Spring Cleaning Your Child’s Room: Tips that Don’t Cost a Penny
Take Everything Out – The first step in spring cleaning your child’s room, and any room for that matter, is to simply remove everything. If you completely empty the room (removing the heavy furniture is completely optional) it will be so much easier to clean and declutter. You will be starting off with a fresh slate and you’ll be more apt to discover hidden toys, clothes, papers, and numerous other little unwanted treasures. So take everything out of the room first and foremost. Don’t forget to also take down those shabby, dust-covered curtains or blinds.
Wash the Walls – Next up, it’s time to wash the walls. No matter what kind of walling you have–paneling, painted sheetrock, wallpaper, etc.–it’s always a good idea to clean the walls at least once or twice a year, and especially when you have a child who lives in the room. For this task, you only require a simple bucket of warm, soapy water and sponge. Don’t scrub too vigorously on painted surfaces as you may wash the paint off. You may want to begin in a less conspicuous area of the room to make sure that you won’t mess up the paint. Don’t forget to wash the baseboards, crown molding, and any windows in the room during the spring cleaning.
Throw Out, Donate, Keep – Now that the empty room is clean, it’s time to start going through all of the stuff that you removed. It is suggested that you make three piles for the organization of old items–one for things to keep, one for things that are broken and should be trashed, and one to give away or donate to charity. This is a wonderful time to teach your child about generosity for other people who don’t have as much as you do. What better time than spring to do just that? It’s a good idea that your donate and junk piles be larger than your keep pile. If you are completely reorganizing your child’s rooms–new shelving, storage units, etc.–then this would be the perfect time to do that. As soon as the sorting of personal items is complete, it’s time to take the keep pile back into the room and put things into their new homes.
Wash Linens – It’s now time to get the washing machine involved. Grab all of those curtains, winter comforters, sheets, rugs, and anything else that has had a nice layer of dust taking up residence on the fibers, and throw them into the washer. When they come out nice and fluffy, and no longer closely resemble dirt-covered fabric, you can return them to their rightful locations. You may also take this as your opportunity to spring clean other linens in your home. Might as well do them all at once, don you think?
Store Winter Clothes & Linens – Now that all of the heavy-lifting is complete, it’s time to store the winter clothes and linens. Spring is here so the temperatures will be on the rise. There’s no longer a requirement for those flannel sheets, that electric blanket, or those fleece pajamas. Now that the room is ready for spring, it’s time to store the winter necessities.
Freshen Up With Color – This last tip is not free, but I thought I’d add it anyway for those who would like to do a little more with their child’s room during spring cleaning. Adding a fresh coat of paint (something light and bright) is always a great way to spruce up a child’s bedroom for spring. You can even add new, brightly colored linens, artwork, flooring, and/or wallpaper. You can go as extravagant or inexpensive as you would like when it comes to this. Make sure that you ask your child’s input on these decisions before purchasing colors/items that they may not like. Have fun with it.
Make sure that you allow your child to participate in the spring cleaning of his or her bedroom. This is a good time to attempt to instill a touch of organization, generosity, and respect for one’s personal belongings. Kids are not born equipped to know how to clean their bedroom or how to take care of their toys. We parents have to demonstrate these skills to them. Unfortunately, some will never learn these skills and you will be doomed to endure terribly messy rooms until they move out. But at least when the spring cleaning is all over, your child will have a newly organized and refreshed bedroom to enjoy and you won’t have to look at that disaster of a room for at least a week (depending upon the age of your child, I wouldn’t plan on cleanliness for longer than a week). Good luck!
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