My Not So Spring Cleaning Tasks

While we are waiting for the official arrival of spring, now is the time to plan your spring cleaning tasks. While I’m a not a once a year spring cleaning cleaner, I’m sharing the tasks I do once a month in each room.
My Not So Spring Cleaning Tasks
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What do I mean I’m not a once a year deep cleaner? I like to keep my spring days open for fun like fishing and antiquing than to be worrying about cleaning. Once a month, I take a room and deep clean it from top to bottom. Most rooms only take one day, but there have been times I cleaned more than two days in a room. With my once a month schedule, clutter and grime have a hard time sticking around.

No matter when you do your spring cleaning or how often, it is best to have plan and stick with it. Don't let the mess overwhelm you, remember the little quote, "Slow and steady wins the race". Depending on your home,work life, and schedule, cleaning every day for a week maybe out of the question. Find a schedule that works for you. What works for me don't always work for others. Test the waters on timing and methods while cleaning as you find what works.

My Not So Spring Cleaning Tasks


Kitchenthe heart of the home. When it is in a disarray our lives can become stressful.

Clear all surfaces. Starting at the top, working your way down clean everything inside and out: cabinets, drawers, and appliances. Don’t forget the walls, crown molding, windows, and baseboards If you are short on counter space, consider removing small appliances that are not used enough. Free up space by bringing out the appliance when ready to use helps in keeping a look of clutter down.

Now’s the time to go through your storage bowls. Missing lids, or bowls with no lids, toss and replace them. Do you have a cabinet full of Great Aunt Eliza’s dishes and milk glass that hasn’t seen the light of day in a good long while? Consider selling or donating it. There’s no reason in keeping a cabinet full of dishes that will never be used.

Don’t forget to clean the pantry. Throw out any out of date or stale foods. Wipe down the cabinets and walls. When you’re ready to put everything back, organize your shelves. It’s much easier to find needed items when you are not searching through a wall of potato chip bags out in front.

If you don't do a weekly cleaning of the refrigerator and freezer, now's the time to deep clean it.

Sweep and mop.


Dining Room / Living-Family Room / Bedrooms -

Clear all surfaces. Remove and launder curtains, bedspreads, pillows. If any mending is needed, now’s the time to take care of it. Wipe down everything, don’t forget the windows. Any drawers piling up with those “I don’t know what to do with it”, go through them and toss any junk. Vacuum/ damp mop dust, and sweep floors.

Go through clothes drawers and closets. Donate out grown, or no longer worn clothes and shoes.

Ceiling fans can be cleaned by using a pillowcase. Place a blade inside the case and wipe good. The pillow case will catch all the dust build up. Take the pillowcase outdoors to shake out the dust.

Clean the walls, and vacuum/sweep yourself out of the rooms.

Bathrooms -

Take down curtains, shower curtains, guest towels and washcloths and launder them. If your plastic shower curtain liner is in good condition and only needs cleaning, pop it in the washer with the other items and clean it. Be sure to hang it up to dry.

Throw away any old soap scraps, shampoo bottles, out dated makeup and toothpaste.

Get rid of any raggedy towels and washcloths. In fact, you can turn these into house cleaning rags to use and then toss. Go through your cleaning supplies and toss out the old, don’t forget about your toilet brush, replace it if needed.

When cleaning the bathroom, start with the mirror and sink, move on to the shower/tub and then finish up with the toilet before sweeping and mopping the floor.



Laundry Room-

Clear off all the surfaces. Wash down walls and windows. Now’s a good time to clean the inside of your washer according to the manufacturer instructions. While most know to clean out the vent on the inside of the dryer, don’t forget about the vent hose that leads outside your house. When that hose is not kept clean it makes your dryer work even harder at drying clothes. It’s also a fire hazard if you’re not careful.

You’ll need a strong arm and back to help you move the washer and dryer out so you can clean behind and underneath them. It’s amazing what can be found hidden behind them when we go looking.

If your laundry room also acts as a storage room, don’t forget to go through the stored items and clear out any clutter.

Dollar Tree has all your cleaning needs. And they're only a dollar, you can't beat that!

Porch / Patio / Deck -

Make this area look inviting even if it is not warm enough to enjoy yet. Sweep away any dust and cobwebs and wipe down the light fixtures. Check the doormat, does it still look nice or does it need replacing? If it’s warm enough, set out some plants. If not, look into artificial plants and flowers to bring about that touch of spring. Depending on how late your threat for winter weather is you can set out your patio furniture or cushions to offer that homey feeling.

