Hellobee Boards

In order? Lol. Well for starters there is always laundry to be folded or ironed so let's take that out of the equation. Gio is ten months old and loves feeding himself so while he's having breakfast in the kitchen I wash and put away dishes from the night before or the current morning and straighten up the kitchen really quick. Shortly after that he would play so I put him in the baby proofed living room while I tackle other chores - start preparing lunch and dinner, fold some laundry. Shortly after he's ready for a nap. While he naps I take care of me and finish up dinner. Then he's up again til his mid afternoon nap. I use that time to straighten up whatever I can between the living room, nursery and DH and my bedroom before DH returns home in about an hour. Nothing is ever perfect but it's livable, and doing a little each day keeps it from being a complete total disaster until our deep clean every other week.

I'm ok about keeping on top of things, BUT I only have one LO (due with #2 in April) AND our house is only like, 1400 square feet. I will admit that I tend to get stuff done while my daughter watches TV, so... not the perfect solution. Sometimes she also likes to "help" and can keep herself pretty busy with a single Clorox wipe, lol. And I also have to admit that I don't do a ton of deep cleaning. Like, surfaces, floor, bathroom, etc. are cleaned but God knows what kind of dusting is lurking like, under the beds and behind the sofa, you know? I just try and tackle the things that drive me craziest and that's pretty much whatever I can easily see.

I have a dream schedule that I would ideally keep to and it has one thing to do each day (i.e., grocery shopping, vacuum, laundry, counters & toilets, etc). Sometimes I manage to do it; other times I do 2+ things on the days when K is at preschool. Other than that, I have tried to be really good about having K putting away each thing as she finishes playing with it. At least that way my house has the illusion of clean, even if in reality it is only marginally tidy.

I make the kids tidy up the living room every evening, usually before dinner. Then after dinner I do the kitchen clean up. Laundry is either first thing in the morning or while the kids are in the bath. The rest- floors, bathroom, dusting, organization I sort of rotate but I don't have a schedule, just use little pockets of time. The biggest game changer for me was consolidating most of the cleaning to the evenings so that I don't feel like I'm cleaning all day but there's still a time to get things together so we can start fresh the next morning.

I tidy up daily -- wipe down countertops, vacuum the hardwood using my cordless dyson, load dishwasher

I vacuum the rugs and bedrooms once a week.
Bona mop the floors once a week.
laundry usually 2x a week.

I think our house stays clean mostly because of our layout though. Bedrooms are upstairs.
Playroom is at the back of the house so the kids' mess stays back there.

My mantra while pregnant and exhausted has been 'floors, kitchen, food'. If those things are taken care of, I don't stress too much about the rest.

I've also worked really hard to get systems for those things in place - I have a roomba (which I would recommend to ANYONE, best $250 I've ever spent) that does the floors, and all I have to do is set it up each morning. I make sure that the dishwasher is always emptied, and everyone knows to put their things in it, and to keep the counters clean. For meals, we meal plan and shop on the weekends, and I mostly cook fairly simple stuff, so it's not terribly hard.

The biggest contributor, though, is just living an overall minimalist lifestyle. We don't have that many things. My daughter doesn't have a ton of toys. Everyone in the house knows that they're responsible for picking up after themselves, so there is rarely a huge mess to clean up. All of these things combine to make keeping tidy not terrible.

I only have one so I assume its about 3 times harder for you...

In terms of picking up, we just do it every night as soon as LO is in bed. Like literally before we sit down, we put all toys and mess away. Honestly it takes less than 10 min even though it seems like it should take more and it does wonders for not letting things get too out of control. I run laundry as-needed through the week. When I have clothes to fold I just set LO up with some toys or set her in front of the bookcase (she loves pulling all the books off...) and fold it while standing next to her. When it is only one load every 1-2 days it only takes like 10 minutes so it isn't that big of a deal. Dishes go into the dishwasher immediately. Dishwasher gets unloaded usually either while I'm cooking dinner or my husband will do it in the morning if I run it over night and he has time. I don't sweep or vacuum as much as I should. I usually sweep (when I do) during naps and I wear LO to vacuum so she isn't under foot. Deep cleaning only happens on weekends when both of us are home and one can watch her while the other cleans-- we take turns.

DH and both WAH, so deep clean only happens once a month. Do I wish it was more? Yes! But unfortunately there is not enough time for that. I'll spot clean when I see something that is driving me insane. We have to vacuum basically every day because of the dogs. If the dishes and laundry are done regularly, I consider it a success.

I thought when I started to SAH I wouldn't feel like I was always cleaning. Haha - NOT. Now there are just more messes. Of course part of that is my toddler getting older and having a second one. In some ways though it felt easier when I was working. If the house was clean at 8am, it would be clean st 5pm. Now, not so much!

I try to have the dishwasher unloaded before lunch, do a load of laundry every day, clean the kitchen after dinner every night, no matter how tired I am. And then I try to get out of the house a lot. If we are at a park, they can't make a mess!

Though the cleaning stuff is just tough. It's hard to vacuum when they are awake because I don't want them breathing the dust and I don't sant to wake them up if they are asleep. Same with the bathrooms. Sometimes I want a cleaning lady just to do our bathrooms!!