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12 Easy Ways To Keep A House Clean With Toddlers

Wondering how to keep a home tidy with toddlers? Having a clean home with young children can seem impossible, but it’s actually easier than is appears! With some easy tips and tweaks, you can keep your home (moderately) in order and pristine!

This may seem like an impossible task, but it really is possible to keep your house tidy with a toddler or two running around! You don’t have to spend hours cleaning up each day if you take the initiative to be organized and have everyone help out where they can.

Before kids, cleaning was simple. You clean up your own mess and you don’t throw your toys around the room every 2 minutes. Cleaning after you have kid gets exponentially harder.

When you have a baby at home, you only need to worry about finding the time to wash bottles, baby clothes, and having the hands free to do so. However, when you have a toddler, it can feel nearly impossible to clean up after their whirlwind play sessions and food fights.

Avoid feeling completely overwhelmed and instead follow these helpful tips for keeping a house tidy with toddlers!

How To Keep The House Clean With Small Children

Declutter Regularly

Toddlers seem to have so much stuff, and as they grow from baby to toddler to kid, they amass a whole host of their own things.

Doing one big declutter to get rid of any unnecessary items can free up so much space in your home, and will help your toddler know where to find things, and where things go. 

Having a cluttered house can be super stressful, and make it seem like it’s impossible to keep your home clean.

Once you have done one big declutter, you should continue to declutter regularly so it does not get to the point of being overwhelming again.

Everything Needs A Place

When figuring out how to organize house with toddlers, making sure everything has it’s own spot is key.

It will never seem like your house can be cleaned, or can stay clean, if there isn’t a place for everything.

Having a place for everything really does work to sort out your home better and prevent clutter, but it only really works if everyone knows where things go. Find a place for each thing, and make sure that this place makes sense to the whole family.

When everyone knows where everything goes, they can help clean up better without you following behind rearranging.

Invest In A Roomba

A Roomba is definitely a pricey little piece of gear, but in all honesty SO worth it! Especially if you have pets!

I’m not the type to sweep the home everyday, but the thought of my daughter crawling around on the floor with dirt and dog hairs is revolting! So it’s not so much a luxury for me as a necessity.

I set my Roomba to clean everyday when I’m out of the house and it makes such a difference!

The house stays clean longer AND makes cleaning day a breeze!

(Also, the Roomba is a bit pricey but Amazon allows you to pay in chunks with no interest fees. I paid for mine in 5 monthly payment chunks!)

Rotate Toys

Once you have finished decluttering your toddler’s toys and have kept a few for them to play with, you should separate the toys. You should keep around a third of the toys packed away and out of reach of your toddler, and have the rest available for them to play with.

This stops them from dumping every single one of their toys out on the living room floor, and the fewer toys in front of them, the more likely they will be to actually play with a toy.

Toddlers become overwhelmed when there is too much choice in front of them, so only give them access to a few toys at a time, which also cuts down what you have to clean up once toy time is over.

Have Toy Boxes And Racks Accessible

There is no point in having toy boxes or coat racks that are inaccessible for your kids. If your child cannot reach toy boxes or coat racks, they definitely will not be packing their own toys away or hanging their own coats up.

Where possible, and when it is safe to do so, have storage containers, racks, hooks, and stands accessible for your toddler. This includes having a kitchen drawer easily accessible for them which contains their dishes and cups.

You will still need to place the fragile, breakable and dangerous items out of reach, but let them have access to the things they are allowed to use, as this encourages them to pack items away easily as well.

Have Designated Play Areas

When it comes to managing the chaos and mess, having a designated ‘play area’ or room is one of the best tips I can offer you.

It is a way to ensure (at least to an extent) that the majority of the house is tidy and clean. 

My kids play room (i.e. the extra bedroom) is a hot mess most of the time, BUT its contained. Whenever I have guests over, I can just close the door to the playroom and I get sooo many compliments on how I manage to have a tidy home with two young children. Ha!

 

Keep Surfaces Clear

Your house will never feel clean, no matter how sparkly your floors are, if there is clutter on your counters.

If there is a knick-knack on your counter, it can be so easy to place another next to it, and before you know it, the counter is completely covered.

Make it a hard rule to avoid placing miscellaneous items on the counter, and once again make sure everything has a place.

