Day 8 – Spring Clean the Kids bedroom

I didn’t get any sleep last night. My youngest (3 year old boy) has started coming into our bed in the middle of the night. I don’t need to say more, any parent knows what that means. Around 1:30am my husband and I entered a Russian roulette of who can ‘remain sleeping’ the longest and not have to deal with the situation literally lying between us. I put up a good fight, but I loudly dealt with the situation and all order was restored around 3:30am. Therefore, waking up this morning I was not a very pleasant person. After my coffee and breakfast, I headed into the kitchen, opened the cupboard and took out one large bin bag, a mirco fibre cloth and Xtra Protect. I walked out of the kitchen and in an instance found myself doing something my father used to do. Something I vowed I would never, ever do as a parent. I stood in the middle of our living room, opened the bin bag and yelled “any toy I find on the floor is going straight into the bin!”
And just like that my children ran faster than I have ever seen, collecting all of their possessions. There was no arguing about who was helping and who wasn’t. There was no complaining about who’s toy it belonged to. Only joint sense of tidiness driven by fear. And that ladies and gentlemen is how I started to Spring Clean the kids’ room.
1- Tidy – this is usually the hardest part when dealing with the kids or playroom. It’s astonishing how much stuff kids accumulate. The morning was mainly spent figuring out what toys are broken, which toys they outgrew and what was just stuff. By the end of it we ended with two large bin bags ready to go to charity and another for the bin. Everything we were keep remained in the middle of the room. Which brings me to my second point
2- Get the kids to organise – Use this opportunity while the kids are home and get them involved in the decision making process. My kids are 3 and 5 years old, so obviously it’s relative to their age. But I knew I couldn’t continue listening to arguments about who’s toy it is and who’s not sharing. So, I set three large toy boxes and labelled one with each of their names and the third labelled SHARE. They then decided which toys were sharing toys and which were their own that they were responsible for and had to keep in their box. I didn’t hear an argument for the rest of the day, let’s see how long it lasts before the novelty wears off
3- Wash those stuffed animals – also why did I buy so many? When did I buy all these? But now more than ever it’s so important to wash all the kids stuffed animals. Wash them in the hottest water setting as possible to kill all the germs. If uncertain you can place the stuffed animals in mesh laundry bag or a pillowcase also works to protect the plush when washing.
4- Baking soda for the win –, it’s my go to natural cleaning product and it didn’t disappoint today either. Top tip, to clean all the crayon marks off walls, use a damp towel lightly dipped into baking soda and scrub. Also, probably teach the kids to not colour on the walls, but that’s another blog altogether.

kanikasrivastava

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