I believe it’s no coincidence that my kids’ Spring Break, an entire week of no school, occurs right at the very beginning of Spring. Just about the same time when it’s warm enough to toss open these windows and scrub away all the winter dirt, grime and blahs. It’s like the universe is saying, “these kids would LOVE to help with the Spring Cleaning!” And far be it by me to argue with the universe  😉

But cleaning with kids can be a tricky thing. What’s that saying…

 

So, in an effort to not lose my sanity but still get this house whipped into “Spring Clean” shape, I present to you my five tips for Spring Cleaning with Kids and your sanity!

1. Gearing Up

Like with any job, you need the right tools. Visit any job site and you’ll quickly notice one thing: people don’t like to necessarily share their tools. The last thing you want to do is spend most of your time searching for your tools because another worker borrowed them and didn’t put them back. The same is true with the job of Spring Cleaning.

This is probably one of my biggest life-savers when it comes to Spring Cleaning with the kids. If each child has their own set of cleaning “tools”, we drastically cut down on the possibility of arguments! {Let’s just high-five each other here!}

Setting up “Cleaning Tool-Boxes” for the kids is super easy! Grab a few of these handy cleaning-caddies (we found ours very inexpensively at our local Walmart) and add in the different cleaning supplies the kids might need. The supplies will vary depending on the jobs each child is doing, but staples in our “Cleaning Tool-Boxes” usually include rubber gloves (because my kids think those are super fun), Viva® Towels (because they can pretty much handle any job my kids take on), a scrubber, and a spray bottle of kid-safe cleaner. Then we add in extra stuff as needed for different jobs. Again, a quick trip to Walmart and we can get all of our cleaning supplies; quick, easy and without breaking the Spring Break bank.

Now that each kid is armed with their own “Cleaning Tool-Box”, let’s chat about the cleaning tasks themselves!

2. Everyone for a Job and a Job for Everyone!

Because my kids vary in ages and abilities, I know that there are certain jobs that they may not be able to do. We tackle this by dividing up the jobs. This doesn’t necessarily give anyone a free pass out of cleaning. Even when my son was still a toddler, we found age-appropropriate jobs for him to do.

For example, my youngest may be responsible for organizing the bath toys and restocking the cupboard with a fresh package of Cottonelle® or Scott® 1000, while my older kids split the tasks of using durable Viva® Towels to wipe down the bathroom baseboards and give the tub a good scrubbing.

With everyone having their own set of jobs to accomplish in each room, we decrease the chances of hearing the “it’s not fair” cries, too!

3. Station Rotations

Want to see World War 3 erupt? Put all three of my kids in one room during Spring Cleaning! It’s amazing! Even with their own jobs to accomplish, they will still manage to find a way to argue about something!

Sure, it might be a good character building exercise to stick them all the bathroom and figure it out, but this is also about keeping my sanity. So we set up a Station Rotation.

While Abbi is scrubbing the amazing amounts of toothpaste these kids manage to leave in the bathroom (so thankful for the strength and texture of the Viva® Vantage towels), Talon might be it the kitchen organizing the cabinet of reusable plastic containers and Zoe might be in the living room dusting. When someone finishes, they can move on to their next station and their next job. Sometimes we end up with kids overlapping in the same area but the damage is pretty minimal.

4. The Purge:  Recycle & Donate

While our main focus during our Spring Cleaning is, of course, cleaning, we also take some time to sort through the stuff we’ve accumulated over the past year and the stuff we weren’t quite ready to part with last year. It’s a great lesson for the kids on learning to live with less and giving to others.

We never start this part of the Spring Clean with their own stuff. First we sort and purge “general” stuff around the house. For example, while my son is sorting our reusable containers, we look at pieces that have outlived their usefulness or the assortment of random tops we’ve accumulated. He gets to toss those into our Recycle box. When we clean the bookshelf, we pick out a few books we aren’t going to read again and place those in the Donate box.

Because the kids see me sorting and parting with “stuff”, it tends to make it a little easier when we make our way to cleaning out their closets, bookshelves, and toy boxes. Sure, we still have the occasional “but I NEED this” and that’s ok. We figure those out as they come.

And any amount of stuff I can move out of our house and into the recycle bin or drop off at the donation center, is considered a victory!

5. Rewards

There is nothing quite like the sense of accomplishment when you have an entire room that has been “completed” on the Spring Cleaning list. Well, at least I think so. My kids…not so much. So we toss in some fun rewards when a room is “finished” or after a big day of cleaning. Rewards might be a trip the ice cream shop that evening or a little extra spending money when we head to the store for a new toy or book (I know…kind of defeats my #4 but que sera, sera).

The kids never know when the rewards will come or what they will be so it’s always a fun surprise for them. And a welcomed break!

I hope some of these tips were helpful for you as you embark on your #SpringClean16! If you have any additional tips or things that worked particularly well for you and your kids, please share them in the comments below so we can try them out! And if you’re looking for great deals on great cleaning supplies, be sure to check out Viva®, Cottonelle®, and Scott® products at your local Walmart!

Thanks to Kimberly-Clark and The Motherhood for sponsoring this post and allowing us to share some of our tips! As always, opinions stated here are our own. #SpringClean16 #Walmart