"sticky" situations in our house

i have been trying to give our house a cleaning overhaul in time for the holidays.  there are dust monsters (much bigger than dust bunnies) hiding under all kinds of furniture in our house.  laundry (both dirty and clean) is piled up like twin mountains in our laundry area, and the kids are complaining about being out of socks.  the situation is dire.

unfortunately, trying to clean with kids around is like trying to stop niagara falls from falling.  i feel like every room i clean, they go behind me and mess things up again.  it is a little discouraging.

i have decided the best thing to do is corral the kids in one room, while working on the others.  then, we all work together to clean up the final room (the kids just love that!).  

do you have tips for how to deal with "sticky situations" with kids?  wet ones is running a contest on facebook for us to share our best tips for cleaning up messes.  they are giving away an ipad mini or tickets to six flags.  check it out here.  it only takes a few minutes (i did it myself).  just think how happy you will be that you had to clean up that mess if you win one of these prizes!

i participated in a campaign on behalf of mom central consulting for wet ones. i received a promotional item as thanks for my participation. regardless, the thoughts and opinions expressed here are my own.