Cleaning supplies
When you have kids, it is hard to keep the house clean at all times, especially if you have more than one child making a mess. However, choosing the right cleaning supplies can help you bring the life of a clean home back. It is not always a good idea to experiment on the cheaper versions because most of the time you end up going back for the trusted brands anyway. To give you an idea, will most likely always need these tested out products:
- Multipurpose cleaner
- Dish soap
- Toilet cleaner
- Mop or Swiffer
- Best vacuum
- Windex glass cleaner
- Bleach
- Anti allergic detergents
- Stain removers
- Paper towels
Everyone has their preferences of the things they like to use and do not. When choosing the products for you and your family, always take into consideration whether any of the members have allergies or are sensible to pungent smells.
If you just finish renovation learn more about post construction cleaning
1. Cleaning Living Room
A common area or the living room tends to be the space where a lot of of everyday items end up laying around. Toys, socks from yesterday that your dog decided to nimble on the couch and etc. Household tasks like frequent vacuuming, and wiping commonly touched area can make a big difference in the long run and keep your house clean for longer.
Vacuum the floors and area rugs
For the best vacuum, you will have to think about the floor. How often are you willing to vacuum and mop the floors? The iRobot self vacuums have been getting a lot of popularity over the last few years as people are getting lazier and busier with their lifestyles. The newest models also come with a mop attachment, so you can switch between what you want your robot to do. A big con of a robot vacuum is that it can not always go around an area and will get stuck a few of times asking for you help. They also tend to eat those socks you left on the floor and cords, and whenever that happens, the vacuum can't just keep cleaning your house tidy with stuff stuck inside its filter, it'll simply stop and alert you on speaker and on the app that it can't keep cleaning unless it gets cleaned first.
Obviously, if you started the vacuum and nobody's home to clean the filter, the device is wasting its battery and your time when you get home to cleaning it and pressing "start" yet again. It is still a great tool to have at your house for a regular cleaning without having to do it on your own, but robot vacuums sometimes come with more responsibilities than doing the vacuuming yourself. So if you are willing to make that sacrifice, make sure to keep everything off the floors and area rugs whenever you make a device do the cleaning for you.
Mopping the floors
Speaking of mopping, steam cleaners have been getting a lot of popularity across the cleaning market. The Hoover Steam Complete Pet is a 10 in 1 cleaning solution that can deep clean your hardwood floors, tile, laminate, ceramic, stone, and etc. With 10 tools and handheld mode, it is very easy to clean for cleaning your floors. There are two controls to adjust the level of steam for different types of jobs. Weighing at 6.8 lbs, it is lightweight to be moved around the house and compact for easy storage.
You can, however, still stick to a regular mop with Fabuloso cleaners or the Swiffer 2in1 Mop for Floor Cleaning. They have proved to do the cleaning job at fraction of the price over the years and are loved by many.
Do you shampoo the area rugs often or call a cleaning service to do the dirty work?
Having a carpet with little kids can be hard. Children do not always understand that spilling chocolate milk all over white area rugs from a real Australian sheepskin can be a task only a professional can tackle and can cost a couple hundreds of dollars. However, there are steam cleaners for household use that can do the job as good as that cleaning person you call when you have an emergency spill. The Fortador Volt Mini is a prime example of a steamer that can clean your floors and rugs without any damage.
2. Organizing Playroom in house
If you have a playroom for your kids, it might be one of the biggest household chores to clean. Plastic toys, stuffed animals, spilled paint, rocks your kids found outside and brought home, and etc. Those areas are usually the most contaminated with bacteria and will take hours of cleaning. If you don't want to deal with the mess all the time, simple tasks like putting their toys away after playing can go a long way. Good cleaning habits should be implemented early on, so when your kids will grow out of the plastic toys, their own rooms will stay organized in their teenage years.
Organizing
Having a clean house is one thing to tackle on, but having a clean playroom for your kids is another. Getting big storage boxes and marking them with "toys", "art", and etc. can introduce good habits of storing away things where they belong.
Sanitizing the playroom
Aside from cleaning the playroom by vacuuming and mopping, you should think about investing into a steam cleaner. The steam machine produces dry heat that cleans and disinfects areas in your family house, so bacteria and allergies will not be your concern anymore.
3. Cleaning Kitchen
Nobody likes a messy kitchen, ever. It usually starts with dirty dishes left too long in the sink, then it is the coffee maker that got coffee grounds on the counter, and the dishwasher that wasn't turned on that is now brewing bacteria from the dishes inside. It is important to keep the kitchen clean, because all members of your family use the area. Mom or dad is probably doing the most cooking and cleaning, the children come for snacks and drinks, but this is a room used by the whole family. Paper towels go a long way in this room. Drink got spilled? Paper towels. The coffee splashed on the counter while pouring? Paper towels.
