Spring Cleaning Tips for Parents

Spring is here, which means there’s no better time to do a massive spring cleaning with you and your family. It’s fairly easy to keep a neat and tidy house, but if you have kids, that’s a different story. We’ve collected important tips from several sources that highlight key things parents should focus on during this year’s Spring cleaning session to ensure household health and safety.

The following cleaning tips was provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) PROTECT Initiative, Up and Away campaign.

The Up and Away campaign urges families to follow these five tips to keep their children safe and healthy:

1. Clean surfaces. Disinfect surfaces and objects that are touched often, like countertops, doorknobs, keyboards, faucet handles, phones, and toys.
2. Store safely. When you’re done cleaning and reorganizing, store everything you wouldn’t want your kids to get into. Items such as cleaning products and medicines should be placed in a safe spot, up and away and out of sight and reach of young children.
3. Dispose safely. Dispose of any expired, unused, or unwanted medicines in your home. Make sure to follow the recommendations for safe disposal to prevent any dangerous exposures.
4. Be prepared. Check your first aid kit for expired medicines and supplies; medicines that are past their expiration dates may not work as well as they should. Refill any bandages, band-aids, alcohol wipes and ointments to ensure you are always stocked up in case of an emergency. Make sure your first aid kit is stored in a location that is accessible to adults, but not to your young children.
5. Update your contacts. Update your emergency contacts, making sure all numbers are working and up-to-date before giving them to your child’s caregiver. Keep the Poison Help number stored in your cell phone and available to your children’s caregivers. The Poison Help Hotline: 800-222-1222.

Additional resources on safe medicine storage are available at UpandAway.org.

In addition, here are a few cleaning tips for parents when dealing with kid’s items such as toys, shoes, clothes and books.

Toys

Roam through your children’s toys. Make sur to trash out broken toys, games and puzzles that are missing pieces, and any other toys that your child have outgrown. Recycle or donate toys (in good condition) by stopping by your local church or donation drop box. Organized and store the ones that is often played with in easily accessible bins.

Books

Encouraging your kids to read by having their own little library is always beneficial to their learning. However, having a massive book collection may take up a lot of space which can collect a significant amount of dust over time. Box away books that you would like to keep in the attic, shelve your kids’ favorites, and donate the rest. Don’t forget to recycle books that are worn and ripped!

Clothing

We all know kids go through clothing like water. This is a great time for parents to go through and reduce the amount of clothes. Take your time and go through your kid’s closet. Trash clothes that are stained or ripped. Outgrown items should go in the donation or hand-me-down pile.

Shoes

Similar to clothing, take a look at your children’s shoes. Toss out worn out shoes and ones that your kids outgrew. If you find some that your kids have yet to wear since purchasing but have outgrown, you can definitely donate them.

Craft Supplies

Along with toys, be sure you are updating the kids’ craft supplies. Toss out broken crayons, dried out markers and Play-Doh, and any other unusable craft items.

Sources: https://www.popsugar.com/moms/Family-Spring-Cleaning-Tips-44609530