Top 10 BEST Hacks To Keep Your Home Tidy With Toddlers
10 Life Hacks To Have a Tidier Home With Toddlers
10 Life Hacks To Have a Tidier Home With Toddlers
**IMPORTANT NOTICE** This article was written by busy a mum of two, who is NOT an expert in ANY way and does not claim to have it all together…because well I don’t think it’s possible.
Managing a household is hard work! When you add employed work and caring responsibilities on top of that life can get pretty messy. At Mums Village Coast to Coast we’ve pulled together a completely biased list of our 10 BEST Hacks To Keep Your Home Tidy With Toddlers.
If you have little ones, this one is worth a read….who knows you might pick something up. If you hate it, please don’t tell us.
These are just my tried and tested tips on ways to make life with kids and work a bit more manageable no matter your prowess or interest in all things domestic.
These options are based on living in New South Wales in Australia and may not be available in your area.
But I dare say, if you Google similar terms I am sure you can find great options available to you locally.
Enjoy….and if you don’t, I apologise!
#10 Stick Vaccum
Cord vaccums….ain’t nobody got time for that! I mean seriously…who still has a corded vaccum? Well, my parents for one. If you haven’t already, get a stick vaccum. While Dyson were the first to bring this amazing technology out, there have been heaps of other excellent players hitting this market. Do some research and find one that meets your budgets, home size, battery and suction power. But here are my personal favourites from research and personal experience.
Electrolux – A solid home appliance across the board, we recently used an Electrolux at a client’s home and it almost sucked the carpet off its base. Now that’s power. Say goodbye to dirt!
LG – A very good rival to the Dyson, fairly priced, long battery life and great suction.
Dyson -OG. Dyson has it’s price tag because it is the OG best when it comes to vacuums and is always a strong choice.
There are SO many options out there, so I really suggest you do your research and read the reviews. Make sure to take suction power and battery life into consideration as it doesn’t help anyone if your battery is dying after 15 mins… (AHEM…DYSON). You can level up or just suck it up and use your Dyson in combination with my next life hack suggestion…ROBOVAC.
#9 – Robovac (pictured is Dwayno, Becky’s Robo)
Meet your new best friend.
But, I mean it.
When I finally gave in and bought my Robovac as a present from Santa to myself…I fell in love. I was also heavily pregnant at the time and could not imagine vaccuming any more and I wanted my house to stay clean.
Rocky (my Robovac…and yes you need to name yours) became my fast friend and soon to be digital love. He vaccumed as well as my Dyson, and meticulously made the rounds on my home at the push of a button. I could select the zones and spots in my house for him to go to using my app and watch his progress remotely.
And did I mention he MOPS?! Yes, he does that too. I could finally sit back, put my feet up and watch my little robotic friend picking up all the crumbs and cooking mess while I read a book, had a refreshing drink, or went for a walk. I could also set a schedule so that he cleaned after daycare / school drop off and after dinner time so that my place stayed reasonably clean and tidy without having a lift a finger.
I should mention here, that you do need to do a LITTLE work before sending your new best friend around. They love the suck everything up in site if left on the floor. So be sure to move all your cords, toys and clothes off the floor.
I found it is also a fun way to get your kids (and husbands) to help tidy their toys and get their clothes off the floor because Rocky is going to start going around. Can you tell I love my Robovac?
As far as suggestions for what brand, at Mums Village we can vouch for Roborok varieties.
You will need to do more research to see what model suits you, but I recommend to always get one that has an app associated with it that does mapping of your home, and ensure you get something that has a mopping attachment as well to really level up your time saving.
#8 – Meal planning
Meal planning doesn’t always mean making everyone, it just means planning it. Don’t like cooking? Don’t enjoy meal prep? We have options for ALL levels of culinary skills that will make your meal times so much easier. Read on to see the options for the statement that best matches YOU.
‘I love cooking! It brings me joy!’- Here are the options for you:
- Dinnerly – one of it not the cheapest out there (we have free boxes to share let us know if you would like one and we can send!
