If you have small children, it can often feel like an uphill battle to keep your home looking tidy. There will be toys and clothes and general ‘stuff’ everywhere, and you’ll probably feel as though you spend half your life just picking things up, only to find more things in their place.
You’re not alone, but that doesn’t mean your home has to stay messy if you would rather it wasn’t. There are some ways you can keep things neat even with small children around. Read on for some useful tips.
In This Article
Make Sure Toys Are Accessible
Children are very visual, and the younger they are, the truer this is. In other words, they need to see something to understand it and make use of it. This is why it’s hard for them to find things – if they can’t immediately see it, it may as well not be there. In that case, if there is something they desperately want, they’ll throw out all the toys from the toybox that you carefully put away just to find one thing. They won’t carefully search through like an adult might (or at least should).
Therefore, if you can make sure toys are accessible and visible, this is less likely to happen. Rather than hiding the toys away, you can store them in clear containers. In this way, the child can see what they want and go straight to it, ideally eliminating most of the mess. Favorite toys should be kept out on an easy to reach shelf at all times.
Find More Storage
Perhaps the reason your home is messy is that you have very little storage. Again, there are things you can do to rectify this problem. Depending on your budget, you might decide to have an addition built, giving you more living space. At the other end of the scale, using what you already have can be ideal. For example, if you have kids bunk beds, you can use the space under them for storage – more clear containers can be used to keep things neat.
Look around for places you can store what needs to be stored and invest in some containers if need be. You can even buy stair baskets that look great and can be used to store small items out of the way.
Declutter
Sometimes there’s nothing else for it but to declutter your home. It’s not everyone’s idea of fun, but it is very worthwhile, especially when you are able to get rid of things you haven’t used for years (or ever), or that are broken and you didn’t realize you still had them.
When you declutter, you are helping yourself in a number of ways. To begin with, when you have less stuff in your home, it’s easier to keep it tidy (even with small children). Next, decluttering is good for your mental health; when your home is tidy, you’ll feel more relaxed. Finally, if you can donate as many of the things you’re removing from your home as possible, you’ll be doing good for other people, and that’s beneficial for them and you.
