Our house gets a little disorganized. Sometimes we go hard all day and the place gets trashed. Or it’s just little things that pile up over time. And finally, the place needs to be neatened up.
Cleaning and organizing is easy enough to do when the kids are well occupied. Frequently they are- Bluey’s busy inventing something, or making a superhero outfit. Plum’s reading or drawing. Or they are playing together happily, and we TRParents are able to swing into action and take care of a few home tasks.
Occasionally we can even ask that the kiddoes play together for a minute, while we run a vacuum or sweep a room. It’s great when that happens.
But more often than not, our kids want our attention more than they want us to clean. Or what they need is to snuddle on the couch with us and read. Or sit on the floor and build a Lego something-or-other together.
How are you supposed to get your place really clean?
In this situation we try to follow our “Rule of Three.” Each time we get up to do something quick- get a fresh cup of coffee, take a potty break, fetch a snack- we take a few seconds to put 3 things away. We take some dishes to the kitchen. Or bring a handful of laundry to the hamper. Or we quickly shift some junk mail to the recyclable bin.
These are little things, each one isn’t much of an accomplishment. But over the course of the day they make a huge difference in the clutter levels in our home. All done without any little one noticing that we’ve been cleaning. The kiddoes think we’ve been with them the whole time.
And really, we have been.
It doesn’t make up for the deep clean that every house needs at some point. Hopefully on that blissful day when the kiddoes are playing happily for hours. But the “Rule of Three” helps us feel like we are on top of the mess, three things at a time.