Kids are messy, we all know this. But how do you describe the state of your home after the kids have been home every day of the last few months? Take a look at the handprints that reside on your wall corners, on the wall leading down the stairs and on your stainless-steel appliances, the black scuffs on the hardwood, the accumulated dust on the bookshelves and the food crumbs that you can’t seem to get rid of. Many parents describe this as overwhelming chaos and they don’t know how to maintain their home or even know where to start.
Make a plan
The countdown is on, three weeks until school starts! What needs the most attention? What do you need to organize? Start with making sure the children have what they need to start the year off right. Supplies, uniforms, indoor/ outdoor shoes, fall sweaters, and snacks. After you have survived the back to school shopping craze you can center your energy on your home environment, sanitizing, dusting, and organizing from top to bottom.
Out with the old
Have your children go through their clothes and get rid of the ones that do not fit, are worn out, or doesn’t appeal to them. Make it a fun activity you can to together to get someone on one time with them. This takes clothes out of your laundry mountain and makes your summer to fall swap less time-consuming.
Pantry Purge
Examine your stockpile, what is still good, what isn’t? Get rid of it and make some room for your lunch snacks and juice boxes. Designate areas for grab and go snacks that make lunch packing easy. This also creates more room for that extra Tupperware we all buy in hopes that we can get through another school year unscathed. While you are at it clean off your shelves and touch surfaces to remove all the dust and grime left behind by messy hands.
It may as well be Everest
Stay on top of your laundry, ensure all the school clothes are clean and ready to go and the other clothes are clean and ready to be packed away for the season. Gather all of the clothes and make “outfits for the week”. Store them in a closet organizer and save time when you are rushing to get out the door.
Don’t leave things lying around, hang them up!
Designate a coat rack/shoe rack for after school backpack drop off where everything from the day belongs for easy lunch bag, and homework retrieval. Getting into the habit of putting school stuff in one area will help maintain a clean home and prevent things from getting lost. Plus all the dirt from recess doesn’t make it past the front door!
Tubby time!
Take all of their plastic and easy to clean toys to the bathtub with hot water and dish soap, cleansing them of the dirt and germ buildup that has accumulated over the summer months, pack away summer toys and keep the popular toys looking and feeling fresh!
What’s Left?
After you have successfully sent your little one off to school with everything that they need, you have no energy left to tackle your everyday mess! Leave it to us! All you need do is go to work and come home to find deep dusting and polishing of your furniture and walls, deep cleaning of your popular touch spots, a top to bottom scrub down in the bathroom and kitchen, and a fresh vacuum and mop of your floors. Treat yourself to a residential cleaning on a weekly, biweekly or monthly basis! You deserve it, mom and dad. Get your home back on track and the stress off your shoulders with one phone call!
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