Have you ever wondered how to keep a clean house with kids? If you’ve currently got young children in this digital age we live in, you’re also most likely wondering how to effectively manage a household without giving your kids too much screen time. One of the main reasons that I used to rely on technology as a stay at home mom was that I didn’t know how to get the ever revolving list of household chores done unless my first born was watching cartoons.
As a first time mom, I felt very overwhelmed. I was thrust into motherhood with very little preparation. Suddenly there were meals to make three times a day. There was laundry to wash, dry, fold AND put away, bottles to sanitize, dishes to clean, and a toddler to entertain. My kid didn’t want to nap and I was exhausted. Enter the electronic babysitter.
Many years and several children later I have discovered the art of getting things done as a stay at home mom without plopping my kids in front of a screen. If you’re looking to decrease screen time and increase productivity in your home without losing your mind, here’s the how to!
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How To Keep A Clean House With Kids
(without giving them screen time)
Give everyone a job to do
When it comes to young children, too much idle time can lead to a lot of mischief. Giving each child a chore that fits their age and capabilities will help you to get stuff done as a stay at home mom. Even if the kids don’t tidy up perfectly, they are learning valuable skills. Also, occupying them with a clear task is a great way to get your own task done.
For example, if you’ve got a sink full of dirty dishes to scrub consider enlisting one child to clear the table, another to wipe down the island, and another to Swiffer the floor. Turn on some fun music or engage your kids in conversation while everyone gets their job done.
You can even break down one task into micro assignments for your crew. If the dish washer needs to be unloaded, hand everyone a kitchen towel. Let the little one put away spoons, have the middle guy stack dry plates, and enlist the oldest to put them up high in the cupboard.
Get the stressful jobs done alone
There are some chores that I don’t mind doing with lots of children buzzing around me, asking questions, and getting in the mix of it all. There are other homemaking tasks however, that I prefer to do on my own such as cleaning the toilets and cutting raw chicken. Those are the jobs that I typically save for early morning before the kids rise, nap time, evening time while my husband plays with the kids outdoors, or after the children are in bed.
Send the children outside
When my dad was growing up, his mom made impressive meals and kept her home very tidy. If you had asked my grandmother, “how do you keep a clean house with kids?” She probably would have said, “send the children outside and let them play!”
Back in the old days, this was commonplace. Kids played outside ALL THE TIME. There was no placating of children with overstimulating electronic devices for hours on end. Mothers sent their kids outdoors to ride bikes, climb trees, play basketball, and have adventures with their siblings and peers.
We need so much more of this in our culture. Moms and kids today are both overstimulated and I think a ton of it has to do with the excessive screen time, helicopter parenting, and the lack of good old fashioned outdoor play!
Last year, one of my go-to SAHM cleaning hacks was to fold baskets of laundry on the front porch while my children frolicked happily around the yard. I was able to keep a close eye on them and get my housework done while they had a blast.
Get off your smartphone
Everything feels harder when you are distracted by tech. Cleaning, cooking, organizing, managing schedules, and conversating with your children feels difficult when you’ve got a smartphone in your hand and social media on the brain. The number one way to get a handle on your homemaking and manage your household effectively is to put all technology away so that you can have a clear mind, an optimistic attitude, and a joyful heart to work with.
Have you ever become frustrated and short with your children while you were cleaning because they interrupted whatever you were trying to listen to in the background? You’re not alone. Don’t “multitask” by pairing every chore and meal prep task with a digital distraction. Instead of listening to a podcast or watching a video while cleaning, talk to your kids, be with your own thoughts, give thanks for the little things, and pray. The chores will go by a lot quicker and your attitude will be so much better as a stay at home mom.
Also, it’s good to teach our young children that they can accomplish tasks without a device in toe.
Use audiobooks
If there are household tasks that you need to get done and all the kids are acting a little wonky, set them up with simple art supplies and an audiobook. You can play the story aloud on blue tooth speakers so that your kids don’t have access to the device or you can get books on audio CD’s from the library. Either way, engaging stories work wonders to calm children down and give mamas a chunk of time to get things done.
Here’s our favorites:
Divide your jobs up
Young children have a lot of physical and emotional needs that we as Mamas get to meet. If we see our kid’s needs as a hinderance to our to-do list, we need to make a mindset shift to avoid frustration and get our perspective in check. Loving on our children matters and this often means that we don’t have long uninterrupted chunks of time to get all the housework done. That is totally okay!
The other day I had a sink full of dishes to wash. About midway through, the toddler began to meltdown. Instead of plowing through my task, I took a break to play with him. It only took about five minutes of building castles out of magnetic tiles on my lap before his love bucket was refilled and I was able to go back and finish up the dishes.
Another way I like to divide up my household tasks is by preparing at least part of our dinner in advance. Whether that means simply marinating meat the night before, chopping bell peppers for later, or sticking something in the crockpot while the kids play, this forethought makes a big difference. I have found that on the days that I make the effort to prepare meals before dinner time go a lot smoother than the days that I wait until four o’ clock to begin.
Clean and meal prep on the weekends
If your husband works a traditionally 9 to 5 job Monday through Friday, consider saving some of your most daunting homemaking tasks for Saturday when he can be home and present with the kids. Either ask him to take the kids outdoors to play so you can knock some things off your to do list or pitch in altogether and do a big family cleaning day.
Sometimes my husband will take the kids out back for a little game of baseball or they will do some light yard work together while I prep a meal and catch up on laundry. Other times we will put on some of our favorite music and do a full sweep of the house together. This usually takes less than an hour and the whole place looks amazing afterwards. It’s easy to get motivated about cleaning when you’re doing it as a team.
Relax your time goals
As a homeschooling mom of four, I have chosen to relax about what time things get done and that has given me tremendous freedom and joy as a homemaker. I used to wake up and feel like I was racing against the clock to get all the things done. I wanted all homeschool and housework to be complete by the toddler’s nap time so that I could take a break and relax, but in the midst of the striving I burnt myself out.
Sometimes we can become so consumed with our checklist that we miss out on the joy of mothering in the little years.
There is no rush, Mama! Slow down and savor the process. As a stay at home mom, you are not bound by anyone’s schedule except the one you set for yourself. If you feel like all you do is cook, clean, and manage your children’s behaviors, take some time to reflect on your days. Where is the rush?
These years are going to fly by before you know it. Chuckle at the family photographs that have baskets of unfolded laundry in the background. Take a nap with the baby and wash the dishes afterwards. Read a book to your child before you clean the bathroom. You will never regret the time you spend loving on your family.
Expectations and pacing
Last but not least, I had to let go of the unrealistic notion that every chore was going to be complete at the same time. In fact, I had to let go of the expectation every inch of my home was gone to be completely tidy for any length of time. That has literally never happened. I don’t know about you, but people live in my home. Many little happy people who play and eat all day long.
The laundry may be folded, but the dishes are not. The beds make be made, but the shoe bins are overflowing with tiny toddler sandals. The floors make be vacuumed, but someone just galloped by on a toy horse and accidently collided into the dog bowl. Water is everywhere.
Just because everything is not clean at the same time does not mean that we cannot rejoice and celebrate our accomplishments. I have learned to love a table full of neat piles of folded clothes that I know won’t remain that way very long. The little people come to collect their pile and inevitably some of it falls down the hall on their way to tuck it away in their drawers. That is okay.
The folding still mattered if it was done in love with a cheerful heart. And if grace and a helping hand was extended when leggings and dresses descended from the preschooler’s arms on the mad dash to her bedroom, then great job, Mama! Your kids matter way more than your things.