As moms, we faced unprecedented times when March 2020 happened. Though those times were unusual, many of us still struggle with how we can stay organized in seasons when all of our kids are home!
Uncharged laptops in every room. Charging cords in random outlets. Scrap papers with scribbled assignments on the table, desk, and on the living room floor. Cups – all the cups – everywhere! Nope! Not the leftover evidence of a frat party. Just reality that our homes have become schools, recreation facilities, all you can eat restaurants, business offices, and the only 4 walls many of our kids have seen in over a month.
With all this activity in our homes, how on earth can we keep the clutter at bay and maintain some level of organization? That’s the challenge lots of us up against these days. How do we get the people in our homes on board with keeping our homes from being trashed 90% of the time? Want to know my thoughts on this issue? Like you have a choice!
How to Stay Organized: Lower Your Expectations
Yep! The first battle you have to overcome in this fight is your own mind! For the most part, your kids and mine don’t care about the messes. They don’t get why you’d need to pick up the dirty laundry and wet towels off the carpet in their bedrooms. Their noses have gone “nose blind” to the smell of sweaty, muddy clothes and shoes.
Come to grips with the fact that your house isn’t going to be in the same shape it is when you’re home alone during the week or when you have your house cleaner come through to clean. It’s just not. Learn to be okay with that for this season (and for the summer!) Figure out your clutter tolerance and lower it just a little!
How to Stay Organized: Get Your Kids (and spouse) Involved
The biggest untapped resource in your house is your kids! Seriously! Sure they’re not always going to complete tasks to our acceptable level, even our lowered acceptable level.
Every evening before bedtime – maybe as a condition for getting their bedtime snack – set a timer and have your kids help reset a room or the whole house! Tell them for 20 minutes they’re going to put things away, sweep the floor, wipe the counters, etc. Make it a game! If everyone is involved, there should (should) be less griping and complaining!
Assign your kids regular tasks. My kids are in charge of unloading the dishwasher every day and doing their own laundry. It’s not much, but they know these are tasks they are responsible for completing.
Have your kids get in the routine of putting their school stuff in the same place when they’re finished each day. This will require you to establish a home for their school supplies. Give them a bin or basket to keep their personal supplies in. Have them clean the table off and put the communal supplies back in their cup, bin, or drawer.
How to Stay Organized: Designate Time For Your Own Tasks
By now, you likely have some sort of flow to your days. You know how involved you need to be in your kids’ distance learning endeavors. You know how much you need to be available for your own job. You also probably have a growing list of projects you’d like to get done with all this time you’ve been gifted.
Find time each day to work on your own tasks. Get your kids settled with an activity or TV show (No guilt, Moms!) that will keep them mostly occupied for a few minutes. Set your own timer and work on your projects! Realize that you’re not going to have hours of uninterrupted time to dedicate to your project so work on it in bite-sized chunks. Every little bit of progress is still progress!
How to Stay Organized: Complete Your Big 3
The Big 3 I’m referring to are those 3 tasks that you need to complete every day so that you feel like you have some semblance of control!
My Big 3 are
- Making The Bed
- Running The Dishwasher
- Doing a Load of Clothes – Floor to Drawer
To me, these are the bedrock of keeping my house from feeling totally out of control. Dirty dishes and dirty clothes often provide big stress at our house. Petty, I know, but think about all the heated conversations you’ve had with your kids over not having clean socks or pants! Or not being able to find a clean water bottle in the morning because the dishwasher wasn’t started before everyone went to bed! Bingo!!
Decide on your daily BIG 3 and get those tasks completed Every.Single.Day!
Stay At Home Orders or just summer time, these are a few good guidelines for keeping our homes under control while they’re full of people!
What do you do at your house to keep the clutter at bay with all your kids and spouses home?
Love the idea of the big three. I felt like with 3 boys in the home doing chores I had to lower my expectations but now that they are grown up they do a fantastic job when they want. It was with baby steps that they were taught and eventually do more without feeling overwhelmed. I love the suggestion of lower expectations for new moms.
