I can understand your concern. I had gone through this phase 3 years back, though my kids are big now but cleanliness at home is still my first priority.

To make your home clean you need to inculcate few habits in your day to day task, these habits include:

a) Start your day with a load of laundry
b) Try to keep the Kitchen & bathroom sink clean and dry
c) Wash the dishes after every meal so that germs will not stay there for long.
d) Try to keep your shoes at the door when you reach home, this way you need not to clean the house floor more frequently. This is good for your kids as well as children have the tendency to touch floors with hands more often
e) Involve your kids in cleaning the living area before dinner. Try it, they will definitely enjoy doing this. :)
f) Always prepare for the next day before going to bed
g) Keep toothbrushes covered in bathroom
h) close the toilet lid before flushing and even when it's not in use
i) Clean bathroom tiles properly and wash it daily or on alternate basis
j) Vacuum cleaner to clean house carpets daily
k) Clean garden daily
j) Use appropriate cleanser for cleaning bathrooms
k) Clean all interior windows and doors on alternate days
l) Deep clean bedrooms - clean inside drawers, inside of trash cans, tops of mirrors, tile, mop
m) Clean all door knobs, phones, entertainment equipment (remote controls), switch plates, banisters and other things that are repeatedly touched on alternate days
n) Clean out the refrigerator, take stock of food, organize pantry properly once in a week
o) Clean linen closet, straighten towels, sheets or regular closet if not applicable on alternate days.

If the above task seems difficult for you to follow then better way is to hire a good house cleaning expert by some good agencies in Canada like Krystal HouseKeeping, www.mollymaid.ca, www.canadamaidservice.ca and many more.

Clean toilets are an imperative. Leave a toilet brush in a holder/stand next to your toilets. You can even soak the brush in a cleaning solution if necessary, in it's stand. I recommend cleaning the kids' toilet daily, or at least attempting to do so. It just takes a minute to swish the bowl and using a disposable distinfecting wipe, wipe down the seat, lid and top of the toilet. The other imperative is a clean, empty kitchen sink at the end of each day. Finally, wash one load of laundry a day and get it completely done, then put away. Don't let laundry pile up.

The other side of the coin is reducing clutter by buying only what you and the children really need. You cannot organize clutter, and clutter is the biggest obstacle to a clean home. I strongly urge you to check out the Flylady website for cleaning schedules and advice. It's vital to include the children in ways that are appropriate to their developmental level. It's very easy to feel overwhelmed, but Flylady will break it down into manageable zones and specific tasks so you can keep a certain level of order and feel that you can have company over at any time.

http://www.flylady.net

I find one of the things that can contribute to less cleanup is a 'no shoes in the house' rule. Get in the habit of everyone taking them off.

Other than that, I can just advise trying to stay on top of a clean house, don't leave all until a day off. Kitchen sink emptied and sanitized each night before bed. A quick sweep and damp mop of the floor. Toothpaste remains removed from bathroom sink and a sanitizing wipe of the toilet seat and rim as the lights are turned out to leave the room. Laundry in the laundry room and hamper, not on the floor. Spending just 15 minutes a day keeping up in any given room during the week can take a couple of hours off a more thorough cleaning weekends - and then you can play with those kids those hours instead.

What are the problem areas? Make a list, then a cleaning schedule for that list.

Somethings only take a few minutes so while you are waiting for laundry to finish, you could swish toilets or some such thing.

Seasonally you may need to add some chores as others drop off.

Do a load of laundry almost every day. Towels one day, sheets another. Start now getting each kid to take care of their own laundry. They need to know it one day so you might as well get started. Maybe they can only sort, it's a start.

Making a bed is important. Maybe it's just pulling up a comforter but it's a good visual of accomplishment. Plus it looks good when you come back home.

Every night after baths and toothbrushing, wipe down the bathroom saving a deeper clean for a one day each week. I keep a spray bottle under the sink with a mix of rubbing alcohol and distilled water for quick touch ups.

***If you wax your sinks, they will stay cleaner. Toothpaste globs don't act like quick setting concrete. Plus they sort of shine. I use Maquires cleaning wax on sinks, faucets, shower glass, sides of tubs. When I had new mirrors installed, the owner of the company told me that trick. Since then I have done all the windows in my house.

Have a "landing zone" where back packs etc. is kept. Hang a hook and get a big basket for each kid where they keep all their stuff instead of dragging it all over the house. I like the idea of no shoes.

Each kid gets a file folder for important papers for school and nothing gets lost.

Sweep the kitchen floor after dinner, take out the trash. An uncluttered kitchen is better to start your day than last nights leftovers.