- Marley Spoon – mid range pricing, mid range recipes
- Hello Fresh – high end pricing, more flavourfull and interesting recipes. Also more complicated
‘Order that shit in!’ If you are anything like me, if though the boxed ingrediant companies save me time thinking of new recipes and save me shopping, I still can’t find the time to actually cook. That is where the companies below are amazing options depending on your portion size and flavour preferences could be great options.
Youfoodz (Fresh) – Youfoodz offers waistline friendly meals at an affordable price. They often have special discounts for bulk buying and most options are fairly tasty…and they have ALOT of options. Only challenge with them is that these are normally parent focussed options, but they do have many options that can suit children. Or you can just sort yourself and create simple meals for the kids. You can also freeze these meals to last longer.
My Muscle Chef (fresh) – On the same thread at Youfoodz, My Muscle chef is a good option
Dinner Ladies (frozen) – Dinner Ladies is like ordering food from your grandmother. They offer batch prepared home cooked meals that come frozen at the height of their flavour. They are packed full of flavour and family size. It may seem a more expensive option but when you divide by portion it is very affordable given you have to do NOTHING. They also have heaps of child specific meals to add into your cart so that everyone is happy and no one is stressed.
#7 – Dryer
That’s right. I said it. If you have kids, you need a dryer!! There is simply too much laundry to keep up with if you are trying to hang all your washing.
And if you live in NSW in 2022, there would have been about 1 day in the year where you could hang your washing without it getting rained on. And can I just mention how UNTIDY and cluttered my home feels when I have a clothes dryer taking up living space.
This is a most helpful life hack for parents with tiny children as their clothes are SO SMALL and it takes ages to hang them out and take them off the line. If you can afford it, get solar panels to help you feel less bad about the amount of energy you may be using. That helped me!
#6 Hanger to dry
Are you part of the hanger society yet? If you aren’t, get amongst it. Using hangers to hang EVERYTHING is an amazing life hacks that saves families and people in general so much time and effort.
For everything that can’t be put in the dryer you are about to buy, use hangers. Instead of hanging things onto a clothes dryer, use hangers. By putting your wet, cleaned clothes on hangers something miraculous happens: they dry without wrinkles and then you just pop them directly in your closet.
Goodbye endless amount of wrinkly clothes you avoid wearing because you can’t be bothered ironing them. Adios Mount Kilimanjaro of clean washing to be folded and put away. Presto: clean, unwrinkled, easy to put away clothes.
But what about my socks and undies you say? HANGERS! ….jokes jokes, either use your dryer for that sh*t or grab a couple of the handy tiny bits hanging gadgets from Woolies…you know what I mean.
- #5 –Good cleaning products (like really good)
If you are anything like me, I avoided spending money on cleaning or cleaning products like it was meth before I had kids. It wasn’t until recently after kiddo number two was I shown the light. I finally gave what I considered an expensive cleaning product a shot, and it was awesome.
Because it was a better product, it cleaned faster and better than previous purchases. Which meant less time cleaning, freeing up more time for kicking back (HA!). As I get older and have more children I personally realise it is worth investing in things that will last, are good quality, and improve my overall quality and comfort of living.
Hopefully you can enjoy this too if you aren’t already! Here are a few suggestions of quality, reasonably priced cleaning brands that are not harmful to our families or the environment.
- KOH – A universal cleaning product, that is safe for all, and cleans everything. Affordably priced and just good.
- ZEROCO –
- Pino Clean
#4 – Labels
Oh Labels! Here is a bit about why I love labels. When things are labelled, they have a home. When things have a home, everyone knows where to put things back. When people (kids & partners!) can put things back where they belong and your home will be tidier. This is obviously in theory and in practice it takes a lot of practice getting used to it. Another hot tip, is that once you have labelled the shit out of your home and everything has it’s ‘home’, never put anything else in that space.
But, if done well, with clear organisation, labels will be another trusted tidy home sidekick.
#3 – Cleaner
Again, if you can afford it, we highly suggest getting a cleaner. There are just so many things to keep on top of in a household with children and animals that cleaning sometimes comes last.
