Cleaning?

Welcome to the June edition of the Simply Living Blog Carnival - Around the House cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. This month, we write about what we do to keep the little things from overwhelming us. Please check out the links to posts by our other participants at the end of this post.

I grew up in a cluttered and messy house, my room was an oasis of tidiness and no clutter.  My mother hated housework and still does, only doing what is absolutely necessary.  I have definitely inherited the hatred of housework but as my house is infinitely less cluttered it is rarely as messy.  I would not say I am, by any stretch of the imagination one of those people who cleans, dusts or hoovers on a regular basis.  I am much more of an adhoc do it when it needs it type of cleaner.  You are much more likely to find me with a book, a board game piece or knitting  in hand than a duster.  Personally I would rather spend time doing other things and that does not mean that my house is thick with dust or my carpets covered in bits, well some floors are covered in Lego but I would not try and hoover that up!

I clean when I need to.  In the case of the kitchen this is daily, personally I would rather prepare food on clean surfaces using clean utensils.  In the case of the bathroom this is about once a week depending on how much use it has had.  In the case of the other rooms in the house it is definitely less often.  But I tidy up almost daily.  I clear the floors and most surfaces.  We don't have a lot of possessions so there is never that much to put away.  Friends often comment on how tidy my house is, in an enviable way, they bemoan the 'bits' that get everywhere those very small things that children are wont to collect and attract.  They are not everywhere because we don't have any.  I may be mean but I will not let them come into my house and if they do they make their way back out again quickly.  I know that it is those little bits that can create a mess and make it much harder to tidy up, as if it is not difficult enough being a parent without making life harder for yourself, they are staying away until the day when my children keep their own things tidy.

So we have simple toys, Lego excepting, that are easy to tidy away.  Lego is kept to one room in the house in an attempt, that seems to be largely working, to keep it fairly contained.  We have a small house which means we simply cannot store many possessions as we do not have the room, less space also means that there is less areas to keep clean.   Decluttering takes place on a regular basis, it has to particularly after birthdays and Christmas and in the case of the children's clothes, after changes in the seasons.  By owning less it is easy to keep our house tidy and then when I do feel the need to clean, I can do so with minimum effort.

Thank you for visiting the Simply Living Blog Carnival cohosted by Mandy at Living Peacefully with Children, Laura at Authentic Parenting, Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy, and Joella at Fine and Fair. Read about how others are incorporating simple ideas around their homes. We hope you will join us next month!

• Embracing the Schedule - Jennifer at True Confessions of a Real Mommy writes about how her family learned to keep on top of household life by creating a family calendar.
• Simply: Car Free - On the one-year anniversary of selling her car, Lyndsay from ourfeministplayschool, reflects on her family's decision to go car-free in urban downtown Toronto.
• The Importance of Finding Your Housecleaning Rhythm - Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama outlines how she keeps her housecleaning under control with a daily rhythm. Even her 4 year old gets in on it!
• Keeping It Simple At Home - At Living Peacefully with Children, Mandy shares some tips for keeping the clutter and cleaning at bay.
• Cleaning? - In her post, sustainablemum outlines how keeping clutter to a minimum makes for an easy life when trying to keep her house clean and tidy.
• Simply Downstairs - Jorje of Momma Jorje has found a way to simplify laundry AND bedtime... all with one simple move.
• In Shares, not Chores: Helping your Kids Help You Without Coercion Laura from Authentic Parenting tells us how she gets work done with two little kids and without coercion.