I have three with one on the way. It’s a constant struggle to keep the place livable. Before I had children I was not a neat person and kept things livable by not doing things that made mess and staying out as much as possible. Can’t do that with kids, so what’s the trick?
“That’s the neat part!”
Well, I wait until they’re in bed at about 10:30PM, then I have until about midnight to get the kitchen clean and get 6 hours of sleep before they wake up again to go to school.
Alternatively, I clean the kitchen before cooking and serve dinner at 8PM when I started at 5:30. Then it’s only 30 mins of cleaning before bed.
On Saturdays, you can clean up the kitchen after breakfast, and by the time it’s done you have to cook lunch. After that, there’s still an hour before the shops shut so you can grab some groceries and get back in time to cook dinner.