and Gardens photo shoot.

Laudry gets done when I have enough dirty clothes for a full load.

Ironing - only work clothes for DH and myself.

 

Pretty much how it is here too. It is critical for me to have the house fairly neat, I don't "do" chaos well. Can't function. We also always have people stopping by, hanging out or sharing a meal at random.

I vacuum daily, the kids have always had an age appropriate chore list, and everything has a place it is supposed to live in.

[MiniBlondes]

Our house stays relatively clean and tidy. It isn't spotless by any means, but no one would ever come over and see 'dirt' anywhere. I have a list that I try to maintain and it works well for us. I try not to be OCD about it. If it's Thursday and I can't clean the bathroom for some reason, it won't kill us if it waits until next week. We have a brand new house so we don't have years of built up dirt, therefore it only takes an hour or so altogether to do EVERYTHING for the day (my daily chores plus my day of the week chore). I don't do any cleaning at all on Saturday or Sunday (except my daily stuff).

 

Daily: (I try to do these things daily. I am not always 100% successful but I've found that if I miss a day then I'm not so far behind.)

1 load of laundry, dishes, wipe kitchen counters and dining room table, sweep kitchen floor, general pick up and put away, clean cat box (I usually do this 2-3 times a day because I can't stand the smell)

 

Monday:

Vacuum whole house

 

Tuesday:

Dust whole house

 

Wednesday:

Downstairs bathroom (toilet, counter, mirror, tub, shower, clean floors)

 

Thursday:

Upstairs bathroom (toilet, counter, mirror, tub, shower, clean floors)

 

Friday:

Kitchen (mop floor, clean counters, shine sink, wipe down appliances, clean out fridge)

 

My kids are responsible for these:

Their own rooms

Getting their laundry to the laundry room

Putting their clean laundry away

Cleaning their bathroom

Cleaning walls/doors with a magic eraser

Wiping/dusting baseboards

Cleaning glass doors and tables

Sweeping porch

 

Husband does these:

Trash and all associated upkeep

Lawn/outdoor maintenance

Replacing cat litter

Making Money (haha)

[2_girls_mommy]

It depends on how you define "a mess." I think my house stays pretty nice and clean, dh thinks it is always a mess. So, yes, I am able to keep up with dishes and laundry, vacuuming and sweeping. I am not always able to keep things from piling up on desks and tables. I consider that fairly clean. Dh does not. However, note the ages of my dc: 7 and 8. I had a much more difficult time keeping the house picked up when I had a 1 year old. I say, give yourself a break. I'm sure it's not as bad as you think.

 

This sounds like my house, though I consider my dh a bit of a hoarder/collector of things I think are junk, and I do have trouble parting with books and get attached to them, so we each have our issues :)

 

But things are clean enough, but there are always areas that I am working on. I am doing projects this summer, and have big plans to get done before we start school back in Aug. For me, it is really hard to tackle big things during school.

[Marie131]

My kids are the same age as yours and I'm expecing. My house is generally clean, but it's always a work in progress. Usually by the end of the day it's in good shape, but like another poster, if you were to pop over in the afternoon it would look a mess. My 2 older boys have daily jobs, like making their own beds and cleaning up the play room. I also try and get them to clean up after themselves as they go too otherwise I just couldn't keep up. I have cut back on our outside activities since becoming pregnant as I just haven' had the energy and I'm finding I have more time to rest and keep up on things.

[WishboneDawn]

No. My house is generally a bit of a mess. The family can tidy up the main bits in an hour or two if we're having company but the bedrooms and basement are generally a lost cause. The main bits are easily tidiable because we have a basement to stuff the chaos in.

 

I'm fine with that now. It's just how it is. We could declutter more to make more of the house manageable and I probably will get rid of some stuff this summer but a lot of the "clutter" is stuff we like.

 

I'm not sure why decluttered, spotless and always-visitor-ready is something I have to aspire to.

[Jennifer L]

I grew up in a house that was disgusting. I swore my kids would never grow up in that environment. That along with the fact that my dh grew up with a maid, we have a cleaning lady that comes twice a week and I clean all the time. I also have an obsession with organizing. So generally, no the house isn't a mess.