Get a basket for mail and keep it in the "Landing zone" Don't let junk mail pile up. Shred it! If you don't have a shredder, most communities have a shred event where they bring this monster truck to gobble up junk mail.

You have kids. They outgrow stuff. You donate it. Win/Win Keep a box for just that stuff. The site "unclutterer" has a good data base of ideas for helping keep families stuff but also other good ideas for technology and life issues, under control. Another one is Iheartorganizing.blogspot.com She has 2 or 3 boys. I can't ever get a link to post, sorry.

I find keeping repeating chores on a schedule helps the work flow. I only wish I did that when I was younger and overwhelmed.

You may never have a totally clean house with every room ready for inspection. Just assign a room a day and do what needs to be done. If it's too big, schedule it for when you do have some time.

Cooking/feeding is a huge source of work issues.

A saying I have adopted for those times when I want to be lazy, "Don't put it down, put it away". Causes just enough guilt to get the job done.

There is nothing wrong with hiring someone occassionally to help. Maybe you could trade services.

Hope you have a good, productive week.

Be sure to delegate chores to the kids as soon as they are old enough.

Lots of great tips given already, but my best tip is not to let it get dirty/untidy/cluttered in the first place. In other words, take care of issues with a few spare minutes before they get out of control, rather than having it overwhelm you After it's out of control. Think - PREVENT DEFENSE.....

-Do dishes and clean the kitchen immediately after each meal (takes 10-15minutes) - you can relax after it's done and not have it as a negative thought eating you up the rest of the evening. Take another 5 minutes to sweep the floor so it doesn't get tracked all over the rest of the house. BTW - dish cloths and dish rags are ONE-SIZE-FITS-ALL, as are dust cloths, brooms, vacuums, and any number of other cleaning items ;-). There are also not any gender-specific household chores. I think the best training my husband got was being a janitor at a number of businesses and schools while he went to college. The man can out-clean me any day of the week!

-Eat together at the table, not all over the house at different times - (you won't have to take time to locate dirty dishes).

-Put dirty clothes in a laundry basket/s (they will be all in one place when you need to start the laundry). We use 4 baskets located above the w/d on a shelf, and automatically separate clothes into whites, lights, darks, and kitchen towels. We air dry any wet items on a drying rack before tossing them into the laundry baskets to prevent that "sour" smell from wet items.

-Do laundry on a regular schedule - and never run out of underwear!

-Develop the do it NOW habit - don't just lay things down on the first convenient flat surface available intending to put it away later - put things away where they are supposed to go so you can easily find it later, hang coats/jackets in closets, shoes belong in your closet - not cluttering up the front entrance... We're not a shoes OFF family, which is a much debated issue on message boards ;-). Our flooring is designed to be walked on by us and by our guests/visitors (we have a rug outside and inside the front door to wipe shoes on). In fact, I'd rather visitors DIDN'T remove their shoes! My sister-in-law always went barefoot around the house and she always had warts on her feet, and her doctor told her it was because she was spreading the virus by going barefoot. - Go Figure - Keep your shoes on, please, we don't need your warts! So different strokes for different folks - but shoes don't belong at the front door entrance, whether you remove them there or not.

-Get rid of/eliminate/prevent clutter - We don't take a daily newspaper or any magazine subscriptions, so that's a great way to save money, and we don't have a stack of them (usually left unread) to try to get-around-to. We had a friend who hated cleaning their bathroom. If they eliminated the 40 bottles of stuff lined up around the tub like a race track, it would make using AND cleaning the tub a breeze. The same went for the vanity that was completely covered with "stuff". Think of storage options to keep things clutter-free for easy cleaning - better yet, don't have "stuff" that causes clutter.

-Deal with mail immediately - put "junk mail" into the recycling, put bills/correspondence in one place and take care of them a.s.a.p.

-Tidy the public spaces of your home before retiring for the evening - takes 5 minutes - so it's turned a negative into a positive and a mess won't be greeting you the next morning.

-Make beds each morning - it takes about 1-minute, and you'll have a positive space to retire to at night (btw - a 4-year old can make their own bed if you teach them how and don't make it complicated - and expect it to be done each day).

-Identify problem areas, as already suggested. Most problems can be avoided or corrected with 5-minutes of regular attention that become good habits - and everyone participates in good habits. Reward good habits - everyone likes a little praise when it's deserved. If we keep the house clean this week, it won't take us as long to do the regular housework on Saturday, and we will have time to go out for an ice cream cone if we all do a good job all week!

