How to keep your home clean with kids
Yesterday I met up with my friends Andrea and Nicole for their thoughts on our house plans. Both have built their own homes, with livability tricks like drawers in your laundry room so dirty clothes aren’t stored on your floor.
Part of what a space will feel like depends on how your family will live in it. While Matt and I want a floor plan that encourages family interaction, we’re also concerned the heart of our home will become cluttered. And it’s hard to find a space enjoyable with toys strewn underfoot.
Andrea suggested we convert one of our spaces into a play room that will become an activity center as our children age. Because when you centralize your toys, you have only one space to de-clutter.
When I returned home, I was on a mission. I moved every toy in our home into our play room. And before our boys went to bed, they needed to return their toys to it.
After their lights went out, our main level felt peaceful.
Their shared bedroom stayed clean.
The play room is a disaster, but that’s for another day.
How do you handle toys?
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Kate:
November 3rd, 2010 at 9:22 am
That’s it exactly- centralize the mess and make sure it stays there. When I lived in an apartment, I allowed Griffin to bring his toys into the main living area, but at the end of the day they had to be returned to his room. There just wasn’t enough space for us to be tripping over his things. Even when we moved into a bigger space, that mentality stuck and we kept it free of clutter. Now, our personal piles are another story…..
Milehimama:
November 3rd, 2010 at 11:27 am
We did the toy consolidation thing too which helps things stay cleanER (but not necessarily perfectly clean). We also have a family closet – so there are no clothes or toys in the bedrooms as a general rule.
But the kids play with the toys all over the house so it takes constant regrouping.
Jenner Stevens:
November 3rd, 2010 at 2:34 pm
I want to take a blow torch to all of our toys…that’s were I sit! We don’t have a playroom in our new house so we have toys in each of the kids rooms and one basket for toys and one for books in the living room. It’s a nightmare! There are always toys everywhere. Baskets and bins help a little bit but staying on top of the mess is a daily committment.
MonicaFernaays:
November 4th, 2010 at 2:38 pm
I try to do the same thing…doesn’t always work, but we try. If I have asked the kids to take care of something before bed, and it’s still there after they’re in bed then it goes in the basement for a time…but if I just find odd things around after bed, I place the items in baskets just outside their respective rooms!! That way I can sit back for a few minutes with out clutter before bed!
Serene:
November 4th, 2010 at 6:03 pm
Two strategies helped us:
1) One place where toys belong (for us, it was in the bedroom in chests.
2) No more toys are available than will fit into the two chests. If there are more toys, some have to be given away or packed up for storage until there are no more than will fit in the space available.
L. Eleana:
November 5th, 2010 at 11:57 am
This is an excellent idea! If I had the space, this would definitely be my first choice in dealing with toys. both girls have their own rooms but toys seem to get out and stay out in my living room the entire week. I’ve got changes to make because it’s driving me nuts.
Christine:
November 5th, 2010 at 3:14 pm
oh, the clean area is nice! my kids are older now, their stuff is in their rooms. I’m afraid I am the biggest offender now, with my craft stuff all over the dining table. It actually belongs in totes in the garage. maybe this weekend
Dina:
November 5th, 2010 at 10:48 pm
For the family room games and toys, I bought office cabinets from Ikea. It’s super easy to toss everything into them at the end of the day, even for the kids. Much better than bins that tend to overflow.
As for laundry, I LOVE our laundry shoot! Hated it when it dropped down to the old, icky basement. But after we had the basement fully remodeled and finished, the shoot was capped off at the first floor (where I moved my laundry room to). Now the laundry stays in the shoot tunnel, out of sight. Added bonus–kids love throwing their laundry down the shoot! Oh, and I am nuts over my Electrolux front loader washer and dryer. Can’t say enough great stuff about them.
Lalas Pequenos:
November 6th, 2010 at 9:41 am
The best thing I did was to donate unused toys. It turns out that they only play with a handful of toys. Those we organize like their classroom. We have a workspace for them and all the bins in the world. My favorite place is the container store
JDaniel4's Mom:
November 7th, 2010 at 6:45 am
I feel like we have them in every room. I do rotate which toys are out.
Stopping from Mom Loop!
Cori:
November 7th, 2010 at 9:42 pm
Great advice, I normally rotate toys in and out too
Happy to hear you found a way to keep your house clutter under control
AprilG:
November 8th, 2010 at 11:49 am
That’s a great idea. I need to go through my daughter’s toys and weed them out, too. That would probably help as well.
P.S. Found you through The Blog Frog.
Kim:
November 29th, 2010 at 7:44 pm
Leather benches that open for storage are the best! I love ours and want 10 more! thank goodness for overstock.com! nice post!
Deb Chitwood @ Living Montessori Now:
December 16th, 2010 at 10:47 pm
I’m a Montessorian, so we had open shelves with toys and learning materials arranged on the shelves. It worked really well for us – kept things much more manageable and easily accessible than a toy box. We did some rotating of toys as well.