I grew up helping my mom clean a house that 12 people lived in. Along the way, I collected a handful of favorite cleaning tips for parents that I’m sharing today. You might also like my laundry tips and tricks.
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My Top Cleaning Tips for Parents
What You'll Find on This Page
- Use a regular rubber eraser to get crayon off of floor tiles and walls. It’s tempting to use a magic eraser, but these have a habit of taking off a coat of paint, so proceed with caution.
- Baking soda (coupled with some elbow grease) to get soap scum off of the bathtub. A magic eraser also works, although it leaves behind a bunch of little eraser that you have to clean up.
- When kids want to play with toys that come with many small pieces (blocks, beads, legos), put a blanket or sheet on the carpet and have them play on top of that. At the end, gather up the corners of the blanket. All the tiny pieces go into a pile in the middle for quick and easy pickup. I mentioned this idea to my mother, and she pointed out that for even quicker cleanup you can designate a sheet for each toy. Then you put the entire sheet (with the toys inside) in the bin at the end of playtime. You can also get crafty and make special play mats for all the toys with nice ties to close them up. Or buy one of these clever toy play mat storage bins. Maybe I’ll do that someday. For now my kids know that toys with small pieces may only be played with on the fleece Monkey blanket.
Bonus Tip: Temper Expectations
On the topic of crayon on walls, yesterday Johnny stopped coloring on his coloring page and started coloring on the wall. I told him he couldn’t color on the wall and took him back to his coloring page, where I started commenting on how pretty his coloring was. He took my hand, walked me back to the wall, pointed proudly, and said, “Pretty wall!” Looks like we have a ways to go before he gets the whole coloring boundaries thing…
What are your favorite tried and true cleaning tips?
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MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.
Some great tips! We started using a blanket for toys with small pieces recently and it's much easier. I also put a wooden tray down for small pieces sometimes when a blanket isn't needed.
I had to stop reading Robert Munch's "Purple Green and Yellow" to my daughter, because she thought it was fun to colour on herself after that! I'm hoping that "Harold and the Purple Crayon" won't cause her to draw on the walls, because we both love that book. :)
Crayons: a joy for kids – a nightmare for parents. When I think of all the wrong ways a crayon can be used! What parent hasn't experienced at least one of…
1/ crayon squished into the carpet
2/ crayon art on the wall, floor, fridge, furniture
3/ attempts to insert crayon into ear, nose, or family pet
4/ crayon melted inside electical appliance
… and so on.
One alternative is an on-line coloring book. The paint stays neatly on the screen!
A really great online coloring book is the Kea Coloring Book. Try it out for fun free coloring pages, without all the mess.
Thanks for the birthday wishes! I like the blanket idea a lot. Just last night I realized I was out of floor cleaner and used vinegar. I actually liked it better!
I have an award for you on my blog:
http://ourniftynotebook.blogspot.com/2009/07/humane-blog-award.html
Great ideas. My tip is to just make sure the house is straightened back up every night. That way the mess doesn't keep building.
I like the blanket idea! Especially for all of the Littlest Pet Shop stuff my daughter scatters all over the house.
The blanket idea is tremendous! I have teeny lego trauma at the moment.
Johnny is so cute!! LOL That is adorable!
Usually I can remove Sharpie stains with rubbing alcohol. Depends on the surface, though, but I've had good luck with it so far.
I use vinegar for practically all my cleaning, it works really well.
Also, with the blocks on the mat, my addition to this tip is (if you child is like mine) teach them that you will clean up blocks on the mat and they can clean up the ones that aren't still on the mat.
Vinegar in a Downy ball in the laundry works wonders as a fabric softener.
And at least Johnny knows to color with his crayons–Ingrid still eats them…