When I take pictures of my rooms I move any clutter out of the way! I take pictures for Realtors to use on flyers and MLS and I spend a lot of time moving clutter. I'm no where near a professional photographer, but when I take a picture of a room I think about how I would stage it if I were taking the picture for a magazine article.

I have 2 wicker hampers in my living room. Both of which are filled with toys, and very easy to clean up. When the hampers are closed, you can't tell they are hampers, they just look like end tables. My coffee table has drawers, and we keep coloring books in crayons. I also have a tufted ottoman which opens up and we keep other toys in there. Daily when I take in the mail, I shred and recycle what I don't want. Bills that need to be paid are put in a basket on my desk, and once paid they are shred and recycled. It isn't easy, it is daily upkeep. Sometimes my house looks like a tornado just hit ToysRus, but we never go to bed at night like that.
As for the kids artwork, I pick and choose what I keep, most gets thrown away. My rooms are not quite immaculate, I just try my best with 2 small children and a full time job. I'm sure if I took a picture, I would straighten up first though. For me, it's all about daily maintenance.

First of all, it is probably impossible to have a tidy home 100% of the time. Sometimes life just happens. You're in the door and out again before you have time to sweep up the debris and put away the school papers. Don't feel too bad!

I *try* to live by two rules ... don't buy it if you don't need it and make things EASY to put away. You won't find me with a garage full of not-quite-ready-to-use furniture. (Sometimes I wish I did when I see other's great finds, but that doesn't work for my current lifestyle. Maybe later.)

First decide what needs to live in each room. Then decide how best to store those items. For example, for years I nagged my children to take their school shoes to their rooms. Their shoes, socks, and belts always ended up scattered all over my living room. I finally realized that I would never win that battle. I bought a pretty basket from Pier One and placed it on the hearth. All shoes and belts go into the basket. (I prefer that socks find their way to the laundry room, but if I have to pull them from the basket once a week, that will work.) Now, I rarely find a shoe in my living room. The kids are more than happy to use the basket. Also, before every Cub Scout meeting, we scrambled to find all the pieces to my son's uniform (hat, slide, neckerchief, and handbook). I placed another basket on top of a desk in the laundry room. Now all his Cub Scout essentials are out of sight yet right by the door and ready to go. I love Polly's end table/hamper method. You have to find what works for your "stuff" and fits into your decor.

I lived for years with a Thomas the Tank Engine table in my living room. You know what? That was perfectly fine for my life at that time. I might not win any decor awards, but I was a good mommy (in a small house)! Decide how much clutter (toys, etc) *you* can tolerate, then look at your furnishings with new eyes. Could you place large bins on the bottom shelves of a pretty bookcase to store books. (It is easier for a child to throw books back into a bin or basket than to stand them neatly on a shelf.) Instead of storing blankets in a blanket chest or storage ottoman, could you use that hidden storage for larger toys? Is there a closet near the living room that could be used for toy storage? (The vacuum can live elsewhere.) I use the kid accessible storage in my kitchen island to store playdoh, coloring supplies, craft supplies, and jigsaw puzzles. My kids like to be close to me while I'm cooking. Use your best storage for the items that are a priority in your life today. Tomorrow you can change to something else. The key to organizing your home is that you are never truly done. You are constantly re-evaluating your family's priorities and storage needs.

Good luck,
Nin

We just had 30 people over for cocktails. In order to have the house immaculate I had to send my son away with the nanny or the family room would have been it's usual disaster.

We are fortunate to have both a library/formal living room and a family room. Toys are generally only allowed (ok that's just a dream honey) in the family room. But to be honest, there's a small basket of them in the kitchen (last drawer in the bay window seating) normally a truck driving under the dining room table and always a train (we're in thomas etc phase) snuck into our bedroom, and quite often our bed. Our elegant bathroom looks elegant..unless you look deep in the tub (it's 32" deep so it's a good hiding spot) and see that it's filled with tub toys :) And normally a train LOL

The only room we don't have toy storage in is the library/formal living room. That room is my sanctuary away from plastic toy land. And we do maintain that rule because I need to get away from the plastic crap on occasion (and if you have a 3 year old you have plastic crap).

If you see pics of my house it's normally clean and tidy...impossible with a 3 year old LOL So I clean and snap the pic. Here's the kitchen I want you to think I live in daily:

Reality (after a party):
{{!gwi}}

Feel better now LOL

Some rooms only stay clean (except for dust) if you clean the space and then close the door and don't enter again. Even then dust settles. I was wondering that today - where does all the dust come from?

I have a 2 year old and a 4 year old at home with me all day, every day. Now, if I showed you the pictures of our house on realtor.com, you would think we have a super duper clean house with no clutter. BUT, if I went out to my living room and the kids bedrooms right this very moment and snapped some pictures, you would probably be shocked! :) I have 2 baskets of unfolded laundry in my formal dining room, toys all over the living room and the kids rooms are a hot mess. We live here, we make messes here and we are real people.

