Guest Post
If you’re like most parents, the kid’s room might be one of the most difficult places to keep clean. With a constantly messy kid’s room, you might end up spending more money than you think when you finally bite the bullet, pull on the cleaning gloves, and dig in for the deep clean.
So rather than wait and spend time and money on a big clean, here are few proactive ways to keep the kid’s room clean so that you won’t need to spend large on decontaminating junior’s living space.
Ditch the Boxes and Cubbies For Bins
If you think you’re going to save and reuse toy boxes for toy restoring, you’re wrong. Old cardboard boxes create clutter and dust. Even worse, wet cardboard can grow gross mold that’s unhealthy and unsanitary.
So rather than save the old boxes, buy cheap bins with lids that you can stack. Bins are better than cubbies (which many parents use for kiddie storage) because you can easily empty and wipe them down. Bins don’t come with the surface space that cubbies do, so you can spend less time and less product wiping down toy nooks and crannies that come with cubbies.
Wash the Sheet More, With Less Laundry Detergent
Washing more doesn’t mean spending more. The AARP suggests that you can stretch the amount of money you spend on laundry detergent by adding a half a cup of baking soda per load to help kill germs and odors. This is cheaper than using a full batch of detergent (which is often unnecessary, especially with high efficient washer).
Washing the sheets more frequently and more cost effectively allows you to keep your kids clean and healthy. You may want to read up on bed bugs at Orkin.com to find out how extra washing fights these critters; it’ll also be helpful to check out this study on DailyMail.com to learn more about dust mites and allergens. To combat these infestations, Martha Stewart recommends washing sheets once a week. Once you see what could be hidden on your linens, you will believe her.
Have a Garage Sale Once a Year
Kids grow out of clothes and toys fast. So why are you holding onto their old dress shoes as though they might one day grow back into them? Saving toys and clothes creates clutter. Clutter creates cleaning barriers. So free yourself of both by planning a once-a-year yard sale. No exceptions. Have a yard sale (or delivery to the donation box) once a year.
Because planning a yard sale once a year might be too much for your small family, combine forces with three or four other members from your circle of family and friends. Rotate the host family, but keep the calendar marked for the same time every year. Ridding the kid’s room of needless objects will make your cleaning life easier and bring you some extra annual cash.
As an added bonus, ask your kids to help select the items that will go in the garage sale. This will instill habits of cleaning out the closet along and giving back to the community if you choose to donate rather than sell.
Have Your Kids Clean While They Play
The most obvious and cost-effective way to keep your kids room clean is to actually get your child to help with the process. If your child can help keep their room from getting too dirty, it will save you the cleaning products needed to get out deep dirt stains. Parents.com has some great tips for encouraging your kids to help clean up without making it feel like work.
- Have the kids start cleaning when they are still young. Toddlers think helping out is fun. So start showing them how to do little things like putting away toys and running the dust buster early on. Make it fun and they will believe you.
- Use the magic of make-believe. Kids love to play house and make-believe so turn cleaning into play. Turn the afternoon’s activity into “Sarah or Sam’s Cleaning Company.” There is magic in make-believe, and it can help keep the kid’s room clean.
- Make it a game. Kids can turn pretty much anything into a game, so play with them. If you have a floor full of colorful toys, don’t ask your child to simply put them away. Name a color and have them pick up all of that color first. It turns into a game that will motivate your kids more than your average clean-up request.
The best trick in the book for keeping your kid’s room clean is to be proactive. Don’t wait until the mess piles up. Work with your kids to keep it clean, use the space so that it fights clutter and invites clean, and you’ll find yourself saving time and money with less intensive kid’s room clean ups.