Have you missed any of my posts about cleaning? You can catch up HERE.

What does your spring cleaning list look like?

15 Things to Toss, Donate, or Recycle This Week

I hate clutter. I dislike the feeling when opening a drawer or closet and a mountain of mess comes flying out at me. Every six weeks, I deep clean a room and go through what is there. If it doesn’t make me happy or has a superb purpose, it is more than likely tossed or donated. When we bring something new into the home, something old goes out. You can start decluttering this week with 15 things to toss, donate, or recycle this week.
Frog's Lilypad: 15 Things To Toss, Donate, or Recycle This Week

15 Things to Toss, Donate, or Recycle This Week


Magazines – remove the label and donate to a woman’s shelter or a personal care home.

Newspapers – recycle or use them to line a pet cage or donate to an animal shelter.

Take-Out Menus – those restaurants that are closed, you don’t visit anymore,  or if there is an updated menu, throw the old ones away.

Bills, Taxes, Paperwork older than 7 yearsshred those papers before tossing. Do you need to keep the paperwork on your first car from 30 years ago?

Old Holiday/Greeting Cards – no need to keep boxes of Christmas cards from the 70’s. Pick a few to keep and either dump or recycle those babies.

Phone books – really, is there a need to keep phone books from 10 years ago? Keep the most updated and check to see if you can recycle the books or throw them away.

Promotional Goods – are those tacky magnets from an unelected official or a business you don’t use necessary? Keep the notepads and the pens if they write.

Pens and Pencils – after a length of time, ink dries up; there’s no need to fight a pen just because of sentimental reasons. If the pencil erasers have a thick waxy coating causing you to not to be able to use it without smearing, toss away.

Old Calendars – no reason to keep old calendars even if they are full of historical events in your life from your high school years.

Hotel Soap, Shampoo, Mouthwash, and Conditioner – the only good thing about these if they are unopened is donating them. In fact,  you can create a gift bag for people in a nursing or personal care home.

Old Technology – if you don’t have the device to play those 8 tracks or VHS tapes don't keep them. Music and movies are all on discs or downloads today.

Dried or Gummy Nail Polish Bottles – nail polish is inexpensive, buy new colors during the spring and fall. When it starts to gum up or dry out, skip the act of adding a little polish remover because it doesn’t work.

Unused Plastic Containers Without Lids – when there is no lid toss those containers. If you can’t find the bowl for the lid, toss the lid. If any of your containers do not have the numbers 1,2, or 5 on them get rid of them because they may contain BPA.

Clothes – if you didn’t wear it within the last season ( ex. winter), get rid of it because you are probably not going to wear it the next season.

Mail – go through your mail and send that junk packing. Go a step further, the moment you bring it in the house, go through it and toss the junk.

While these are only 15 things to get rid of in helping keep the clutter down, be proactive and look around to see what else you can part with.

What would you add to this list?

7 Chores EVERY Child Should Learn to Do {day 27}

I know what it is like to want to take control over a cleaning situation with a child, I've been there. When we take over the chore instead of allowing the child to learn, we do more damage when we stop them because it is not up to our standards or they work more slowly. Children need to learn to finish what they start and do their best in everything. By allowing them to continue working helps in the teaching process. Believe it or not, there are jobs that even toddlers can be taught to do that will help lighten our load a little. Yesterday I shared 6 Tips to Teaching Children to Clean and today I want to share 7 chores EVERY child should learn.
Giving our children chores helps them to learn how to be productive. 7 Chores EVERY Child Should Learn to Do is day 27 of the 31 Days of Homemaking Series. frogslilypad.net