Oh yes, new moms definitely need to give themselves grace and keep their expectations of clean house in perspective!
The big three is a good idea!
Thanks. It’s a great place to start!
Love the idea of lowering your expectations, and tackling the big 3 each day. Great perspective!
Thanks! The Big 3 is definitely a good starting point!
I’m good with the Big 3. It’s the stacks of papers that seem to multiply when I turn my back that are the trouble!
Paper is definitely a struggle to maintain if you don’t stay on top of it!
I like the big three. If you can keep up on that then that is most of it. At least things will look somewhat tidy. Thanks!
Absolutely love the idea of the big three. My husband thinks I bite off more than I can chew when I make myself, or him and the kids, a long to-do list!
It’s easy to get ambitious!
Great tips! I just have a little apartment that my husband and I live in, so luckily when we just do a little bit each day, we never have to spend too much time getting things done. We enjoy tidying up together which makes things easier too. I’m sure if one of us was having to do everything it would be a lot more stressful.
Great advice! Sometimes we try so hard that it makes it harder to complete the tasks we are trying to do!!
It’s only myself and my husband and if I don’t make a to-do list every day, our house looks like the one you described at the beginning. How does that happen with just two of us?
It’s amazing how quickly things can get out of hand, isn’t it?
LOVE the big three idea! Think mine would be kitchen counters clean, beds made and all clutter pick up.
BAH! You hit it right on the nose – I definitely needed to hear the first one in your list. Changing my expectations is SO hard, but I am trying.
Those are my big 3 too! priorities.
Great advice, thanks!
Such a great idea to have 3 big things to make sure get done everyday. I get overwhelmed thinking I need to go to bed with a clean house. My 3 kids all under age of 8 are walking tornadoes and sometimes it seems too much!
Hang in there! I remember those days.
Oh yeah, getting the family involved helps.
I have recently started utilizing my kids more and it’s made a big difference. I tried having my kids work together to clean certain rooms/areas but it ended up being too distracting for them to be together. So now I give them different zones of the house – they each have to pick up, put away, vacuum and mop their area. Like you mentioned, they don’t do it perfectly, but it’s better than nothing.
Be kind to hubby, be kind to the kids, and yes, thanks for the reminder – be kind to me. That cutting yourself some slack thing is hard somedays. Thanks for sharing
Great tips! Although I feel like I have gone too long with lowered expectations. I always get overwhelmed when I try to look at my house through someone else’s eyes.
I always have big plans to clean everything. It doesn’t always get done, I’ll tell you that! I overestimated my ability to maintain the house after having our first child, for sure. I’m learning to lower my expectations a bit. 😂
Great suggestions & I especially love getting the kids involved!
Great tips! We just moved into a new home, and I’m on a mission to get it organized….it’s a big job!
Oh boy! The struggle is real! My son’s desk area is way out of control with dishes, wrappers, chargers, computer peripherals, and his myriad of instruments (banjo, 4+ guitars, & a trumpet)
Isn’t it, though? It’s easy to let clutter take over without being proactive (and insisting our kids do their part!)
I live alone and work full time and rarely have two days off together.. My apartment is a constant disarray. I would love to have someone come and organize my apartment but I am never home enough. The cat is no help!
Send me an email jen@yellowcottageliving.com and let’s see if there’s some way I can help you or find someone close to where you live that may be able to.
Live this! I’m always looking for new ways and systems to use for organizing.
Hope you find these helpful!
I love the daily Big Three! Mine are make the bed, wipe down all counters, a clean kitchen before bed.
Great tips!
Oh, I really needed to see this! My home looks like a disaster almost always! I like the big 3 ideas, wondering what I should make my big 3 to be. You are right, if I have everyone tidy up together everyday for just 20min, it makes a huge difference. I need to be consistent and do it! Thanks!