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A wise man once said that cleaning with kids in the house is like brushing your teeth while eating Oreos. Any parent knows that achieving maximum cleanliness and organization is a pipe dream once those little baby roommates start moving in. 

It begins with a lack of energy for tidying up that comes from getting next to no sleep, and quickly snowballs when the spit up-covered laundry starts piling in the corners. Before you know it, you have more toys scattered about than FAO Schwartz and you can’t see your kitchen floor under all of the spilled juice and dried up cereal.  What are busy parents to do? One thing is certain—it is going to be an uphill battle, but we’ve compiled 10 useful suggestions for containing the chaos in order to help keep a clean house with kids.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4NZ8SJc7W8

1. “Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”

Mom Showing Daughter How To Load Dishwasher

Benjamin Franklin was onto something when he came up with this one! The key to keeping a clean house with kids is picking up after yourself as you go, whether it be washing dishes after each meal or putting the bath toys away after the little ones are out of the tub. Make a rule with your kids that their messes have to be cleaned up before they are allowed to make the next ones. And don’t just pass by that crusty mac and cheese bowl!

Train your brain to scan the rooms of your house as you move about, taking the items that don’t belong and putting them away where they go.  Staying on top of little daily cleaning tasks ensures that things won’t pile up into something unmanageable.

2. Create schedules that will help you stay organized.

Digital Weekly Planner / Schedule

The first step in achieving a clean house with kids is getting organized and figuring out what needs to be done, and when. Create a list of household chores and determine how often you need to get to them. These lists aren’t for the daily cleanings mentioned above, but for the bigger jobs (like vacuuming the whole house or deep cleaning the bathroom) that need to be scheduled regularly so they don’t fall off the radar.

There are some tasks that you should get to every week, as well as monthly chores (clean the food smudges off the walls) and even annual jobs (declutter the basement). The internet is full of excellent printable checklists for cleaning schedules, and you can also make your own with free (and adorable!) blank printable calendars from sites like Scattered Squirrel. 

3. Choose baby/kid safe cleaning products that work best for you and place them strategically.

Bucket Of Cleaning Products

Having good products in obvious places can go a long way! Stock up on your favorite cleaning supplies and have them readily available in the spaces where they are used.  Haven’t quite channeled your inner Martha Stewart enough to have a go-to shower cleaner in mind? Here is a list of some favorite cleaning products and where they should be kept for your best chances of success in keeping a clean house with kids! 

  • Miele canister vacuum (life changing!) stored in an easily accessible closet
  • Dust buster vacuum stored in close proximity to eating areas
  • Mrs. Meyer’s bathroom spray and paper towels in the bathroom cabinet
  • Attitude stain remover spray next to the hampers in the kids’ rooms
  • Seventh Generation disinfectant wipes in every room of the house!

4. Adopt a minimalist mindset.

Cute Girl'S Nursery

This one is simple: reduce what you have by reducing what you buy. You don’t have to pick up what you don’t own! Kick this off with a giant purge. If you have a tendency to keep everything, or if you just need a little push in the right direction, give the world famous KonMari method a try. In her book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, writer and tidying expert Marie Kondo explicitly describes how you can overhaul the whole look and feel of your home by applying her organizational methods. She will help you recognize that it’s okay to toss that Candy Land game that is missing most of its pieces, as well as that mysteriously leaky air mattress that you meant to patch two years ago.  

Be on a constant lookout for items in your house that can be purged, and have systems in place for making it happen. Perhaps keep a bin or two in the garage for clothing and items that can be donated. Toy management is crucial in keeping a tidy and clean house with kids! Instead of buying new toys, consider storing infrequently used ones in bins and rotate them every couple of months.

Turn those old onesies into rags you can use in conjunction with your new and improved cleaning schedule. When a material item in your home has fully served its purpose, don’t be afraid to say goodbye. Send those hand-me-downs to your little niece or nephew and post those three extra pack ‘n plays you got for your baby shower on Facebook Marketplace. Less clutter in your space means less clutter in your brain!

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5. Become a storage ninja.

Clean And Tidy Nursery

After the great purge, adopt this mantra: Everything has a home. Keeping your house clean with kids around means being a master at the art of organization. Figure out where everything belongs and then do your best to keep it stored there. 

All too often surfaces become catchalls for unpaid bills or random items that haven’t been given a home, and this is what leads to that unpleasant state of mental and physical disarray. Storage solutions are endless—you could literally get lost in ideas at Ikea—so take some time to explore your options! 

Take advantage of empty spaces like under the bed, and opt for furniture such as a captain’s bed or a coffee table with hidden storage. Don’t be stingy with the hampers. Everyone gets their own in their room, and why not throw one in the bathroom if you have the space! 