If you get a cleaner or a mums helper you know at least once a fortnight your home will get a good, deep clean. Or if you use Mums Village, you will have a helper come and takeover tidying, cleaning AND organising for you.
It took me a while to get on the cleaner bandwagon as I thought I SHOULD be able to do it myself. But there were just TOO many things I should be doing and I needed to outsource the things that I could. And.it.felt.AMAZING.
Now finding a good, reliable cleaner is another topic of conversation for another day.
#2 – Stay on top of it
I know, I know – but Meg it’s just not possible! Or if you’re anything like my husband, he thinks there is no point to tidy up toys a few times in a day because the kids are just going to take them back out. Or no point putting the car keys away in their spot because we are going to use them tomorrow…so may as well just leave them on the counter.
And while we are doing that let’s just leave all dirty clothes on the floor as the washing basket is 5 steps to far. And why hang up the towel when we are just going to use it again tomorrow? And so on and so forth….
My rambling point is this: If you put things away bit by bit a few times throughout the day, at nap time, straight after bedtime etc, it means you are only quickly resetting your home. If you wait, a little mess becomes a bigger mess, which then becomes a mountain of mess that becomes stress inducing and stops you from being able to clean what’s underneath the mess…you get the point.
As I mentioned at the start of post, I am by no means all over it. But I try. Maybe I try because for me excess mess causes excess stress which leads to anxiety which leads to me snapping at my husband and my kids for absolutely no reason. While it stills annoys me to no end when the kids (and husband) come in after I’ve done a quick reset of the house to unload their mess, it is better than the other version where the mess is left untamed.
Honestly, I don’t even want to scare you with that. If you can relate to anything I just said but you still can’t seem to get on top of it, my biggest and most important life hack to have a tidier and more sane home with children is to ask for and accept help!
#1 – Ask for and accept help
Having said all of the above about top life hacks for a tidier home with young kids, the absolute BEST way to achieve this is by asking for help. Oh yea and you need to accept if when you find it. I learnt this lesson the hard way two times in my parenting journey so far.
The first time was when my first kid was just 5 months old, screaming non stop and not sleeping from severe silent reflux. After 5 months of mental overload trying to take care a human for the first time who couldn’t sleep because she was in constant pain, I was in pain mentally. I got to a point where my husband was at work and as my daughter was screaming seemingly endlessly for the millionth time, I couldn’t even lift myself off the couch. I couldn’t stop crying. I couldn’t even call a friend to ask for help. All I could muster was a desperate post on a local Facebook group seeing if there was ANYONE who could give me a moments respite to try and sleep.
An unknown angel responded and took my daughter outside for 30 minutes, far enough away that I couldn’t hear the crying. It was long enough for me to rest, reset and try to come up with a plan of action to get out of the terrible slump.
The second time was around the same age for my youngest. I went back to work early to avoid losing my job and 3 weeks into the new job my childcare arrangements completely fell through. Because of Covid, borders were shut to my family in America and all my friends also had two children and loads of commitments. I felt totally helpless and desperately needed help. Again, I put a call out on Facebook and found someone who offered to help. And even though at that point I thought maybe I could just swing it without care since I was working from home, I took it.
When she came to help, I finally felt free again. I was able to do work uninterrupted without the fear or my bub waking early or needing me. She helped me keep my home tidy, cleaned and helped with meal prep. For a short period, she help lift layers of burden and housework load which allowed me to focus my energy elsewhere and find joy again. And one of those altered focusses was birthing this business with my fellow helper Becky.
Moral of the story?
No matter which way you go and no matter your budget, the best way to stay on top of keeping you home tidy and family happy is to regularly ask for help, accept help, and give help to others whenever you can.
Even if they don’t ask.
If you can afford to pay for help – DO IT!
If you can’t afford, find a friend and do a kid swap and a cleaning swap. They take your kids for two hours and you clean their house. You take their kids and they tidy and clean your house.
And if you are in a region where Mums Village is currently servicing, give US a go! As we will help with ALL of these things. Win win.
Do you have any other awesome life hacks to keep a tidy with with kids? We would LOVE to hear them. Please share them on our socials or pop us an email.
