How do you do it???

[momof2joys]

I was just wondering what some people do to make their houses run smoother??? Do you have any system for laundry or dishes, keeping the house clean or just cleaning in general??? Any ideas?? I am trying to figure out a way to things run easier, instead of always doing things on my days off or on the weekends I don't work!!

Also, does anyone have a way to get the kids to help. My ds is always willing to help with things, its my 10 yr old sdd, that I am having trouble with. Any ideas???

Anything you can think of will help me greatly!!!

[frugalandsimple]

The less clutter in the home, the easier it is to clean. Teach and encourage the kids to clean up themselves when they are done playing with their toys. Does your sdd like music? Maybe, get a few CDs from the library or buy a CD as a special treat that can only be listened to when cleaning.

[MoonMommy]

When I do have my system running, I try to do one or two things a day. Like maybe on Mondays I will wash the kitchen, then Tuesday vacuum, etc.

[Libby]

I designate days for things.

Garbage day is Wednesday so Tuesday night I round up the trash & recyling.

Thursday is laundry day b/c Friday at the office is casual Friday's but then I wait for Sat am so I can hang it on the line to dry.

Just break the daily/weekly chores up so that you are able to do one or two/day.

Encourage the 10 yr old to help by making a game out of it or part of the evening routine. If she knows its garbage day tomorrow, then have her round up the garbage or go with her and do it together...one holds the bag while the other pours the other smaller cans into it to combine it all. OR sort recycling together etc.

Music is always fun. Maybe after dinner, do one chore together and then come back to the dinner table to enjoy dessert?

[Starlight9803]

my biggest helps in keeping the household running smoothly are keeping clutter to a minimum and sticking to a general daily routine. DS and DD only have the assigned chores of making their beds when they get up and putting away toys before bedtime. All other things are those that I ask them to help with as I am doing them. It took awhile for me to get into a routine, and it is very flexible, but it does truly help. I don't have anything written down, or set in stone (too complicated for me lol), but I do follow a general pattern of getting things done on a daily/weekly basis.

[heartofmine]

I just do it on a daily basis but my husband actually thinks I do it with magic. LOL I actually sort of have a schedule in my head and each day I do those chores. Every day I pick up and remove any clutter that has been left behind. That goes a long way in cleaning. My kids to help. At 10 your dd can do plenty of chores so I would assign her as well as your son chores to do.

For instance both my kids are responsible for making their own beds and keeping their rooms clean and have ever since they were small. My son keeps the trash taken out. My dd helps with the laundry and dusting and also helps with some of the cooking. They take night about washing and cleaning up the kitchen after I have cooked supper. They both take time about vacuuming. My son keeps the yard mowed and weed eating done. They have other chores that they may help me with throughout the week.

[kittykatstrong]

I try to keep clutter to a mim. I also try to do one load of laundry a day or every other day depending on the week. I have little goals that I try to get done every day so that it does not add up. I hate cleaning on my days off.

[qtkitty]

Haha .. nothing at my house is running smoothly right now.. im just trying to keep my head afloat or rather keep the house from looking like a barn.

At the moment that means eatting off paper plates... and cringing and leaving messes til later.. which bugs me to no end.. i am not ocd clean freak by anymeans of the word.. but the state of my home bugs me badly.

I am still trying to figure out ways to get Ellen to chill long enough for me to do things around the house. Sometimes i can sit her on the recliner ( reclined aka no way for her to get out ) in her gym thing laying on her back while i am doing dishes. Where she can see me and i can see her. Or sitting in her bouncer where she can see me and i can see her. If i leave the room though even if daddy is there she will start to bawl. Mostly because he will zone out watching tv or goofing on the net instead of "playing" with her. Pet Peeve of mine right now expecially since he just had surgery and can't help with mass majority of what he did before.

Like today i was scrambling around the house while ellen was happy playing on her own or sleeping on her own... washed the dishes, made lunch, did tons of laundry ( whites, kitchen towels, bath towels, bed clothes, comforter, diapers), stripped the bed, made the bed, made dinner. And thats all i got done today which when i look around my home right now makes me feel antsy and irritable because when i get a few things done there are sooo many more things that NEED to be done.

