By Contributing Writer, Bria Crawford
If you have a large family, particularly with several young children, you know what it’s like keeping organized and attempting to get everything done in a day. Sometimes it just gets crazy trying to keep the house clean, but you know you can’t spend all day cleaning, yet you can’t just let it go! My mother and I sympathize with you. But there are a few things you can do to solve this problem!
First, don’t get discouraged. Second, remember there is a season for everything. If you are in the season with small ones who can’t quite understand “pick up after yourself”, try to “enjoy” the messes; before you know it they will be gone and you’ll be wishing them back.
For a few practical tips about keeping order in a busy home:
- Get as much off counter tops/tables, etc. as possible–it will be easier to clean surfaces.
- Designate “clutter patrol” about twice a day…get everyone to do a quick pick up. Very little ones can help a lot with this and even think it’s fun.
- Consider designating one day for thorough cleaning. We do this on Fridays because moods are more cheerful since it is “movie night”. This is also the night we try to have people over-extra motivation for the cleaning.
- Spray sinks and toilets with a bleach/water combination for a quick, clean feeling and smell.
- Train your children to avoid putting clean clothes into the laundry hamper. Clothes can usually be worn several days before washing, especially during the winter.
- Encourage everyone (and model it yourself) to keep clutter at bay by carrying at least one object “closer” to its destination each time you go to a different room.
- Keep baskets to catch clutter. Baskets in the living room can catch quickly-tossed toys; baskets at the entrance can hold shoes; keep baskets handy for those items that seem to be used a lot but make a mess and need to stay close. From Generation Cedar’s Busy Mom’s “Get Real” series
A huge help with clutter is to not have any surface available near the door for clutter to land on besides maybe a basket. This is a big thing in our family. The more tables, benches and such you have near doorways, the more clutter that collects.
Another huge tool is on your Friday cleaning days have a big trash bag available and have each child get rid of five things. For us, this is monumental considering there are nine children. That eliminates forty-five unneeded items a week! (Doing this in your kitchen is helpful too). We don’t realize how much unneeded stuff is in our homes.
As I seek the Lord, preparing to become a wife and mother if He so calls me, I am trying to remember the importance of balancing order with nurturing the relationships around me. May you be encouraged to do the same!
About Bria Crawford
Thank you for this. We’re in a “littles-only” season in our home (our oldest son is 5.5), and when I feel overwhelmed at the state of the house itself, I look for advice and find that is SOUND, but is usually written by/for large families with older children as well. We are still in the training stages – I can’t divide our house into jurisdictions yet, or leave children unsupervised at a task other than picking up the toyroom (and even that doesn’t go well over half the time). I forget this. I feel like a busted housekeeper sometimes, and it’s tough to keep it in perspective when I have to take 10 minutes every day to train and teach the same child how to do the same chore that I could literally do in 30 seconds. I know I am investing, but I feel like my friends (with smaller families, whose children all attend school) come over and are appalled at my home! {embarrassed laugh}
Honestly, the most encouraging thing about this article is the source: To hear these encouraging words and wise perspective from a joyfully-at-home young woman is such a testament to the investment of home education and faithful discipleship. And chore training.
Thank you, Bria. I wish you lived close enough to come be my Momma’s helper some days – there is a paucity of home-schooled teenage girls in our hometown!
Thank you for the reminder. We know our children are worth so much more than a spotless house that they don’t even compare, and yet it’s all too easy to get lost in the good and forget the best. I enjoyed your post.