Once the school year is back in swing, you know you’ll find much of your spare time taken up in helping the kids with school work. That makes keeping your home clean and organized a challenge. But fear not, weary parents!
In this article, we will share expert cleaning tips for busy families straight from the professionals at our house cleaning services in North York.
Prepare for the School Year by Decluttering
The end of the summer is a great time to declutter to free up space in closets, toy boxes, front halls, etc. Since kids grow quickly, you’ll need to make way for this year’s new clothes by getting rid of the clothes they’ve outgrown over the summer.
You can also clear out old, damaged toys they no longer use. Anything in good condition can be handed down to friends and family or given away to charity. Also, don’t forget last year’s school supplies! Go through their pencil cases and toss out all those pencil stubs, broken crayons, and dried-out markers to make room for their new supplies.
Keep a Family Calendar
Whether it’s something managed through an app or a good old-fashioned calendar hanging in the kitchen, a family calendar is a great time-management tool.
Having everyone’s schedule in one place makes it easier to slot in cleaning time, breaking down tasks into manageable bites. Everyone in the household should pitch in with age-appropriate chores that help keep your home tidy and clean.
Have a Daily Cleaning Routine
A daily cleaning routine ensures all the tasks that can contribute to a major mess at the end of the week are taken care of in a timely manner. This would include each family member pitching in with the following chores:
- Making beds
- Putting dirty clothes in the laundry hamper
- Cleaning up dishes
- Cleaning up after meal prep
- Sweeping the kitchen floor
- Wiping kitchen counters and stovetops
- Putting away toys and school supplies
- Wiping up messes in the bathroom (like toothpaste blobs)
- Wiping down shower walls with a squeegee after showers
- Rinsing out the bathtub
Making sure everyone is doing their part also teaches kids important lifelong cleaning and organizational skills.
Create a Weekly Cleaning Routine
Kids are creatures of habit, which means introducing a cleaning routine will become an expected part of their week. Setting specific days of the week to tackle certain cleaning tasks will help create an ongoing team effort to keep the home clean.
For example, you can have a laundry day where kids know they have to pitch in with sorting, folding, and putting their clothes away. Another day might be for dusting and vacuuming, and another for cleaning the bathroom. Remember, by keeping on top of your daily cleaning tasks, the weekly jobs will be much easier!
Have a Before-Bedtime Tidying Game
Having a tidying game before shower, bath, or bedtime will keep your home neat and organized. Everyone can pitch in to make sure all the toys are picked up, homework is put away in knapsacks for the next morning, dirty clothes are tossed in the hamper, snack plates and wrappers are put away, etc.
Parents, you’re part of the game, too, so set a good example by taking care of your own messes. This also makes mornings less hectic with homework and agendas ready to go.
Pay Attention to Messes and Spills
When we’re busy, we often overlook things like all those little spills, drips, and messes we create in the kitchen and bathroom. Paying attention to these types of messes and taking care of them right away goes a long way in keeping your home clean.
When spills and drips go unnoticed, they make cleaning time that much harder, with more effort required to remove them once they get caked on or stains set in. So, watching what you and your kids are doing (especially the little ones who can’t clean up after themselves) and taking care of all those oopsies is a great way to keep on top of the dirt.
Create an Organized Homework Station
Having a dedicated area for the kids to do their homework improves focus while also helping keep your home clean. Even if your kitchen or dining room table is providing double duty, the key is to keep everything they need for school work organized.
Head out to the dollar store and purchase a storage box or caddy for each child, and stock it with new school supplies such as assorted pens, pencils, markers, crayons, rulers, glue, scissors, etc.
Make a day of it, so the kids can pick out their own storage containers, and then have them help set everything up when you get home. Not only will their school supplies be organized, but it will also help create some excitement about going back to school.
They’ll have a dedicated place to work that’s free of distraction, with everything they need in their caddy. Once their homework is done, they can put everything away, ready for the next day. This saves a lot of tidying time while also ensuring the kids have what they need to do their homework frustration-free.
Have a Lunchbox Routine
Teach the kids to place their lunchboxes, water bottles, etc. in a designated spot in the kitchen after school so you can easily toss them in with the day’s dirty dishes. This helps streamline both the evening cleaning process and getting ready for the next day’s lunch/snack preparation in the morning, so you won’t feel rushed.
Wipe Down Frequently Touched Surfaces
Unfortunately, the return to school is also the return to germ city! Getting back into the habit of wiping down frequently touched surfaces will help reduce the spread of germs that the kids might bring home from school.
Keeping antibacterial cleaning wipes handy is the best way to stay on top of this task, which should include at least wiping down the fridge handle, common light switches, and bathroom doors, faucets, and toilet handles.
Hire Biweekly House Cleaning Services in North York
All of these tips can help keep your home tidy and reduce stress. However, if you find it impossible to keep on top of the cleaning, then hiring biweekly house cleaning services in North York can help. When your cleaning is taken care of, you can focus on the kids and still find some much-needed downtime for yourself.
For more information about Maid4Condos’ house cleaning services in North York, click here. You can also call us at 647-822-0601 or contact us online.
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