Keep disinfecting wipes on hand at all times to make sure the surfaces are germ-free.

Have A Cleaning Routine

It is never too late to come up with a cleaning routine. You will find cleaning so much easier, and less like a chore, if you implement it daily into your evening and morning routines. This will make it feel like a habit, and will help keep clutter at bay.

Creating a daily cleaning routine with kids can be easy and is a fun way to get them involved early on with household chores.

Your daily cleaning routines should be packing items away and doing surface cleaning. Weekly cleaning routines should include deep cleaning and decluttering. By doing your daily cleaning routines daily, your weekly cleaning routines will be made easier as well.

Your toddler can also get involved with cleaning routines, and learn that each day after playtime they need to pack their toys away or place their bowls in the sink after dinner.

Have Simple Systems

No matter how hard you try, your toddler is not going to follow your alphabetic system for storing books on the bookshelf or follow the color-coded toy bins at packing-up time.

You need to keep your organization systems simple, organized in a way that your toddler will be able to understand and follow.

Clean up should be fast and efficient, and the less sorting you have to do, the less time it will take. This does not mean that everything will be disorganized, but just keep things simple.

Wake Up 15 Minutes Earlier

Getting a head-start on your day, even if just 15 minutes, might not seem like much but can a actually make a huge difference.

Take those extra 15 minutes to start a load of laundry or sweep the floors. Perhaps unload the dishwasher.

Even if you don’t get much done in those 15 minutes, simply taking time for yourself goes a long way. Whether it’s to make your favorite breakfast or enjoy a peaceful cup of coffee, having some ME-time is important for avoiding overwhelm later on in the day.

Start Meal-Prepping On Weekends

Meal-prepping is a huge time-saver and will give you SO MUCH freedom on weekdays to do other things.

In general, even with simple meals, I was in the kitchen for at least an hour. Then you add the dishes and picking up, it becomes a solid two and a half hours of my day. 

Once I got in the habit of meal-prepping on Sundays and Wednesdays, I was able to get so much done with my days as it was one less thing to worry about.

Have Your Toddler Clean Their Own Room

While your toddler will not be able to clean their room on their own just yet, you should have them involved with helping you clean their room daily. As they get older, they will be able to take on more responsibility, and this means you spending less time cleaning.

Talk them through each step of the cleaning process and help them along the way. If they understand how to clean effectively and get used to cleaning from a young age, it won’t be such a struggle later on in life.

Teaching your toddler how to clean from young saves you many arguments later on!

Our Favorite Products For Keeping A House Tidy With Young Children

A toy organizer is a necessity and a good way to teach and encourage your children to put their toys away. 

This vacuum is a GODSEND! I love that it’s bagless because the thought of having the filth in my home stored in the closet makes my stomach crawl.

Plus, its SUPER affordable.

The price fluctuates, but if it’s under $70, GRAB IT. It’s a steal!

If you’re still using paper towels, STOP!

Let me introduce you to the marvelous world of microfiber clothes.

They’re environmentally friendly, save you money, and clean 99% of bacteria on surfaces!

You’ll never use paper towels again.

I disinfect surfaces everyday, especially the kitchen counters before dinner. 

Even if you can’t have a spotless home 24/7, you can keep it smelling fresh and clean!

Febreze has always been my go-to brand and I love how it kills odors and doesn’t just mask. them.

Another game-changer!

Mr Clean has been awhile forever and it’s because their products are the best. The Magic Eraser is my go-to whenever my girls make a mess or get markers on surfaces.

I swear it gets everything out!

How do you clean a house with a baby?
Share your best tips on how to get cleaning done with a toddler in the comments below……
BUT REMEMBER…..

Clean With Kids is Different From Clean Without Kids!

Be easy on yourself and understand that ‘good enough’ is good enough!

Wondering how to organize house with toddlers?! It isn’t impossible to maintain a clean home with small children if you know how to do it properly! Having a daily cleaning routine with kids is essential for keeping a house clean. How do you clean the house with a baby and maintain some sort of #cleaninghomewithbaby #cleaningschedule
Wondering how to organize house with toddlers?! It isn’t impossible to maintain a clean home with small children if you know how to do it properly! Having a daily cleaning routine with kids is essential for keeping a house clean. How do you clean the house with a baby and maintain some sort of #cleaninghomewithbaby #cleaningschedule