As any parent will tell you, keeping a tidy house with little ones running around can seem like mission impossible.
However, a messy home can have a negative impact on you and your family. Studies show that a cluttered home can lead to stress, depression, and anxiety. In 2009, a study showed high levels of the stress hormone cortisol in mothers who had a cluttered home environment.
If you want to know how to keep your house clean with kids, it might be easier than you think.
Keep reading to learn 7 essential tips to keep your house clean – and how to get the kids on board!
1. Keep a Place for Everything
Ensuring that all things have a home is essential for keeping your home clean and tidy.
In order for your family to follow suit, everyone must know where everything belongs. You can have a family meeting where you walk through the house and ensure that each family member knows where items should be placed. You can also include your family in the decisions and have an open conversation about what places make the best sense.
You want to pick spots that will make it accessible and easy to clean and put things away. For example, if you need a quick kitchen sweep, keep a broom handy in the kitchen rather than the garage.
2. Teach Kids to Take Pride in Cleaning Their Rooms
If you are wondering how to cope with a messy house and kids, teach them to clean their own rooms.
This can be done with some guidance and support but you can encourage kids to respect their space and take pride in keeping their space clean. Make this part of their routine at home.
Routines are important for a child’s development. Research shows that children with routines at home have stronger self-regulation skills. They are also more capable of adapting to challenges and stressors.
With your child, you can create a checklist of things that need to be done daily, weekly, or monthly in their rooms. Encourage your kids to take part in making the list.
You can use a whiteboard to create a list to make it more fun for your kids to check off items. This will give your kids a sense of accomplishment.
3. Allocate Play Areas
When your kids are distracted by play, it’s easy for them to spill into other rooms and areas of the house that are not suited for play.
Choose a few places in the house for toys and games and ensure that your children know where these are. Additionally, let them know that they must tidy the play area before moving on to a different room in the house.
This will also make clean-up much easier when playtime is over.
If these designated play areas are in common areas, ensure that you keep a basket or a bin close by for quick and easy clean-up.
4. Use Green Cleaning Supplies
Knowing how to keep the house clean with children starts with the right products.
If you want to get your whole family involved in cleaning the house, first you must get cleaning supplies that are safe to use, especially if you have younger children like toddlers.
You can make some homemade products for your kids to use that are guaranteed non-toxic. You can even get them a mini spray bottle and create a special set of products just for them. You can mix baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, and water for an effective all-purpose cleaner.
To jump-start your green clean trend, you can have a professional green cleaning for your home.
5. Purge, Purge, Purge
Getting rid of things faster than they show up in your home is a tricky task but necessary to avoid a messy house with kids.
Before you can get organized and set up rules for cleaning, you have to seriously clean-out of all of the things you don’t need.
Additionally, kids have a lot of “things”. Some of which they need, most of which they don’t. They also outgrow their toys and clothes very quickly. Be vigilant about donating those items straight away.
You can keep a bin or basket in a spare storage area that is designated for donations.
Once you’ve done the initial purge, you may want to get a deep clean for your newly decluttered home.
6. Avoid Buying New Things
If we can leave you with one piece of advice on how to keep the house clean with kids – don’t buy new things.
We live in a consumer-driven society that encourages us to buy new things all of the time. Not only will this rule save you from cleaning up an extra mess, it will also save you money!
Unless it is a birthday or a holiday, try to avoid buying things. When you do, try to get rid of at least one or two things.
It may be tempting to give in to your child’s wishes but children often get bored with toys quickly. You can encourage your kids to donate their unused toys to children less fortunate.
7. Create Rules for Cleaning Up
This is a great one for the whole family to get involved. You can make a list of the cleaning chores and divide them up for each family member.
You can have daily weekly and monthly jobs for everyone. Keeping a list where everyone can see it is handy to keep everyone accountable. That way everyone knows what needs to be done.
You can get younger children involved with small tasks. Consistency and repetition are important to ensure that these tasks become habits.
Knowing How to Keep Your House Clean with Kids
We all want a clean home where our kids can play, grow up, and thrive. If you’ve been wondering how to keep your house clean with kids, just use our list of essential tips. Make rules, purge, don’t buy new things, make play areas, use safe products, and give everything a place.
Of course, life gets messy sometimes but these tips will bring the whole family together to keep the house neat and tidy.
For more information on cleaning services for your home, get a free quote on our website today!
