This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Sam’s Club. All opinions are 100% mine.
Spring is in the air! And with it comes the yearly reminder that it’s time to deep clean the things in our houses that we merely graze over in our daily routines. Time to clean the high spots, low corners, beneath furniture, between objects, in those nooks, crannies, and crevices–all those spots we rarely access but we live our lives and raise our littles around.
I don’t know about you, but Spring Cleaning sure has changed since I’ve become a mom. For one thing, I realize how absolutely necessary it is with crawling babies exploring every inch of our floorspace and toddlers doing the most bizarre things like licking walls and rubbing their food underneath the kitchen table (what the what?) And the other thing I’ve realized is that deep cleaning is incredibly difficult with kids around. I am busy meeting my kids’ needs from sun up to sun down. How can I set aside hours to get into an involved spring cleaning project?
Well, I can’t. I’ve had to learn that I can’t spring clean the way I did before kids. I can’t devote a whole day and just get it done. That doesn’t work with children (unless you have a loving family member or friend nearby who can watch your kids for all that time–if you have that HARNESS THE POWER!) But for the rest of us, I’ve found that a spring cleaning week really works best. I divide up our deep cleaning needs into five or six parts that will take roughly an hour a piece to complete.
For us, that works best if we go by room: bathroom, kitchen, bedrooms, living room, and laundry room. And then, here’s the most important part, I get my son involved! This is crazy, but he actually loves it. A love for helpfulness is built-in to toddlers, and it’s something we should all nurture. Of course, his attention span is as short as any three year old’s and he’s not particularly thorough. But if he’s helping me, even if it takes ten times longer, at least he’s not making a mess elsewhere. We’re also establishing a work ethic and a habit of contributing to household duties. And that’s always a win for any human being. I haven’t figured out how to get my baby involved in cleaning just yet :) , so we clean during his morning nap.
Tips for cleaning with kids:
Crank up the tunes
Cleaning is always more fun when you’re listening to your favorite jams. Put together a playlist of songs that will inspire you and your kiddos to keep moving along.
Make it fun
My son loves racing. He loves showing me how fast and how well he can do things. So I make up games as we go. I give him small objectives and praise him for accomplishing them. He hardly realizes we’re doing work when he’s having so much fun!
They spray, you wipe
My son lives to spray. Mirrors, windows, tile floors, tables, counters, stovetops–you name it–he will spray it for you. He also feels pretty cool wearing cleaning gloves. So, donning gloves and armed with a can of Lysol, he goes to town. I wipe it all up behind him with plenty of Marathon Center Pull Paper Towel on hand (as he tends to overspray–we’re learning moderation over here). You can get a great deal on these products at your local Sam’s Club or at SamsClub.com. Members of Sam’s Club are able to Stock Up on all of their spring cleaning essential and save BIG TIME as they do it.
Make the floors a joint effort
I send my son for the first floor “reaping.” That is, he picks up everything he can. I encourage him to look under the couch, beneath beds, under furniture. Sometimes he can reach things that I can’t! I do the second reaping, because, of course, there are always items he leaves behind. It helps if he has one specific thing to pick up. Like, “Can you pick up all of the food that your little brother dropped?” Or, “Can you put all of your trains into the bin?”
After that, he sweeps the hard floors with our O-Cedar microfiber dust mop, while I run the vacuum along the carpet. This dust mop can be used wet or dry, and it is perfect for kiddos who don’t quite know how to operate a broom, but you don’t want to trust them with a bucket of soapy water either. He is so good at using this lightweight dust mop, and he can’t really go wrong with it! I follow behind him to make sure we get all of the scuffs, spills and stains up. Our floors are pretty tidy after we work through this system!
Remember to dust your ceiling fan blades, base boards, blinds, and filters while you’re at it! The microfiber dust mop does wonders on these things!
Reward the hard work
After our week of spring cleaning, I took my little guy on a special mommy-son date. I let him pick the dessert of the night (ice cream, of course) and we talked about how good it feels to have all of that big cleaning done for a whole year. And when we came home, the air smelled fresh and all felt right. That’s a sense we can both share, and, even though it wasn’t easy, it was certainly worth it to involve him in the care of our home.
I would LOVE to hear your tips for spring cleaning with kiddos around! How do you do it?
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Oh thanks for the tip about the dust mop! I’ve been struggling to figure out how to get the kids to clean up their own under-table messes and the broom just isn’t working AT ALL. I’ll have to check this one out! Love that it’s wet OR dry :)
I just sanded and refinished some furniture in my dining room and that dust mop is just what I need to wipe down the walls! Thanks, Sam’s Club!
These are great ideas! I tried to get E involved with cleaning the fridge today and she only wanted to eat the food. I should have known..lol! You are such a fun mom!