![]() As long as those spaces are in order I can keep my sanity even if the rest of the house is a mess. ![]() Redefining my standards I’ve come to the conclusion my priorities are #1 the kitchen stays clean and #2 the bathroom is clean. I tend to be a bit of a neat freak for a guy anyway but it can be so frustrating when the little one strews toys and art projects seemingly within hours after I’ve just picked up the house. Good luck!!Īs a single working dad with my six year old daughter living with me full time I’ve had to make a few compromises on my definition of keeping the house tidy. So to sum: Toilet seat=daily or every other day, inside toilet=1x wk, tub=before bath 1x wk, floor=when vacuuming/mopping, sink=nightly. Once a month, you should take the extra time to get the corners, the window, inside the toothbrush holder, etc. I’m not talking deep cleaning here, just maintenance so it always looks acceptable for guests and more pleasant for me. I try to keep everything off the sink counter except the bare necessities, and I wipe it down every night before bed so it’s shiny for the next day. For the floor, honestly, using a vacuum cleaner is so great to scoop up hair and dust, so I just go in the bathroom when I’m vacuuming and get it, and then it can get mopped with a swiffer whenever you do floors (around the toilet should get done by hand, IMO, but I do that on floor day, not daily after my shower). This happens once a week, so it just gets wiped down once a week (I do inside the toilet once a week). ![]() I do the tub right before I give the boys a bath. If you shower daily, just wipe under the toilet seat daily, and every other day get behind the lid and the sides. Immediately after I shower, I wipe down the toilet. I’m not sure how long ago you wrote that, Mark, but if it helps, I like to do the bathroom in little chunks instead of all at the same time. While a perfectly tidy house won’t make all our dreams come true, I think it will help us not get too down in the dumps when we are nursing the “I’m-so-frumpy-all-I-do-is-the-dishes” syndrome. I don’t feel like a failure if it looks “lived in”, but I do think that teaching our children to clean after themselves and living tidy isn’t some form of child abuse. Sometimes I have all the kids wiping down surfaces with me. I have been known to see spider webs and ignore. I’m not saying everything is labeled – although I love my label maker – but simply everything has a place.īaskets and places for everyting make tidying easy because each evening you can put up a pile of things quickly when you know where each belong. I have baskets and places for everything. Furthermore, if toys don’t have a place they end up hiding where my foot finds them in the dark! Not good for anyones sanity! If things don’t have a place they end up on the kitchen counter…or so it is at our house. Simple, easy skills every month! Learn More Organize well Help prepare your kids for life, one skill at a time. I have to remember that my definition of tidy is different than it was before kids. But for me, tidy will still look as though the house is in order and picked up. The truth is, most company we keep wouldn’t even notice anyway. It may mean that throughout the day there will be times when the house is in full play mode which means, obviously, that the house isn’t always “company ready.” Here are some super cute baskets for kids rooms. The main surfaces are clear of anything used in previous days, but today’s clutter is acceptable.Books are on a bookshelf- any bookshelf will do.A few baskets filled with visible toys in each room.It used to mean that surfaces were clear, nothing was on the floor, things were in proper boxes and the house was almost always ready for visitors. Tidy used to mean everything where we put it since the last time we moved it. First and foremost, we mothers need to revisit what it means to be tidy. ![]()
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