How to always have a clean house...part 2!

This is continued from my previous post on "How to ALWAYS have a clean house". If you haven't read that post yet, you should read that one first. :)

Got that? Okay, lets move on! 

Kids toys!

Have you ever saw the commercials with the boys playing cars on this awesome car track that stacks up SUPER high and looks awesome?! My son is enthralled by this commercial yelling "MOM, oh mom I want that!! Oh Please Oh please!!" Now, I'm sure that car track looks awesome, but here is the reality: it won't last. In just a few short hours my son would have that car track disassembled and in a million pieces. I won't remember how they went together. He will be frustrated because he can't put it together. Tears will happen. I'll try to keep it put together, but unless I glue it, it won't stay together. *sigh*

So now, the car track is a useless pile of junk hogging up half of the toy box and will never be played with again. $50 down the toilet.

The solution. 

Don't buy toys that need put together a million times! Try to avoid toys with 390284390823 pieces. If your child DOES have to have a toy that comes in a bazillion pieces and he or she just (for real) can't live without it, and your ambitious enough to put it together a million times....the best thing to do with it is to keep it separate. You can make that toy its own special container just for that toy and its pieces.

If its a toy that needs put together (like a race/car track), buy some of those round stickers (the ones you could price yard sale items with) and give each piece a number. Go in order so when your putting it together, piece 1 connects to piece 2 which connects to piece 3 and so on.

If you lose directions to toys easy (ME ME ME!!!), buy a binder with plastic page protectors. Each page protector should gets its own instruction booklet. When you need help remembering what to do with a toy, consult the book. :)

When kids are done playing with one toy, have them put that toy away before getting out another toy. This works better with older children. Younger kids just have to be picked up after. Its life. They grow out of that stage super quick. And its so bitter sweet when they do!

Less is more!

When one child has 10 toy boxes full of toys, its likely he or she will never play with any of them. Get to know your child! Learn what they will REALLY like and what is just the commercial making the toy look fun. TV sells way too much!! I read something one time that said buying toys that force the use of imaginative play were the toys that kids loved the most. How boring are the toys that do it all for us? I never played with them. My kids don't play with them. They just sit in the toy box, collecting dust. My son loves his cars and the rug he plays with them on. It has roads drawn onto it. He plays for hours with those two things!

My daughter loves her dolls. Nothing better than being a little mommy. :)

When you buy a toy, donate or sell a toy. The 1 in 1 out rule. This keeps the clutter down...especially for a child who has a lot of toys.

Have something to organize the toys into. If you can't afford a toy box, storage totes are awesome. Laundry baskets. Just about anything. Get creative! You can decorate it with stickers (a fun bonding project with your kiddo!!) or however you want to. Markers (they make sharpies in every color!) can be fun under parental supervision. Fabric glued to it. Paint (you can do hand prints and foot prints with the date you made it so they can remember it always). Have fun with it!

Above all, just pick up throughout the day. Don't let the mess build up. Don't let the child go to bed until their room is clean. Make it a post dinner habit to clean the toys up. Things will be SO. MUCH. EASIER!!!

Good luck!

How to always have a clean house!

So your probably wondering if its even possible to always have a clean house. I'm here to tell you, YES, it is!!! I will be doing a short mini series on how to always have a clean house!! Are you ready? Okay, lets begin! :)

First and foremost....does everything in your house have a place, a spot, a home? As you can imagine, if your house looks like it belongs on hoarders, we can't just organize that. Everything WILL need a place! If it doesn't have a place, get rid of it. Donate it. Toss it. Do what you need to do. If you can't live without it, get rid of something else that does have a place so you can put the item you can't live without in its place. I saw something somewhere one time that said to get rid of a trash bag of stuff every month. 1 trash bag. Thats it. Trust me, it works!! On that note....go organize!!

Are you organized yet? Yes? Awesome! Now we can get to the good stuff. :)

Now, this does require some work. You can't expect to keep your house perfect and put in zero effort. But, its SO much easier than letting your house get messy and then having to spend hours cleaning it up and praying the person who just pulled into the drive way is just turning around and not coming to the door. (been there, done that...no fun!!)

1. Never leave a mess. It seems like common sense to pick up after yourself, but so often we just plan to come back to it. If your done with that plate, don't put it in the sink, put it in the dishwasher. If your cooking and you spill something, clean it up RIGHT NOW, don't wait until dinner is over when its crusty and hard to get up. When you have a basket full of laundry, do it now. Don't wait until tomorrow. Don't just wash it either, dry it and put it away!! Its so important to just do what needs done now. Don't walk past a mess without cleaning it up.

2. If the kids can help, by golly, give them chores!! I have so often seen the chore charts (for moms) on pintrest. Monday, wash the laundry. Tuesday, vacuum. Wednesday, do the dishes....and so on. Here is the problem. Even though parts of the house are clean, it never really gets clean. However, I'm all for making chore charts for kids! Even though you are now the awesome mom who picks up as she goes along and the house is already pretty awesome, even if it doesn't really need done, still have them do it. For example, if its John's job to mop on Saturday, even if you had to mop on Friday, what is it going to hurt? So you now have an extra clean floor! Also, if the kids can keep their own toys picked up, have them do it! I love the only one toy out at a time rule. When your finished playing with that toy, then you can get out the other one when the first one is put away! Naturally, this whole paragraph is exempt for toddlers and babies. But for kids who are older, moms need this!!

3. The dishes. Never leave dishes in the sink...unless you don't have a dish washer. If you have a dishwasher, load it as the day goes on. Then run it as soon as its full and put them away right away so you can continue to load it again. If you don't have a dish washer, wash dishes often! As soon as one side gets about half full, you can wash, dry, and put away. Doing it throughout the day will make it so much quicker than waiting until the sink is over flowing and dishes are all over the counter before you do them and spending hours on them then! No thank you!!

4. The laundry. Designate one laundry basket for the house. When its full, run the washer! Then dry and put them away as soon as its done. Its not hard. It won't take long. I promise. :)

5. The toys. I will be doing a whole blog post on the toys. I think they need their own special attention. But the basic for right now, don't have too many, and make the kids help! Even toddlers can (well some of them) try to help.

6. The bathrooms. Obviously you don't have to clean the toilets every time you go potty, but as soon as you notice something in the bathroom needs done (or once a week or so)...do it! Husbands and boys in general are bad for splashing. Trust me, its SO much easier to clean a little up then scrubbing for hours because it has built up. Pee isn't always the easiest stuff to get off!! A cup of baking soda in the toilet water for as long as you can keep it in there (yeah, do the kids in your house all suddenly have to mysteriously pee when you put the cleaner in the toilet too?) will get the odor out. Oh how I love baking soda!!

7. Vacuuming/mopping etc. You will be able to see when it needs done. When it needs done, just do it!!

Seriously, just doing things when they need done will keep your house pristine! Don't walk past something that needs put away. It sounds hard, but its not. I have two tornado's toddlers who cannot help me clean up, and I can do it! Since taking this seriously, my 3 year old has been sensitive (over time) to the fact I like the house clean. He is willing to try to help when he's in the mood! Its amazing to see that transformation! (thats another blog post too. :)..)


For now, I'll let you get started!! After the initial through cleaning to keep things clean, its not so bad. A little determination and when the mystery car pulls into the drive way you will say "bring it on"! No more hiding in the closet hoping they don't knock for you anymore! :)

You can view part 2, toys, here!