The major things i need to get done ( hahaha i don't see it happening any time soon ) Vaccuming my livingroom, cleaning off the couch( baby gear all over it the swing bouncer ect. when not in use ), fixing the exploded closet in Ellens room..(* whistles innocently* went into it to get out her 12 mo old clothes and put away the others and re organize the food that was in there so we could reach it....everything came out into her room and has yet to go back... so there is a path to her crib and the recliner and her clothes and thats it), Clean our room disaster of folded clothes here and there and odds and ends i have just piled trying to clean other places in the house, the bathroom baby powder everywhere all over the floor over flowed trash can of baby wipes ( non poopy thank yah .. its one of those little mini trashcans in there i need to break down and get a bigger trashcan..its like 5 changes and its over flowing) always a load of diapers to do in the pail( not right now though thankfully bwahaha i even have freshly folded diapers from washing them yesterday that i just folded today *lol*), diaper covers flung over towel hooks to dry... the kitchen * bangs my head on the desk * i don't even want to think about it.. i need to wash bottles when i get home since there will only be one clean one in the house.. put away dry dishes .. wash more.. clean counters, stove. wash down the freezer and fridge.. sweep and mom the floor..

Its like a never ending battle that i am slowly loosing.. because either ellen needs my time or i choose sleep over messing with it... even worse sometimes i am awake and ellen is sleeping and doesn't need me Joes sleeping so he doesn't need me and im just sitting there watching tv or staring off into space. I find myself more and more often looking at messes while i can't tackle them and getting frustrated.

Joe made the comment today that before we called the land lord to try and get him to fix the AC ( since its not working ) that the house would need cleaned.. i was shocked i didn't think it was to bad... but it is a heck of a lot worse then it had been before i had Ellen and before Joe became wheelchair bound.

[IamBlessed]

1. Get a plan. Doesn't have to be set in stone.
2. Don't backtrack and criss-cross from one room to another. Finish one room at a time.
3. Get a bullwhip, tazer, or whatever necessary to get some help from kids. (I am joking here!)
4. Pray...and when you get tired...take 5 minutes before you get back to things.

Qtkitty, you sound like you manage to accomplish quite a lot despite having a little one around. But, for what it's worth, I used to pack the kids around and park them in whatever room I was working in so they could see me. Lots of times, they were in the laundry baskets, too...just chilling out. Seriously, do you have a baby pack? One of those snugglers? Maybe that would help.

[nuisance26]

~What made things click for me was a massive de-clutterring. Donate or throw out anything that isn't in use or that isn't associated with a happy memory. When your space and stuff are in harmony you'll want to maintain it. My ds helps out with household stuff about 1/2 hour a day and he still likes it. I figure that later on down the road I'll have to bribe him with a promise to play a board game with him after.~

[C@rol]

I agree decluttering is a very big help. Less stuff, less to clean. Stop junk mail at the door. Stand at the trash can and throw all unnecessary mail in the garbage right then right there.

You have to create a foundational system that works with your household and once you set that, like on what days you'll do what things, things should start to fall in line.

Making children responsible for their areas is a good start. They should start at a young age with things like putting their toys away, then when old enough making their bed, cleaning their room and clearing their plate from the table. You have to start young otherwise if you wait until their 11 or 12 it's gonna be rough to get them to do these things.

[Momto2Boyz]

After over 12 years of running my own household, I am finally getting down my system!

I have honestly found that doing a little bit every day helps. With 2 kids, 2 dogs and a hubby that comes home from work exhausted and fithly...it's been no easy task.

Here are my basic tips and the things that helped me:

1. Kids room is the "messy room". That is the room they can mess up. They can leave toys on the floor and not get yelled at for it. We used to have a toy box in the living room, and since I moved it out to their bedroom, the toy mess has been alot less of a hassle, because there aren't TONS of toys in the living room.

2. I used to load the dishwasher like clockwork after each meal and run it at after dinner. Then before bed, part of my routine was unloading it. Now, since it is gone...I handwash dishes 4 times a day. I do it after each meal and once before bed. Sounds daunting, but really I found that doing it 4 times a day, makes it alot easier. I'm not standing there for an hour doing dishes. It is maybe 10 minutes each time, becuase there are so few dishes.

3. Laundry: I have one large double hamper in the bathroom. In the mornings and evenings, I pick up laundry out of the bedrooms (or wherever it is dropped) and put it in the hamper. When the hamper is full, I know I have 2 full loads, so I do them. So, my laundry never piles up (it used to before we started using the big hamper).

