Cleaning Archives - Page 6 of 14

DIY Bathroom Tips for Little People

October 30, 2012 by Jules 2 Comments

I have 2 recently potty trained girls {4 and 2.5} and a 21-month-old running right behind them! Life is hectic and I feel like I can easily drop balls all over the place if I'm not creative.

One of the most recent biggest struggles with my girls being potty trained {and them taking themselves- HAA-lleluiah} is getting them to complete all the steps of using the restroom. Elmo's Potty Time anyone?

I am constantly reminding them to wash their hands. I can often be heard hollering through the house, "Did you flush? Wash your hands!" If and when they do complete these last two steps, THIS is what I find:

Yep! That's a yellow colored counter top and sink. I know....

I'm over at Sidetracked Sarah's today sharing some tips that will hopefully help your littles with their independent hand-washing while keeping them from making more messes for you busy mommies to clean up in your spare time!

NOTE: not built for all sinks ;o)

Filed Under: Cleaning, Homemaker, Organizing, Parenting, The ones about the Rothacher Home

Preparing a Place for Guest {on hospitality}

October 15, 2012 by Jules Leave a Comment

Since hearing the story of The Shunammite Woman in 2 Kings 4:8-17 , I wanted to be that host! Always ready with simple essentials for guest, whether they are just coming to chat or stopping for an over-nighter. Having this mindset has helped me be prepared and not frantic when just such an occasion happens. And being prepared has made me eager! Eager to have guest in my home. I enjoy having people in my home on a regular basis.

I'm at the Homemaker's Challenge today sharing with them some of my thoughts on 'preparing a place' for guests, specifically overnight guests, although there's good info for everyone including those who don't have that actual room for them.

Filed Under: Cleaning, Decorating, Homemaker, The Ones about Homemaker's Challenge, The ones about the Rothacher Home

Some Times a Mom Needs to Brag

September 28, 2012 by Jules 2 Comments

Some times a momma needs to brag to feel accomplished with her routine tasks. Just say'n...

My girls both went to Nanna's for a sleepover last night leaving me and the lil man to hunker down for the night after heading to Lowes to grab some lemon grass {fail} and mums. We got home and I put Jamin straight to bed, sleepy boy!

When he was asleep I headed straight for the van to grab my plants and get them in the pots on the front porch.

I spot cleaned the living room carpet.

"Watched" Friends while writing a guest blog post.

Wrote a Thoughtful Thursday post {before it wasn't Thursday anymore}

And worked on my new "Virtual Assistant" job's site {more info soon} all while eating too many {not even very good} no-bake cookies and avoiding writing my #healthymomseries post for the week.

This morning felt like I slept in even though it was 7 {like normal} when the J woke up.

I cheated and we ate cereal in the living room and he watched Veggie Tales {laughing, cheering, and dancing} while I wrote 1 & 1/2 post for my blog.

When he got bored of the movie I brought in his Little People and he played forever.

THEN, J picked a fight with me so I'd chase and wrestle him. All B.O.Y. misses his daddy.

At like 10am, he ASK to sit at the table in his boaster seat...so I fed him lunch. While he ate

I cleaned the kitchen
put away clean dishes
moved and started a new load of laundry
took out 2 bags of trash
checked the mail
loaded the dishwasher

When he was down for his nap @ 10:30, I frantically cleaned all 3 upstairs {NASTY} bathrooms in anticipation of the girls coming home.
{you know it's time to clean when pink stuff starts growing on your blue shower}

Showering, making beds, and working on tagging my consignment items has yet to be checked off the list...

Now I am working on a few more VA details and just found out the girls are coming home around noon.

OOoooo, I almost forgot, I need to eat lunch! See ya later!

Filed Under: Cleaning, Homemaker, Parenting, The ones about the Rothacher Home

5 Days of Organizing & Cleaning Kids Toys in Centers: Sanitizing

August 24, 2012 by Jules 1 Comment

This week there are tons of ladies in this group talking about cleaning. I'm thinking for the good stuff, you may need to hit up their blog. I'm more of a tidy girl than a clean one ;O)

I will tell you real simply how I clean the different kinds of toys we have. Some of this comes from years of work in daycares, preschools, and elementary schools, others come from trial and error.

Plastic Toys

{containing no tiny holes where water can seep in and STAY}

Begin running warm-scalding hot water into your bathtub mixing in about 1 cup of bleach. Sometimes I don't have pure bleach so I use some sort of cleaning spray I have that contains bleach or claims to kill lots of germs. Then fill you tube with all your plastic toys. Cover all your toys with water...unless you put giant stuff in there. Then you might want to let the little stuff soak and then rinse the larger items by dumping your water/bleach mixture over them. Let your toys soak for at least 30 minutes to 1 hour. I've totally been known to forget toys or run out of time and leave them over night. After they've soaked, drain the water/bleach mixture and then rinse the toys with plain water. The hotter the water the better. Lay out on a towel or occasionally giggle them around int the tube making sure there is no standing water and let them air dry. I do this every few months or more often during cold/flu season or if we had tons of kids over for a party.

