How to Keep a House Clean With Kids
This page may contain affiliate links. If you make a purchase through one of our affiliate links, we’ll earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. For more details, please read our disclosure.
Keeping a clean and tidy house can be seriously hard work and this is only amplified when you have little ones running around. Being a parent is incredibly demanding and requires a lot of time and attention, so how do you balance these two things simultaneously? And many of us struggle with how to keep a house clean with kids.
Putting it simply, it is not easy. It’s super important that you don’t put too much pressure on yourself to keep your home sparkling clean while also trying to juggle family life and looking after your kids. But, with that being said, having a clean home is also important and for some people, it is a key factor in balancing their mental health and feeling relaxed in their home. That’s why we have collated some of our favorite tips and tricks for keeping your home as clean as possible when you have kids.
The tips are super actionable and realistic and can go a long way in assisting you to stay on top of any mess and keep your sanity without feeling burnt out and frustrated.
Related: How to Clean Walls Without Harsh Chemicals
| Image | Product | Our Rating | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
 | ClosetMaid 1290 Cubeicals Organizer |
| Check Price on Amazon |
 | 24 Pack Airtight Food Storage Container Set |
| Check Price on Amazon |
 | Holikme Mop Broom Holder Wall Mount |
| Check Price on Amazon |
12 Tips for How to Keep a House Clean With Kids
1. Be Realistic With Your Expectations
First things first, maintaining a home can be hard at the best of times, but especially when you’ve got little ones running around, pulling out toys, and demanding your undivided attention.
The chances are, you’re reading this article because having a clean home is important to you, and that’s great. A clear space can help us to feel more at peace, relaxed, and less cluttered. But, if you’re finding yourself frequently frustrated or stressed because you don’t feel your home is clean enough or you simply can’t keep up with the mess, it may be time to reevaluate your expectations a little, for your own sanity, if nothing else.
We’re not saying that you must succumb to the mess and simply give up on trying to keep your home clean, we’re simply saying that life can get a little chaotic at times and that can be reflected in the tidiness of our homes – particularly when you have kids. Putting too much pressure on yourself or your loved ones is likely to lead to tension and ultimately, to you feeling super burnt out.
The rest of the tips in this list on how to keep a house clean with kids will give some practical advice for staying on top of any mess and keeping your home as clean as possible. But let’s face it, cleaning any home could be a full-time job even without kids, so try to cut yourself some slack when you can.
Related: How to Clean a Bathtub Without Harsh Chemicals
2. Create a Routine
Arguably the best thing you can do when it comes to keeping a clean and tidy home is to establish some kind of routine. How this looks will depend on your own preferences, lifestyle, and the habits of you and your loved ones.
You could write up a cleaning checklist for each room in your house and commit to ticking one item off each list every day. Or, you could set up a weekly rotation, whereby each person in the household has five specific cleaning tasks that they must complete each week. It might even be as simple as setting aside one dedicated morning each week to clean your home when everyone is expected to help out.
However, you do it, creating a cleaning routine creates stability and gives you the peace of mind that everything will get done in due course.
Related: How to Get Milk Out of Carpet
3. Make Cleaning Kid-Friendly
Getting your kids involved with cleaning your home will not only take the pressure off of you and reduce feelings of frustration every time they ransack a room and then walk away as if nothing happened – but it’s also a great life lesson to teach.
Teaching kids to take responsibility for the tidiness of their space and to clean up after themselves instills independence and autonomy, two vital life skills. So while they may complain at the time, by getting them to help you clean, you are actually doing them a favor in the long run!
To make it easier for kids to get involved with cleaning and to ensure they can do so easily and safely, make sure all of the products and tools that are accessible to them are completely natural and safe to use. This means no harsh chemical ingredients or sharp and dangerous cleaning tools.
Leave these in little baskets or cupboards around your home so that your kids can clean up after themselves easily. They will probably like the independence and getting to play grown-up for a while, and it makes your life easier.
Some of our favorite, kid-friendly cleaning tools are high-quality microfiber cloths that effectively scrub and clean with just using water like these ones from E-Cloth. They are even able to remove 99% of bacteria without using additional chemical cleaners keeping your little ones safe while actually being able to help clean!
E-Cloth Home Cleaning Set
Related: The Best Microfiber Cloths for Cleaning Your Home
4. Use Music to Make Cleaning Fun
Another great way of encouraging kids to get involved in cleaning is by trying to make it more fun. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to go above and beyond to make cleaning into some elaborate game. Simply putting on some of their favorite songs should do the trick.
This can also be worked into part of your cleaning routine. Perhaps once every day one person in the household gets to pick a song and for the duration of the song, everyone must go around the house putting things away, emptying the dishwasher, or loading the laundry machine.
100 Singalong Songs For Kids
Music, when cleaning, can really do wonders for your mood and it makes even the most mundane tasks so much more fun. Put on your favorite playlist or music station and crank it, even if you are cleaning on your own!
5. Everything Has a Place
Having a designated place for each item in your home is key to keeping some kind of order, especially for how to keep a house clean with kids. The really important part, however, is ensuring that everyone in your house knows where each item lives.
If you’re a serial re-organizer and you love finding new spots for things, you’re going to have a battle when it comes to asking your kids or loved ones to clear things away because they won’t know where anything goes, making the process much longer and more difficult.
Giantex Cubby Toy Organizer
Be logical and consistent in your storage choices. For example, keeping coats and shoes near the front or back door will reduce the chances of them simply being dropped on the floor when people walk in; keeping multiple laundry bins around your home will prevent dirty laundry from piling up in random places, and keeping toys in one specific area or room makes it much easier for them to be put away quickly and with ease.
