Ain’t it just the dream to run a tight ship. Having everything clean and organized is probably your ideal picture of a home. The thing is, sooner than you realize, a lot of changes happen over the years when you get to have more kids. When you’ve got a toddler and perhaps you’re even expecting more, that tidy home can anytime become a place of chaos. Don’t lose hope! Before your beloved kids reach their teenage years, we’re here to remind you that you can gently start ‘em young. It’s never too late to build cleaning habits that can make life easier for you and your spouse. And the awesome bit? Your kids can be a great part of it! Moreover, Stuffsure can also be a great help to find the best tips on home management.
In this post, we will show you five tips that aim to keep your home clean and organized if you have a growing family. Let’s begin!
1. Keep Your Kids’ Toys Organized
As time goes by, one thing is inevitable. Your kids’ toys will start to pile up like crazy. Since toys are vital for any kid’s childhood, it’s natural for them to sometimes have so many toys. The important thing is you’d learn how to manage both your kids and their toys from the get-go. Here are three ways you can do to make the cleaning process easy, fast, and efficient.
Obtain Toy Storage
The first way is to obtain dedicated storage containers for your kids’ toys. Improvising with generic storage bins or toy boxes could work, but buying well-planned and specific toy storage would most likely help you in optimizing space in your home. Besides, these days there are plenty of options that would help you manage and store your kids’ toys easily.
Set a Playtime
Setting a playtime schedule is beneficial for you and your kids. It gives you and them a mutual understanding of what time they are only allowed to play. For example, you may set two hours after they arrive from school or after their online classes, and another hour after dinner. The schedule may also depend on their age and what you think is enough time for them to be playing with their toys, so as time goes by, adjust to the schedule as you see fit.
As young as they are, this will let your kids begin to understand the concept of keeping a schedule. It also lets you take more control over your time since you would know when to oversee them.
Make Cleanup Time Playtime
Setting a playtime makes things easy, but training your kids to be involved will surely make things easier for you! One effective way to keep your kids from seeing cleanup time as a chore is by treating it like a game. Encourage them to do it for fun or even watch them get to their competitive side by asking who cleaned up the fastest. See that in the long run, you’ll never have to step on another wandering lego block again!
2. Build a Consistent Kitchen Routine
When your kids reach the age of five or whenever you think they’re ready, train them to bring their used plates and utensils to the sink. That way, after meals, all you’d need to do is wash those dishes or put them straight into the washer. It may seem like a chore that you can do by yourself, but if you get more kids or by the time they get older, you’ll find that this will help you save more energy in the future. Except for your toddlers and infants, be sure to make no exceptions, spouse included!
Another way to sustainably manage your kitchen is to keep non-toxic disinfectant sprays and cleaning cloths within reach. Avoid any delays in cleaning up spills, crumbs, and other messes. Keeping the habit of cleaning messes right away will let you do less cleaning at the end of the day! You can train your kids to do this, too, when you believe they are capable of doing so.
3. Get the Right Furniture
There are tons of stylish and posh furniture out there that can make your home look gorgeous. However, some pieces of furniture have pointy corners or hard edges that may leave your kids prone to accidents. Always ensure that the furniture you choose would make your home a child-friendly environment.
Besides maintaining a child-friendly home, it would also be best to buy furniture that can serve multiple functions. Ottomans are great for any bedroom or living room if your home has limited space. Ottomans can function as footrests, chairs, coffee tables, and importantly, they can be utilized as storage for other household items. They are also easy to glide around whenever and wherever you need them. Be sure to get furniture that is safe for your kids and can double as storage to maximize the limited space!
4. Declutter Regularly
Decluttering is a healthy part of any cleaning endeavor and, hopefully, it’s not something you only do once a year. Practicing this multiple times a year spares you the trouble of needing to do it in one big bang. And besides, it’s also best if you can rent a dumpster from Eagledumpsterrental.com so that whenever something needs to be disposed of, you can throw it away instead of keeping it in a room and taking up some space
After setting aside items with great sentimental value, make it a habit to sort out belongings you no longer use or need. For kids’ clothing and toys, leave out their favorites and try to declutter their toys with them every six months. There are surely some pieces and items that they should have already outgrown. Indeed, it’s much easier said than done, and, cliche as it sounds, nothing feels more refreshing than to see your home filled mostly with essentials. It leaves you room for more new items for your home!
5. Let Everyone Take Part
Perhaps the fulfillment of having a growing family is you get to enjoy the chance of making a team effort. Your kids may be young, but you are already fostering in them a sense of ownership and responsibility for their belongings and their home. One way you can make this more enjoyable is to create a reward system.
Give incentives or treats to your kids who faithfully do their work. Hopefully, the younger ones would follow and see that helping out in keeping the house tidy is a rewarding experience. If they do, give them their favorite dessert or call for a pizza night. This is a psychology trick called “positive reinforcement” which will work wonders on your kids for sure!
Enjoy the Mess!
Stress can be a huge part of keeping your house clean especially when you have a growing family. However, your little angels won’t stay 5 or 7 years old forever. Sooner than you know it, they will have to learn how to clean up bigger messes someday. So, relieve yourself from the stress and enjoy the mess because it will always be part of life for any parent. Helping yourself and your spouse is just a side benefit. We’re certainly not implying that you let all your kids do the work, but know that this gradual process, with extra patience and gentleness, in a way is preparing your kids for life and much bigger responsibilities that await them.
We hope this article has given you insight and principles that would give value to your every house cleaning endeavor. Do visit Storables.com now for more ideas and guides on getting the perfect storage options for your home!