Keeping a house tidy when you have kids feels like a constant battle,
especially when they're at home all the time. With a regular routine that is
easy to stick to you can have a tidy life even
with kids at home. I've been a stay-at-home mum for 16 years and in that time I've learned a
lot about time management as well as routines and how they can help. So I
thought I'd share a few tips on routines for a tidy life.
List Your Chores
If you've spent any time at home you already know most of the chores you do on
a daily basis, but aren't there always some you forget about? Even if I think
I know which chores I need to do there's always one that slips through, and
that's why I made a list. I sat and wrote down all the chores I have to do,
then worked out how regularly they needed doing. By having a list you're not
going to forget about one and you'll be able to work out how urgent (or not)
those chores are making your days less stressful.
Set A Schedule
With pen and paper or on your phone, get a schedule sorted.
Once you have your list of chores you can work out how they will fit into a
daily schedule. Things like loading the dishwasher or wiping the kitchen
counters are going to be chores that need doing daily, but other chores like
changing bedding or cleaning windows can be done less often. If you set
yourself a schedule you can get up in a morning, know which chores need doing
and which can wait, and as a result know how much free time (if any) you have.
There's also the added bonus that if there aren't many chores to do you can
relax all day!
Small And Often
One of the routines for a tidy life is to clean up small things often. For
example if you, or someone else in your household, has left breakfast plates
on the dining table it's easier to pick them up and take them away in the
morning than it will be to leave them all day and then have a pile of plates
to take out at dinner time. Picking up small messes is quicker and yes, it
means you're cleaning more often which isn't great, but at least then those
small messes don't grow into a bigger one that will take all day.
Nothing inspires cleanliness more than an unexpected guest.
Radhika Mundra
I sway between doing the smaller jobs often and leaving them until they're
huge jobs. When I have to spend an entire day or more cleaning my son's play
area I get quite annoyed. I end up having to make an even bigger mess to sort
out all the toys and then put it all away in an orderly fashion - it takes
more than a day and by the time I'm finished he's ready to get toys out again.
Not good.
Set Reminders
My phone is hugely helpful when it comes to reminders.
Whether it's a checklist or a reminder that pings up on your phone it's good
to remind yourself to do your chores. If they're right there every time you
look at your phone aren't you more likely to go do them just so you can check
them off? I have a huge list of reminders that go off at certain intervals and
each time they do I make a choice. Sometimes I ignore them (these are the
times I'm letting the job grow), and sometimes I just get up and do the chores
- but the reminder is telling me the job needs doing and it's not going to get
forgotten.
Pick Up After Yourself
How many times do you walk out of a room leaving an empty mug behind? Or
leaving something on the table while you do something else?
Everyone wants to save the earth; no one wants to help mom do the dishes.
P.J. O'Rourke
As kids we are nagged by parents to pick up after ourselves, and this is why.
If we don't take our things away we'll have to do it later, when there are
more
things to tidy up. In a morning, after breakfast, I make sure to take my breakfast dishes out
to the kitchen. At lunchtime I do the same. If things get left behind the mess
grows, and then we're back to spending all day tidying and that's never a good
thing.
Teach Your Kids To Tidy For Themselves
Give your kids chores. Simple. Teach them that you won't always be there to tidy up after them and
they'll learn how to do important jobs. It's about giving them the skills to
be able to live alone and not have mess all around them.
Your kids will never want to clean up - but they have to learn.
This isn't going to work all of the time. I'm not suggesting that if you teach
your kids to do chores you'll never have to clean up after them again, because
really, they're just kids. What I am saying is that by teaching
them about tidying you're making sure they know what to do. And each time you
tell them to take something away they're learning. They're learning that
cleaning up after themselves is necessary - and when you do that there's less
to do later.
Don't Stress
Having routines to keep your house, and life, tidy is great but that doesn't
mean you have to stress yourself out because you didn't stick to your
schedule. The schedule should be there as a guide, not a rule. If you want to
leave a chore until later then do it, if you want to skip a day of chores - go
for it. Don't let chores and having a tidy life rule your life.
Chilling out at times is essential too.
I like to have days when I don't do anything. I mean, really, nothing. I sit
down in front of our TV and watch my favourite shows all day. I don't do it
very often but sometimes it's nice to forget about all the chores that need
doing and
just chill out. Of course, when I do this I know that the following day is going to be
annoying. The chores that I left the day before still need to be done, as well
as "today's" chores. Usually I end up working for longer and doing more things
because I took a day off. But we all need that time off sometimes and
stressing about it all doesn't help anyone.
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