Christmas is coming up fast! The kids will be back home for almost a month and you need to face keeping the house clean and tidy for the family whilst also entertaining the little ones. But with playdates available and plenty of family on hand to help; Christmas planning and cleaning need-not-be a stressful holiday!
Here are our handy little top cleaning tips to keep the house sparkling all season and to keep the kids involved and entertain during their holidays.
Cleaning tip #1: Use TV time effectively
Now, it’s never great to encourage the kids to sit in front of the telly all Christmas, but a couple of weeks leading up are the prime time to get some much-needed cleaning and tidying done. Especially as there are so many Christmas and kids movies available over the period. Start a Christmas movie for them and use your time efficiently and effectively. Whilst they are engrossed in a film. I would recommend assigning upstairs and downstairs (if applicable) to different days and ensure you allocate jobs room-by-room to manage your time and ensure nothing gets missed. Another great thing about the school holidays is that play dates can be arranged! Team up with another parent, and you can swap the kids between you both giving you some days where the kids are out the house all day!
Cleaning tip #2: Use non-toxic products
Understandably, most of us will clean when our young children are asleep. Usually, it’s too risky trying to use harsh chemicals to clean when our kids are wandering around trying to find out what we are doing and what we are using. To make the most of your days -whether the kids are awake or not- try these non-toxic household cleaners. They are not only terrific cleaners and better for the environment, but you don’t need to worry about waiting for the kids to be packed off to bed before starting to tidy up and deep clean. It also means you don’t have to worry about making sure everything is rinsed/wiped down before you let the kids use the room again.
Eco-friendly natural cleaners. Vinegar, baking soda, salt, lemon and essential oil.
Cleaning tip #3: Where possible, get the kids involved!
Now obviously this only applies to slightly older children. You can tie in Christmas decorating with tidying up (especially their own space). Enticing them with the excitement of decorating the house -maybe have Christmas music on too. Encouraging them to tidy up their toys and space BEFORE you can start decorating properly is a sneaky way of getting them to tidy without it feeling like such a negative and boring task for them.
If you work full-time, or it just seems there is too much to do before Christmas, get in touch with belle-casa, we may be able to help. We offer weekly visits as well as one-off visits for a helping hand.
The Roald Dahl Museum
If you’re running out of activity ideas for Christmas why not visit The Roald Dahl Museum? It is packed full of things to do and is only around the corner, tucked away in Great Missenden High St. A whole’s day worth at least; and with children tickets just £4.70 and Children under 5 going free its a great day out that’s easy on the bank (that I’m sure will suffer over Christmas). Almost every Friday, Saturday and Sunday leading up to Christmas the Museum holds a different activity for the little ones. Everything from Fairytale Museum Trial to ‘Chiddlers Hour: The Giraffe and Pelly and Me’. See the full run-down here.