7 Chores EVERY child should learn

  • Laundry {2 years+} Toddlers can learn about sorting and even help put clothes away. Older children can learn to fold and put clothes away on their own. They can also learn how to switch the laundry out from washer to dryer. By age 10, children should be mature enough to be doing their own laundry.
  • Bed {2 years+} While making the bed is not as important to many as it used to be, it is still a chore that all children should learn to do. If your child goes away to summer camp or one day lives in a college dorm making the bed is going to be needed. Children being able to arrange little critters and lovies on their bed once made gives them a sense of accomplishment.
  • Dishes {4 years+} Children as young as 2 and 3 can be taught to take their dishes to the sink. Four, five, and six-year-olds can be taught to scrape the dishes and rinse them if placing in a dishwasher. I remember standing in a chair and washing dishes at age five. Depending on the maturity of your child they can be taught how to hand wash dishes and/or place them in the washer as young as you feel safe. By age 10, children should be able to rinse and place dishes in a washer or even hand wash dishes. Of course, safety in washing needs to be taught at whatever level your child is at.
  • Dusting {3 years+} Children as young as 3 can help with dusting. A damp cloth does wonders on table tops (without breakable items) and legs, chair arms and legs. While their dusting may not pass the white glove inspection, learning to dust will help keep it under control until you can spend more time doing the job thoroughly.
  • Sweeping and Mopping {5 years+} Children as young as 5 can sweep the floor and mop depending on what type of mop you own (ex. Swiffer). Sponge/string mops and buckets of water will need supervision when in use.
  • Vacuum {6 years+} Give a child a vacuum cleaner and you may hear racecar sounds coming from a room; at least, I heard them when my son would vacuum when he was little. Vacuuming is the least favorite job of mine and I was happy to find out my son was old big enough to push and pull the machine over the carpet. Keeping carpet and rugs clean is necessary to keep them looking nice.

While these are only seven chores EVERY child should learn how to do, don’t underestimate your children if there are more chores you feel they are ready to learn. Learning to clean at a young age will help your child to be a productive adult one day. Curious about age appropriate chores? Have a look at this list found at Focus on the Family.

Have you missed any days of the 31 Days of Homemaking Series? You can catch up HERE.



Homemaker, You're Not a Maid {day 26}

One job I feel is important for me as a parent and a homemaker is making sure my son knows how to clean. I don’t expect him to clean our house, but I do expect him to keep his laundry cleaned and put away along with his room tidy. I'm not his maid.  Jamie has been given the chores of vacuuming all the floors, washing the dishes three nights a week and putting the dishes away daily along with carrying out the trash. He tends to the grass cutting, blowing the leaves, and the snow removal on the walkway. All of these chores are on top of caring for his rabbit and helping with our dog.  If there is anything else I need help with, he does it.

You're Not a Maid if You're a Homemaker: 6 Tips on Teaching Children to Clean {Day 26} 31 Days of Homemaking Series frogslilypad.net

Homemaker, You're Not a Maid

Just because we are a homemaker doesn’t mean we are the family maid. Children need to be taught how to pick up after themselves. Since my husband works very hard so I can be at home, I pick up for him. While he normally doesn’t leave things out, I do find an occasional pair of socks lying around. I trained him well. ;)

I find it disturbing when I hear a mom state she can’t get her 3-5 years old to pick up their toys. Learning to pick up after oneself isn’t an overnight miracle; it takes time and it takes training. You can’t expect them to be running amok one day and then the next day to be picking up toys. You have to train them, the earlier the better.

6 Tips on Teaching Children to Clean

  • Make Cleaning Fun. In the early stages of teaching your child to clean, make it fun. Let them see and hear you with a joyful spirit while cleaning.
  • If Sticker Charts work for you, use them to help track your child’s progress in learning to clean. Sticker charts didn’t work for us, but the penny jar did. For every chore my son did when we were starting out he received a penny. Over time, he cashed his pennies in for silver money and then dollar bills.
  • Keep the Toys and Books Confined To One Area. Don’t let the house become the playground.
  • Don’t Clean for Them. Let your children know what is expected of them and that you mean business. When they make the mess, they have to clean it up.
  •  Explain the Rules. Set rules and consequences for cleaning. Be sure your children completely understand what is expected of them and they know the consequences if they don’t follow through.
  • Be Persistent. Don’t give up on training your children to clean. It takes time - be persistent.
While your children may not be too happy with learning how to clean right now, they will one day thank you for it. Their future employers will thank you and your future children in law will thank you.

Dear Homemaking Friend, you are not a maid.  Don't fall into that trap, teach your children to clean.

Do you have any tips you would add?

Have you missed any days of the 31 Days of Homemaking Series? You can catch up HERE.

My TO DO LIST for the Week

This is the week I look forward to in our home education journey - our week off.  While I'm not standing in the corner drooling and twisting my hair into pigtails like a half crazed person, I am enjoying this week as my deep cleaning week.  I've written about our weeks off before to help battle burnout, and how I spend time cleaning, so I don't have to "spring clean" every year.  I thought I would share My TO DO LIST for the Week since it is so different from my normal weeks.

