The sun is shining, the temperatures are starting to warm and spring is in the air. Now’s the time to say goodbye to winter and enjoy a fresher, cleaner Chicago apartment by diving into spring cleaning action. If you have kids in your home, don’t worry, you can get them to help. With the right tactics, you’ll find there are plenty of jobs you can set even some of the littlest ones to.
Before you dive in, you will want to make sure that kids’ activities and chores are age appropriate. While it’s perfectly okay to set your teens to scouring the bathroom from top to bottom with cleaning agents, you won’t want your toddler playing in the commode. Chores are great for kids of all ages, but they should match the age to ensure both success and safety.
Now, if you want to make sure their messy rooms get tackled from top to bottom, you can get your kids involved. In fact, doing so can be very helpful. Get your teens to do it themselves, but for toddlers and young children, you’ll want to supervise closely.
6 Ways to Get the Kids Involved too:
1. Sorting toys – Young children might put up a protest, but the fact is a lot of unused toys accumulate in the course of a year. Get them to go through their toys and select those they play with and those they don’t. Have them put them into two separate piles. Together, put away the keeper toys. Now, go through the discard pile to see which ones need to go in the trash and which ones might be good to pass on to kids who need them.
2. Sorting clothes – Kids know what fits and what doesn’t in their drawers and closets – especially around the age of 5 or 6 and up. Get them to help in cleaning out drawers, closests, footlockers and so on. Use the same tactic as you did for the toys to make sure hand-me-downs can be passed along.
3. Dusting – Using old socks as dusters on your children’s hands can be fun for them and you’ll gain some more dusters to help you complete your job faster.
4. Deep cleaning – While you won’t want your toddlers playing in cleaning agents, older kids can help out on the deep cleaning. Give them cleaning gloves and a bucket of soapy water along with a sponge. Have them clean their baseboards and other dusty spots. In addition, this is a great time to teach them how to vacuum or sweep.
5. Vacuum the baseboards – Let the little ones handle the task of vacuuming the baseboards. The hose attachment necessary for the job will be more like a toy to them. Also, they’re closer to the ground and they will love the responsibility of such a big task.
6. Getting marks off the walls – Kids might really get into using one of those magic eraser bars to get dirt and scuffs off your wall. It could fulfill their desire to actually write on the wall!
Spring cleaning your Chicago apartment isn’t a job you have to tackle alone. If there are kids in the house, get them in on the act. Even toddlers can help pick up toys and learn to put things away. Just remember to reward yourselves well when your done. Pizza and ice cream can go a long way!
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