Cleaning Blast

Folding their own laundry

Sometimes inspiration hits me out of no where.  I get an idea in my head and I think, huh, that just might work.  Today I had one of those ideas in regards to how I handle cleaning the house.

My usual pattern of cleaning is to assign chores.  David, you clean the bathroom.  Lizzy, pick up the living room.  Joy, the dining room.  Which the kids will do--more or less.  But it usually involves some whining.  And the need for a few reminders to stop dawdling or playing with found toys.  And I often have to drag at least one child back to the room to address something they left undone.  Sometimes they do a good job without much oversight, but not always.

So today we had to clean up the whole main living area because we have company coming over this weekend.  I thought about doing the cleanup in our normal way but then I started thinking--the kids always do better when I am right there to oversee their work.  But I can't be in three different rooms at the same time.  So what if instead of assigning individual rooms, we instead cleaned everything together.

And thus I created what I call the Cleaning Blast.

"Oh," says David.  "Is that where we attach a rocket to everything and blow it up?"  Um...no.

Here are the rules:

1. Everyone helps

2. We tackle one room all together with everyone doing something

3. We don't leave the room until it's all done

4. Haul the trash can from room to room with us so there's no need to run to the kitchen every few seconds

5. Once the room is all picked up, move onto the next room

6.  The most important rule--Blast loud music because it's impossible to clean without the music blasting

Our dining room table cluttered with school "stuff"

We managed to clean the living room, dining room, bathroom, kitchen, the kids' bedrooms and fold a hamper of laundry in 45 minutes.  All I have left is the pile of mess that always hangs out on my kitchen counter--AKA the dumping spot.  Were I to have assigned the rooms like I usually do, we may have gotten half that done.

I am not going to resort to cleaning blasts every time we do chores, but it will definitely be my new once-a-week routine for our bigger weekly cleaning.