Keeping your home organized isn’t always easy. When you have a full-time job, it can be hard to keep up with housework. When you throw kids into the mix, it can feel downright impossible to manage it all.
However, having a clean home is part of having a healthy mindset. The cleaner your house is, the more your internal well-being will show for it. After all, when you let things pile up it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and even burnt out.
The great news is that you can keep an organized home, even with little roommates who are hardly clean. Here are some practical tips for helping you keep your home organized (with kids.)
Declutter
The first step to keeping your home clean is decluttering as much as possible. Get your kids to understand that it’s important that once they’re done playing with their toys, they need to put whatever they played with back into their bedroom.
Encourage your children to clean as they go rather than doing one big clean, as this can discourage them. Cleaning and decluttering as you go is much easier and less time-consuming than letting it pile up, ultimately encouraging your little ones to be more proactive when it comes to cleaning.
Designate Homes For Items
One of the biggest causes of messes with kids is that they’re not sure where things actually go, so things often get strewn around the house. It’s important that you teach everyone in your household where each item goes.
You may have to repeat this information several times, but over time your family members will start to understand and hopefully follow through with your instructions. If you have much younger children, then you might want to start with the basket method.
Simply place baskets throughout your house and encourage them to put things away in the basket so that you can return them to where they belong. Until they’re older, this is an effective way to at least get things out of sight.
Establish Cleaning Routines
Kids thrive on routine, which is why consistency is so key when it comes to maintaining an organized home. Establish daily routines with times so tidying up becomes a habit for everyone in your house, not just you.
Some families find great success by having a collective family cleaning time at least once a day. It’s as simple as setting a timer and everyone doing their part for 10 minutes.
You’d be surprised how much can get done if everyone does a little bit and just a small window of time. One great parenting hack is encouraging cleaning right before bedtime, which is a great way to encourage kids to clean, since they’ll take any excuse to stay up a little bit past their bedtime!
