Tips for Keeping Your Home or Classroom Sparkling Clean

Anyone who has spent time with kids knows that a clean room can get messy fast. This is true in a school classroom or daycare centre as well as at home, and now more than ever, it’s important to have a clean and healthy space for everyone to enjoy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has reminded us how important cleaning and routine sanitization are, especially in shared spaces like a classroom. Teachers and daycare workers have always been masters of organization, and many classroom tips can be applied at home — where the real cleaning begins. Here are some easy ways to keep your home or classroom sparkling. It may take a little work, but the results are well worth it.

Start with Great Organizing Solutions

It’s almost impossible to keep a room clean without great storage solutions. Let yourself be inspired by the adage a place for everything, and everything in its place. It doesn’t matter if you’re a teacher, a parent, or both — start by sorting and organizing. The cleaning part comes later and if there’s less clutter, it will be a lot more manageable.

A narrow bookcase takes up very little floor space and can hold cloth baskets full of art supplies, puzzles, games and more. (Or yes, fill it with books!) Labels will be your best friend when organizing toys, so consider using some Oliver’s Labels to keep track of what goes where. You can also choose a colourful rolling utility cart, a classic toy box or a funky corner shelf to hold odds and ends. A bright, convenient utility caddy will help keep pencils, pens and crayons sorted, and paper sorters are great for keeping art projects and craft paper organized. Shelves and wall hooks are always useful. If you have board books you’d like to display where little hands can reach them, hang some picture frame ledges at a low height.

Have a Consistent Routine — Especially for High-Touch Areas

You can’t always clean a room from top to bottom, but you can probably find the time to clean and sanitize high-touch areas throughout the week. This includes washing counters and tabletops, light switches, door knobs, cupboard and drawer handles and sink faucets. Lysol Disinfecting Wipes are a convenient solution for quick cleaning jobs at home and in the classroom. Or try using Lysol Disinfectant Spray. While you’re doing these small cleaning jobs, make sure that washrooms have an adequate supply of hand soap and paper goods.

In addition to daily (or at least high-frequency) cleaning tasks, make a list of bigger jobs and schedule them in regularly. This may include washing stuffed toys in the laundry, sanitizing plastic toys and building blocks in soapy water (all-purpose cleaner works well for this), sanitizing wooden toys with disinfectant spray, wiping down play kitchens, mopping floors and cleaning other interactive play areas. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a kindergarten classroom or a room in your house — this system works well anywhere.

Get Kids Involved

The responsibility of keeping a space clean shouldn’t fall on parents and teachers alone. Getting kids involved will lighten the load while teaching them how to care for their home or classroom. Consider creating a chore chart or letting them pick one task to tackle every day (for example, wiping down desks in a classroom or picking up toys at home). Offer rewards for completing a set of cleaning tasks throughout the week or make it a competition to see who can tidy up the most in five minutes (use a timer). You can also make clean-up time fun by playing music and dancing as you go. A Google Home Mini is a great way to make that happen anytime, anywhere.