How I Keep a Tidy Home With Kids: A Simple, Realistic Organization Routine

Today I am sharing how I keep my home tidy and organized with a house full of boys!

Probably one of the questions I get the most here on my blog is about my home and how I keep it tidy, how I keep it so simple, and where all of my stuff is. In this post, I’m sharing how I keep a tidy home through simple decluttering habits and realistic organization routines that work for real life.

I know firsthand how overwhelming it can feel to keep a tidy home, especially when you have a house full of small children. If you’re deep in the trenches of homemaking, I hope this encourages you and gives you practical ideas you can actually use.

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How To Keep A Tidy Home: Declutter Twice A Year

My first organizing tip is that I try to go through all of our closets, all of our drawers, all of our cupboards, and pretty much everything that holds storage at least twice a year. I just go through it and organize it. I get rid of anything we are no longer using, shoes that the boys have outgrown, coats that we haven’t worn in a year, etc. and I think this practice really helps to keep our home a little bit more minimal.

I hate to call myself minimal because I’m sure a true minimalist would tell me that I could get rid of a lot more stuff, and I’m sure I could haha But I just think that getting rid of the excess is key to keeping a tidy home. The more clutter you have and the more items you have in your home, the more prone it will be to messes, clutter, and disorganization.

I think it’s just smart as a homemaker to go through everything once or twice a year and get rid of stuff. Bring it to the thrift store or find someone that could use it. January is usually the first “reset” month, and then I’ll do another round in the spring. I love to use January as a fresh start; it feels so great to put away all of the holiday decor and then really deep clean and organize my home.

Declutter Seasonal Items and Clothing

As I put my holiday decor away, I like to go through and purge items I didn’t use or haven’t used in a few seasons. I give a lot of it away to my family and friends, and then I donate the rest. This makes decorating for the following year so much easier and frees up a lot of storage space in my basement.

Winter gear is another area where we’ve just collected so many hats and scarves and mittens over the years, and I know a lot of these have not been worn yet this winter season or the boys have outgrown them. I’m simply bag all of these items up and bring them to the thrift store.

How To Keep A Tidy Home: Take It One Room At A Time

Make organizing and decluttering easier on yourself by taking it one room at a time. You can take a day or a week and just focus on one area of your home to organize. This way you can really focus and not get overwhelmed trying to tackle your entire house in one day. My living room is the first space you see when you enter my home, so I like to organize here first!

This little built-in bench holds all of our board games, and I know there are board games in here that we haven’t touched in months and months. I’m going to tape up a few of these boxes that are broken, and then set aside the games I know we use often. I’m going to donate some games that we haven’t really enjoyed or used.

I also like to tackle the baskets I have in here. I keep all of our extra blankets in here, so I’m going through them and deciding which ones I no longer need and which ones I can get rid of. I have some extra curtains in here and things like that. I like to go through it all and see what I haven’t touched in quite a while, if I really need to hang on to it or if I can pass it on to someone else who could use these items.

I completely forgot about our ottoman in our living room as well. It looks like furniture, but it actually opens up and there’s storage inside. We keep toys in here because it’s nice when guests come over and they have little ones.

This ottoman tends to collect a lot of junk and toys that we don’t really need, so I filled up a whole bag full of stuff that I’m throwing away, broken toys and random pieces. That is the living room. Not a whole lot to go through in this space, but it feels good to go through it all.

How To Keep A Tidy Home: Declutter As You Go

The following day, my kids were playing with Play-Doh, and since they had it all out on the table, I decided to go through it. I got rid of broken Play-Doh toys and did some vacuuming. There’s another organizing tip for you. Organize during playtime to see what toys your kids use and what toys maybe need to be thrown out or donated.

In the dining room, my pine hutch holds our napkins, so I’ll also go through and straighten those piles. The main area I needed to organize was the corner cabinet. I keep candles, candlesticks, essential oil diffusers, and scent items in here. Some things didn’t belong, so I donated what I no longer needed and put everything in its rightful place.

Tackle The Kitchen One Section At A Time

The kitchen used to overwhelm me. I used to try to do it all in one day, but now I divide it up. I tidy my essential oil cupboard, then tackle the utility drawer. This drawer takes the longest and holds tape, scissors, tools, pens, and pencils. I actually just made a video where I organized my kitchen that you can watch below!

I also like to go through towels and Norwex cleaning cloths, getting rid of old stained towels. I’ve noticed that the more often I organize, the easier it gets. I’m more intentional about what I keep, and everything has a purpose.

Thank you guys so much for following along. I have so many more rooms yet that I need to organize and go through, so let me know if you enjoyed this blog. I always love to bring you guys along with me as I take care of our home!

If you’re new here, I’d love for you to sign up for my free mini homemaking course below for more cleaning and organizing tips!

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