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When school is out and the kids are home for the summer, there’s a definite change in the flow of the day and your tidy home might experience a little more mess. This is a good mess to have, but if you’re finding it difficult to keep your house clean while the kids are home, try these 5 tips.
- Give everyone 3 tasks to do every single day. Why three tasks? Everyone can remember what they have to do, it builds a habit, and it gives them responsibility. My recommendation? The 3 tasks that my kids have to complete are – make their beds, put away clothes (clean and dirty laundry), and straighten their rooms.
- Get out. The more time you spend out of the house, the less mess you’ll be creating inside the house. Enjoy the weather, play in the yard, go to a pool, the park, and the library. Make the most of the summer!
- Eat outside. When my kids were littler we’d do stroller picnics just about every day for lunch, and now we do picnics outside for lunch. This keeps the food mess outside and it’s so much more fun to eat outside anyway.
- One thing in and one thing out. It’s a hard habit to get kids to do, but if they put things away after they use them it will keep things tidier and make it easier for clean up later. Lazy summer afternoons can be a great time to sort through toys and games and weed out stuff that isn’t getting much use anymore. Kids (generally) like sorting jobs like organizing Legos and other toys with small pieces. Give them a little direction and let them be in charge of the organization of their toys.
- Let the kids clean with you. Choose age-appropriate cleaning tasks and let your kids clean right along with you. Give them a mini cleaning bucket or tote, a spray bottle with water or non-toxic cleaner, a duster, and a microfiber cloth and they can dust and clean their rooms and the rest of the house right along with you.
What are you doing to keep a clean house while your kids are home for the summer?
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Visit Becky’s blog for more cleaning tips (here [5]).
Becky [6]
Becky (Clean Mama) writes a cleaning and organizing lifestyle blog all about simplifying everyday life and making daily cleaning tasks more fun. You'll find her with a printable checklist and a cup of coffee while running around with her three little ones. Clean Mama is also the housekeeping expert on Answers.com, and has been featured in HGTV magazine, BHG.com, Oprah.com, iVillage and has written cleaning and organizing content for companies like 3M, Peapod, and Reckitt. Look for Becky's first book to be published in the Spring of 2014! Learn more about Becky at www.cleanmama.net.