How to Keep a Clean House With Kids

Does anyone else clean a room and smile with the feeling of accomplishment? And then you go to the bathroom, come back out and it is messy again with toys scattered about? Please tell me I’m not the only one. My wife and I have been working hard at teaching our kids to clean up after themselves. It’s hard work! Holy moly, I wasn’t expecting this to be hard work. But it is. It’s a constant struggle to keep a clean house with kids around. But we’re starting to build a routine and it’s working…so far. Now, I’m sharing our secret methods with you!

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“The Family Five”

This is one of my favorite ways to get our entire family EXCITED about cleaning together. My wife coined the phrase, “The Family Five.” When we shout this phrase, we know that for the next FIVE minutes, we are all united in cleaning the house together. This means putting away toys. Couch cushions need to go back on the couch. Dishes need to be washed. Clothes need to be off of the floor. Shoes should be by the door and not on the carpet. SOMEONE GET THE VACUUM! It’s a lot of running around and laughing. You would be surprised how much we end up cleaning in those five minutes!

Clean it up, before moving on

One habit that all kids love: They play with toys and then find something else to play with ten minutes later. But they never put the toy back where it belongs. Two hours later, your basement looks like a scene out of “Hoarders.” Toys scattered everywhere. What happened? We do our best to remind our kids to put their toys back when they are done playing with them. But we still have to remind them a lot. We are constantly doing “The Family Five” together because this plan doesn’t always work as well as we would like!

Do you have the fun tools to clean up?

Who says you can’t have fun while cleaning? This past Christmas, we received a BLACK+DECKER dustbuster and this has been a life changer in keeping a clean house with kids! Why?

Because my kids absolutely love using it. Now, my kids can help clean the crumbs off the floor. My two year old tossed pieces of his cake onto the floor the other day. After he was finished eating, we gave him the dustbuster and let him vacuum up his mess. He had fun doing it and it was one extra thing that we didn’t have to do. We also let our older two use the Windex bottle to spray and clean the windows in our living room. It’s simple, but it’s something they love doing and we aren’t complaining!

How do you keep a clean house with kids? Let me know in the comments!