In today’s article, I’m going to be sharing with you my top 7 dad’s tips on how to constantly keep your home clean.
If you’re a mom, you’re welcome too.
Yes! I am a dad. I have four young children. And when it comes to maintaining a home, I know one thing or two.
This is due to my childhood. I grew up in a house full of children. We were eight brothers and sisters. And if you count cousins, friends, parents, uncles, and aunts who often came home to visit us or for holidays, that’s a lot of people.
So that everyone could live together, we had to constantly maintain our house and keep it clean.
In fact, it was rather our mom who was tidying up. We only thought of having fun, without worrying too much about the cleaning or the maintenance of the house.
Of course, we tidied our rooms and made our beds. But it was the parents who took care of the rest and made sure that our house was always well maintained.
And do you know why?
Because we were only children.
When you’re a child, you do not always realize how much your parents are doing for you.
But now that I have become a parent myself, I understand all the efforts and sacrifices our parents have made to raise us up.
I do not know if that’s your case too.
I do not know if you have children or not yet.
But if you’re here reading this article, it’s maybe because you too have a house or an apartment and want to know how to keep it clean.
So, keep reading to discover my 7 tips for keeping your house clean.
As a father, these are the strategies that I use to make my house look clean and organized. It’s very difficult to constantly keep everything clean, especially when you have young children like me.
I have three boys who are between seven and thirteen years old plus a little girl under the age of six. Since they have different ages, they also have different needs and occupations.
But if they all have one thing in common, it’s that we must always be behind them. My wife and I spend almost all our time collecting and storing everything they leave lying around.
Sometimes, as we’re cleaning, it feels like they’re literally behind us, messing up our good work.
If you are in the same situation and it discourages you to see your children constantly undo what you do, do not panic!
There are 7 things that I personally do that help me keep my house looking clean and organized. I’m gonna share these tips with you today so you can apply them too.
Having a beautiful house is the dream of almost everyone.
But maintaining a house can very quickly become a nightmare, especially if it is really big and your family is growing.
Maintaining a home takes a lot of time and effort. Whether you are a well-organized person or a messy person, there are always 1000 things to do in a house.
No matter how you do it, you get the feeling that it never ends.
You clean in the morning, and before the end of the day, all the mess returns. It’s as if you did nothing at all. And if you want to keep your house clean, you have no choice: you have to clean it up. Arrange. Organize. Wash. Aspire. Sweep. Clean. Fold the clothes. Again and again.
If you’re a mom, you sure know what I’m talking about, don’t you?
So, without further ado, here are my 7 dad’s tips for always keeping your home clean:
1: Start by empowering your children
As I told you earlier, when we were kids, it was our parents who did everything at home and we just thought about having fun. As soon as we got home from school, we had our afternoon snack and then we sat in front of the TV.
Sometimes, we did not even bother packing our stuff in our room because someone did it for us.
It was only when our parents started giving us responsibilities that we realized that the cleanliness of our house also depended on us. If we wanted our house to be constantly clean, we had to learn how to clean our room and store our belongings in closets.
Similarly, if you have children, it is from a young age that you must teach them how important it is for them to start contributing to household chores.
Avoid always doing everything for them, or in their place. When they leave something out of order, pick them up right away and tell them to tidy up.
If they left a mess at home in your absence, do not touch their mess. Wait until they come home and explain to them that they need to tidy up their mess.
If they left a mess at home in your absence, do not touch their mess. Wait until they come home and explain to them that they need to tidy up their mess.
Over time, this will become an automatism for them. They will understand that maintaining a home is difficult, so they will be more careful and avoid letting their belongings everywhere because they will be aware that they will have to clean up.
It will be a win-win situation because you will have more time to breathe a bit or concentrate on other activities. And they will feel much more responsible too.
What I do as a dad
Maintaining the house is everybody’s duty. Not just the parents’ duty. I make my children understand this at an early age.
For that, I give responsibilities to each of my children and tasks to do every day. For example, they lay the table before eating.
After eating, they clear the table. While one of them puts the plates in the dishwasher, another passes the broom. Thus, the kitchen is always clean and the house always fresh.
Everyone participates in the maintenance of the house.
