3 Spring Cleaning Activities to Do with Your Kids

Spring is here, and Easter is around the corner. 🐰 I realize we’re currently experiencing an unprecedented time - here in Washington state, we’re under a Stay-Home order through May 4th during the coronavirus outbreak. At a time when you’re trying to work from home with your spouse and home school your kids simultaneously, it’s all the more important that your home environment works for you. While the whole family is cooped up inside, take advantage of this time to do some spring cleaning and organizing together. Plus, it is possible to do this with your kids - try the following three spring cleaning activities below.

1. Identify What Toys to Keep and What to Donate.

This is a great activity to do alongside your kids, but first, you should set a limit to how many toys the kids are allowed to keep. For example, if your child kept all her stuffed animals in a big basket beside her bed, set that empty basket out as the “keep” bin. Set up another bin or box as the “donate” bin.

Gather all the stuffed animals in the house, and put them in one giant pile for your child to go through. To guide your child through the process of deciding what to keep and what to donate, she should hold each stuffed animal and only keep the ones she loves to play with. Which are the ones she reaches for to play with over and over again, and which have been untouched for a while? You could also use a rating system (i.e., everything 8 stars and above go into the “keep” pile while everything 7 stars and below go into the “donate” pile).

Once the basket is full, she knows that those are all the stuffed animals she’ll keep, love, and play with. Also, explain that all the stuffed animals in the “donate” pile will go to other kids who will love and cherish them. You can now repeat this same process for other categories of toys!

2. Create a Sorting Competition.

And no, we’re not talking about whether you’ll get sorted into Gryffindor or Slytherin (yes, I set myself up for a Harry Potter reference 🧙🏽‍♂️). Now that your child has exercised her sorting and decision making muscles, you can have her sort through so many other things in the house. Make it a competition for your kids by putting on some upbeat music, and set a timer for who can sort categories of items the fastest in ten minutes. Sort anything that you’re trying to work on - whether that be baby board books from paperbacks or expired from unexpired pantry items (read here if you need to learn the difference between Best By, Use By, and Sell By dates). Whoever wins gets the last pack of fruit snacks!

3. Declutter Your Closets and Have a Fashion Show

Decluttering and organizing your closets has probably been on the To-Do list for a while, and now you can divide and conquer! Each person in your family is tasked with decluttering their own closet. Pull out each item, and ask yourself questions like:

• Have I worn this in the last six months, and will I wear it in the next six months?

• Does it fit?

• Are there holes, stains, or buttons missing?

Once you’ve determined which items you’ll keep, your family can have a fashion show of all the items you’ve decided to let go. It’s hilarious to see what out-of-date or outgrown items are featured in the fashion show, and it’s a fun way to send off and “thank” the items for their time with your family. For a list of references on where to donate, sell, recycle, and dispose of your old clothes, click here.

I’d love to see which one of these three activities you’ll do with your family. Post a picture on Instagram, and tag me @peonyproorganizing so I can cheer you on your spring cleaning journey.🐣✨