Keeping a tidy house - with lots of little kids - NEED YOUR HELP WITH HINTS!! {part 1}

As I sit here to write this post I look around to see my lounge room quite a disgrace. There are currently 3 maybe 4 boxes of toys out and spread around the lounge room, 3 piles of clean washing waiting to be put away on the couch, two large baskets of washing ready to be hung out that have been sitting their for two days now, an outside chair inside, tissues, and well, general cluttered mess.

But it's not usually this way. At least not when I know someone is coming over and that includes my working hubby. I still have 2 hours and 45mins...

Truth is it hasn't always been this 'easy' Its been a work-in-progress but this is working well for this season of my life...

I can usually get the lounge, hall way and bathroom completely tidied up in 20 minutes. My secret? Not alot STAYS in those three rooms!!

I have a list of most the jobs that need doing daily on the fridge that can trigger my memory. Titled kids morning jobs, kitchen and washing. The jobs the children don't have the ability to do is circled for me to do. (wash dishes, sweep floors, washing for example)

I got my kids doing these things DAILY and they are now pros. Which means that I can work alongside them or I can do things that they can not or that are more important if I do them. That was over a period of 6 months.

Bathroom tidy consists of:
a) picking up all dirty washing and putting into wheelie bins. I find that having the wheelie bins with LIDS means the washing can NOT be SEEN and they add colour to the room, I also find that YOUNG children have the ability to wheel the dirty washing into the laundry which is fun for them and one less job for me
b) picking up the bath mat means the floor LOOKS tidier
c) picking up all the toys in the bath and having them hanging from a toy holder thingy IN the bath means toys get to drain, are out of direct line of sight when standing in the doorway/washing hands

Hallway tidy consists of:
a) NOTHING is meant to be on the floor in the hall way. Therefore picking up means pick it all up and PUT IT ALL AWAY!!!
b) A quick sweet/vacuum takes care of any extra mess

Lounge tidy consists of:
a) Floors getting done. If you want your house to APPEAR tidier quickly CLEAN THE FLOORS! In other words get all those toys off the floor and into the toy box. Preferably a 'nice looking' toy box that fits in with the 'decor' of the room. Ours is one of those 'party tubs' $13 from Bunnings in grey
b) everything off the couches and put away
c) sweep/vacuum the floor for the dead flies and other weird things that lots of little kids manage to create while your not looking or blogging

MY HINTS & TIPS:

• Have the box of toys the same set of toys eg, ALL duplo or train set or dolls or little people stuff so the children can play with it together and its easier to 'sort out' when packing away
• The less stuff in the room the less to tidy up
• De-clutter - less stuff = less stuff to find homes for & put away
• Train even your young children to tidy up
• Daily 'training' even just little bits PAYS OFF in the longer term
• TONS of praise when the children do things
• RACE THEM :)
• Make tidy-up a quick 5-10min job several times a day
• Work TOGETHER - its more fun
• Even though your doing the jobs daily vary them so the children get to do something a bit different while still learning their different "skills"
• If two kids fight SEPERATION WORKS (for me), one kid in one room doing one job and another in another room doing another job - I actually discovered that ONE of my kids was PLAYING while the other did EVERYTHING... VERY sneaky hey!!
  

I might have to add in some more - I have a baby needing me and I am running OUT OF TIME... 53minutes...

What are your hints & tips? How do you tidy up your lounge, hall and bathroom?