Balancing cleaning priorities and leaving time to play. AKA: shortcuts and the shortlist of cleaning

I am by no means an expert on house cleaning but there's a few key things I've realized that can trick the masses into thinking your a super clean freak when all your doing is managing a mess that a four year old hurricane can create. At the very least, it will keep your home looking clean but lived in. Disclaimer: I cannot speak to what your mom may or may not see, but I can guarantee, she'll notice a few of these

• Get that garbage all the way to the garage/outside. Mark taught me that there's no such thing as a Daddy Job, after grabbing the kitchen garbage from the hallway and brought it to the garage grumbling "I guess this is a Daddy job". It made me realize that although each of us has our strengths and we balance each other well, there's no such thing as a Mommy or Daddy job, if you can do it... do it.
• Ugh, another tea bag jumped off the spoon onto the floor. No worries, that J cloth has almost worn out it's use with dishes, go ahead, grab it and do some spot cleaning on the floor! It puts off mopping for another day. While I don't mop my floor near enough, it's usually when I'm forced to by sticky spills. Mopping is usually last on my list. 
• Whether you want to or not, eventually there will be a juice spill that demands for you to finally mop. In my world, you're allowed to just git er done and leave the stuck stickers a few times. I don't recommend leaving them for more than a few months..or people will notice. Worse comes to worse, let your kid help clean the floor with a cloth and water, only do that on days when you have tons of patience though.
• Playdoh - if you're just not up for sweeping again today, put on some old socks and stomp it up, then toss the socks out. It's a win win! Use your husbands holey socks for a super win!
• Crumbs look, well crumby. Keep wiping!
• Keep your toilets clean and extra toilet paper handy!
• Leaving dishes in the sink is okay,  but if  the same company sees the same bowl for days...they may start to question your cleaning skills. 
• One sink full of dishes is acceptable, make it look even better by rinsing and not leaving crumbs in the sink.
• A burnt out interior bulb goes a long way to hiding spills and messy shelves in the fridge. If you don't have a burnt out bulb, give the shelves a quick wipe before loading up with this week's groceries. Do yourself a favor, and before stocking your fridge, clean out all old leftovers that didn't make it into "fridge soup".
• Never, ever... ever buy a white coffee maker
• Keep keys and wallets where you can find them. Nothing makes you realize everything is a mess more than not being able to find the most important things when you need them.
• Which leads me to... do not use a catch junk kitchen bowl. It can be handy in a pinch but those things just collect useless stuff. When you finally sort through all the way to the bottom, you'll end up tossing most of the stuff in the garbage anyway. 
• Use stacking bins, it keeps kids focused and on one task, and makes one mess. It's also makes it less of bewildering mess for a young child to clean up. The dollar store is an awesome place for nice looking baskets, pouches and boxes. Get a bunch that match and you can use them all through the house with the added bonus that it looks like you thought out your decor.
• Letter magnets sure look like fun and educational but they don't hold anything and end up under the fridge and being kicked around the house. They don't hurt as much as stepping on Lego but do yourself a favor and buy big fridge magnets instead. Letters. Seriously. Suck.
• Laundry. Ugh, the never ending pile. I almost don't want to talk about it but I must. If you're like me, things make it to the washer and dryer but folding is a bottle neck. Clothes wash and dry better in smaller loads and make it more manageable to fold afterwards. Drape pants and shirts over your arm out of the dryer, grab socks and underware in your hand and the sorting is almost done already! Try doing one load every other day during the week.
• Close curtains in a pinch. To get off that window crayon that's been stuck on for months, old newspaper and water work wonders on glass! I swear there's something in the toner that works better than any commercial glass cleaner.
• Okay, seriously. Again, in a pinch, moisturized hands work better at a quick hand dust. Come on, you know you've all done it.
• You are definitely allowed to over announce that you've wiped all door knobs and doors down with lysol after the last virus invaded your house and all inhabitants. 
• And my favorite.... go ahead and use that old annoying toy to press down the garbage in the can. Just don't let them see you do it!

This is by no means the end all be all of cleaning, there's tons not on here. This list comes in handy if your house is already somewhat tidy and organized. If you're house has piles of stuff in corners, etc... this list just won't have the same effect.