Keeping Your House and Your Sanity in Order

As an Intro: I am a almost 24 year old mom of 3 boys. My boys are 5, 3, and 2. I am also expecting another bundle of joy in March of 2009 (hoping for a girl). I have struggled for a long time with a desire to keep my house in order. I have wanted it to resemble an adult home instead of a kids toy store :) I would come home and just look around and be overwhelmed, I would get frustrated with the kids and my husband for their lack of help and even adding to the problem :) it seemed as though they were set on undoing everything that I accomplished in a day, but I knew that I needed to take control of the situation and get everything in order, especially with our oldest starting kindergarten and a new baby not too far away.

First off, I think that it is important to take it one step at a time, I am the type of person that feels like I need to get everything done today and therefore I was always let down at the end of the day with what I didn't get done instead of being happy with what I did accomplish. We all know the things we need to straighten up and take care of every day, it's just getting to the point where that's all it is is straightening up and putting things in their place. I tell my kids that everything has a "home" in our home, and when you designate where that home is, cleaning up is a lot easier and faster.

I would take at least a week to try what I'm going to describe and then continue with the schedule from there. I would pick a room a day or 2 and go thru everything in that room. The rooms I liked to start with were the rooms that everyone would see first when enter the house, ie bathroom, entry and living room. The room you pick must be cleared of all garbage and unneeded items. I would start by doing a general picking up of the area so that you have room to work with. For example, in the bathroom, getting any laundry out and clearing counters first. Get a garbage bag for garbage and one labeled for donating. Go thru every cabinet and drawer and be brutal with your items, I think that taking everything out and wiping the cabinet and then putting the items back allows you to sort thru every item and organize them at the same time. After you have sorted thru all the items wipe down the entire area "deep clean" and leave the room sparkling. You may feel tempted to leave the room and put something in another room, but don't. Put any items that need to go else where outside the room in a basket or bin and take care of them after the room is clean. Tell yourself you are not leaving until there is nothing left to do in that room. Once the room is clean, you are more likely to want to keep it that way. At the end of the evening or before the next day, take the items that need to be donated out of the house right away to a local church or something nearby. Think of everything that's leaving your house that you won't have to deal with again :)

After you're done with the first room, you can move on to the next room doing the same thing. Try not to attempt more than 2 rooms a day, because it can get overwhelming and you may be more willing to leave the room to move onto the next before it's done.

While working on the rooms the week, start to hold your kids or husband responsible for assisting in keeping the newly clean spaces clean. Remind your kids of what they need to take care of. It seems like I have to tell them several times, but eventually it will become habit for them to take care of dishes or take their laundry out of the bathroom. I also will have my boys pick up there rooms prior to nap, game time or bed. I try to have times during the day where they need to take care of a chore prior to eating or getting game time, then they're usually more motivated to do it....usually :)

From there I set up a schedule where in addition to daily tidy up chores, I do 2 rooms a day where I make sure that they are clean and straighten them up. I put it on a list for the day and write done next to it when I finish it, it's a lot easier to feel accomplished when you only have 2 rooms to keep in order, but it is also quicker since they have already been simplified and cleaned.

Another suggestion that has helped me to have better mornings is to tidy everything up before going to bed; then you wake up not being overwhelmed. I'm sure there is more I have missed, but this is what has helped me to regain some control in my household and be less stressed. I have purged a lot of items that were unneeded and it was very freeing :) If you can pick up something or take care of it right away....DO :) it will give you less work later. I hope that this might help some people that are overwhelmed and felt the same way I did. Happy Homemaking :D