Keeping A Clean House When You Have A Toddler

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I love organization.

Like, I am obsessed. Coming home to a clean house relaxes me more than actual “relaxing” does. It’s crazy! I mean, don’t get me wrong, cleaning isn’t fun. I don’t enjoy washing dishes or vacuuming, and I especially dread scrubbing the tub (#yuck). But organizing? MORE PLEASE!

Searching Pinterest for blog posts about different organization tips and tricks is like a drug. And even though I don’t have the expendable income to buy all the things at The Container Store, I do what I can to find my own inexpensive hacks. Sometimes if I’m lucky I’ll walk into JoAnn Fabric or Hobby Lobby on a day when their storage supplies are half off, like I did last weekend when I finally got the paper storage cart I’ve been wanting!

Organizing and reorganizing is cathartic for me.

Cleaning junk out of my life is soothing. Whether it’s old clothes, ratty dish towels, or paper mess, I’ve found cleaning to be one of the quickest ways to reduce my anxiety. It’s probably why I go on a deep cleaning rampage a couple times a year and throw out about 25% of the things I own. LOL.

After watching Tidying Up on Netflix, Marie Kondo is my new idol. Seeing her put the KonMari method into action makes me want to go on my own cleaning spree even though I literally just went through my closest two weeks ago. Seriously. Considering what sparks joy and what doesn’t makes you start to think about whether or not you truly need to keep something (or someone) in your life. It’s pretty brilliant tbh, especially for people who are minimalists. Or people who – like me – consider themselves borderline minimalist.

“But Kristan,” you ask, “Isn’t it difficult to be a minimalist with children? They have so much stuff!”

To be blunt, you’re right. Children tend to have so many things. Especially toddlers. Countless onesies from Christmas – many still with their tags – hang in the closet. Boxes of diapers are stacked on totes full of clothes that have been outgrown. Enough stuffed animals to fill an entire zoo!

But just because our children have all these things doesn’t mean we can’t stay organized and clean.

Over the holidays, one of my sisters made the comment that my house is always so clean it looks like nobody even lives here. And it’s not because I spend hours upon hours each week cleaning. #AintNobodyGotTimeFoDat when they work 40 hours a week and are commuting to school and in class for 10 hours a week.

Don’t believe me? Here’s pictures of the main room, Elsie’s bathroom, and her bedroom:

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If I gave you a tour of my entire house, you’d notice that we don’t leave stuff lying around. Except maybe clothes. It’s a bad habit of mine to pile my “half clean” jeans or hoodies on my bedroom floor next to a basket of clean clothes. There’s also usually a dirty pile on the other side of the basket too. Hey, I never said I was perfect!

But as far as keeping the house clean? I have a few tricks for storage and organization to make tidying up quick and easy. If I’m ever expecting guests over on short notice, it only takes 5-10 minutes for my place to look clean again. Here’s how I do it.

Tip #1: Find easily accessible places to stash toddler toys.

Something toddlers are infamous for is getting into drawers and cabinets. When Elsie was an infant, I used to store extra electronic cords and miscellaneous cables in the drawer of our TV stand. Once she learned how to pull handles, I had to clear everything out because she made such a mess and wouldn’t leave things alone!

To remedy this, I started storing her smaller and flat toys in the drawer. Since I knew she was going to get into whatever was in there anyway, it made sense to use it for things she was allowed to play with.

Not only are her toys easily accessible to her, they are in a centralized location. This makes putting them away a super quick task at the end of the night after she’s in bed. And by putting them away every night, I can go to bed without the stress of a messy living room.

Tip #2: Store like items together.

Having a birthday at the end of October that is quickly followed by Christmas a short two months later means the end of the year is filled with so many new gifts that need a home in her room. Thankfully this year I had a friend who was pregnant with a baby girl, so I was able to give away a bunch of outgrown clothes and toys to make room for all the new ones.

If you look at the storage unit picture below, you’ll notice one shelf is for extra diapers, wipes, and Diaper Genie refills. The other three shelves are dedicated to toys: one that displays two of her favorites so she can find them easily, one cube bucket that stores only Mega Bloks, and one for other miscellaneous toys that are too big to fit in the living room drawer.

