HDYDI: Keep Your House {Semi} Clean with 6 Kids

You hire a housekeeper. HA!

Kidding.

Maybe.

It’s a question I get almost every week and one we heard quite a bit growing up, even though it was just my brother and I. Before I dive into how we do it, I think it’s important to note two things:

1. Everyone’s version of “clean” is different. For some, it’s a bleached bathroom, no dishes in the sink and mopped floors. Others just want things picked up off the floor. And, still others might call it a win if all the toilets get flushed at least once a day. There’s no judgment here. You gotta live in and love your own house, not someone else’s.

2. I thrive on organization. And when things aren’t in their place, I feel extremely stressed. Visual clutter is something I cannot handle but I’ve had to learn to let go of some of my idiosyncrasies because people need to live peacefully in our house.

Okay, with those two disclaimers off my chest, let’s chat about what we’ve learned in the trenches of keeping a house clean while having a big brood. Jaime, this post is for you!

1. Tame the paper monster. If you don’t, it will tame you. Because our kids are school-age, we have a fair amount of paper coming into our casita. We have several systems in place to help manage all that crazy. When I pick up the mail, I sort it right in the van. The recyclables and junk immediately go in the recycle bin and never even enter our house. Will is my recycle man. School papers are managed in much the same way. They’re either signed, recycled or filed. I have a file in my office that’s used just for that. I also created bins for the kids’ school papers I want to keep and I put papers in them twice a year (December and May). We don’t subscribe to the newspaper, phone books were cancelled years ago, I have a “no soliciting” sign on the door and we pay most of our bills via electronic draft. Invitations and important “don’t forget this paperwork for school” papers are affixed to the magnet board in our laundry room. The kids use magazine holders for their arts and crafts paper and I bought a cheap caddy from HEB to corral all the markers and crayons. Now, I would be a big, fat liar if I told you that I did not have piles of paper in my house. I do. We ALL do. But, we just keep hacking away at them. I’m trying to give myself a pass since Gianna entered the picture. A newborn throws it all out of whack!

2. Teach your kids how to do laundry – washing, folding, hanging and putting away. It will save your life. True story. We reorganized the closets when we moved in so the kids could put up their own laundry. Hi, game changer! Not only is it helpful for you, but the kids learn the value of teamwork, citizenship and responsibility. That is, if they don’t kill each other in the process.

3. Sunday is our “pick up all this crap” day. We do have a housekeeper that comes once a month, but I suspect in a few years, I’ll cut her loose and move that chore to my kids. I do have sparkling clean toilets because that’s a punishment for sassing in our house. We are ruthless on Sundays. Don’t be afraid to get rid of things. 99.9% of the time you never miss ’em.

4. Deal with stains/spills when they happen. I have a small caddy in our laundry room that houses carpet spot cleaner, Clorox wipes and a water/vinegar solution along with some microfiber towels. I’ve found that having those things easily accessible makes cleaning up messes no big shake. And let’s face it, there are a lot of “no big shakes” happening at our house on a daily basis.

5. Relegate the sports stuff outside. We did a massive cleanout of our garage last year and it is working beautifully – when people actually remember to use the systems. {ahem, BOYS!} There’s nothing I hate more than walking in my house and seeing soccer cleats, shin guards, mouth guards and clumps of mud all over the tile. Batty. Drives me batty. The hooks outside are helpful because the kids can just hang their bags out there and then pick them back up when we leave for said game or practice.

6. Assign chores. Let the bigs help the littles. You’re the mom, not the maid. Everyone has to pitch in and if you ask my kids, they’ll say, “Citizen of the Household duties are awesome,” with a side of eye roll, I’m sure.

7. Labels are your friend. We have them in our toy closet, in our closets, on the movie bins, in the pantry, in the medicine closet and everywhere in between. If you have a designated spot for something, it allows you to see when you’re running low. It also requires you to think about adding something else and often times it keeps you from buying something you really don’t need just because it’s on sale. We pretty much wrote the “for everything there is a place, there’s a place for everything” motto here at our house.

8. Know that some days, weeks and seasons of life will derail your systems. Life happens. Be at peace with your Monica closet. I’ve found it’s easier to tackle the worst offenders first. Say, your after school routine needs some work because your house keeps vomiting paper. Tackle that monster first, then move on to the next. If you try to do it all at once, you will fail. Miserably. It could take lots of days, weeks or months to get where you want to be, but you just gotta start somewhere.

9. Mark it down that the moment you fall off that wagon, all your friends will drop by to visit. Never fails. I’ve also found that if you’re having an event at your house, things magically get done. I feel like saying, “Man, if you were here two hours ago…”

10. But along with #9? Never apologize for the state of your house. You live there. I once read a great reflection on this very thing and I have approached my welcome to the house very differently. It usually starts with, “I hope you don’t mind a crunchy floor because that’s how we roll here.” Love where you live, the messes are a reminder that people you love made them. Once you know your threshold of crazy, then you can find your peace.

Bottom line? Be a team player and take pride in where you live. For me, making people feel at home has always been my charism. Hospitality and southern gals are like biscuits and butter. Happy vacuuming, y’all!