If you WOH and have a toddler, how do you keep your house clean?

[dancermommy1]

thank you ladies, at least you're making me realize i'm not alone in this!

[MamaJules]

Originally Posted by dancermommy1 It wouldn't help. I often think if I had LESS space it would be easier to keep things clean, lol! We have almost 3000 sq feet.... that's 1000 square feet per person for each person to mess up. Honestly, it's so hard to keep that much house clean....it's too easy for places to be overlooked, and for spare space to become a trash heap. I hate clutter, and throw things out like mad (or donate), but even with that it just piles up.

Just the other week I was telling DH how sometimes I wish we were back in our little 2 bedroom townhouse. We would be forced to not have so much STUFF! Our house is never clean for long. Every night I try to move the toys out of the middle of the living room, so that if my 3 year old wakes up and comes to our room at night he won't trip over the toys. Other than that I try to keep the kitchen table and floor clean, or we get ants. And I try to load the dishwasher and run it as soon as it is full. I don't stress too much about it, but I have many times dreamed of the day when my boys are old enough to really help around the house.

[kai_e]

Mostly we clean after the kids go to bed during weekdays and try to do things like dusting, organizing play area etc on Friday night. Every other Saturday morning, if I cannot get to the bathrooms on Friday night, the boys will help me. I give them their own dusters and they go crazy trying to "help" me.

Honestly, it sucks. DH and myself both work 40+ hours a week. DH has a side job and doesn't get home until 8pm at least one night a week. Plus we have the farm chores. He gets up at 5:30am to feed the cows and goats, then comes back in to get both boys up and fed before he showers. Then I get up and get them dressed and our youngest ready to go to work with him by 7:00AM.

The boys have a strict bedtime - 7pm, which helps, since they are so used to their routine. Once they go to bed, I vacuum and steam mop (daily) while DH does the night time farm chores. He does the laundry and picks up the toys. We also have a new toy rule that in order for the boys to get a new toy, they have to give one up. I bring in the toys to be recycled to work or drop them off at Goodwill in the am. Keeps way down on the clutter.

Our system really only works because we both pitch in fully. I would never be able to work, clean up everything and still get to spend time with the kids if I had to do it all myself.

[badmisterkitty]

You aren't alone. We barely get the basics done from week to week.

It helps for everything to have a place. Toys, especially, because the kids can at least help pick up toys quickly and without confusion. I'm working on cutting back on stuff (again) to see if that helps us stay more organized.

What drives me crazy is toys getting dropped all over the house. I push them out of the main walkways and they sit there until we do big cleanup, sometimes a week later.

DH does his fair share, too. In the 7 years we've been together, he's finally figured out that when something needs doing don't wait for the other person or it won't get done. We each have a few chores that the other doesn't do at all, too.

We only wash clothes on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays (and diapers as needed), but clothes sit there in baskets until they can all be put away at one time instead of doing one basket here, one there, basically repeating the same steps several times a week. I much prefer to sort and put away once.

We also aren't "deep cleaners." I don't think the shower has been more than spot cleaned in a year. We do floors about every other week, wash rugs about once a month, clear clutter on countertops about once a week, wash bedding every other week, use one towel per person all week, spot clean here and there when it gets a little unbearable. Our oldest likes to dust and use the steam mop, so we take full advantage of that!

ETA: DH and I both have about one hour at home alone each day (not together) and we use that time for misc tasks, errands, etc.

[Nerissa]

I don't and I don't stress about it. I have come to realize over the last 5 years that it doesn't bother me too much and I just need to do what I can each night. Sometimes that isnt' any more than just piling the dishes in the sink. If someone is bothered by my house not being perfectly clean, well then they can clean it or hire someone to come clean my house.

-- I leave the house every mornign by 6am--I work 6:30-2:30, go work out from 2:45/3:00, pick up the boys at 4:00 and home by 4:15. Then we play, have supper, run any errands, bath (which I forget more than we actually do), bed. It is 9:00pm. i am done. DH gets home from work between 9pm and 10pm.

The house actaully stays more picked up in the summer since the boys play outside more than in the winter.

We also have a large inside dog. I try to wash the dishes nightly and do a couple loads of laundry during the week. The laundry usually sits in the baskets till Saturday. I find it much easier to fold everything at once and put it away. i have enough diapers to last an entire week so they follow the same process. Get washed and left in the basket until Sunday when I fold and put away everyting and stock the daycare bag.

Saturday or sunday I pick up, clean and do laundry. If DH isn't working on Sunday he helps. Lately he has been working both Saturday and Sunday. He goes into work later so he is good about unlaoding and reloadign the dishwasher in the mornings if I leave him a note.

Monday nights are family nights and I do not clean. That is the only night DH and I are both home in the evening together.

It should be real interesting when we add another person in the mix come September.

I am working on decluttering and getting rid of stuff we dont really need.

[Liadan23]

i don't do anything except basic, everyday, pick up clutter cleaning during the week. it's not worth my sanity/limited time with ds. dh and i trade off doing dishes each night, and then i try to put them away first thing when i get up in the morning. ds and i work together on picking up his toys before he goes to bed at night, and i try to pick up most of the general clutter at the same time. i used to be really good at doing flylady's swish and swipe in my bathroom every morning, and it totally helped. i know it's fast and doesn't take up much time, but i'm very tired and pregnant right now, everything just seems harder. i've also tried incorporating 1 cleaning/decluttering night into my week, after ds goes to bed, but i've been too tired to do that lately too. so i've been slacking the last few weeks i think after the baby is born and i emerge from the crazy newborn months, i'll try to get back to it, but right now it's just too much. but that's it. i totally ignore vacuuming, dusting, sweeping, mopping, deep cleaning bathrooms, etc during the week.

every saturday is my main cleaning day. i run around like a mad woman while ds takes his nap and try to get all the deep cleaning done. sunday is laundry day, i rotate loads throughout the day whenever i get the chance, and then i fold it all after ds goes to bed at night.

[jen_batten]

I am a SAHM and I still can't keep my house clean. Small children running through it all day long making messes, plus homeschooling, plus taking care of SN DD....It never gets done. I think if any one wants a clean house, hiring a merry maid would totally be the way to go. We can't actually afford a merry maid, so it's just messy here!

[Vivhop98]

Staying home full time doesn't help either. The speed at which children destroy a house is much more than I can keep up with.

[Suzi]

My definition of clean has changed drastically, that helped.

I make priorities of what to keep clean. I like to keep my bathroom clean. Its fairly quick and I feel better that it clean at least.

I used to limit access to toys (rotate toys) but my boys are older now and very resourceful at finding things.

I do a lot of double meal cooking. So I make two batches of my main course and freeze the other half. That way the pans and all that stuff only get dirty once. I still need one pan to cook in but I don't have dirty bowls and such. I used to do weekly cooking where I would prep everything on the weekends. This helped with keeping dishes in check because I only had to do plates during the week and maybe one pan. I've just gotten lazier lately so I do the double meal thing instead.

I clean in 15 min increments. Sometimes I only get one 15" cleaning done a night but I try to do at least that much

flylady.com is pretty awesome. She helped me develop some good habits.

[thtr4me]

I gave up. It was just not happening. We hired a housekeeper 3 weeks ago to help with the heavy lifting (mopping, vacuuming, dusting, bathrooms, kitchen, etc). It has made a huge difference already, and they have only come 2x. Now I can concentrate on getting toy chaos and general clutter under control, instead of scrubbing toilets, dusting, cleaning the bathtub, stove, kitchen sink, etc.