How We Keep Our Home Clean While Working Full-Time and Having a 1-Year-Old Toddler
For years before Bebe was even a thought, I was considered to be a “neat freak” and was very proud to hold that title. Few things made my heart happier than when the house had been deep-cleaned, organized, and de-cluttered by me and my partner. You wouldn’t catch us with items lying out of place, or dishes piling up in the kitchen sink. You absolutely would not find a dark ring around our toilet or inch-thick layers of dust on our surfaces. No no. With so many uncertainties in life, and having relatively little control in this world, keeping a clean home made me feel like I had a little bit of power. And we were able to maintain this level of order rather easily despite having two full-time jobs, sometimes a teenager, a dog (RIP Jacob), and a cat.
Once I became pregnant, our home was still spotless most of the time, but cleaning to the same level I was before became rather difficult. I simply wasn’t able to bend and kneel the same way with all of the extra weight I had been carrying and with my belly constantly getting in the way. Not to mention I was not allowed to scoop the cat’s litter box while pregnant and reminding my partner to scoop it every other day became very tiresome.
But cleaning while pregnant was nothing at all compared to when Bebe was born. There has never been a time in my life, before or since my daughter was born, where I felt so completely not in control. The weeks following Bebe’s birth are such a blur in my mind that I couldn’t tell you if we even cleaned at all during that time. What I do remember was constantly doing something every single minute of the day and barely ever resting. Constantly tending to the baby, pumping, cleaning bottles and pump parts, walking the dog, and somehow squeezing in a shower from time to time. My partner and I were tired to our very core. Every time we would get used to a certain routine, Bebe would enter into her next phase of development and we had to make adjustments.
Despite what people say about toddlers, our lives are not nearly as chaotic now with our toddler as it was with her being a newborn. We are much better able to incorporate basic luxuries back into our lives - things like cooking (did I mention that we didn’t cook at all for the first two months of Bebe’s life?), sleeping through the night, showering without worrying about waking up the baby and cleaning. It’s still difficult to keep my home as tidy as it was pre-baby, but it’s in pretty good shape now if you ignore all the toys everywhere.
Here are some ways/methods that we have used to keep our home clean:
In the beginning, we hired help to clean our home. We were able to find a professional cleaner for dirt cheap - only $120 every two weeks, which helped us tremendously. It was so nice to enjoy being at home, having quality time with one another, and not worrying about any heavy cleaning. We just had to keep the house reasonably tidy in between visits which was easy for us to do. I understand that is not going to be feasible for everyone, but if you’re able to hire help even temporarily, it is worth it.
Don’t let things get out of hand in the first place. The bigger the mess you have, you more work you’re going to have to put in to fix it. We mitigate the amount of housework we need to do over the weekend by doing the following:
(1) doing a load of laundry or two during the week;
(2) never leaving dishes in the sink;
(3) always putting our dirty clothes straight into the hamper;
(4) wiping down dirty/dusty surfaces as we notice them, instead of leaving them for cleaning day;
(5) putting everything back in its place at the end of the day, including toys;
(6) taking off our shoes when we get home to avoid tracking dirt into the house;
(7) sweeping at least once a day to get debris off the floor;
(8) scooping the litter box at least 3-4 times per week; and
(9) taking out the trash every 1-2 days.
Some tasks have become bi-weekly instead of weekly. For example, I used to deep-clean our bathtub every weekend but now it’s every other weekend. Sometimes, we’ll even go 3 weeks without completing this task. If you have a task that can wait an extra week without getting too out of control, then go ahead and push it off. You don’t want to bite off more than you can chew.
My partner and I split chores. We always have, and we get through the housework much more easily and quickly because of it. And honestly, he is better at some chores than I am. Traditional gender roles do not play a big part in our home.
Declutter the kids’ toys and clothes regularly. Our daughter’s belongings seem to grow exponentially if we don’t stay on top of it. This past birthday and Christmas, Bebe made out like a bandit and our home literally could not hold all of her new toys. While we are forever grateful to live in abundance, we simply had to get rid of some of them. This included toys she’d had since birth, toys she wasn’t playing with, and toys that seemed repetitive - how many sets of blocks does a kid need? We have to do the same with her clothes. We usually have a designated pile for her clothes that no longer fit so that we can give them away. Occasionally, we will go through her closet and drawers and get rid of everything that’s too small or that she doesn’t wear for whatever reason. Do this every 1-2 months to help keep your home clutter-free.
Everyone cleans up after themselves, for the most part. My partner, our teenager, and I all put our dishes in the dishwasher, we pick up after ourselves, and we don’t leave messes for others to handle. Our teenager cleans her room, does her laundry, and cleans her bathroom. I’m even trying to teach our toddler to help put away her toys; she helps sometimes, but it’s a work in progress. As she gets older, I will continue to give her some age-appropriate chores. This not only makes cleaning easier for us, but it will teach her responsibility.
Declutter your home regularly. Toys and kids’ clothes aren’t the only things that need to be chucked/donated every so often. Look through your closet - do you have a lot of clothes that don’t fit or that you don’t like? Do you have old magazines or receipts hanging around that serve no purpose? When was the last time you went through your refrigerator and freezer for expired food? It’s important to go through your whole house every few months and get rid of absolutely everything that you don’t need. It helps to buy storage bins to help you get organized.
If nothing else, prioritize food messes. Sometimes, you just can’t do it all and you need to rest. Or, you simply don’t have time to make your house spotless. In these instances, I still make sure all dishes are in the dishwasher, the kitchen is clean, and the counters are wiped. Our toddler also likes to throw food sometimes, and that is cleaned up right after she’s done eating. These types of tasks are non-negotiable to avoid living in an unsanitary environment. Occasionally, our cat will vomit on the floor or our toddler will have a messy diaper change, and that should be cleaned up and sanitized right away as well. Things like toys on the floor can wait.
Overall, I want to emphasize that every parent should give themselves some grace because more than likely, your house won’t always look perfect even if it feels like you’re constantly cleaning. This past Wednesday, I took Bebe to my sister’s house so that I could deep-clean our home uninterrupted and I still wasn’t able to finish everything over 5 hours. There’s always going to be something to do, so you have to be flexible.
XOXO, Alexis.