Full guide for kitchen cleaning
Dish soap
Dish soap is also one of the main things in the kitchen. Some people are allergic to certain ingredients and are looking for more allergy free and kid friendly options, like the Mrs.Meyer's dish soap. If you're looking to have your kids help with dishes in the future, it will be a safer and easier way to start with very mild and nonallergic soaps that won't scare them and make the cleaning fun.
Sponges
Sponges can get dirty pretty disgusting if not washed or changed once in a while. Running them under hot water with soap or run it through a dishwasher.
Sink and Drain
Your sink might be one of the most touched places in the kitchen. Make it a habit to clean it with an all purpose cleaner every couple of days to avoid nasty smells and buildup. Some great tips of cleaning the sink include your basic cleaning products, baking soda and vinegar. After a big cooking day, theres's going to be lots of bacteria and dirt on the sink and in your drain.
When using the soda and vinegar method, remember a 1:2 ratio, 1 part baking soda and 2 parts vinegar. First, pour the soda in the drain and around the sink, and then pour the vinegar on the sink and into the drain. Wait for 10-15 minutes for the chemical reaction to occur, and wash everything away with hot water. Wipe everything off with bleach (optional). Tips like these can help you avoid buying expensive cleaning supplies.
Stovetops
If you cook a lot, for your children or yourself, there will be grease one way or another. Depending on what type of stove you have, you will need to pick cleaning supplies accordingly. If you have an electric stovetop, the most common type, a few drops of the Weiman Glass Cook Top cleaner can go a long way to maintain a clean and glossy stovetop that won't make you feel bad while looking at it. It comes with a scrubber pad and a scraper, which are very user friendly.
For cleaning gas stove tops, try The Weiman Gas Range and Stove Cleaner. It comes in a spray bottle, and all you have to do is spray and wipe for a complete clean. With a light lemon scent, it can tackle even the most stubborn grease.
Small appliances
Toaster, teapot, air fryer, they all can get oil buildups just from being close to your stovetops or by touching them with greasy hands. To
Dishwasher and dirty dishes
There are many tips and tricks online about how to load the dishwasher in your home, but one thing that has been proven to work is, loading from back to front saves a lot of time and arguments.
Your kids might want to help out as well. Toddlers like to be involved in cleaning, so putting their sippy cups or plastic toys in the dishwasher, which most are dishwasher safe, remember to direct your kids to place them on the top rack to avoid melting. If you want to save space in your dishwasher for real dishes, getting a tub with warm water, a few drops of dish soap and a sponge for your kids's toys can become a weekly job that will help them and your family stay organized.
Fridge
If you are a family that cooks a lot for your kids or yourself, most of the time you will have leftovers. Some of the best tips you will get when throwing out the garbage, open the fridge to check if there's more things to throw out. Those leftovers you wrapped up still not finished and now smell funky? Toss those. Produce started liquefying? Throw it out and wipe with a paper towel and multipurpose cleaner.
How to clean spills in the fridge
Nobody wants them, but spills happen. You can't really prevent spills when you have kids. Storing things away things into sealed containers and zip lock bags can be a start. However, if spills still happen, here's a tip. To make your life easier, making a paper towel with hot water, wringing it out, and laying it on the sticky spot. When you notice the compress is not hot anymore, check to see if it became loose; if yes, wipe it away. Repeat this process until it is not sticky anymore.
Trash
Same thing goes for your trash schedule. When you notice it's full, you might as well take it out yourself. If you have a big family, you can assigning a trash task to each of the member, which will switch up weekly.
4. Cleaning Bathroom
Another place that needs regular maintenance cleaning is the bathroom. The longer you wait to vacuum the floors and rugs, the more you will have ahead of you.
Shower, Tub, and Toilet
Most of the cleaning products for bathrooms are very easy to use, apply and wait, then scrub. People have been loving the Scrubbing Bubbles Mega Shower Foamer, which is a foam spray bottle that can be left on showers, curtains and sinks, and then be wiped away. It has been proven to remove calcium, lime, and grime. Investing in a good glass cleaner can make things a lot easier for glass showers and cleaning of the mirrors, not just in the bathroom but around the house.
If you have a bathtub that you wash your children in, making sure that you clean it thoroughly all the time and maybe avoid harsh chemicals, so the children won't get any allergic reactions.
Hair
If you have small children, girls especially, hair might be a big problem. Kids don't necessarily know to clean up after them all time. If your children are a little older, you can try showing them how to use a Swiffer(with the dry cloth), letting them know that it's an easy way to collect the hairs off the floors without using a vacuum. If you want to invest in a small vacuum for toys, the Dyson Cord-Free Toy Vacuum might be for you.
5. Laundry day
No matter where you do your machine washing and have your laundry basket, in the bathroom, in the bedroom or have clothes all over the place. Establishing a laundry day and making it a habit can be a good idea. Choosing one day out of the week to do cleaning chores and do laundry has been a routine that works well for a lot of people. Another routine you can try implementing is doing one load of clothes every other day. Having kids means lots of stained shirts and dirty toys that will need washing pretty often. Teaching your kids to have a routine of putting away dirty things in a special basket that you dedicated for them can be a great help for your family in the long run.
