My Current Cleaning Routine

 As I've had more kids, I've found it harder and harder to keep up on the housework. We live minimally (for the most part, though we still probably have too many toys) and clean everyday, but it can still be hard to keep the house as clean as I like it. And, a lot of the time, I don't. I try to make sure I'm doing the most important things first (like writing and reading aloud and spending time with each other), so sometimes it falls by the wayside. 

What our house looked like this afternoon

Today I just wanted to share what I do to try to keep up with it all. 

One of the things I'm doing this year is creating some family habits to keep the house from getting messy in the first place. This month, we are focusing on putting away shoes and jackets as soon as we come in the house. I redid our coat closet so that it's easy for the kids and it has worked really well so far. Next month, we'll pick a new thing to focus on together. 

The kids have a container for their jackets/coats, their shoes, and their snow gear (in the summer, it will be swimsuits). I don't care if they mix them up, but so far they haven't. Ben and I hang our jackets up (I also hang up the girls' snow pants) and then have a hanging thing on the door for our shoes.

I also have some daily personal habits. I make the bed and tidy our room (our bedroom never gets very messy) every morning while I'm getting dressed. I unload the dishwasher while I'm making breakfast (and Ben loads/runs the dishwasher every night before bed). I start a load of laundry in the washing machine in the morning and switch it the dyer in the afternoon (I'd like to fold and put it away each day as well, but I don't have that habit yet). 

We have times when we clean as a family. We'll do what we call a "family pick up" usually once a day, where we turn on music and clean up whatever is strewn about the house. Usually this is before or after dinner. We also have a "family clean up" on the weekends, where everybody (including Rylee but excluding Oliver) spends five to ten minutes doing a cleaning job that doesn't usually get done (like washing walls or vacuuming out the couches). When I fold laundry, it's usually at night as well, and so the kids will put away their clothes before bed and the kids pick up their rooms while I'm feeding Oliver right before bed as well (it's usually really easy because we don't keep a lot in their except their clothes and their bed stuff). 

The big chores I have divided up by day. On Mondays, I go grocery shopping. Tuesdays, I clean both the bathrooms on the main floor. Wednesdays, I sweep, vacuum, and mop all the floors on the main floor. Thursdays, I clean the carpets or do another deep cleaning job that's been bothering me. Fridays, I help the kids clean the bathroom upstairs and pick up and vacuum their rooms.  Saturdays, we do our family pick up. 

I am learning to lower my expectations for how clean our house is. I also am lucky to have a husband who helps around the house often: taking out the trash, spot mopping, holding Oliver while I clean, and participating in our family clean ups. I am really hopeful that as the kids get older and we work on family habits that our house can also stay cleaner with a little less effort.