Cleaning With 2 Under Two

If you think cleaning is hard, try doing it with two young children. One of which is making 27 more messes while I finish getting one cleaned and the other needs my attention to survive at least every two to three hours. It’s a stressful chore, but Moms gotta do what a Mom’s gotta do.

I cannot believe I am about to share this with the whole internet, but here goes nothing… Welcome to my war-zone… Uh, I mean living room.

I’m dealing with disaster status living quarters. How did it get this embarrassingly bad? My answer: I honestly don’t know. (If you look closely you’ll see the bright pink Sharpie design that my toddler decided would look great on the back of our couch!)

It feels like we’ve never recovered from Christmas. In fact, I’m still finding decorations that have been left behind 🤨 and all the new toys have yet to find homes. But this is the day I’m finally pulling it all together and making it happen! I’ve got about 84 loads of laundry queued up, a huge storage room full of junk that needs to be organized thrown out, a kitchen that’s sticky and needs a good deep clean, living room carpets that need scrubbed, and a playroom that needs organizing… and here’s how I am going to tackle it all!!! 

How to clean when you just want to scream!

1.

One room at a time… and leave the playroom (or kids bedrooms) for last and once the kids have gone to bed! And I plan to make the kids help! Every night before Luca goes to bed, we pick up his toys from which have escaped from the playroom into the living room and take them back to their home… because: good habits. Praying he’s better at this than I am someday… But, here’s the deal. The kids need entertaining, especially if you need to get stuff done! So, don’t stress that your son just dumped a huge pile of Legos in the middle of your living room, just work around it and pray the blocks keep him busy enough for 17 mins so you can get something else done. Pro tip: don’t limit screen time on cleaning days. Charge up the iPads, stream Disney+, whatever you need to do to get a little more time!

2.

Prioritize! I know there’s no way to get all this done by Sunday, but we can fake it! Don’t stress over rooms that no one will see.. (I swear someone always wanders off to check out the rooms I’ve skipped, but they’ll get what they deserve.) Bathrooms are number 1 priority because yuck, no one wants to see a gross bathroom while visiting someone’s house. What a turn-off. And just as gross, a dirty kitchen! So those are the two areas I focus on the most. It’s easy to pick up toys and shove shoes and crap in a closet that hopefully, no one opens but genuine dirt and icky grime from grease and old food particles in the kitchen need to be dealt with – no one wants to eat where it looks gross!

3.

Hide the clutter! Use storage solutions, closets, and basements to put crap that can be dealt with later. Collect things that aren’t needed in laundry baskets and get them out of the way! Then, one by one, someday, you can throw away all the crap you collected because you learned you don’t actually need any of it 😏 JK! But for real, it’s much easier to deal with one basket or cabinet or closet at a time at a later date. 

And, it’s done!

I know it’s a little unconventional, but those are my pro-tips to faking cleaning… ah-hem, I mean deep cleaning your house with two little babies when you’re having guests. Maybe you learned something, maybe you didn’t but I hope you enjoyed this post. For other great ideas, sign up for my email newsletter and I’ll try to send you something more frequently than once a year 😜 Have a good one! 

You too can make miracles happen! Here are some of my favorite household cleaning and storage supplies:

Plastic Storage Bin | Fabric Bin | Storage Basket | Cube Shelf Organizer | Laundry Basket | Toy Box – For playroom organization and hiding junk, all large and hold a ton!

Granite Cleaner | Bathroom Cleaner | Degreaser |Window & Glass | Lavender Spray | Floor Squirt – These Method products are AMAZING! They’re all non-toxic, so safe for your babies, and smell incredible!

Cleaning Cloths | Swiffer Duster – For picking up those dust-bunnies!

Swiffer WetJet – For quick cleaning and every day stickiness.

Steam Mop – Affordable and works great! I use a little quirt of the Method floor cleaner with this.

Bissell Carpet Cleaner – I should use this more often, it works wonders.

Dyson Cord-Free | Dyson – My Favorite vacuums, light and easy.

Broom – Cause everyone needs a broom.

Sharpie Set – Fun colors, so your toddler doesn’t just use pink.