And lastly, befriend the basket. Put one in every room and use them as a place to throw everything when you want to pick up in a hurry. Then, once a day when you have an extra moment, tuck all of the items from your baskets back into their homes and get ready to do it all again tomorrow. An organized home is a happy home!

6. Try some habit stacking to keep a clean house with kids.

Basket Of Laundry

Part of the challenge of having a clean house with kids is remembering all of the tasks that need to be completed each day. Perhaps you know you have to make dinner every night, but somehow the laundry gets away from you. Of course you know to brush your teeth each morning, but one day you look down and realize that your bathroom counter has become home to a fine layer of soap scum and dozens of toothpaste blobs. 

This is where a little brain trickery can come to the rescue. Habit stacking can be applied to all areas of your life, and keeping house is no exception! The idea is to get your brain to associate a new activity with another one you are already in the habit of doing. 

For example, you would say something like “After I start dinner, I will load the washing machine. After I finish dinner, I will put the load into the dryer.” For a toothbrushing example, say “After I brush my teeth, I will wipe down the bathroom counter.” Habit stacking is an effective way to get yourself in the habit of creating new household habits….and it works!

7. Screen time (and actual babysitters) are your cleaning allies.

Children Using Screentime On A Mobile Device

No parent feels good about letting their toddler binge watch Paw Patrol, but it sure feels better if you have a sparkling toilet to show for it. Take advantage of screen time (or any time the kids are distracted!) and use it to get something done that will contribute to a clean house with kids. Any small job, even a microwave wipe down or a quick laundry folding session, will contribute to the overall goal of tidiness. For bigger jobs, consider calling in some reinforcements. Every so often allow yourself to splurge for a babysitter so you can tackle monster jobs like steam cleaning the carpets or touching up the paint!

8. Make those kiddos earn their keep!  

Children Doing Dishes

Children can start contributing to the household tasks really early on, and many are actually eager to help! Give two- and three-year olds small jobs to do, like putting clothes in the hamper and toys in a basket. Older kids can fold towels, sweep the floor, and make their beds. By the time they hit kindergarten they’ll be doing the grocery shopping! 

Proactive measures are also helpful in keeping a clean house with kids. Teach them to wipe their feet (or better yet take off their shoes!), put away their toys, and all of the other little things we adults do by nature so that we don’t wreak muddy havoc everywhere we go. Make it easier for them by bringing things down to their level (literally). Hang some hooks at their eye level to encourage them to hang up their coats, and create low shelving with bins for their toys. Print out little photos of what goes in each bin so that they can sort things on their own. 

Finally, making chores fun (think Mary Poppins) is a great way to trick them into lending a helping hand. Pick up those Duplos by “shooting” them into their case like basketballs or sing a clean up song as you go (Spotify has several playlists!). Also, Melissa and Doug make some amazing kid-sized cleaning toys to get them excited about housework! Try the Dust! Sweep! Mop! kit or the Squirt & Squeegee playset.

9. Give it a name and declare it special.

Child Making Bed

No parent likes spending precious Saturday time stripping the beds, washing and drying the sheets, and then hoping you’ll remember to remake the beds before your children have sailed past bedtime and become overtired and cranky. But what if this series of events was suddenly deemed “Clean Sheets Sunday” in your house? Sounds cozy and appealing, no? Naming a task and making it into a thing is a great way to pump a little joy into the equation. If things go just right, you’ll have the whole family snuggled in the same bed on Sunday morning relishing in the soft, fresh smelling sheets and whispering to each other, “Happy Clean Sheets Sunday! Let’s do this again next week!”

10. Tuck the kids in and do one last spin.

Toddler Asleep In Bed

It is exponentially more difficult to clean a house when the kids are actively living their best lives bouncing around the living room and trying their aim on the toilet. So take advantage of those precious moments after bedtime to do one last sweep before tucking yourself in, too. Spend 10 or 15 minutes going from room to room and putting things where they belong, wiping down surfaces, and getting the coffee ready for the next day. It’s the little moments like this that allow you to stay on top of a pile that never stops growing. Waking up to a tidy house is a reward in itself, even if it only lasts a few minutes before your tiny roommates start getting at it again.

In your never ending quest for a clean house with kids, above all always remember that all work and no play makes mom and dad really boring. This is just a brief moment of time in your life when you have zero chance of keeping a perfectly tidy house. So manage those expectations and roll with it and you’ll be better in the end. 

The people who visit your house aren’t going to write you off because your refrigerator hasn’t been cleaned since the birth of your oldest child. They’ve probably been there too, and if they judge you for something like that, who wants them poking around in your fridge anyway?! Keep that mess under control for your own sanity, but don’t go overboard or you’ll miss out on all the (super messy) fun that these years are made of!