Keeping a clean house is an important part of any parents’ life, but knowing how to deal with the mess that children can make can be difficult. You will find that the best way to tackle these things is by learning the quickest and easiest ways to get rid of some of the classic messes that children can make, as well as ‘child-proofing’ the house in the first place. You will find that some of the following tips won’t work for you, but the basis on which they work may well give you ideas as to how you can start ensuring that your house is not completely taken over by the children! -    Always have a rough sponge or a cloth ready by the sink in the kitchen at meal times. If you are feeding your baby, having a cloth right by you will mean that you can wipe up spills and messes immediately, rather than leaving them for later. Leaving things to dry and stick can be a problem especially if it is on a painted wall, as this will potentially take the paint off. After a while you may well find yourself getting pretty good at feeding with one hand, and wiping up the inevitable mess with the other! -    If you are increasingly aware of there being grubby marks and hand prints absolutely everywhere, then it is simply a case of cleaning more often. You will find that polish and the likes are often not enough, as the greasy nature of children’s hands can be quite an unfathomable thing! If you need to get things clean and quickly, try using a tiny amount of washing up liquid on a damp sponge, and then towel it off and polish the surface as normal. Washing up liquid is rarely used outside of the kitchen, but it is absolutely fantastic in terms of cutting through grease, and is usually much gentler than the chemicals used in other household products.-    You will find that the grubby marks will inevitably find their way to the walls of the house, as well as the surfaces, but do not despair! You can easily get rid of them if you have a tough paint on the walls. Gloss paint may not be that attractive compared with eggshell or matte, but it will be a lot more resilient in terms of being cleaned. You will find that you can wipe it down with a sponge without ruining it, and this is exactly why you should ensure that all walls that may fall victim to your kids are covered with the right paint.-    You will find that grubby marks on white gloss walls, light switches and all sorts of other shiny surfaces can be removed with an eraser, or rubber. The friction of the rubber rolls the dirt off of the surface, without damaging the surface. Going at these surfaces with a wet cloth may make more of a mess, or spread the dirt, which is a nightmare. Be careful of using water based cleaning methods on water based paints as well, as you may well end up rubbing through to the surface beneath the pain, which will look a lot worse!Every house is different and every child is different, but many parents will feel the same pain as their beautiful homes are splattered with food and muck, so it can be a good idea to use the above points as a starting point, rather than the be all and end all. Good luck!