Raise your hand if a clean home fills your bucket! 🙋🏻♀️
We love to play and create and let the kids get in on the baking and the cooking- each of which generally creates a big happy mess- but we also value a clean home and teaching our kids the value of leaving a space better than we found it.
Here are some ways we let the fun and creativity exist and still keep our home tidy:
✨Clean as we go!
Life with four kids is full and taking extended time to deep clean is not generally enjoyable for anyone, so we are big on cleaning as we go! We have a rule that we clean up the first activity before moving to the next, whether that be cooking dinner or playing with toys in the playroom.
✨Include the kids!
Many of you know that we reward our kids with a star chart. This reward system has been so big for having the kids help with clean up time. If there’s a play date with our older kids and I can sense that a lot is being pulled out at once, I’ll make a suggestion that they pause and put away what they’re finished with so that the ending clean up time feels more manageable.
✨Make it FUN!
Whether we turn on some good music or race against the clock, making it fun is a good way to keep the house clean and get the whole fam involved.
✨Morning routine!
Each morning, our kids brush their teeth, put on clothes, make their beds, and pick up anything that they played with while they waited for morning.
✨Hire help!
Find a cleaning service for regular deep cleaning that works with your budget- we have used the same sweet lady for the last 13 years. In our first tiny home in the city, we paid her $75 every 3 weeks because it worked with our budget at the time. Now, we have the kids help us clean for the cleaners and always talk about how thankful we are for the cleaners’ help so that we can spend more time playing and less time cleaning.
There are always exceptions to the systems and certain weeks that bring on extra messes that keep the house from being as clean as we’d like, but for the most part, these simple plans have helped us have a home that encourages all the fun and stays clean. Now, clean home lovers- how do you keep your homes clean?! Leave all of your tips below so we can try each other’s ideas. 💙
