The Heart of the Matter Online

Keeptheway · Member

Household cleaning with preschoolers?!?

dimesavindiva · Newbie

Rachel
You have a BIG "I hear ya!" from me. I homeschool my kids, and I have a 10 yo, an 8 yo, and a 3 yo. Surface cleaning is about the only way I get my house presentable. My kids have chores of their own, and most of them "mirror" mine. If I am dusting the living room, they are dusting their bedrooms. If I am making my bed, so are they. If I have to clean up the living room, they put 5 things away from there as well. I found a lot of great advice from http://flylady.com. It has really helped me put routines into place that keep my home from being overwhelming.
HTH
smile

anderklan · Member

Well, remember to everything there is a season and this season might mean letting the dusting go a few days longer or not cooking using elegant fare recipes, etc..

Your little ones can help with picking up their toys, making their beds, bringing bathroom trashcans to the large one in the kitchen when dad (or you) is doing that. They can even help with things like dusting. I don't know a little one who doesn't have fun with a feather duster

When you are doing the dishes, they can help put away light weight things in lower cabinets. They can fold towels. Remember, it won't be perfect by perfect standards but they will be learning from an early age what it means to be a helper.

God bless,
Sallie

anderklan · Member

And I have to share this funny (now, anyway) story too..

When our oldest son was just home from the hospital, I mean just days home, the phone rang, the doorbell chimed, and within moments of me trying to take care of those two things, he started crying from all the noise waking him up. He stopped almost right away though so I thought he just fell back asleep miraculously. I got rid of the door person, answered the phone and had just said HELLO MOM when I heard a blood curling scream from the BABY! I quickly said "call ya back later" and threw the phone down. I ran to the bedroom to find him and our daughter, who was a little less than three, lying on the floor screaming and crying. He was not hurt but frightened and she was devastated thinking she had killed her baby or something. Her story? She heard him cry and wanted to cuddle him and help mommy so she climbed into his bed, told him she would give him a piggy back ride to mommy (cause she loved doing that with dad so thought he'd enjoy it too!) and everything would be all better. She laid down next to him, wrapped his arms around her neck, and said hang on. That part worked until she let go of his arms to climb OVER the rail of the bed. BIG OOPS!

That was our first instance with having to set down rules of what we can do to help and can't do to help...LOL.. With children, so many things just seem to make sense to them because they don't have experience to back up what they are thinking about -- ie why wouldn't the baby want a piggy back ride? We have to not be too hard on them if they are trying so hard to be helpful with their teeny tiny amount of experience and think everything will work just like they plan. Just wait until the three year old tries to help by changing the diaper or put the baby powder on the two year old....LOL.. it'll be hard not to laugh

Marsha · Member

My 3yo loves to help with everything!

The jobs that he can perform:

- help put the dishes away (especially silverware and the kids' cups that are kept in a low cabinet)
- clear his own dinner dishes from the table
- Swiffer the house
- Help clean windows (I oversee the spraying!)
- water outside plants
- clean his room
- dress himself (we are still working on this)
- straighten up the shoes by the back door
- helps me with laundry (puts them into the basket from the dryer, clean lint trap)

Most of these he learned by following me around and *he* insisted on taking part! It's not perfect, but it's a step in the right direction and he shows slight improvement every time.

As to the rest of my house, we just pickup throughout the day and never go to bed with a messy house. I need to start each day fresh and with a CLEAN slate! The bathrooms are done by yours truly. I keep a roll of paper towels, glass cleaner, toilet brush and toilet cleaner in each bathroom. That way if the thought crosses my mind to scrub the toilet or clean the mirror, I can do it RIGHT THEN.

Ummm... baseboards? You want me to clean baseboards? Well, let's just keep our eyes at eye-level and not focus on anything that requires a tilting down of the head...

Christine · Newbie

I have 4 kids 7 and under and I don't get much more than surface cleaning done either. Before #4 came along I had a semi-routine which included doing the bathrooms on a 2-3 week rotation (2 full and 2 halves), keeping up with the kitchen and laundry, and always decluttering at the end of the day. I did not get around to dusting and vacuuming with any regularity at all. Now, however, we have budgeted for someone to clean the house 2x a month until the youngest is a bit older. With homeschooling and working at my church (I'm a music and arts director), it was just stressing me out too much. Hopefully by the summer I can have a routine again and save the money. But if you can swing it (we found a Brazilian lady who cleans well for an affordable amount), it certainly is a time saver. Playing with and teaching the kids has always come first for me, though, and if the house suffers, so be it!

Edited to add: The kids have their chores too and help out quite a bit, more as they've gotten older.

-- Edited by Christine at 20:31, 2008-01-08

Keeptheway · Member

Thank you ALL for your awesome replies... and TOO FUNNY Sallie

My girls do love to help me out but like I said, their attemps do slow me down a bit.... my problem is that we did have an amazing woman who cleaned our home twice a month and we recently had to let her go thanks to Dave Ramsey and Financial peace University lol! BUT, I am used to how great this place looked and it is hard to not feel the need to keep it at those standards. But you are right, for this season, I have to relax a bit! Thanks for the support, advice and laughs, you girls rock!

Love
Rachel

Marsha · Member

We found this great lady (and her husband) that did an immaculate job deep cleaning our house. It was worth the larger fee for not being a regular customer.

$120 to clean all the floors, cabinets, blinds, ceiling fans, baseboards, bookshelves, stove, oven, tubs, toilets... pretty much everything! She even *gasp* pulled the fridge and range away from the wall to clean behind them! I was shocked (and embarrassed). I would never have done that myself. Of course, we only use her once or twice a year. But it is SO worth not having to worry about trying to do a deep clean of the house myself!

By the way, I have this piggy bank. And when it is full of hubby's change, there is almost $100 in it. Definitely do-able as a cleaning lady fund. :)

Keeptheway · Member

Hey now, that is definitely an option and one that I think hubby can get on board with, too! With him working late hours due to working downtown and finishing his MBA at Tulane on the weekends, he is never home to be able to help out like he would like -- and when he is home, the man needs to relax! And he would rather hang out with all of us rather than having me running around cleaning

So this souns like a very doable and viable option.... just knowing that twice a year the house will have that deep clean would help keep my fears of scary creepy crawlies and dust bunnies that take over the home diminished

AGAIN.... YOU ROCK!

Sisterlisa · Member

We do Flylady's room rescues throughout the day. Preschoolers are great for picking up items. Give them a basket with a handle that they can go for 'hunts' to find 'lost treasures' and then have each child 'find' their goodies to take back to their rooms.

My son loves to vacuum so we give him the hose attachment and he 'gets' to 'suck up' the tiny 'invaders' from under the couch cushions. This keeps him busy while we all do the bigger chores. ;O) If he can count the coins he finds he gets to keep them.

MandyMom · Member

It is very helpful to have someone come and do the job you least like to do. I had a friend who needed extra money and would wash my dishes and give my kitchen a clean-down for about $20 (once a month). That was before I got a dishwasher. It was a MAJOR help.

It's helpful for me to have a big bin in which they can put they toys. When the bins starts to overflow, it's time to get rid of some toys!

Flylady suggests doing 15 minute cleaning times- sometimes I devote 10 or so minutes to an area, and when the timer stops, I move on to another area for 10 minutes.

Also, check out Housefairy.org. Her videos may spur your children to get into the cleaning game!

It definitely helps to have all your clutter tossed.... if you dont need something, DONT keep it. If you can't use it, if you dont use it often enough-..... get rid of it.

Sisterlisa · Member

Great site Mandy. Thanks for sharing!