-Children should have a list of things they do just because they are part of a family. Pay them for things above and beyond their normal chores. Example: our kids got paid 25-cents per bag for leaves they raked (1980's prices :-), or helping with cleaning out the garage, or helping in the garden -- but taking their dishes from the table to the sink/dishwasher, helping do dishes, keeping their room clean, helping prepare a meal or setting the table, feeding/walking any pets, etc., was part of being a family - a good social skill and common courtesy. When our children were old enough, they planed and cooked one meal each week, and hubby did one on the weekend. We were all busy, so shared responsibilities made them a little lighter for all of us.

-It's good manners to leave something in good or better condition than when you used it, so everyone has a positive experience. So if you splashed a few drops of water on the mirror, go ahead and wipe them off - rinse out the sink/tub/shower when you're done, or any number of other day-to-day things. If not you, then who? I AM my own housekeeper, so why would I want any more to do than is absolutely necessary?

-It shouldn't take more than an hour to clean the entire house once a week, even less if you divide the tasks between 3 people, especially if you use "prevent defense" between cleaning days. Everyone in the household needs to be involved - they all dirty it, they can all help clean it AND keep it tidy. If they can mess something up, they have the skills to clean it up, especially once it's been defined as something they need to control and they have been instructed how to accomplish that task. The same motor skills that it takes to take toys out and play with them, remove a book from a shelf, take the blankets down to go to bed, can all be done in reverse. Unfortunately, that half of the equation is often ignored. When my son was going to college and living with different roommates, he often had to teach them these social skills about living as a "family", as well as how to do dishes, laundry, clean a toilet/bathroom, mop a floor, take out the trash, cook, and any number of other skills he'd been doing since he was a child.

-If all else fails, get up 30-60 minutes earlier so you can take care of a portion of the list of things-to-do we all have to do, until you get a routine established. Your family will benefit from all you do, and all you teach THEM how to do.

A friend with three children bemoaned the fact that she was a poor housekeeper because her mother was. I told her that was a lame excuse. After all, wasn't she in charge of her own activities, not her mother? Didn't she have the option to do the opposite? And if she didn't change the "poor housekeeper" model for the family, how did she ever expect her children to be good housekeepers?

-Grainlady

I cleaned my doors and interior windows once....

All the comments are great, but may have missed the fact that OP said "easiest." My advice would be pick the most important things and establish the habit of doing those, then gradually add the others. Also, if time doesn't permit doing some of these things as often as mentioned, you could simply choose to concentrate on ONE room each week and make sure it is cleaned extra thoroughly---at the same time do the necessary things in the other rooms, but not necessarily all the detailing. While it's wonderful to think the ENTIRE home is pristine, if you really can't manage it all then doing this will keep up and no area of the house should get out of hand.

A first necessary habit, I think, would be making sure everything is picked up each day. As mentioned by others, you can waste a lot of time just dealing with stuff ! If you can't control the clutter then you either don't have efficient storage or too much stuff. Also, don't bother storing things you don't regularly need and use. Just let it go!

Try flylady.net just start wherever you are and keep right on going.

Tom I suggest on most days you clean the clutter. The kids should be helping with this and embrace the rule "You used it, you put it away." There is nothing more discouraging then having to work through a ton of clothes or a messy kitchen on the days you plan to clean the floors and surfaces.

Make sure the dishes and clothes are done on a daily basis as well as all toys and equipment put away. Then on days you have more energy or the weekend you can do the heavier chores such as washing and vacuuming floors and wiping surfaces.

I just wanted to say GOOD LUCK to you because this is just a very hard part of life and having kids. BE PATIENT WITH YOURSELF. This is not something that most of us are born with and just magically know how to do and do well. As if cleaning up after and organizing yourself wasn't hard enough you have to add other people to the mix and it just gets very difficult. Add to it that it is very repetitive work and if that type of work doesn't agree with your personality than you've REALLY got your work cut out for you. Just keep in mind that you all will survive. Take the other poster's advice to have the kids help with whatever age-appropriate chores they can help with. Sometimes I motivate myself by envisioning someone dropping by and I think of how mortified I'd be if they saw my sink full of dishes or my toilet dirty or "fill in the blank" so that motivates me to jump up and do that one thing really fast and then that usually gets me on a roll and I'll clean off the counter tops or sweep and mop the floor or whatever else while I'm at it. Maybe you like working on a deadline so you could set a clock for 20 minutes and do as much as possible every day for that 20 minutes. You can see what all you can get done in 20 minutes and as time goes by you'll get faster and faster so it'll be kind of a competition with yourself. Sometimes I plan activities for over at my house so I am forced to keep up with things better and forced to do a deep cleaning more often. Just try and figure out something that works for you and remember what worked best and keep doing that and try and add to it little by little. Before long you'll have a little system down that works for you and your family that may not be perfect but it will be good enough to keep you all alive and well. God Bless!