How to Keep the House Tidy with Little Kids
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Have you ever worked hard all day, only to realize at bedtime you didn’t get to a single thing you actually needed to do?
As a stay-at-home mom, I know exactly how defeating this feels! It’s so hard to keep the house tidy and get things done with little kids!
When pregnancy complications forced me into partial bed rest, I was overwhelmed watching housework pile up and unsure of how to use my limited energy.
What I discovered by accident was that by creating a routine where I only focused on the bare minimum—I was keeping my home more clean and tidy than I ever had before!
I had stumbled upon the 7 most high impact tasks that prevented my home from spiraling out of control.
This system has transformed my days from feeling scattered to productive, calm, and intentional.
I’m sharing this today in hopes it will help you too!
Table of Contents
You Have to Go Slow to Go Fast!
Sometimes we believe we need to do more to gain control, but often, the answer is doing less—but doing it better.
Slowing down to focus on just the essentials is not laziness; it’s wisdom. It keeps our minds clear and our hearts anchored.
You don’t have to do everything. Just doing the most important things—consistently can make a tremendous difference in keeping the house tidy!
An object in Motion tends to Stay in Motion
Even though this checklist is SUPER simple and obviously doesn’t include everything I do in a day, it has a great way of getting me into motion!
Once I’m in motion, I find myself doing other tasks while I’m at it!
For example, when I finish washing the dishes, I often naturally start cleaning the counters (because it’s so easy to do when they’re not full of dishes!), or starting the dishwasher.
How the Daily Essentials System Helps me Keep the House Tidy
✔️It’s simple
✔️It’s visual
✔️It’s flexible!
The key to making it work is only focusing on your daily essentials for several days and resisting the urge to get distracted!
I’m a very visual learner, so I printed out my daily essentials to do list and put it in a dry erase pocket (like these) on the fridge where I could always see them and stay on task!
What are my 7 Daily Essentials?
I narrowed my focus to three categories of housework. When these 3 areas are under control, my household runs so much more smoothly! They are:
✔️ Kitchen
✔️ Laundry
✔️ Clutter
Kitchen Essentials:
1. Unload the dishwasher early in the morning
The kitchen is the heart of the home! When you unload the dishwasher early in the day the kitchen runs so much more smoothly! It removes the barrier to quickly washing dishes as they get dirty!
2, 3, 4: Wash dishes immediately after breakfast, lunch, and dinner
This keeps the kitchen moving along and makes sure you have everything you need clean to prepare the next meal.
If you miss washing the dishes after one meal, don’t get discouraged! Just double up the next time!
Laundry
5. Move the laundry forward once daily
I usually start a load of laundry first thing in the morning and move whatever is in the dryer into my laundry hamper to fold later.
Even if I don’t always fold things right away, by at least starting a load in the morning and moving it to the dryer later, now I always at least have clean clothes available!
Clutter
6. Quick tidy-up session
Incorporating a quick 5-10 minute tidy up session sometime in your day is an *amazing* way to make a huge difference in how your home feels!
You might be surprised at how much can be done in such a short period of time!
Resist the feeling that it’s not worth it because the kids will just get the same toys out again. It really does keep things from getting out of hand!
Some tips for your quick tidy-up time:
- Set a timer and make it a speed game!
- Put on some fun peppy music that will get everyone moving!
- Focus on the areas you spend most of your time in.
- Focus on anything on the main surfaces of your home (kitchen counters, kitchen table etc) and on the floors! Studies have shown that clutter on the floor increases stress levels.
7. Sweep the floors each evening
This goes back to keeping the floors clutter free! If you sweep at least once a day it will keep things at a manageable level.
Doing just these essentials made a shocking difference in how peaceful and manageable my home felt.
By focusing on these essentials, I lowered my threshold for success and was encouraged by the obvious progress!
Make it Visual!
The next breakthrough for me was making my daily essentials checklist visible at all times through the day!
This helped me stay on track when I got distracted!
I initially printed copies daily, but switching to a dry erase pocket made it reusable and always visible—crucial for visual learners like me!
I love these dry erase pockets! I can slide whatever sheet of paper I want into it and it becomes an instant dry erase board! I also love that it comes with a pen loop to keep my dry erase marker handy!
Keep it Flexible!
The main thing that helped me about this system was having my simplest goals for the day visible at all times.
When I get distracted and catch myself cleaning out a junk drawer (or something else that takes forever and doesn’t make much difference!) I walk over to my list and make sure I’m on track for the essentials of the day!
I love having my to do list up on the fridge where I can see it, check things off (and get that dopamine hit!!) and add things to it.
The heart of my to do list is my daily essentials. But I have also added other helpful sections to the list as I have used it over time.
I added:
✔️ an encouraging verse
✔️ A section for my 2 daily “crucials” (the 2 things that are most important for me to do that day, such as an important phone call etc)
✔️ a section for my weekly essentials,
✔️ a running to-do list (where I can brain dump!)
✔️ a spot for notes
The Impact
Before this system, I often ended my days feeling like I had worked hard all day and had nothing to show for it!
Now, especially on my hardest days, I know exactly where to focus my limited energy, and the visual reminders keep me on track.
The most important thing is to really simplify your focus and make sure that whatever “essentials” you choose—treat them like essentials and get them done, don’t get distracted!
If you’re interested in how I simplify my fitness, you can read my article here on Biohacking for busy moms!
You can download your free copy of my Daily Essentials Checklist and try it yourself, or make your own version!
If you have advice on other tasks that make a huge difference for you, I’d love to know about them! I’m always trying to learn how to do a better job in our home!