Bedtime Cleaning Party

It's 10:40 PM here in Georgia right now. Most children are sleeping soundly, snug in their beds. Most children have BEEN sleeping soundly for quite some time now. My children are NOT like most children. They do not seem to feel the need to sleep. THEY are NOT tired.

These nights come around every so often where the children really do not desire sleep. They would rather stay awake and play, or more likely - annoy me. Now, I could fret over this and fight with them over the virtues and requirements of bedtime and sleep. It would be a valid endeavor on my part to force the issue of staying in bed and going to sleep. After all, I have to be awake until after they are sound asleep. (Just trust me on this one. Leaving those two unattended before they are actually passed out is never a good idea.)

Instead of arguing, I have the ultimate solution to sleepless nights. When these nights come around, I declare a Bedtime Cleaning Party. Here are the rules:

1) You have to stay IN your room.

2) You have to be actively CLEANING your room and putting toys away. (One would argue that the toys really should be put away before bedtime, but here in the real world... )

3) There is NO WHINING ALLOWED.

4) As soon as the cleaning is finished, they have to go back to bed. 

The cleaning party usually lasts for about an hour. The girls spend a great deal of time and effort putting all the toys and books where they belong and making sure everything is just perfect. In fact, the nighttime cleaning parties are far more effective at accomplishing a clean room than any other efforts we've tried. They both know that the longer they engage in cleaning, the longer it will be before they are returned to their beds. This works well for us because we do not have any strict schedules that we adhere to and because they both tend to sleep longer when they spend less time fussing before bedtime. They get the distraction of being out of bed. When they go back to bed, they both feel as though they've gotten away with something so they know that it really is bedtime and there will be no more concessions.

I get the pleasure of a clean bedroom with all the toys put away. (Well, at least until they wake up in the morning...)

More Cleaning Tips

After writing about my bathtub trick, I decided you might enjoy a few more cleaning tips.

1) Give your little person a pack of diaper wipes. Let her clean the walls, the cabinets, the chairs, and just about anything else she finds that she wants to clean.

2) Give your little one a small broom. They make many of these in child sizes. My girls think sweeping is a special treat. I have no idea why. Sure, they don't get the floor as clean as I would like, but sometimes just a little bit goes a long way.

3) Give your little one a lint roller. Grandma Janet has a big lint roller that is on an extended rod. Kira loves using that thing on the kitchen floor to pick up dog hair and dirt.

4) Swiffer dust wipes are great 'toys' for little ones, too.

5) A pan with soapy water and a couple of washcloths will turn into a floor washing frenzy. Add a dry towel at the end and your floors will be shiny.

Feel free to add your own little tips here, too.

Clean Bathtub

Everybody loves having a sparkling clean bathtub.

Nobody likes to scrub the bathtub to make it sparkling clean.

Well - almost nobody....

If you need to entertain your preschool children, you can set them to work scrubbing your bathtub. Seriously, they won't mind at all.

Fill the tub with about 3 to 4 inches of warm water.

Strip your little one and put her in the tub.

Add a bar of soap, a washcloth, and a toothbrush. A few extra bath toys are always a good idea, too.

Stand back and watch as your little one begins scrubbing your tub with her soap and toothbrush. She will think it's all fun and games. You will know that you're getting her started early on household chores.

Now, your tub won't be perfectly clean. However, it is likely to get cleaner than it would have any other way. (Not that any of you simply overlook cleaning the tub...)

The Great Toy Race

I have developed a new game around my house. It is called The Great Toy Race. I have been trying to get my two babies to put their own toys away and keep them out of our living room. So in my infinite wisdom, I decided to make cleaning up more of a game than a chore.

The Rules ---

Mommy says "Ready, Set, Go" and then Kira and Marisa race to pick up one toy and take it and put it away.

The Result ---

Now Kira begs to play The Toy Race. Marisa, of course, just runs around during this race because she is not yet 2 years old and rarely manages to get a toy before Kira is back for the next round. They both have a great deal of fun doing this, though. And most of their toys get moved back into the toy room without much effort from me. The toys are not necessarily put in the toy box, but we can work on that later.