What is your secret for keeping your house clean?

Question

Have 5 kids, no help from husband or really the kids(more of a fight then nothing) Please help me. Any neat tricks or ideas? Thanks

Answer 1

Clean up as you go along. Never let them make a mess, so you have to clean up a huge one. You see them drop trash pick it up right there. Get incentives for cleaning up. Put things back when your done, stuff like that.

Answer 2

I only have 1 son (10 months) and it is sooo hard for me, so I can only imagine how hard it is for you! But what works for me is to clean the house from top to bottom, and once it is cleaned, you MUST keep it clean! Everytime you see something out of place, tidy up right then. Don't procrastinate and put anything off to clean later. Another thing that works is that I know that there is always something to clean. Keep this in mind. Even though your house may be neat, there is always something you can do, like dust or clean little areas you never have the time for. My fiance doesn't help either, so I started throwing away his stuff that he would leave on the floor. After awhile he realized that if he wanted his stuff, he needed to pick up after himself. As far as the kids, assign a chore to each one. Start them out by having them do chores within their room. Once they master that, start assigning things for the whole house. Good luck!

Answer 3

5 kids can easily do 5 easy chores for you. Reward their good behaviour/attempt to clean with some physical activity or a movie, and get to cleaning.

Also, it might help to clean whenever you have a chance. No, I don't mean the whole house. I mean just clean one thing or another. Spontaneous cleaning will help you keep a more orderly home.

And above all, laugh. No one keeps a perfect home all the time. Don't stress about messes, just clean what and when you can and you'll see, the house will look great.

-E

Answer 4

You're the mom, you should make those kids do ALL the chores while you put your feet up.You are the one who's probably paying half the bills..Put those kids to work, I was doing dishes and folding laundry since I was four. This is ridiculous, kids these days are so frickin spoiled (end of rant)

But anyway, If you have money you can hire a cleaning lady or you can buy sofa cover sheets to protect upholstrey, more rugs to protect the carpet, Cheap plastic disposable table covers so you dont have to spend time wiping the table, simply remove the table cover and throw it away. Use more paper plates and cups so you have less dishes. Make sure your kids take off their shoes the minute they come in, and whenever they have a fun activity like painting have them do it in the backyard or garage

good luck

Answer 5

What's the big whoop about a clean house anyway. A happy family is so much nicer than always nagging to pick up this or do that. If you must clean don't spend any more than 20 minutes a day doing it. Have handy a bag of Hershey kisses and give one as a reward for anything the kids do to help.

Answer 6

MAKE the kids help. They don't have a choice. You have a lot more power over them than have over you (unless you fail to exercise it). It's called parenting.

If they won't help, they don't eat. If they don't make their beds, their beds go in the garage. If they won't do laundry, they wear dirty clothes. Get it?

No child is too young (or too old) to help out. If you fail to instill a work ethic in them, you are not doing your job as a parent. It's no different than allowing them not to learn to read.

BTW, there has never been a fight between a parent and child that the parent could not win. YOU hold all the cards; they depend on you for everything. Do the right thing, not the easy thing.

Answer 7

Set up routines that make housework easier for all of you.

If others don't help, see what you can do about setting up a reward system to get their help. Look up supernanny's tips on token economies. She has a lot of ideas to give kids the incentives. The only time I would use punishments is for when they don't pick up after themselves. Otherwise for general things like vacuuming, dusting, etc you can "pay" them to do what you want, race the clock or each other to get it done/have contests and competitions.

Re: the husband, he is your partner and a co-parent here, he should be role modeling his support of the running of the home, especially if you both work outside the home and then you are expected to run the house too. If you can't convince him it's his job too, then I would respectfully suggest this is more of a marital problem than a housekeeping problem. You can put him on the couch for a few days and see what happens?

Re: all family members, make sure you:

DO relax your standards for their work. Let them do it imperfectly if that is their best work. Teach them properly. Lots of moms claim they don't get any help but they aren't satisfied with the help they get, then they go behind and do it over themselves. That's not appreciative at all, and it leads to you resenting them.

DO tell them that you appreciate their help. Saying thank you is a must but also proving that it changes your mood and schedule to fit more rewarding time as a family into the schedule.

DO make chores age appropriate.

DO teach new chores time to time, as they grow into them, to give kids something new, and to give them more life skills.

DON'T nag. Give your expectations pleasantly, give a warning, then give your consequences immediately. ALL pleasant. It isn't personal. Discipline with love.

DON'T make chores a drag. Let them have some control over which ones to do first, or when, try to give some trust if they say they will get to it later, maybe they will. If they don't you hold them to their word...later. With expectations, warnings, and consequences.

DON'T assume that you're not getting help because the kids are lazy. Children naturally want to please you, all of them. They want your love and appreciation. So...make sure they know how to do their jobs, make sure they have enough time to get them done, and make sure they are rewarded at least with a thank you for their effort. If it is lazy, don't make it all about you. The kids have assumed you will just keep taking care of them because you set that standard in your home. It will take some time for them to find the new boundaries and yes, it is manipulation but you can't blame a kid for doing what works. Kids never really want to hurt YOU as they want to benefit themselves. But you can tell them that in the process of not helping, it has started to hurt your feelings and wear you down.

Declutter your house as much as possible if there is a lot of stuff to take care of and keep clean. This will help so much I can't even begin to explain it here. Read up on the methods and get the extra stuff out or at least out of circulation on a temporary basis to rotate or bring in as needed.

Related, organize your home so cleaning is easier. Make cleaning stuff portable, containerize stuff so everyone knows where it goes, use hampers and bins without lids so they can toss some stuff, instead of walking back and forth. And last, do a little everyday, esp toyrooms, laundry, and straightening up high traffic areas...so things don't get out of control.

Organize your schedule so that your kids know when it is chore time, and when they can do their own thing. This way, you won't be on their butts all the time...and again, don't nag.

Break up chores, esp for young kids, so that it isn't such a big deal to do that thing.

Answer 8

how old are your kids?
I have assigned chores for my kids every week. This can begin as early as age 4 with picking up their rooms and helping with dusting.
move on to dishes, vacuuming, etc etc etc.

I also think you need to have a serious talk with your husband. There isn't any reason for any man to not help with housework.

My kids are teens now - and our house is not perfect (not much point in that), but we do keep it fairly tidy and the kitchen and bathrooms are always cleaned and straightened daily and thoroughly once a week.

I and my husband have full time jobs too. I actually like the winter because there is less work to do with no lawns and gardens showing. teehee

Answer 9

chore charts are good. have a reward for them at the end of the week if they complete everything. if everyone cleans up after themselves it is a big help. (including your husband) you can also have a clean-up time before bed time. make it a contest, set a timer and see who puts everything away the fastest. hope some of these help!

Answer 10

assign parts of your house to each child and hold them accountable..... your husband is also to be held accountable.

oldest child cleans bedroom and collects trash
2 child cleans livingroom and takes out trash
3 child cleans 2 bedroom and collects laundry
4 child helps sort laundry and helps in kitchen (getting things out for whoever cooks)
5 child if old enough is shoe keeper and makes sure lights are out when rooms arent in use.

husband chooses laundry or cooking.... and he has help from the helping child.

other then that.......... if you clean up after yourself as you go then there is never much to clean. show them that if you take dishes to the kitchen as you clean your plate that the table will just need wiped down. if you put coats,shoes and backpacks up then there isnt much to pick up.

Answer 11

send them out to play all the time look up on yahoo "clean your house in 30min." brings up loads of neat sites and tricks-haha the same problem in my house