Mess management with kids

So you have kids. Yes the house is going to be messy. And if you have two toddlers like I do, then it my seem like you are living in a dumpster.
The second my eyes turn around, there is a new mess piled up. So how can you avoid it and keep the house mess free?

Well you cannot. Ha ha.. but you can certainly manage the mess and keep it to a minimum.

There are various things you can do for a cleaner looking house.
The most used method. Dump it in another room when guests arrive. Well this method can only take you so far. And who likes to live in messy space? The more you declutter, the better you feel mentally and spiritually.

Make a "clean up" routine. You may have to work on this for a week or two for the kids to get a hang of it, but once they adapt to this routine, life becomes easier. Twice a day, maybe once before afternoon nap time and once before bed, have a clean up routine. Engage the kids to help along as you ask them to pass on toys while to keep them back. Maybe even sing a clean-up song to keep them even more entertained.

Gradually they will adopt this routine and start doing it on their own too. But mosty will be needed your help.
This will certainly help goto bed with a clean house.

Maintain a toy room. I wholeheartedly support this. I do have a few toys laying around in very room but I have a dedicated toys area set in a room which is NOT the living room. This helps to keep the mess away from guests during an invited emergency and even makes cleaning easier since all the mess is confined to one space.
Kids are sure to spread the confinement to a wider area but keep reminding them to play in a certain allotted spce and they wi keep to it.

Keep a toy basket or someplace to store the toys. Try to keep a dedicated basket where the toys are supposed to be stored. This way the kids will also know to keep back the toys in that place. Again you need practice for a few days and they will get a hang of it.
If you have heard of the saying "out of sight is out of mind " thn trust me IT WORKS. I got this really cute toy organizer which is in the shape of a penguin and it is huge. You can store so many toys in it and it nicely fits in a tiny space. Before I had that, my kids would throw around the toys even from the bsket because it was in their sight. After switching over to this toy organizer, my house has very less mess. They know the toys are inside it but they don't reach out to it unnecessarily. Thy only take out toys if they want to play with it. It's a great way to keep the house mess free.

Try out a few of the above tips. They are the simplest way to keep a nice and tidy house.