I don't know about you all, but I do not have a maid. I have a full time job, 3 kids, a husband and a house. And just as anyone elses house, its get messy....fast!!! I will admit, the house is not clean all the time, but i am trying. I am trying to keep up better with the daily picking up around the house. My old method was to do what I could, when I could, then do big cleaning on weekends. Well, weather is nicer now and my kids want OUT on weekends...which means I can't clean all day long.
So I wanted to share just a couple of tips/tricks that I do, to help the daily clean-up go a little faster.
1 - GROUP IT: Think about everything you pick up on a daily basis, that is always there, and think of ways to group them. Mine are - trash, dishes, clothes & shoes
2 - ONE BY ONE: This I started to get the kids to help me easier, but it works even when they are not helping me. I do each group, one by one. First, i collect all the shoes and put them away, then clothes all get put in the laundry, then I grab a plastic bag and go around the pick up all the trash, and last, we take all the dishes out to the kitchen.
3 - BINS & BASKETS: These are a new obsession of mine. I realized (finally) that with 3 young kids, they are just not ready to really help me organize and make sure everything is in its place. But if you add a basket/bin, they can put it away without having to worry about it being neat.
A few examples ...
*We have a few bins on the front porch for shoes. However, we all tend to come all the way into the house before we take our shoes off & they end up laying all around. Also, our enclosed front porch is always too hot or too cold, so reminding little kids to take their shoes to the porch all the time (to put them away) got really old. So we started to stash them under the side table. Well the pile began to flow out from under the table and you could still SEE the pile. Well, I finally got a bin, that we can use like a drawer, to keep all our shoes, that we wear daily from spilling into the middle of the floor. (Since we bought this, the girls are even more likely to put their shoes right away now)
*My girls love to draw and color all the time. We allowed them to take over this 6-cubby coffee table/TV stand we had. However, after a while, it began to look like things were just shoved inside all the cubbies. And now this year they have to read every night for homework, so there were books shoved in there too, but falling out everywhere. We already had their crayons & markers in a plastic bin, then I decided everything else needed bins too. Instead I found some decorative lined baskets. So now all of the books & coloring books and miscellaneous things are in bins, in the table, and not all sloppily falling out. (excuse the table - we are getting ready to re-finish it)
*We were forced to buy a shelf for more storage too. But I decided that it didn't need to look all junked up all the time. I decided to get a few fabric cubes to put on one shelf. Then I got another decorative box type, to use for things that won't stand up on their own like magazine and notebooks.
I hope this helps inspire some of you, to find new and creative ways to "throw it in a pile real quick" , but still have your house looking neat!!!
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