After that, I let them watch TV, play or do their homework. And I can focus on my blog or other activities.
It’s really nice for everyone.
2: Be better organized
It is true that in this article I speak a lot of children in this article. It’s simply because I rely on my own experience as a father.
I have four children. I know how important it is to be well organized if you want to keep your house clean.
Some people think that if their home is not properly maintained or if it is still messy, it is because of their children. This is not always true. There are people who do not have children, but still, they can not keep their house clean and tidy.
Do you know why?
Simply because they are not well organized themselves.
If you are in the habit of letting your belongings drag on everywhere, it will be very difficult for you to have an orderly house.
You certainly have your little habits and I can understand you. Many people like to see things pile up at home and it does not bother them at all.
But ask yourself this question, what do your friends think when they come to your house and see all your disorder?
Some will certainly not say anything for fear of hurting you. But once outside, they can always criticize you and it will not do much good for your reputation.
Make sure you have enough storage furniture to store your belongings. Whatever your budget, you’ll find everything you need on Amazon or Ikea.
To prevent things from piling up too much at home, organize yourself and make sure that all that is not really useful is stored in a cupboard or cellar. Make a habit of always storing everything right away. As soon as you use something, put things back in their place once you’ve used them
What I do as a dad
I will not lie to you and tell you that I am a very organized person. But if there is one thing I hate, it’s the bazaar. To prevent the house from being too messy, I avoid accumulating too many things that are useless.
I always put everything away right away. I try to make sure my children are organized too. So I bought some storage furniture so that they can put away their toys or books.
3: Make your bed every morning
My third tip is a really quick and easy one but it’s so effective. It’s to make your bed every morning.
You read that right!
Don’t get me wrong though. I’m not pretending that you don’t make your bed. Making your bed every morning is probably one of the first lessons of life that our parents teach us.
By the way, I’m probably sure you still remember when your parents used to tell you: “Make your bed, otherwise you will not go out!”
We’ve all heard that kind of threat at least once, haven’t we?
But when we grow up, many of us forget this lesson that our parents taught us. Life takes over quickly and, with our professional occupations and children to take care of, thinking about making your bed every morning can very quickly become something complicated.
But you must know that making your bed is an important step if you want to keep your house well organized. And clean.
Just by taking a couple of minutes to make your bed, you can make your whole room look so much cleaner.
What I do as a dad
Do I make my bed absolutely every morning?
Me, no! But my wife yes!
After we all wake up in the morning, she will just take a few minutes and make the bed. She askes our kids to make their own beds as well. Having all our beds made just makes the whole house look tidy.
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4: Don’t sit down until you’ve done everything you planned to do
So, my next tip is this: at the end of the day, once your kids are in bed and you’re really tired, don’t sit down until you’ve done everything that you’ve planned to do.
Even if you’re tired, get everything done before you sit down.
Why?
Because once you sit down, you will have a hard time putting yourself up again.
As parents, we all love our children. But let’s be honest just a moment, after a long day of work, especially when we are really tired, we all desperately want just one thing: that our children go to bed and they finally give us a break.
Come on, admit it!
Have you ever felt this deep desire where your only desire is that your children leave you alone?
If you answered “Yes”! Do not worry. You are not alone. To me too that happens to me. But the only problem is that when our children go to bed, it is precisely at that moment that we too want to sit down and relax.
And as you know, in a house things never relax. As I told you, there is always something to do.
If you notice that your house is messy, always make an effort to try to do some cleaning before going to bed. You do not have to tidy it all up the same day. But it is better to do a little cleaning each day rather than let things drag and want to tidy up all at once.
Between our work, our personal activities and the children’s homework, getting to clean the house when you’re tired is not easy. But if you want to have a clean house, you have no choice. Sometimes you have to know how to make sacrifices.
In our house, we like to get everything done before we go up to bed because it’s so nice to come down to a clean house.
What I do as a dad
My wife works full time. She is an engineer. As she works a lot on projects, she is lucky enough to be at home often. She can therefore easily take care of children and some household tasks.
I too work full time in a bank. When I come home after work, I am often very tired because I spend all my days sitting in front of computers.
