3 of 20

Write now Article Tools

Has this ever happened to you? Your spouse arrives home from work on a Friday night, and asks if it's ok to have a couple of friends over. Before you can even open your mouth to reply, he tells you they will be there around 7pm. It's 5:30 pm, you just finished dinner, and have a mound of laundry to do, toys all over the living room, the floors need mopped and vacuumed. How can you achieve all this in just an hour and a half?

No one expects you to be superwoman, especially if you have small children. Just a few tips to follow throughout the day will make surprise visits less stressful!

The first tip is to keep a play area for your children. The toys in our house are limited to the living room and our child's bedroom. We spend 10 minutes before each nap time picking up toys, and I get my toddler involved. Even if she only picks up 1 toy to my 10, she is learning to help. By practicing this pick-up, she is also learning that messes need to be cleaned up as soon as possible.

After each meal, the dishes are rinsed and put into the dishwasher. I didn't always have a dishwasher though, so, I would run a sink full of water, and do the dishes by hand after each meal. I would allow them to air dry while I did other things. This simple task saved me from having a mound of dishes at the end of the day, and just takes a few minutes at a time.

While my precious little one is sleeping, I usually mop my floors and vacuum the living room. I take a few moments each day to dust as well. Do not try to dust everything in your home every day, you will go crazy! Mopping my floors, and vacuuming takes just 15 minutes to do.

Laundry is perhaps the least favorite activity of anyone, especially those with small children! My daughter always wants to "help" fold the laundry, and I end up having to re-fold entire loads. I save time by folding each load while she is in her highchair eating lunch, or still napping. I immediately put the clothes away, and I try to do 1 load a day to keep the laundry from piling up.

Picking up as you go will save you time as well. As you go upstairs, take an armful of things up. As you go downstairs, take an armful of things down. Put things in their place as you finish with them. This will keep surfaces uncluttered, and help your place look cleaner!

Unless I am spring cleaning, my home takes less than an hour to clean everyday. If you have company that is coming over unexpectedly, you can make your home appear cleaner by just closing doors to rooms that are not in use, putting fresh towels in the guest bathroom, and decluttering the surfaces in the room that will be used. Just a quick spruce up can keep your guests guessing how you do it!

Learn more about this author, Tashawna Hebert.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.

Add your voice

Know something about How to keep a clean, organized home when you have small children?
We want to hear your view. Write now!