Since the day their precious little faces and pudgy little fists entered this world, your kids have been creating messes to clean. Spills, crumbs, stained clothing, Legos that stab your bare feet through the rug, fingerpaint, dried playdoh, diaper blowouts (in the backup onesie, of course), stinky sports gear, the virtual petrie dishes of gunk in the bottom of the backpack…we could go on. And as parents, we mostly don’t complain, because it’s well worth all the fun & fulfillment that comes with children. But now that Spring is here, we think it’s time for a little payback. We’ve earned it! To help you channel your your Mess-Magnets towards the tasks that will actually HELP you, we’ve compiled our top tips for Spring cleaning with your kids. And we know you are probably thinking “Wait, I can’t let them help me when I am busting out the hazmat chemicals”, but we’ve got a plan for that too. We’ve got some tips for chemical free cleaning so that you don’t have to feel guilty about assigning these tasks to your messiest munchkins.
Put Those Small & Maybe Sticky Hands to Work
In case you are thinking “I could get all my Spring cleaning done in 5 hours by myself, but with my kids it could take 19”, we have one more compelling argument to consider. Research has linked doing chores like cleaning to higher rates of career success in their 20s. How? They help create a sense of empathy & commitment to contributing to the family. Empathy? Contributing to the family? We’ll take them!
Spring cleaning with your kids can really be fun if you can channel their energy productively. The key is planning ahead and that’s what we’re here to help you do with this handy checklist:
- Gamify it, People. We are here to tell you that you can totally gamify the pants off Spring Cleaning and they’ll be none the wiser! We love this Scavenger Hunt game and yes a very smart mom has even figured out how to make a Minecraft Spring Cleaning game. YES! Make sure you have a timer as your must-have cleaning tool too – use it to see how fast they can complete a task and let them time you. You can challenge those slackers to beat their times as you move from task to task.
- Make a checklist and hang it on the wall to get the kids more involved in the process. This awesome one has a superhero theme for the younger kids still racing around the house in capes. Have them mark off the tasks as you complete them. We love this cleaning checklist because it covers all the rooms in the house. If you have a child more motivated to be a drill sargeant than a new recruit (Hello, anyone with a toddler…), you can give him or her the task of shouting out orders and crossing completed tasks off the list.
- Set up a decluttering station with boxes labeled for each of your children. Encourage the kids to find items during the spring cleaning process that they no longer want or need and put them in the box to take to the homeless shelter or a local thrift store. We love this example that you can even use year round.
- Play some kid-friendly music as you clean, then turn it into a Musical Cleaning Game when they started to get bored. As much as you would probably prefer to play DJ, hunker down and let them play that Kidz Bop if you have to. And when Alvin comes on, just cue the vacuum to drown him out.
- Create colorful “cleaning kits” for each child with a spray bottle, cleaning rag, sponges, scrub brushes & other fun non-toxic cleaning supplies that will keep them interested and engaged. Mops & brooms are fun too, but obviously use your judgment about whether these will end up being used as spears to impale innocent pets or even you.
- Food can be a great motivator, as any Golden Retriever knows. We suggest discarding any guilt and using this knowledge to your advantage when the kids are getting bored. Have their favorite snacks ready for a halftime break, and plan a special treat like movie night with pizza at the end of the day.
- Kids are low to the ground, right? And they LOVE spray bottles…so let’s use these to our advantage! A lot of parents don’t get around to cleaning things like baseboards, walls or cupboard doors very often, so Spring cleaning is a great time to assign these tasks to some of the lower-to-the-ground family members. Windows and mirrors might be other examples of areas that don’t get cleaned on a regular basis. These are all perfect for kids to tackle. You want to make sure they use only toxic chemical free cleaning products so that you don’t have any harmful chemicals, fumes, or residues to worry about.
Chemical Free Cleaning That’s Safe For Kids
One of the things to be extra cautious about when you’re doling out the spray bottle assignments is that you have to do some extra homework to really be sure that cleaning product is safe around your kids. That’s because even natural cleaning products can be jam-packed with toxic preservatives, fragrances, dyes, allergens & irritants. It’s shocking, but there are no federal standards for what makes a cleaning product “natural”. And, as families with allergies know all too well, manufacturers are not required to list their ingredients on their labels. A great and safe option is Force of Nature, which is free of toxic chemicals and starts with just salt, water & vinegar. It has zero fragrances, dyes, preservatives or sulfates. It cleans as well as bleach and conventional cleaners but is so safe, your munchkins can clean right alongside you – no gloves or rinsing needed.
Now that you are armed with your handy checklist, get those little hands cleaning right along with you and have some fun!