Nine Simple Ways to Keep Your Home Tidy with Kids Around

When you have children, keeping a home tidy can feel like an impossible task.
With toys, arts and crafts activities, clothes, and the general mayhem kids can bring, your life can easily feel like a never-ending cycle of cleaning and tidying.
But don’t worry, all is not lost!
There are some simple strategies you can adopt to help you maintain an orderly household which doesn’t result in you having to constantly have to live in a mess.
Here are nine family-friendly ways you can keep your home clutter-free, even with kids thrown into the mix.
1. Set a Good Example
You can’t expect children to keep a tidy household if you don’t. So, it is important that you set them a good example because if they see you making an effort to keep things organised, they’re more likely to follow suit.
Kids learn by watching, so make a point of always tidying up after yourselves if you want them to do the same.
2. Create Kid-Friendly Zones
There is nothing worse than finding toys or arts and crafts activities all over the house, right?
Well, a good way to prevent this from happening is to designate specific areas in your home for certain activities.
For example, a ‘play zone’ can contain most toys, while a ‘craft zone’ can keep art supplies contained in one area.
If you are able to contain each activity within one dedicated space, it makes it easy for kids to know where things belong and for you to localise your cleanup efforts.
3. Use Storage Bins and Baskets
When it comes to keeping toys, books or puzzles organised, storage bins and baskets are lifesavers. Most of them don’t take up too much room but can fit a lot of stuff in them.
It is a good idea to have them throughout the house. For instance, one by the front room door for shoes, another in the living room for toys, and a few in bedrooms for books or stuffed animals.
Just make sure you keep them at a child-friendly height so your little ones can help with the tidying-up process.
4. Set Up a Daily Clean up Routine
Another good way to keep your home clean is to establish a short but regular clean-up time every day.
It doesn’t have to be for long, even five minutes can make a difference to the overall presentation of your home.
You should also try to do it every day at the same time, for instance, before dinner or your child’s bedtime, to prevent big piles of clutter from building up over the week.
5. Turn Cleanup into a Game
Kids love games, so why not tidy up one too?
Set a timer and challenge them to pick up all their toys before it runs out. Alternatively, create a mini ‘treasure hunt’ where they need to find and put away items that are out of place.
This clever tactic is one many stay-at-home mums use, and the more fun you can make the process of cleaning up, the more motivated children will be to participate in it.
6. Regularly Declutter
Sometimes houses get messy because there are too many possessions in them, particularly if you have kids.
The sheer volume of toys, clothes, books and various pieces of furniture or equipment can soon add up. So, it is worth going through these items on a regular basis and either putting them in storage for a later time or getting rid of them.
If you choose to get rid of them, do so responsibly by selling or donating them to charity as much as you can. For items that will be thrown out, try to ensure what can be recycled, and only take to the refuge tip what is unsalvageable.
7. Use a Rubbish Removal Service
With kids in the household, it can be difficult to organise yourself to be able to get rid of your rubbish and the excess items you no longer need.
For this reason, it is a good idea to hire a rubbish removal service that can do it for you in a responsible and efficient manner.
In particular, if you or a family member has a disability, you might find it very helpful to contact an NDIS rubbish removalist.
8. Establish a ‘Drop Zone’
We’ve all done it – come home from work or school and just left a trail of our shoes, bags and other belongings all over the house. It is a surefire way of quickly making a mess!
To prevent this from happening, it is a good idea to designate an area in your home as the ‘drop zone’, where you can put all your things as soon as you enter the home.
A basket for shoes or a hook by the door for your coats can keep these items contained and make your entryway look much neater overall.
9. Use Vertical Storage Options
When it comes to mess and general untidiness, usually this happens at ground level. So, a good way to counter this is to take advantage of your wall space.
This could be through shelving, hooks, and wall-mounted storage solutions, which can help to keep items off the floor and out of the way of your main sightlines. Therefore, creating a more spacious, clutter-free and tidy feel, overall.