Although this post is titled "How To: Clean and Organize your Child's Room in 30 Minutes" these steps can be used for pretty much any room in the house!
I am probably the worst at cleaning... in the world. I'm one of those people who has procrastination kick in hard when I'm faced with a huge mess. I get it done, but it takes me (usually) the wholeeee day because I don't come up with a plan, I kind of mosey around, and take frequent breaks.
I'm not proud to admit it, but I just hate dealing with big messes! Maintenance cleaning I can do all day, but big messes I cannot.
When you have a toddler running around there is really no way to get around it. You're gonna have some kind of huge mess somewhere in the house 99% of the time. This drives me batty to no end, but there's just no reasoning with a 1 year old.
For about a month, Tucker's bedroom was a disaster area. He doesn't like being in there. Noooo...he would much rather run around the rest of the house like a wild child. However what he DOES like to do is go in his room, literally tear out every toy, book and article of clothing he can get his hands on, throw it all on the floor and run out the room laughing like a mad man.
Last time he did that I threw in the towel. What the heck it's just toys right? It's not like it's filth. So I left it. I didn't take a picture of the before because I didn't think this was going to end up as a post. But I'll borrow a picture from The Berenstain Bears to demonstrate a little. :)
Well a month later, it was still like that. And it really started to annoy me. Although I didn't have much time I decided to fully devote 30 minutes to his room, make a plan and get as much done as I possibly could. And I was surprised that I was able to accomplish it all in just that 30 minutes!
So now, I'm gonna share with you how I did it. Hopefully it will help you as much as it helped me.
Before you start, decide what you want to accomplish in the amount of time you are giving yourself. Having a plan cuts down on cleaning time drastically!
For me, I made this list:
1. Purge old toys and clothes that don't fit anymore
2. Organize remaining clothes and toys and put them away
3. Put bedding in the wash
4. Wipe everything down
5. Vacuum
The next thing you should do before you get down to cleaning is gather all the cleaning supplies you'll need. This probably sounds like common sense, but I never do this and end up having to stop every few minutes to go get something I need from another area of the house. Not only does this help to distract me it also makes my cleaning escapade take way longer than it should.
What you'll need:
Trash bag
Box or another trash bag for what you are giving away, donating, etc
Microfiber rag
Cleaning spray
Vacuum
1. Purge old toys {5 minutes}
I started by quickly pushing the massive amounts of toys laying around into a pile near his toy box. Make sure that you get them all so you don't have to keep moving around the room. Once they are in a pile, grab your trash and donation bags and quickly start sorting through everything. Throw broken and beaten toys in the trash and nicer ones in your donation bag. The trick to this is don't think about it too much! Kids end up with so many toys they don't play with. Tucker is no exception to this so I would much rather donate to another child who doesn't have as much than keep a whole bunch of toys I know Tucker isn't going to play with. Unless it's a favorite, just get rid of it. I promise they won't notice.
If your child has a lottttt of toys, just get what you can done in the 5 minutes and then move on. You can always go back once you have more time and finish getting rid of toys you don't want.
2. Put away remaining toys {2 minutes}
Once I got rid of all the crap-o-la Tucker didn't need anymore, I quickly grabbed what was remaining and started placing it somewhat organized back in his toy chest. The best part was, everything fit after getting rid of all that stuff!
3. Donate clothes that don't fit anymore {5 minutes}
I'm bad about keeping up with this, so I knew it was time. I started by removing one bin at a time (he has the cloth bins rather than an actual dresser) and quickly checking the size of all the clothing within it. Anything that wasn't his size went in the donate pile and the rest I folded quickly and placed in a pile. I'm in no way a person who spends ridiculous amounts of time perfectly folding everything so this worked for me, if you are it's not problem! You just may need more time for this step. :) I made sure as I went that I sorted everything into piles of t-shirts, onesies, pajamas, pant, shorts, etc.
4. Put away remaining clothes {2 minutes}
Once everything was sorted into separate piles I started placing them back in the bins, giving each type of clothing it's own bin to make it easy when searching for outfits.
These are the kind of bins I'm talking about, and I really love versatile they are.
5. Strip bedding and place in washer {5 minutes}
At this point, I went and started the washer and added my detergent. While it was filling up I returned to Tucker's room and stripped everything out of his crib including his stuffed animals and bumpers. You can guess what happens next, put it in the washer!
6. Wipe everything down {3 minutes}
I grabbed my microfiber rag and vinegar/water combo and sprayed down all the surfaces in T's room, including the crib. Then I quickly wiped it all down. Using the rag instead of paper towels really helps to cut down on time because you can use it start to finish. With paper towels you have to keep getting knew ones as the old ones get too soggy.