Spring cleaning one room every six weeks cuts down on clutter and keeps a house more tidy than letting it all go until the spring.  Who really wants to be cooped up inside spending a week cleaning when you could be out enjoying something more enjoyable? Not me, we don’t get a good lengthy spring season here, so when the weather allows, I’m enjoying the yard or time with my family.
MY TO DO LIST FOR  THE WEEK   l frog'slilypad.net



 As you can see this week is mostly about the kitchen. I began removing 50+ years worth of old shelf liner last week.(I’m keeping my fingers crossed; we’re supposed to strip our cabinets when it warms up so we can paint them.) I still have a few more shelves to remove the horrible stuff from. Please, don’t get me started on sticky shelf liner when there is a whole line of non sticky liner on the market. Whatever you do, don’t layer the mess or have the idea of painting around it!  Yes, I have had to deal with both of those and it is NO FUN!

Yesterday, I spent the day doing my normal weekly house cleaning.  I even worked ahead on Tuesday and Wednesday’s chores, so I could spend several days deep cleaning the kitchen and reorganizing the pantry. Working ahead keeps me from feeling overwhelmed knowing something needs to be completed.

This week is also school planning week. I would love to be one of these moms who have everything ready and on file for the year, but I’m not.  I like planning for six weeks into the future and no more since you never know what can come up.  Once I complete my deep cleaning, I’ll spend time Thursday/Friday filing away paperwork and making lesson plans.

What are your plans for the week? I’d love to hear about them.

A Daily Cleaning Schedule for the New Year

If you are like me and spend any amount of time on social media, then you’ve seen the many links on how to clean your house in a blink of an eye. While these links are quite helpful, the ones I have read say nothing about starting with a clean a house. Your house needs to be clean before any whipping it into shape in less than 15 minutes (* see below) can be done.

A Daily Cleaning Schedule for the New Year l frogslilypad.net


A DAILY CLEANING SCHEDULE FOR

THE NEW YEAR


Being able to clean your home without spending a lot of hours takes time for it to actually happen. Your house didn’t get into the shape it is in overnight unless you have the Tasmanian devil as a pet, so don’t expect to be able to have a deeply cleaned house in one day.  Choose a room to start with and move on from there, once everything is sparkly clean, then you can blink your eyes to a clean house, or so they say.


 How I created my cleaning schedule


Creating a list of cleaning jobs is a great way to see where all of your energy goes. Prioritize those jobs from most important, like clean laundry and the main room where unexpected guests drop in to visit, down to the never seen laundry room. Once you've established what is the most important, decide if it is a daily job, or one that can be worked on weekly.

I wrote about using a cleaning schedule several years ago. My schedule has changed a little since then, but I'm still using one. Whether you are a stay at home mom, or one who works outside the home, a cleaning schedule is a wonderful way to keep from cleaning the same area EVERY. SINGLE. DAY.

I can't say enough about recruiting help in keeping things clean. Moms, you are not a maid! I’m sure you have things in your life you would like to do or learn, so have your family help out where needed.  Dusting is a perfect job for the littles to learn. It’s easy and doesn’t require anything but a damp cloth and a very eager helper.

There are some who have larger families than mine, so laundry day is every day for them. Do you have pre-teens and teens not doing their own laundry?  Why? Teaching your children how to do their own laundry and on a set day, helps you as a mom to keep from having to climb Mount Washmore,  more than needed.  It only takes one or two times of not having clean clothes for them to learn to keep their laundry washed and dried, just ask my son.

You can see my weekly schedule below. Everyday has a specific job along with the daily cleaning that is done. I love this! It keeps me from feeling like I do nothing but clean every day.
I mentioned one time about never spring cleaning. Yeah, I just don’t like that idea. I’d rather work on a room every month or so and have a spring cleaned house year round. With our school schedule, every six weeks we have a break, so the “monthly” jobs are done during those breaks.

While my cleaning schedule may not work for some, it gives you an idea of breaking things down into little jobs to accomplish the needed house cleaning so you are not hiding in the back of the house when Aunty Myrtle rings your doorbell.

(*) I spend more than 15 minutes a day cleaning. Those who claim they spend less time, well, they just need to come here and show me how it’s done because I'm evidently doing something wrong.

Do you follow a cleaning schedule or are you a fly by the seat of your pants kind of cleaning gal? Leave me a comment, I'd love to hear about it.

Print your own A Daily Clean Home Checklist

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