How to wash stuffed animals
Stuffed toys need washing too. You can do it by hand, or use your washing machine. If not cut, the toys should have safety labels that say what the optimal temperature are. If not, however, a delicate or hand wash is the least abrasive wash the toys will have. Before putting toys in the washing machine, get a mesh laundry bag and put them all there. If you want, you can supervise your kids doing it with you, so they will get a sense of being tidy.
Putting clothes away
Doing a load of laundry is great start to keep the house clean, but folding and putting away the clean stuff is the key to a life of a clean house. Think of it like this, you wouldn't bring bags of produce home and put them away, the stuff will rot. Do the same with laundry: When it's done, put it away.
6. Cleaning Bedroom
What doesn't sound better than a clean house and a made bed? Nothing. One of the best tips for the bedroom given by all parents to their kids is, make the bed when you wake up. Teenagers tend to get lazy and leave their beds not made and soon start to find weird stuff in them because it's all been mixed together.
Cleaning the room where you sleep should be as much of a priority as your bathroom, but it can also be easy with just one job, never eat in your bedroom.
Young kids and their bedrooms
Nowadays, kids can bury themselves in their room for days and not have to come out at all. Even eating is done in their room, but if they're not used to a cleaning routine of throwing out their trash on time and cleaning the area where they ate, bugs start to crawl into their room and soon the whole house will be fulls of bugs.
To vacuum and to dust should be a simple task to get done every couple days or every week. If you have rugs in your bedroom, it is an automatic magnet for dust; same thing goes for stuffed toys. Cleaning supplies like Windex and multi surface cleaner for the bedroom can be stored under the faucet; a small vacuum, if you have extra space, in the closet.
Nursery
When it comes to toddlers in the house, there is going to be a lot of stuff that will have to change in the cleaning routine. For starters, the chemicals will have to be very gentle on the skin and free of dyes. The toddlers' immune system is not developed for harsh cleaning products, so you will need to keep it to a minimum. Another method of cleaning for the nursery is steam cleaning. It can clean anything from the crib, door handles that are always collecting bacteria and especially the mattresses. A mattress cover might save you from washing the mattress over and over, but it does not protect your baby from bacteria that gets built up in their room. Sanitizing it with a steam machine or even placing a humidifier in the nursery can help reduce the amount of stuff that gets build up.
Sheets
Everyone has a preference on when they want to wash their sheets. In ideal world, every once a week or every other week you should sleep on clean sheets. You can also ask yourself a few questions to determine if you need to wash them more often:
Do you sleep with no clothes on?
Is there more than one person sleeping in your bed?
Are your kids sleeping in the bed with you?
Do you sweat at night?
Any pets sleep in the bed with you?
7. Clean house, clean car
If you want your house to be clean, your car will need to be clean too. Commuting from work to home and back to work will collect unnecessary stuff inside the car that will likely not get cleaned out for a while. Having kids that the mom takes to school or kindergarten and back will make the car get dirty very quickly. That same dirt will be on your feet and the feet of your kids that will be brought to your clean home.
Going to the carwash does not seem so bad, but do you really want to spend hundreds of dollars a month for a good cleaning when you can tidy it up yourself?
Trash in the car
One thing the parent who drives (mom or dad) the car can do is make sure to tidy up the car every time before going home. See a candy wrapper under the child seat? Throw it out. To make your life even easier with trash, get disposable car garbage bags on Amazon that can be stuck on practically anything without damaging the paint of the surface. Every time you exit the car, check if the trash bag is full of things yet. Just make sure when you do fill it up to actually throw it out.
Vacuum of the car
Another thing to keep your car clean is to get a portable vacuum. By leaving it inside the vehicle, you can always rely on cleaning any crumbs off the floor in no time. If you do not want to splurge on a vacuum, there are plenty of portable vacuums that can be used inside your house or in the car, like the Dyson Cordless Stick Vacuum Cleaner. It is known for being easy to use, that holds the battery for up to 40 minutes with a powerful suction.
Disinfecting the car
Aside from vacuuming the car, you need to think disinfecting the area and the seats yet again. Since Covid happened are worried more and more about how to fight off the bacteria that surrounds us everyday. Vacuum and wiping does not do the job anymore. Every once in a while, your car needs a deep cleaning of the inside. Your children's car seat need to get sterilized by getting them cleaned with a steam cleaner or shampooing and scrubbing them by hand. To make it easier, the seats can be removed for an easier cleaning process.
Lastly
if you have tasks that you and your family can follow together, your house and furniture will be clean without having to call people to do it for you. As long as responsibilities are demonstrated to them, they will learn how to clean up after themselves.