7. Move all the big stuff {2 minutes}
There are some items that are left out in Tucker's room; such as big toys that won't fit in his chest and his pop up tent. Before I vacuumed I moved all of these big items into his empty crib so that I could vacuum uninterrupted.
8. Vacuum! {4 minutes}
Pretty self explanatory
9. Put the big stuff back {2 minutes}
I removed all the big items and placed them back in their homes.
That's it! The only thing I had to spend a few extra minutes on later that night was putting the bed stuff back on because I had to wait for it to wash and dry.
Speaking of the little Tasmanian Devil, there he is now.
Ready to tear apart everything I just cleaned. Sighhh.
So, if you would like to get a lot of cleaning done in a short period of time give this a try! Of course you won't follow the same exact steps I did, but the foundation is the same for any room.
Make a list of what you want to accomplish, give your self a set amount of time to do each task, gather all your cleaning supplies and then....
GO! :)
For me, I made this list:
1. Purge old toys and clothes that don't fit anymore
2. Organize remaining clothes and toys and put them away
3. Put bedding in the wash
4. Wipe everything down
5. Vacuum
The next thing you should do before you get down to cleaning is gather all the cleaning supplies you'll need. This probably sounds like common sense, but I never do this and end up having to stop every few minutes to go get something I need from another area of the house. Not only does this help to distract me it also makes my cleaning escapade take way longer than it should.
What you'll need:
Trash bag
Box or another trash bag for what you are giving away, donating, etc
Microfiber rag
Cleaning spray
Vacuum
1. Purge old toys {5 minutes}
I started by quickly pushing the massive amounts of toys laying around into a pile near his toy box. Make sure that you get them all so you don't have to keep moving around the room. Once they are in a pile, grab your trash and donation bags and quickly start sorting through everything. Throw broken and beaten toys in the trash and nicer ones in your donation bag. The trick to this is don't think about it too much! Kids end up with so many toys they don't play with. Tucker is no exception to this so I would much rather donate to another child who doesn't have as much than keep a whole bunch of toys I know Tucker isn't going to play with. Unless it's a favorite, just get rid of it. I promise they won't notice.
If your child has a lottttt of toys, just get what you can done in the 5 minutes and then move on. You can always go back once you have more time and finish getting rid of toys you don't want.
2. Put away remaining toys {2 minutes}
Once I got rid of all the crap-o-la Tucker didn't need anymore, I quickly grabbed what was remaining and started placing it somewhat organized back in his toy chest. The best part was, everything fit after getting rid of all that stuff!
3. Donate clothes that don't fit anymore {5 minutes}
I'm bad about keeping up with this, so I knew it was time. I started by removing one bin at a time (he has the cloth bins rather than an actual dresser) and quickly checking the size of all the clothing within it. Anything that wasn't his size went in the donate pile and the rest I folded quickly and placed in a pile. I'm in no way a person who spends ridiculous amounts of time perfectly folding everything so this worked for me, if you are it's not problem! You just may need more time for this step. :) I made sure as I went that I sorted everything into piles of t-shirts, onesies, pajamas, pant, shorts, etc.
4. Put away remaining clothes {2 minutes}
Once everything was sorted into separate piles I started placing them back in the bins, giving each type of clothing it's own bin to make it easy when searching for outfits.
These are the kind of bins I'm talking about, and I really love versatile they are.
5. Strip bedding and place in washer {5 minutes}
At this point, I went and started the washer and added my detergent. While it was filling up I returned to Tucker's room and stripped everything out of his crib including his stuffed animals and bumpers. You can guess what happens next, put it in the washer!
6. Wipe everything down {3 minutes}
I grabbed my microfiber rag and vinegar/water combo and sprayed down all the surfaces in T's room, including the crib. Then I quickly wiped it all down. Using the rag instead of paper towels really helps to cut down on time because you can use it start to finish. With paper towels you have to keep getting knew ones as the old ones get too soggy.
7. Move all the big stuff {2 minutes}
There are some items that are left out in Tucker's room; such as big toys that won't fit in his chest and his pop up tent. Before I vacuumed I moved all of these big items into his empty crib so that I could vacuum uninterrupted.
8. Vacuum! {4 minutes}
Pretty self explanatory
9. Put the big stuff back {2 minutes}
I removed all the big items and placed them back in their homes.
That's it! The only thing I had to spend a few extra minutes on later that night was putting the bed stuff back on because I had to wait for it to wash and dry.
Speaking of the little Tasmanian Devil, there he is now.
Ready to tear apart everything I just cleaned. Sighhh.
Make a list of what you want to accomplish, give your self a set amount of time to do each task, gather all your cleaning supplies and then....
GO! :)
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