4. Vacuuming: I HATE vacuming! But with the kids and the dogs, I have to do it all the time. I now vacum every other day. We have hardwood in the living/kitchen/dining area. I actually use the shopvac to vacum that (instead of a broom) becuase it does an awesome job at picking up the dog hair. Then I do a once over, on the hallways and bedrooms.

5. Mopping: I hate mopping even more than vacuming. But a friend gave me a second hand carpet steamer, and I found that it works great on my bare floors! I just fill it with plain water, but since it sucks up the dirty water, it gets the floors really clean!

6. Dusting: I use my vacum to dust almost anything. I use the brush attachment and it sucks all the dust into the vacuum and doesn't just push it around and get it into the air!

7. Window washing: Use a squeegee and a rag!

So basically, those are my tips. I hate cleaning, but I've realized that a little bit goes a long way. If I pick things up before I walk down the hallway, each time I go...then I never have to do a major cleaning!

[cheles2kids]

If the kids are not used to cleaning/picking up after themselves you first need to get them started.
My kids always did really well with the 10 minute pick-up, twice a day I set the timer for 10 minutes, they had to go through the house/room and pick up and put away anything they could in 10 minutes.

Now that they are older, they each have a room cleaning day on their chore charts.
On that day they are responsible for completey cleaning their rooms:
picking up the floor
vacuuming
dusting
making their bed/or changing their sheets
cleaning out their closets

Then once a month, for my 13 dd. anyway, she has to go through all of her drawers and straighten and clean and refold the clothes.
I let her do 2 drawers a day for the entire week, if she wants OR she can work 1/2 a day and get them all finished.

We rotate through things like scooping the litterbox, cleaning the batherooms, etc.
But on a daily basis they know that they either have to load/unload the dishwasher. I usually let them decide which they want to do that day and then the next day the other kiddo will do the other one.

I have to say for teenagers, my kids are really responsible when it comes to chores and helping out around the house.
But I've always given them their own jobs to do since they were small.

I think to get kids interested in helping, they have to have a sense of satisfaction.
In my case, I've always let them know how much it means to contribute to the family in this way.
It just something that we all chip in to do and that's just kinda the way it's always been.
No job is gender specific. My daughter cuts the grass, as well as my son will clean a toilet or sweep a floor.
Now that they are older, they realize that I'm their mom, not their maid, I don't ask them to go behind me to clean up my messes and they know I won't do it for them.

[meanestmom]

I think decluttering is key, but I have a couple of hard and fast rules, no matter how tired I am. My bed gets made everyday, laundry gets sorted, washed, dried, folded, and PUT AWAY. ( I used to have baskets of clean laundry around, no more) and the dishes get done after each meal. Oh, and the trash goes out as soon as it is 3/4 full. I think those rules make life easier. If those things are done, its easier to get the vaccuuming and dusting done. Oh, and the kids all have chores to do everyday, that are non negotiable.

[MomToTwoBoys]

My house is always a little out of sorts, even with being home all the time. I'm sorry but I'd rather spend that time doing stuff I like than slaving over the house all day long.

Here's what I do:

1) I throw all stray clothing articles downstairs onto the landing in my basement. We rarely go down there except to either a) get food out of the freezer or b) do laundry so it works for us. I ask the kids to pick up their clothes usually and they do it.

2) The most notorious space in my house that is the messiest is our computer desk. It's one of those cubical-sized desks that when fully set up, you can fit four computers at it. I will usually clean it up every time I get up to put my coffee cup in the sink.

3) After I take a shower, I'll clean up the bathroom. After I use the half bath, I usually clean it up and straighten it up a bit. I do the big chores once a week (vacuuming the stairs and upstairs). I always rinse the dishes when I put them in the sink and I always wash the dishes as I'm cooking.

4) If it pertains to the bedrooms, like making the bed or putting away laundry then it can wait. To be honest, unless someone is coming to inspect my house I won't bother with things like making the bed or putting away laundry or picking up the dirty clothes. It's not like God is judging me just beacuse I don't make my bed every day.

5) The kids will put their dishes in the sink for me or onto the counter. I also ask them to pick up their toys after they're done with them. After we come inside, I ask them to take their shoes/coats off and put them back where they were and they do it.