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Her bookshelf has an entire shelf for Winnie the Pooh plushes and puppets (she seriously L-O-V-E-S the plush toys because they are so soft!). The second shelf is other favorites: finger puppet books! And of course all her other books are on the bottom shelf.

Now check out the closet.

You can see the hanging storage unit has pajamas folded neatly on the shelves, with jackets hanging beneath. All the clothes hanging on the right side of the rack are too big right now; the “fits now” clothes are in the giant brown cabinet seen in the earlier picture of Elsie’s room.

The other items you see stored in her closet are the two large totes for “too small” clothes – mostly empty now – and larger toys like her Mega Bloks Scooping Wagon.

Tip #3: Use containers to conquer small items.

I mean, it’s kind of in the name. A container contains things that need contained. Small stuff needs contained because it can easily be misplaced. Plus, it’s a bad practice to just throw small things in a big drawer or bucket because it will (a) get lost, and (b) be forgotten. #spacewasters

I keep all of Elsie’s bathroom items in containers. We use a basket for her hair bows (which, let’s be honest, she rarely wears because she won’t keep them on) and her clips and combs. And I tend to throw her toothbrush and toothpaste in there too since the drawer is used for other things and it’s nice to have easy access in the mornings and nights.

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If you’re like me, you probably hate shower clutter. Thankfully this shower caddy was the perfect size to hold Elsie’s bath toy tote filled with all her squirt toys and the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Mickey Water Swimmer. The sponge toys and yellow bag actually came together. Side note: I love when companies know what moms want/need when it comes to children’s toys! This sold-together storage and toy bundle helps keep the bathtub tidy.

Tip #4: Build your own storage solutions if you can’t find anything else that works.

I’m a huge DIY advocate because not only do I love creating things, but it can often be cheaper and/or better quality if done yourself. You get to choose the materials, the design, etc and that makes it possible to create solutions to fit your custom needs. One need that I had for Elsie’s room – though definitely not unique to just our family – was a good storage solution for all her stuffed animals.

As a kid, I kept my stuffed animals in storage totes. But this made it difficult to get them out for playtime. I also remember my sister used a hammock to store hers. While this worked for her as an older child, it wasn’t a viable solution for my 1-year-old daughter. Plus, I live in a rental home so I can’t exactly drill into the ceiling just because.

So off to Pinterest I went.

I found a picture of a small “zoo” someone had made for their child, and I thought it was the cutest and most brilliant thing I’d ever seen! But you know, I’m not old enough for power tools. Aka I can’t be trusted not to saw my own hand off, LOL. Luckily, I knew a certain someone who was great at and enjoyed woodworking.

My dad happens to be very skilled and practiced at crafting. (I mean, the man did make me my own farmhouse table with benches!) So I asked him if he would make his granddaughter a “zoo”. He did not disappoint! In the center of the picture above, you can see the box he handcrafted and painted. It has rubber bungee cord bands in the front for “bars” to keep the stuffed animals contained.

What I love most about the zoo is that the bands are flexible enough for Elsie to stretch them apart to get toys out, and elastic enough to snap back into place to keep everything inside. These cords were a specific design request I had made, and it took a little outside-the-box thinking (pun not intended). We ended up using bands from a piece of workout equipment, and it turned out perfect!

Bonus Tip: Keep things off the floor when possible.

If you’ve noticed throughout these pictures, I don’t tend to store things in piles or buckets and baskets on the floors. If something is inside a container, that container is put up on a shelf or in a cabinet. Keeping stuff off the floor and put away creates the illusion that you don’t have as much stuff, even though we both know that isn’t true with a toddler, LOL. It also makes the space look more open and clean. (That is, aside from the random carpet stains from last month’s meltdown when that spaghetti ended up all over the living room.)

I’ve got plenty of other organizational tips to come in the future, like the spring cleaning series in March! But until then, tell me what sort of organization solutions have you come up with for your own family.