The school holidays arrive and suddenly your home is working overtime. More people, more meals, more mess, more noise. The kitchen you cleaned at 8am looks like a different room by lunchtime.
Nobody wants to spend the summer holidays cleaning. But nobody wants to spend them living in chaos either.
Here's how to find the middle ground.
Why does the house get so much messier in the school holidays?
It's not your imagination. More people at home means more everything — more crumbs, more dishes, more stuff left on every surface. Routines that work perfectly during term time quietly fall apart when everyone is around all day.
The key is not trying to maintain the same standard you have during the week. That way lies frustration. Instead, lower the bar slightly and build a few simple habits that keep things from spiralling.
What is the easiest way to keep a house clean with kids at home?
The honest answer is: involve them.
Not in a boot camp way. Just in a everyone-who-lives-here-contributes way. Even young children can put their plates in the dishwasher, put their shoes away, and wipe the table after eating. It takes longer to teach than to do yourself, but it pays off quickly.
A few things that actually work:
The end of day reset. Ten minutes before dinner — everyone puts away three things. It's not a deep clean, it's just enough to stop the day's mess becoming tomorrow's problem. Our 10 minute kitchen reset works brilliantly as part of this.
The one room rule. If you're doing something messy — craft, cooking, games — it happens in one room and gets tidied before moving on. Simple in theory, requires some enforcement in practice.
Lower traffic areas stay clean. Focus your energy on the kitchen and main living space. The bedrooms can wait. Prioritise the rooms that affect how the whole house feels.
How do you stop the kitchen getting out of control during the holidays?
The kitchen takes the biggest hit. More meals, more snacks, more people in and out all day.
A few habits that help:
Clean as you go rather than saving it all for one big session. Wipe the hob after cooking, rinse dishes straight away rather than leaving them to stack up.
Keep a spray on the counter so surfaces get a quick wipe after every meal. Our Geranium All Purpose Cleaner is good for this — quick spray, quick wipe, done in thirty seconds and the kitchen smells genuinely lovely afterwards.
Accept that the kitchen will need more attention than usual and plan for it rather than being frustrated by it.
Is it worth doing a big clean during the school holidays?
One proper clean at the start of the holidays sets a good baseline. One at the end resets the house before term starts again. Everything in between is maintenance rather than deep cleaning.
According to Good Housekeeping Institute, breaking cleaning into small daily tasks reduces overall cleaning time by up to 30% compared to saving it all for one session. Little and often is always the answer.
The bigger picture
The school holidays are not the time to have a perfect house. They're the time to have a lived-in house that's just about on top of things — clean enough to feel calm, relaxed enough to actually enjoy the summer.
That's the goal. Not perfection. Just calm.
For more on quick daily habits that keep your home feeling good, have a read of what to clean daily, weekly and monthly— a practical guide that works just as well in the holidays as out of them.