Another perspective for you. My husband grew up in a household with a military father and a very anal, clean freak mother. I asked him what it was like growing up like that and he said "not very fun!" I grew up in a household that was clean, but not always spotless and perfectly organized. But we always felt comfortable there and it felt like a home. I want the same thing for my kids. I want them to respect our possessions, but at the same time, if something gets broken, I don't want them to think the world will end. This is their home too. I want them to feel comfortable here. I do make them participate in cleaning and being responsible, but I don't expect absolute perfection from them (or from myself or DH) and I would MUCH rather have toys on the floor and enjoy my kids than run around behind them worrying about the mess.

Right now, my house is a basket case. All the rugs need to be vacuumed, my floors need mopping, laundry needs to come out of the basket and be folded. The stuff I bought at Chicos, TJMaxx, and Orchard Supply today, is sitting around the living room. It was a rough work week and my husband just got back from a business trip late last night. Today, we ran errands and hung out at home. I'll clean it all tomorrow. Most of the time, my house is fine. Not fine enough for photos, but not bad. I clean and then snap too.

In the good ole days, when we raised 3 children in a 14x70' long mobile home (that's 980 sq ft approx) it was tough to stay picked up. While the babies were playing, stuff was out. And sharing one bath with 5 bodies kept me cleaning there regularly. But one rule I enforced most days was this....only the toys you are playing with at the time, can be out in the living room. If you have the Barbies and their dresses out, fine. But if you change over to action figures, you have to put Barbie back in her box in your room first. The kid's room was pretty much messy most of the time. But I had them pick up their toys almost every day. I had no toy box in the LR. In a mobile, you need stuff off the floor so you can walk through. Toys just went back at night, period.

Red

I don't think anyone's home is ever free from mess 100% of the time, but if you feel like you're swimming in toys & clutter maybe you should consider purging out some of the things you haven't used in a while and packing 1/2 of the kids toys away so you can swap toys when the kids get bored with whats out.

When I was growing up, I was taught to pick up my toys, most of which were dolls, paperdolls, tea sets, jump ropes, etc. (yep, I'm that old). My brother was expected to do the same, even those toys of his that were of a destructive nature like hammers, baseball bats, b.b. guns and cowboy guns, etc. Our divorced mom was bringing home the bacon and cooking it and she did not like a messy house. Who does!

When my first was born, I decided to be a different mother from my own, to not worry about the furniture, not worry about the toys. So I allowed him to play in our family room, bring his toys in there, his drinks, his snacks.

By the time the second came along (4-1/2 years later), I knew that I could not do that with two children. My mistake. By the time the third came along, I would have been a basket case if all had been like #1 son who (to this day) is messy and whose wife has to stay behind him constantly to clean his home office.

Not the same with the other two, who do much of the cooking, share in the housework to a very large degree, whose wives have time to do their makeup, plan their wardrobes for the day and week, share in play with the kids, do some garden work, some volunteer work and do their nails and hair.

I wish that I had not been so slack with my first one because it has not only caused a burden for his wife, but he hates that he is that way because their son is learning to be the same. The other grandchildren learned early (like their dads) to be tidy and pick up their toys when finished. It's just good discipline and a part of being responsible for oneself.

We all have slack days, like Red was talking about. Yesterday I went shopping and out to dinner after doing my own pedicure, manicure, cleaning house and working in the garden.

When I returned home very tired, I changed into something comfortable, brushed my teeth, poured myself a glass of wine, turned on the TV and collapsed on the divan with packages all over the bedroom, leaving my husband's coffee cup, the glass he uses for drinking his protein drink before bed, and my wine glass in the sink.

I leave for church attendance in just an hour or so and instead of going out to lunch, I will need to return home and tidy up, put away my purchases that do not need washing before wearing, wash the ones that need washing, clean out my old purse and put my "stuff" in the new one,tidy up behind myself from getting ready for church (while I was on computer instead of cleaning), and then I will ask myself why I do this to myself. I am just getting older and tire more easily but the truth is that it is more tiring to do it all at once than to pick up as I go, but like Red, every now and then we all deserve some down time.

Patricia, great post! BTW, I love putting my stuff in a new purse. lol.

My problem is I just don't have the energy anymore. I remember when the kids were small I'd stay up late drinking coffee and rearranging the furniture and putting nik knacks in different places, and how fun it was!

Once our home is finished, I honestly think I want to hire someone to come in once a week to do the deep cleaning. And it's just me and dh now, but it seems we make a bigger mess than when the kids were here!

I did learn one thing over the years. The smaller a person's home is, the harder it is to keep clean and picked up. Now that our house is much larger, when things are out of place, it's not that noticeable. Except for dog toys, which I put in a basket every night and she gets all of them out and they're spread all over the house! It looks like a two year old lives here. lol

Thanks everyone for the responses :)