My house is in full spring cleaning mode, but that doesn’t mean motherhood stops. I’m proud to partner with our friends at Clorox for the reminder that scrubbing out germs doesn’t have to mean washing away our gratitude and grace.
If there is one room in my house that drives me insane, it’s the playroom; the space in our tiny home where toys are stored, played with, then left scattered on the ground until I start yelling at my kids to clean it up. It’s also where the kids eat their snacks, usually leaving the mess on their table for me to clean up. The rest of our home is minimally decorated and super easy to clean, but the playroom presents a vicious cycle that, other than getting rid of every.single.toy, I haven’t figured out how to circumvent.
Sometimes I’m really proactive, cleaning up their play space into neatly organized bins so that my babies don’t have to suffer through another of my mom-tantrums. Sometimes I let the toys linger on the ground for a few days, telling myself that they love to just jump back into the same storyline before I step on a tiny, plastic toy and lose my mind. But usually it’s just me nagging them to clean up the playroom, keeping their snacks off the floor and hoping there is nothing gross growing in the corners.
Then one day, it hit me: spring cleaning is a time-honored tradition of renewal, a time to clear the clutter and begin fresh. That feeling of creating a clean and organized home for my family makes spring cleaning one of my favorite times of year. But lately, my attitude towards the playroom clutter has made it hard for me to get started in this part of the house… and worse, it made me resent the very space where my babies would play, imagine and create some of their best memories.
It was time for a new approach.
This month, Clorox is helping us stay inspired to make spring cleaning the best “Season of Clean” by sharing 30 days of tips, tricks and life hacks on SeasonofClean.com. Their Springvent Calendar makes cleaning less daunting, more fun and better suited for building a family legacy.
To kick off my spring cleaning regimen in the playroom, I dedicated 15 minutes to organizing my cleaning supplies while the kids decided which toys were clutter and which were too special to part with. Getting the kids involved and teaching them about the way we care for our belongings gave the chore a deeper meaning. Also, since I’ve been focused on creating a minimalist home, deep cleaning the playroom was the perfect time to think critically about which toys were still serving their needs.
Once the playroom was clutter-free, I tackled the most dreaded chore on my list first: disinfecting all the hard, non-porous surfaces. Clorox® Disinfecting Wipes made this way easier! Clorox’s Springvent calendar helped me learn that once you conquer the most dreaded chore, whatever it is, the rest of your spring cleaning will feel like a breeze.
Ultimately, the best tip I learned from spring cleaning the playroom is the awareness that I won’t always have one to clean.
One day, my babies will outgrow many of these toys, making the need to have a “playroom” obsolete. One day my babies will choose to spend more time in their rooms, reading or coloring or sitting at a desk, instead of playing pretend on the floor. This playroom in my tiny home won’t always be covered in the small figurines that bring their childhood so much happiness.
The reminder that I won’t always have a playroom to clean is all I need when I’m about to yell (for the fifth time), “clean up the playroom!!!!” And it certainly helped me realize that cleaning their play space is just another act of love us moms do every spring.
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