It’s all about finding a system that works for everyone in your home and then making sure that everyone is familiar with it.
6. You Can Never Have Too Many Containers or Baskets
Leading on from that last point, bins, baskets, crates, and containers are going to be your best friend when it comes to keeping your home clean and tidy. They’re great for keeping things organized and making tidying up so much quicker.
Little Hippo 3pc Large Cotton Rope Basket
If your kids’ bedrooms are upstairs or along the hall but they love to play with their toys in the lounge, assign them a basket that allows them to bring a small selection of toys with them and makes it easy for them to transport them back to their bedroom once they’re done playing.
They’re especially useful if you label them so that everyone in your home can see where things are supposed to go, eliminating any confusion and making sure everything goes back in its correct place.
Related: Household Toxins: Ways to Reduce Toxins in the Home
7. Rotate the Toy Supply
The next thing we recommend for you to do is put your children’s toy supply on rotation. Kids’ toys can quickly accumulate and before you know it your entire house might be overrun with them. By placing them on rotation, you control the number of toys that are available to your kids at any one time, minimizing the chances of things getting out of hand.
This also makes things more exciting for your kids and means you won’t need to pay out for new toys every couple of months to keep them entertained. Toy swap day feels like Christmas to them – they get to play with all the toys they forgot they had, and you get to keep your home feeling and looking much less cluttered.
Related: How to Get Paint Out of Clothes
8. Keep Things Minimal
Following on from the last tip, keeping your home as minimal as possible will greatly reduce clutter and can be wonderful for achieving more clarity of mind and a peaceful home.
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing
Having a regular de-clutter will stop the accumulation of excessive numbers of toys, clothes, and other items; because how much stuff do we really need? If your kids are reluctant to let go of things, try to de-clutter when they’re not around and place items on standby. If they don’t notice that they’re missing, it’s time to get rid of them!
Be sure to recycle, donate or sell any items to prevent landfill waste and to make sure that your old unwanted items go to a great new home where they can be appreciated again.
Related: House Cleaning Tips Before Selling
9. Get Used to Speed Cleaning
Pre-kids, maybe you were used to taking your leisurely time with cleaning; setting aside a whole day each week or month to deep clean and blitz your home, but now, that might simply not be possible.
This means you’re going to have to get used to cleaning with a time limit. Speed cleaning is a great way of doing this. It lets you grab small pockets of time to carry out your cleaning tasks. Using timers is also a great way of keeping you and your loved ones focused on the task at hand. We love this visual timer from Time Timer that doesn’t tick down like many other timers and still offers the audible notification when time has counted down.
TIME TIMER Home MOD
Set a ten-minute timer and ask each person in your home to tackle one specific room. Or, once the kids have gone to bed or while they’re napping, give yourself a fifteen-minute timer and see how much you can get done. You’ll be surprised how much can be accomplished in short bursts of time when you’re super focused.
10. Set Aside Time for Deep Cleaning
With that being said, deep cleaning is also an important part of keeping our homes sanitary, safe and clean, particularly when you have kids, so you should also try to set aside time for this.
Of course, deep cleaning is typically more demanding, taking longer, and requiring more hard work, so it might be a good idea to try to do this while kids are out at school, daycare, soccer practice, or anywhere else. If it’s a viable option for you, you could also hire a babysitter for a couple of hours one morning to enable you to get on top of deep cleaning without any distractions.
Related: How to Deep Clean a Couch
11. Be Positive About Household Chores (Even When You Don’t Feel Like It)
Another great tip that can really change not only your own outlook on cleaning your home but also the outlook of your kids, is to be mindful of the way that you speak about and approach cleaning or household chores.
Now, we know that this can be hard – cleaning might not be your favorite thing to do and it is easy to feel like it’s all you do when you have kids running around. This can be especially irritating and disheartening if you feel like you’re not getting the help that you need with these cleaning tasks. But, if your kids hear you regularly grumbling or complaining about cleaning, they are automatically going to view it in a negative light. They will begin to view chores as that is boring and to be avoided.
However, by talking positively about cleaning, perhaps highlighting how great it is to have a clean and tidy space to play or dance or watch TV in, your kids will also internalize this, making them much more enthusiastic about helping you to clean.
Make cleaning something positive that you can do together, rather than a punishment or a laborious task that must be completed.
Related: How to Wash a Weighted Blanket Filled With Glass Beads
| Image | Product | Our Rating | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| ClosetMaid 1290 Cubeicals Organizer |
| Check Price on Amazon |
| 24 Pack Airtight Food Storage Container Set |
| Check Price on Amazon |
| Holikme Mop Broom Holder Wall Mount |
| Check Price on Amazon |
12. Finally, Cut Yourself Some Slack!
Referring back to our first tip, remember to cut yourself a little slack when it comes to keeping a clean and tidy home!
As a parent, you’ve probably got a million and one things to think about at any given time, so don’t put too much pressure on yourself to keep your home looking pristine at all times.
Related: DIY Recipes for All-Natural Cleaning Products
Final Thoughts on How to Keep a House Clean With Kids
Of course, it is important to keep your space sanitary and safe to live in, but a little mess never really hurt anybody, and learning to let go of the little things can really free up your mind and your time, allowing you to relax and enjoy your home a little more, regardless of whether a few toys are out of place or the sink is full of dirty dishes.
You’re doing the best that you can, and that is all that anyone can ask of you. And hopefully, these tips on how to keep a house clean with kids help you do this with some practical, easy ideas to implement.