Keeping House

I was looking at someone else's blog and she threw out the question how do you keep a clean house and raise children at the same time?

I have spent a few days thinking about that, because for me I have been able to do both. Not perfectly by any means but for the most part, my house is picked up and clean. I have a gathering spot on my kitchen counter that I gather all of the papers and loose things that needs to be dealt with frequently but that is part of not keeping a perfect house. So today I want to blog and share a few of my tricks to keeping house and children all in the same day.

Elder Dallen H. Oaks in his conference address Good, Better, Best. said it the best. "Remember, don't magnify the work to be done--Simplify it." That has been my philosophy as well. I keep big rolling bins under my kids’ beds for all of their toys. I keep a laundry basket in their closet and a simple bedspread on their bed. This allows for a quick clean up of their room every day. I also use a laundry basket for cleaning the whole house. Anything that doesn't belong in the room I am cleaning goes into it and when I leave that room I proceed to put the stuff in the basket away.

Another thing I do is Laundry and de-cluttering from the weekend on Monday's, Bathrooms and straightening on Tuesday's. I vacuum the whole house Wed's. Laundry on Thursday and anything that needs to be cleaned on Friday's to get ready for friends coming over that night. I have a daily routine. Straighten my bathroom, bedroom, the kids bathroom, kids bedroom and toy room before I even come down stairs in the morning. Then at least I know upstairs is clean. My kitchen is the hardest place to keep clean I guess because I use it all day long. If I don't clean up every single time I use it then it is a mess. Kids take a lot of time, but when they don't need my immediate attention then I can take time to clean. I have friends that read, but I wouldn't have time to clean and read. So I choose to clean. Now I have said it so maybe now I can let it go that yes it is possible to keep house and take care of kids in the same day. P.S. I have a 5 and 6 year old and now that they are older it is much easier to do this than when they were 2 and 3, so keep trying and soon they will be older like my boys.