How to Keep a Clean House With Kids and a Dog

It’s super hard to keep a clean house with kids and a dog (especially when you have multiple kids).

It’s like a never-ending battle of trying to keep kids’ items picked up, the floors clean, and regular routine daily chores.

Trying to keep a clean house with kids and a dog, work from home full time, and help the kids with their education is a very tall order, which will cause just about any parent to lose their mind. 

Here are my tips for keeping a clean house with kids and a dog without driving yourself insane during the process.

See Also: Products That Make Cleaning Easier

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post.

Give the kids chores AND make sure they’re the ones doing them

Let’s be honest, most of the mess that takes place in the house is from the kids. Whether it’s legos all over the floor or clothes and shoes scattered throughout the house, it’s things that they’ve unorganized. Therefore, it only makes sense that they play a part in keeping their areas clean and pick up after themselves.

However, assigning chores and them actually getting done are two different things. Sometimes it can seem easier just for us to do the kid’s chores to get them out of the way instead of constantly having to remind them to do them. But, with everything else going on between working, your own chores, making meals, and entertaining the dog, you’ll easily find yourself burned out. 

So, I highly suggest giving the kids chores and making sure they’re the ones doing them. For example, you can invest in a cheap fridge chore chart and write out everyone’s responsibilities. Younger children can manage tasks such as making sure toys go in the toy box and clothes in the laundry while older kids can handle tasks such as vacuuming, laundry, and dishes. 

If you’d like you can give out rewards at the end of each week for whoever managed to stay on top of their chores. To motivate them to complete them in a timely manner you can place a rule in place that there’s no electronic or tv time until chores are complete. 

Use kid and dog-friendly cleaning supplies

Ever since COVID-19 popped up, keeping things sanitized is more important than ever. However, with kids and puppies, things can get a little messy, but you don’t want to have to turn to harsh cleaning chemicals that will irritate them. 

The good news is there are a ton of kid and dog-friendly cleaning supplies that will allow you to sanitize your high-traffic areas daily to kill germs without leaving behind harsh chemical fumes. 

For example, Violet Healthcare has  UV-C light products that claim to be able to kill up to 99.9% of germs and bacteria. 

It’s a great cleaning tool to have because you can sanitize your home quickly and effectively without having to spend time scrubbing, wiping, etc. 

Plus, the light is great for homes with pets because it will allow you to make sure that you didn’t miss any potty accidents that may need to have been spot treated. 

With the click of a button and a few steps around the house, you can have peace of mind knowing that the high-trafficked surface areas of your home aren’t holding on to any lingering germs. 

Create a cleaning schedule

Just like with meal planning, a cleaning schedule will help you save your time and sanity during the week. I sort of think of mine as my “Adult Chore Chart” lol. 

It’s definitely my secret to keeping a clean house with kids and a dog.

The cleaning schedule sets expectations of what I need to get done each weekday to make the deep cleaning that takes place every weekend easier. Plus, it also makes it so you don’t forget to do something that may not need to be done daily, such as cleaning the fridge or pantry. 

For my cleaning schedule, I use a Trello board. Routine tasks such as laundry and bathroom cleaning I just check off and reassign. However, tasks that aren’t done as frequently such as organizing the pantry and window washing I assign to myself so I get a notification the day before so I can mentally prepare. 

Regarding cleaning schedule creation, my best suggestion is to work around your schedule. For me, since I work from home, I like to do a few chores a day, every day, and then on weekends, I do the deep cleaning. However, for others, especially if you don’t work from home, it may just make sense to do all the chores on your day off, which is perfectly fine. 

You just have to find that balance for yourself. 

Do what you can when you can

I recommend deep cleaning on your least busy days (such as your off days) and doing daily chores whenever you have the time.

For example, some days are slow for me and since I already work from home I may be able to knock out the majority of my cleaning tasks for the week in one day. Yes, the cleaning schedule helps me make sure that everything is cleaned weekly, however, if I have a slow day I’ll go ahead and clean out the fridge, get ahead with meal planning, or even do all of the laundries ahead of schedule.

Also, “do what you can when you can” refers to not worrying about the cleaning schedule too much. If creating and trying to maintain a cleaning schedule doesn’t work for your lifestyle right now, just do whatever cleaning you can when you clean. 

Conclusion: You can keep a clean house with kids and a dog without losing your sanity

You can have a clean house with kids and a dog and it doesn’t have to mean that you spend every second of your free time cleaning. These tips are a good starting point and you can create your customized cleaning schedule that works best for you and your family.