Do you feel like you can’t manage your home with little children? Follow these simple daily routines to an organized home to save time and keep your home neat and clean! (Yes, even with little kids!)
I’m amazing at how little kids seem to have an affinity for messes. This is so hard for me because I like to have a neat, organized home!
And my little girls (ages 5 and 7) don’t seem to care. At all.
Even though my home is not as pristine as I would prefer, I’ve come up with a few daily routines to help keep it mostly organized and relatively clean.
I think most people want to have a clean and organized home, but no one wants to spend much time getting there or keeping it that way.
When my second daughter was born I realized that if I wanted to keep up with daily life and not drown in disorganized chaos, I needed some quick and easy daily routines to stay on top of things (and keep my sanity!).
Altogether these simple, daily routines don’t add too much extra time to my schedule. In fact, routines help me stay organized and save up minutes to add to my coveted free time.
Related: How to Keep a Tidy Home with Little Kids
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Simple Daily Routines to an Organized Home
Here are some simple, easy things you can do every day to keep your home clean and presentable:
Make the Beds
Rooms immediately look better when the bed is made, even if you don’t do anything else.
This only takes a minute or two, especially if you have a minimal amount of covers, pillows, and blankets.
Put Away Clothes and Keep the Closet Doors Shut
If your clothes are put away as soon as you get undressed, not only will you find them when you need them, but your room will look better without heaps of clothes or stray socks here and there.
I’m working on this one with my 2 little girls as they have a tendency to leave clothes everywhere, but at least I’m getting good at constantly reminding them.
Clean up Immediately After Meals
At a bare minimum, I put the food away and all the dirty dishes in the sink, wipe the table and counters, and sweep (because my little kids are messy!).
This takes just a few minutes. I highly recommend taking an extra 2-3 minutes to stack the dishwasher. Make sure you run it when it’s full!
Sweep or Vacuum High Traffic Areas Once a Day
I currently have wood floors throughout my apartment. I sweep at least once a day in the main areas (kitchen and dining room).
Quick, frequent sweeping of the kitchen and dining room keeps the dirt from traveling throughout the house (and keeps other rooms cleaner).
If you have carpet, you can decide how often you need to vacuum and set aside a specific day to do this.
Do One Load of Laundry
I absolutely hate having mounds of laundry to wade through all in one day. Instead of saving all of our dirty clothes for 1 day a week (and spending all day washing, drying, and folding…ugh!), I wash one load of laundry per day.
This takes a maximum of 15 minutes (loading the washer, switching to the dryer, and folding).
Related: How to streamline your laundry routine
Declutter Your Home
When my oldest daughter was born, I found some pre-pregnancy clothes squished in the back of the closet that had mold on them! Yuck! I had too many clothes!
Since then I’ve discovered the beauty and magic of decluttering my items and now my closet is trim and it’s easy to see what I have to wear.
Having fewer items makes it easy for you to clean, keep things organized, and not have to stress about maintaining all your stuff!
Make sure to set aside time to regularly declutter items (as they always seem to creep inside!).
Related: Minimalism with Kids: How to do it!
Have a Home for Every Item
And keep them there!
If you have items that are constantly strewn about, find a specific place to keep them and then put them there when you find them.
Admittedly, this is hard to do with little kids, but you can practice reminding them where to put their items.
If you can’t find a place for an item, maybe you don’t even need it anymore.
Related: Little Things that Make your House Look Cluttered
And, finally, at the end of the day…
Gather All Toys and Put Them Away
I try to keep all of the toys in the playroom. Since I keep a minimal amount of toys, this step doesn’t take long at all. I grab an empty bucket and gather all of the loose toys and put them in the playroom (our 2nd bedroom).
To be completely honest, I don’t worry too much about the state of the playroom day-to-day.
Keeping all the toys contained in one room makes the rest of the house look presentable. If it’s kind of messy, I just close the door.
Get your kids to help!
Every month or so, I go through the toys and get rid of the ones that are no longer played with.
We do have a family rule that helps quite a bit: “Clean up before getting out another toy.”
Related:
6 Tips for Organizing Kids’ Toys
Chores for Kids: Ideas for Every Age
Final Thoughts on Simple Daily Routines to an Organized Home
Since I’m a single, working mom, I need to have daily routines to keep an organized home! This way our house can be presentable and I don’t have to spend all of my free time cleaning up. These daily routines help me stay calm and not stress if someone drops in for a quick visit. I’d love to hear any routines that you can’t live without or any tips to making your day run more smoothly!
Related: Easy Ways to Simplify Mom Life
