While we all love our little gremlins to death, I think most parents would agree their children aren’t exactly bending backwards to clean up after themselves. Between soccer games, museum trips in downtown Cleveland, and negotiating bedtimes, keeping up on home cleaning is hard! We always see problem areas in children’s bathrooms, one which we as busy parents won’t walk into to use for maybe a week at a time. Then you go to refill some toilet paper and BAM there’s a tube worth of toothpaste flung all over the bathroom mirrors! Didn’t I just clean that like 4 days ago? Whether your kids have their own bathrooms or not, bathrooms are often easy to overlook until it’s too late! Here are some tips on how to keep things tidier and safer in the bathroom when cleaning the house.
1. Delegate. Delegate some tasks to your kids, even at a young age. Let them take part in the home cleaning and have them do whatever they can do on their own. Disposing dirty laundry and used towels into the laundry basket, or picking up things that do not belong in the bathroom (e.g. toys, books) is a great start. You can also teach them to clean things and devices that they use themselves, for example wiping their tooth brushing timer or rinsing out their sink after every use. This is a great way of instilling some sense of responsibility for their own mess. As they get older and more capable, increase their cleaning responsibilities, and ensure they are staying on top of their cleaning before giving more “fun” responsibilities or privileges.
2. Small daily tasks. Separate things you want to clean on daily basis from those that do not need to be cleaned more often than once a week. For example, it is recommended to wipe the water off shower tiles and remove traces of tooth paste every day as these can cause serious accumulated trouble in the long run. These tasks are often very simple and take no longer than a minute.
3. Weekly cleaning. As you already know, kids and bathrooms are probably the two dirtiest things in your home! It’s important to keep up with disinfecting their bathroom, for their sake and your whole home’s sake! Make sure that you disinfect everything once a week, especially if you have fast-crawling toddlers moving around the house and touching everything. However, if you’re worried about harsh cleaning chemicals around young ones, you can stick to milder and vinegar-based home cleaning products to keep the bacteria at bay.
4. Organize. Just like with other rooms in the house, you have to adjust the bathroom to the little ones. It is not only the cleaning products you have to keep out of reach. Make sure that all electrical devices are on the highest shelf or kept in a separate room. Items like hair irons and nail clippers are easy to leave around, so have a designated spot out of reach from your kids. Make sure they understand nothing that is electrical is a toy. Also, designate an area for every item your child uses as well, this will help prevent clutter and lost items. Labels like “hand soap” or “toothbrush” will remind your child of your expectations.