But despite our two professional occupations, my wife and I help each other a lot.
So as my wife is making dinner, I spend time with the kids and we quickly go around the house just to see what can be cleaned or stored in a closet.
Just after we actually eat dinner, I’ll put on the dishwasher and then it’s so nice in the morning when you come down to a clean house.
I’ll actually do it before we sit down because we just know that once we sit down on that couch and the TV is on, we will not be getting up and doing anything else.
5: Get help and delegate
This advice is certainly the one that is most often overlooked, especially when you are a parent and have young children. We always think that our children are still too young, that we should not ask them too much or that we can do everything alone.
If you think that in a house you can do everything alone, you will exhaust yourself too quickly.
So remember to get help from your loved ones as often as possible. The more you contribute to the household tasks in your home, the cleaner and well maintained your house will be.
And to help you, you do not need to seek help at the end of the world. If you have children, they can help you too.
In any case, as far as my wife and I are concerned, we try to make sure our children participate in the housework as often as possible, especially on weekends or when they are on holidays.
What I do as a dad
I delegate whenever I can. My three little boys love to help us even though they are still young. They like to help us to vacuum, empty the dishwasher and also tidy up their toys at the end of the day.
6: Give your partner some jobs
In some homes, some men like to let their wives take care of everything.
Seriously!I’m not joking here!
I know people like that around me. These men do not want to do anything either because it is cultural or because they think that household chores are not made for them. They work, bring the money home and think that’s enough.
If you are a man and still think like that, I pity your poor wife who must exhaust herself by always doing everything alone.
We are in the 21st century and today in a couple everything is shared, even the household tasks.
So, if you have a partner and you feel that he or she does not make a lot of effort to help you maintain your home, it might be time for you to have a serious discussion with your partner.
Make it clear that you need him or her to help you.
When we are two we always move faster. So, while you are preparing dinner for example, your partner can take care of other things like for example, maybe they can be in charge of laundry or helping you out with the dishes.
Now, if you have the budget and you hate cleaning, why not get a cleaner?
If it helps you out and it’s something you don’t enjoy doing then it’s worth the money.
You can hire someone you pay to maintain your home while you do something else that you feel is more important to your family’s well-being.
What I do as a dad
As I said before, I help my wife a lot in housework. I may seem to be repeating myself but it’s the truth. Sometimes I do dishes, ironing and so on.
I’m really not afraid to contribute because after all, it’s our home. I want it to be as clean as possible.
7: Get rid of your bulky items
Do you still have your old sofa or the remains of your broken bed?
It might be time to get rid of them, what do you think?
Spring is the time of year when people generally like to do the big cleaning and put a little order in their home.
That’s why we talk about “Spring Cleaning”. In this period, people are throwing away anything that is in their homes and that they do not need anymore. If that’s your case, then you know what I’m talking about. But why wait for spring?
If you have too many unnecessary things at home, you do not have to wait until spring to get rid of them.
Depending on where you live, there is definitely a time in the month when you can get rid of your bulky items.
For example, in the city where I live, we can get rid of our bulky every first Wednesday of the month. The town hall sets up a bulky collection service and so all the inhabitants take advantage of this day to get rid of unnecessary things.
Look in your neighborhood if such predispositions exist.
If so, do yourself a monthly schedule and take the opportunity to unclutter your home at least once a month.
[box type=”info”] Pro tips: If you don’t want to throw your old stuff in the trash, provided they are in working condition, you can donate them or sell them away.[/box]
From used clothes, home appliances, home furniture, school furniture, medical aids, mobility aids, learning aids, electronics and much more, you can donate practically any unwanted, albeit useful items you don’t need anymore to benefit the needy.
Depending on where you live, you can inquire at your city hall to find out if there is a charity to donate your unwanted items to.
Otherwise, you can simply search on Google:
To sell, do this search:
Where to sell used or bulky furniture…
Right, so that is it for this article. I really hope you enjoyed my tips.
If you’re new to my blog as well, I would love you to subscribe to my Newsletter and stick around. I post two or three articles a week and yeah I hope you like these tips.
If so, also make sure to share this post with your friends.
What do you do for keeping your house clean? Please comment below…
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