NOTE: after a doll baptism int the toilet, I did my own little "cleansing" service and dunked those babies in the sink with water and bleach. Word to the wise- Hot Glue Those Tiny Holes Shut. If you're like me and didn't have this thought until your trying to figure out how to help that hard shelled plastic baby pee- wrap her in a towel and pillow case and sacrifice her to the drier for a few minutes. Evaporates all that out of there!

Fabric Toys:

I know most dolls/stuffed animals ask that you not through them in the washer...but I do. Yep, if they don't have mechanical stuff in them they get chunked in the washer with the nightly load. Often I'll hang them on the "line" to dry or lay them on top of the warm drier to dry instead of sentencing them to the heat box.

Not comfortable with this idea. Hit up Pinterest! they have a ridiculous number of different ways to clean toys! Even how to detangle doll hair! For Real!!! Check out my board- I pinned it!

NOTE: Those baptized babies above...fabric ones, even with plastic head- washer! No drier. Ready to rock 1.5 days later. Good as new.

Shelves/Quick De-Germing:

If you have company coming and your afraid your littles snots will get passed to your friends littles {or vise-versa after they leave ;O), Grab a can of descent smelling Lysol. Hose those bad boys down. I am serious! This was a common practice when I worked at a preschool. During story time, my job would be to Kill Germs! Along with door knobs, toilet seats, and sink knobs, I would walk by shelves of toys and just spray. At my own house, I've often dumped tubs of toys on to a rug, sprayed the pile down and moved to the next tub. By the time I'd done all the toys and made my rounds through the house {during cold/flu season}, all the toys were dry and I simply put them back into the appropriate tub.

Ugg, I knew I would run out of time. Stop back in soon. I'll work up an entire post on "Labeling & Helping Your Child Move Around in Centers" including some FREE Printables!!!
This is final day of this series but if you missed any of the days you can find them here:

Monday: 5 Days of Organizing & Cleaning TOYS into Centers: Selecting
Tuesday 5 Days of Organizing & Cleaning TOYS into Centers: Dramatic Play
Wednesday was 5 Days of Organizing & Cleaning TOYS into Centers: Manipulitives
Thursday: 5 Days of Organizing & Cleaning TOYS into Centers: Reading

edited repost

This post series is linked to 21 other lovely ladies doing a variety of tops for the 5 day series on organizing and cleaning.

Just when you thought the giveaways where over...We’re also going to be having several giveaways that begin on the 1st day of the series and end on Saturday, the 25th of August. Winners will be announced on Sunday the 26th.

Click the footer below to find all the topics,links to each, as well as a list of all the giveaways and more Rafflecopters!

Filed Under: 5 Days of Organizing & Cleaning, Cleaning, Homemaker, Organizing, The Ones about Post Series, The ones about the Rothacher Home

5 Days of Organizing Kids Toys into Centers: Manipulitives

August 23, 2012 by Jules Leave a Comment

Now that we've talked about selecting toys, the importance of & ideas for centers, as well as "dramatic play centers." Lets move on to those messy centers. You know, the ones we all dread...tiny pieces, lots of parts, and mess ones...but the ones every kids LOVES and we understand the importance of: Manipulatives!

Manipulative Center

We currently have lots of different manipulative centers in our home: Puzzles, baby toy manipulative, Playdough, etc. These toys and tools enhance children's fine motor skills and helps strengthen their hands, helps with eye-hand coördination, helps improve their writing skills. Even your pediatrician ask if they can stack 3 blocks at your well baby visit.

Block Center:

We currently have a set of large Lego blocks {multi-colored} and a small set of Jinja blocks {light wooden brown}. These are great for all ages. Just some of the possibilities for learning are: construction, transformation, measurement, spatial relationships, classification. It can even built language skill when they are asked to tell about their creation.

This is one of the most appealing toys for young children! They are versatile and appropriate for lots of age groups! Toddlers can stack cubes, kindergartners can build elaborate garages, and 9-year-olds can create a mall will tons of stores. Children of all ages enjoy playing with blocks because their open-ended allowing for countless possibilities for construction and transformation.

Blocks provide lots of learning opportunities: measurement, spatial relationships, and classification. It can even encourage language use as children talk about what they've created as well as ideas related to construction.

Board Game/Puzzle Center:

We currently have LOTS of board games. This shelf only contains the building, matching, and simple games they can do on their own. These are really better educational tools for older children with the amount of 'rules' involved with most games. But I've learned that simple games like Coodies, Hi Ho Cherrry-O, matching games, and even Candy Land can be comprehended VERY young! My 4-year-old completely understands taking turns, counting, etc. This is a center that will require more adult supervision at least in the early stages.

Puzzles are another center that with the proper training on the front end can provide for great quiet play time for little ones as theri brain sorts through all that is required to piece together puzzles. There are tons of different skill level puzzle options, so be careful not to jump in over your child's head which could just frustrate them but at the same time challenge them with harder more technical puzzles every once in a while to make sure they're not held back.

Almost anything can be a manipulative. There are TONS of infant toys out there that encourage manipulation as well as aid in teaching colors, shapes, and the like.

Low-grade supervision could lead to this but end in more lessons in sorting, identification, team work, and obedience ;0)

There are lots of other things that can be considered "Manipulitives" that I didn't mention; there are ton of outdoor activities and pretty much anything messy kids have to manipulate ;o) Some our favs: corn {rather than sand}, WATER, cooking, and good ole' dirt.